Had the Queen Lived:

by Raven A. Nuckols

  Unfortunately for Seymour, he despised the position. He felt it was beneath him and showed his displeasure with every ounce of indignation he could. With the writing on the wall, Sir John ordered Jane back to Wolf Hall, a tactic that Anne herself had used many times at Hever to rekindle the King’s interests when they would appear to wane; however, in the case of Jane, out of sight would indeed prove out of mind. In her absence, the Queen banished the maid from ever returning to her service due to “abandonment.” Sir John received the order as his daughter was on her way home for good.

  While her supporters found it merely unnerving to lose this battle, Jane was most likely humiliated. There is still no evidence as to Jane’s mindset during these events, but one can speculate that she was offended at the loss of so great a man, and possibly lapsed into a brief but deep depression over all that had occurred. She was most likely thankful that this was her last time at court, as it was a very volatile, stressful and overall unhappy time for her. She was approaching her late twenties, a time when she should have been married with several children. Instead she was heading back home, again with no prospects. Ultimately, she decided not to fight for Henry and wanted to find a husband and make a good marriage away from court. The King only sent Sir John a message of good will that Easter and had no further contact with Jane. The Seymour’s had finally lost.

  Jane would wait another two years until any significant marriage prospects arose. Her father had found one in George Esmond, a mere blacksmith’s apprentice, but the eldest son of a close friend with whom he had served in the time of Henry VII. Sir John weighed the pre-contract carefully, to ensure the best possible match for his daughter, but after Jane’s fall from the King’s good graces, possible matches with noblemen would be few. Her age was not only a consideration for aesthetics; it was a factor in childbirth. With these elements in mind the decision was made to execute the marriage agreement.

  On July 27th, 1538, Jane married George Esmond after only a few weeks of courting, and moved with her new husband to a small farm house just two and a half miles from Wolf Hall. Later that year she conceived their first child, a son whom she named after her husband, George Jr. She followed with seven more children over the years. One set of twins, Emily and Mary, three more sons, Joseph, John, David and a final girl named Margaret, in tribute to her mother. Jane kept an excellent home and relished being a wife and mother. She had no regrets about leaving court and had no intentions to ever go back. The family would struggle on George’s meager earnings but they were happy. John would save up his earnings to open up his own blacksmithing shop, which turned out to be a one of a kind in its area due to the vastness of the village, and proved to be successful. So successful in fact, it afforded him sending his eldest child, George Jr. to study law when he came of age.

  Chapuys on occasion kept in touch with Jane and his last dispatch from 1543 regarding her would report that the family was lacking in all but love. She had outwardly conformed to the Reformation but, in private, still attended Catholic mass illegally in the family basement with only the family and, when she could afford it, would call upon a chaplain to pray for their souls. Her involvement in politics was over and she settled down comfortably to motherhood and domestic life. She explained to Chapuys that she had secretly yearned for this all her life and would die a proud woman after all. She passed in 1554 and was buried in a family cemetery.

  2.4 A Country Reforms

  In March 1536 the Queen had been told by her ladies, as confirmed by Lord Rochford, that Cromwell was diverting revenues from dissolved monasteries to the King’s exchequer instead of to educational or humanitarian causes. The Queen was outraged at Cromwell’s insolence, and confronted him about the uses of these new revenues. This intransigence was unacceptable; it put the Reformation in jeopardy and could possibly invalidate these changes altogether by not keeping the promise of reform to the people. Cromwell replied that his plan was to make Henry the wealthiest monarch in all of Europe, a motive he thought she would surely support. The temper she had worked so hard to control was instead unleashed. She raged at Cromwell, calling him names not fit for a man of his elevated status, and warned him that if he did not distribute those revenues to other useful purposes for the good of the realm, she would have him dealt with, reminding him of More’s fate and storming out of the room.

  Realizing this was no idle threat, and without many friends, Cromwell carefully reviewed his options. He had made serious enemies. His inexperience in such a high position definitely showed. Cromwell would attempt to execute his wishes at a whim instead of negotiating to clarify simple misunderstandings, leading to the impoverishment or deaths of hundreds of innocent persons at perceived evidence of treason. He was blood thirsty; there was no doubt about it. While it is difficult to tell what exactly was going on in his mind when the King was taking Cromwell’s word of traitors and was openly sentencing others to death, we can ascertain perhaps he thought by killing off these alleged traitors that it would clear his realm of these criminals and endear him to his people. If that was the King’s plan it backfired.

  The nobility loathed Cromwell because he was not of high birth and yet had achieved such a coveted position. The commons hated him because he was destroying the very life of their communities by destroying their monasteries. The gentry hated him because he sided with the landowners on the illegal practice of enclosures and rarely supported solving their grievances. Cromwell was finding it more difficult to locate true friends at court, and those he did, he had mainly kept through bribes. Most of the court was out for his blood. He had no security with the King and now also with the Queen, his one time ally, and had to begin looking elsewhere for friends in high places that did not already hold a grudge against him. This would prove to be no easy task. Anne and Cromwell’s relationship would never be repaired, and Cromwell would continue trying to aid Anne’s enemies, wherever possible, even as his circle of allies shrank.

  In one instance, during the week of Easter, this conspiring went so far as to involve… a kiss. The King had invited Chapuys to kiss the Queen’s cheek, a rare privilege held only for those in royal favor. The Ambassador was less than pleased with the invite; however, to decline the great honor would be a sign that his master was not welcoming of English friendship. It could include revoking vital revenues and English support in the Spanish conflict with the French, who were threatening Spanish territory in Italy. Chapuys had to find a clever way out of this potential debacle. Speaking with Cromwell about the invite and Spain’s desire to unite Spain and England against the French, Cromwell revealed a perfect solution to the Ambassador’s problems.

  When greeted before entering the chapel for service, as expected, the King invited Chapuys to kiss the Queen’s cheek; the Ambassador politely declined, protesting that he could not accept the honor until such time as he had proved himself worthy. Although it was a sign of disrespect to Anne, it was executed artfully; however, Anne showed she would not be outmaneuvered. During the same service, Anne hid behind the doors of the chapel until Chapuys entered. Upon seeing Anne, the Ambassador was obligated to show her respect to avoid an international incident, infuriating him at being tricked by the Queen he considered a whore.

  1536 brought with it changes not only to religious doctrine, but in politics as well. Throughout the early part of the year, appointments were made to reformist sympathizers or Boleyn allies on a far larger scale, impacting all areas of court life. On February 4th, George served as a proxy vote to the recognition of a new peerage for Lord Delaware. On April 14th Lord Rochford was given revenues previously belonging to the Bishopric of Norwich. Lands at Colley Weston formerly belonging to the Duke of Richmond, the King’s bastard son, were given to Anne instead.

  Parliament had been in session debating vigorously to combine the legal system of Wales with that of England. In April, the resolution was passed and known as An Acte for Laws and Justice to be ministered in Wales in like forum
as it is in this Realm. This Act allowed England to reconcile administrative differences in legal application that had long been a headache. Not only out of administrative concerns, Henry ordered Cromwell in 1535 to devise changes to Wales, fearful that the gentry in that area would be a serious threat to his power base. It was difficult prior to the passing of this Act for the King’s councilors to collect revenues, distribute clear titles and land grants, nominate sheriffs and hear civil cases in court. Wales had not seen a change in its legal statutes since the creation of Laws in Wales Acts in the late 1280s.

  Under that old system, the nobles retained unequal privilege that commoners could little contest and the application of laws varied greatly from parish to parish within Wales. For obvious reasons, nobles contested the passing of this Act because it now made them equal to the commons in matters of state. Further, it commanded that the official language to be used in Wales was henceforth to be English and not their native tongue. No other language would be acceptable in the state’s eyes, including in the training of barristers and appointment of law enforcement or tax collectors on behalf of the crown. The people of Wales would now be required to formally adjust to the language spoken in the rest of the kingdom. The language provision may appear at first glance to have been added for the ease of the King’s administrators, but in application it transformed the Welsh people to adopt an Anglican system over time. The Act remained in effect until it was formally repealed in 1993.

  Perhaps one of the most significant changes Henry made was to order the English universities to discontinue teaching canon law. This was to include its history, application in law, basis in authority and its effects on divinity. Canon law was what the entire English legal system had been based on, a holdover from the allegiance to Rome. Canon law was the principle of applying Catholic ecclesiastical practices to administer justice in a kingdom.

  The next legal system adopted was Civil Law, a system of law based on Roman secular law passed by either a monarch or a legislative body. Students would go on to graduate with degrees such as the Doctorate in Civil Law. Under this civil law system, judges held the power during trial to conduct questioning of a prisoner. While Parliament would continue to legislate, judges would remain the sole administers of justice and rarely used juries. With this significant change in the courts, Henry completed the cycle of Reformation, extending the changes in authority over religion to consolidate his authority over the state as well. Subjects were to obey the King and Parliament for secular reasons, not only providing validation for the Acts of Supremacy but enforcing their key provisions in law.

  Along with government reforms, advances in other fields such as astronomy, mathematics, and the arts were also emerging. The Reformation not only removed the shackles of religious ideology, it allowed the open exchange of free ideas. During the time of the Tudors, astronomy was a relatively new field with emerging breakthroughs. In the fourteenth century, the principle of Occom’s Razor had been developed by William of Occum, a pioneer in the field of logic, which states that the solution featuring the fewest variables to a hypothetical problem is most likely to be correct. This principle of scientific evaluations still applies today. Such scientific advances sparked the beginning of the remarkable advances that would later spread through Europe and make possible the discoveries of the Age of Enlightenment to come.

  Prior to Henry’s secularization of England, the intellectual efforts of scholars at work in the universities often contrasted with the common beliefs in the community. The reason for this was because most of the commons were illiterate and lacked the money to afford to attend universities to receive education. Had those resources been available on a massive scale technological, scientific and intellectual breakthroughs would have occurred faster in England as a result of a highly literate population. Without education, the commons turned to answers such as God or the Devil (aka witchcraft) for things they could not explain when often times there was a perfectly rational explanation for most events. Answers for explaining the universe in which the illiterate people lived were based on religious principles. Secular alternatives for explaining the universe were often seen as either heretical or outright witchcraft. Scientists had to be careful to conduct their experiments so as to minimize the potential for persecution by the ecclesiastical authorities.

  The Queen was a huge proponent of education and thus helped to eliminate or remove as best she could, persecution from scientific trials to help explain basic parts of the world in which the Tudors lived and the universe itself. Liberated from these fears, England’s scientists developed and helped to accelerate the Renaissance and usher in a new age in not only astronomy, but cosmology, physics and advanced mathematics.

  As the world around them changed, for those living under Tudor rule, these impressive advances in science would pass with little notice. The political and religious reforms under which the subjects were now to abide would encompass every aspect of their lives—for better or for worse. For Anne, her world was filled with an abundance of hope. Hope of the birth of a future Prince, and hope for a reformed England that she had made possible.

  Chapter 3

  The Birth of a Prince

  The Queen now set about making preparations for the birth. She also set about detailing her plan for education trust divestitures and religious house reformations. The new policy still awaiting Parliamentary approval was not to destroy monasteries but to re-indoctrinate them with the Anglican movement and introduce the use of William Tyndale’s English Bible in the pulpit. Anne understood that for their reforms to be successful the people would need to be educated in their own tongue. These were causes Anne was passionate about and she charged ahead, although there were some at court who felt the Queen was overreaching herself, both in political affairs and, at the risk of her child.

  The final month approaching her pregnancy came easily and was moderately peaceful, despite the revelry of the equally expectant court. Hans Holbein was invited to paint the royal family. The sitting took several hours but produced one of the finest family portraits of the age; unfortunately this work was lost to us in the Great Fire of London in 1666. Henry kept busy ruling his kingdom and set about enforcing courtesies at court, such as banning public urination on the court grounds and replacing antiquated plumbing and kitchen systems in the palaces. The kitchen chambers at both Hampton Court and York Palace were remodeled with a relatively new technology that would allow for hot and cold running water, facilitating healthier preparation of food for the enormous court. Henry took a keen interest in these palaces and enjoyed seeing them renovated into places regal and majestic. Cromwell’s extensive record keeping helped document the King’s enormous spending on such projects, and in providing the giant cadre of servants that such estates required to maintain them.

  Meanwhile, Lord Rochford controlled the affairs of the Queen’s household by monitoring servants’ performance. To instill loyalty to the Boleyns, Lord Rochford provided generous gifts and other benefits, not only to the servants themselves, but to their families. Most of the servants were so grateful to receive such benefits that they remained loyal, and harsher tactics were rarely needed to enforce obedience. Lord Rochford was definitely the mastermind when it came to using illicit tactics to get his way. George and Anne could be if the appropriate situation called for it, but it was not in their nature the same way it was with their father. Lord Rochford was not shy about using blackmail or extortion when generosity failed to work.

  3.1 The “lying in”

  Although the pre-summer months were already becoming scorching hot, Anne had her ladies-in-waiting shut the windows and put dark cloth over them, letting little if any light in to help keep the heat down. She also ordered no fireplaces be lit either in her chamber or the chambers on either side of her. She slept with only one sheet and the lightest gown she could find to wear while in her chamber. As May approached, she rarely went outside except when duty called or to greet a
foreign Ambassador, but the rest of the court was so hot that she preferred the sanctity of her own cooler chamber.

  To help pass the time she ordered new books from France be sent to her, so she had some material to read newer than the old supply she had read at least a dozen times. She continued her prayer and needlepoint but found it so exhausting that she opted to read more instead. As few candles as possible were lit to help keep down the heat and, to give her ladies a break from the temperature, she permitted them to wear appropriate but loose garments, rather than the typical elaborate gowns while in her chamber.

  This was proving to be one of the hottest summers on record and in Anne’s delicate state she needed to be kept cool at all times. She called it a voluntary “lying in” due to her pregnancy, even though it was just an attempt to avoid the weather. The baby was kicking more and she occasionally had bouts of heartburn. Henry chose to visit almost daily unless he got caught up with that day’s business or was out hunting. Once he discovered how much cooler Anne’s own chambers were, he ordered his groomsmen to match their treatment of his own chambers.

  The birth of the royal heir was widely anticipated by all. Anne and Henry had consulted with several astrologers who, along with her physicians, claimed with certainty that the child was to be a boy. With confidence in that judgment, announcements were printed and wine barrels and tailors stood anxiously by, awaiting the order for new liveries in honor of the Prince-to-be. A son would bring the political, diplomatic and dynastic security that the Tudors so desperately needed. If a male heir was not born, England would need to align with one of the top European powers, potentially giving up control of their kingdom.