Above All Others

by G Lawrence

  “Master Cranmer is a rather reserved man, my lady… He listens much and speaks only when he feels there is a need.” Gardiner explained.

  I arched my eyebrow. “A rare virtue, indeed, in this noisy world we live in,” I said, smiling.

  “Indeed, my lady!” Foxe chuckled. “But when he does speak, it is always worth listening to. I remember him well from our school days together, and he was ever given to sharp insights.”

  “And what were these insights?”

  Foxe set his ale aside and leaned forward. “Cranmer said that canon law would not get His Majesty anywhere,” he explained. “He said that the Great Matter was not an issue of law so much as it was of theology, and theologians would give him the true answer. He pointed out that opinion on the Great Matter could be canvassed in all the universities of Europe, and that such opinions would not be hard to get, or take long to put together, to see which side they came out on. He said that collecting opinion would in fact take only a matter of months, as many would be happy to converse on the subject, it being so current and interesting a subject. Then, Cranmer went on to say that once the Matter was therefore resolved by this canvassing of opinion, His Majesty could finally put his conscience to rest on the subject, one way or another. If he wished to present the evidence to the Pope, then he could, and if he simply wished to use it within England, he could do so.”

  I blinked. “A matter of months!” I marvelled. “For this all to be resolved so swiftly… How would I like to believe this were possible!”

  “Once the universities in Europe had decided in His Majesty’s favour,” Gardiner continued, “there would be a public weight of evidence in favour of the annulment… and then, if the King chose to try… other ways to gain separation from his unlawful union, he would have evidence to support his cause for doing so.”

  I put my goblet to one side and rose. “You must go to the King with this, immediately!” I commanded, and the men rose, looking rather pleased with themselves. “Say that you have been sent directly from me, and they will allow you in without having to wait. I want the King to hear this now, today!”

  They left me and I wandered restlessly, excitedly, through York Place’s long gallery, with Margaret and Bridget silent at my side. Rain battered on the panes and the wind screamed about the walls, and I heard it not. I thought through Cranmer’s idea from all angles … What an idea, to canvass opinion outside of the clergy… in the universities of Europe! Surely they would find for us! Well, I bit my lip as I thought, all but those in Spain, of course… But if the English and French universities, those of the Holy Roman Empire, and perhaps the Low Countries, too, even though they were under Hapsburg control… if they would find for us, then all would know that educated opinion was on our side.

  And perhaps, just perhaps, I could use that to convince Henry to be strong, to take on the role of King as envisaged by Tyndale… A King who was both Emperor and Pope… A King who could decide on the Great Matter for himself.

  Chapter Sixty-Four

  York Place

  Winter 1530

  When Henry received Foxe and Gardiner, which he did immediately since they came from me, he was excited about what they told him. “Has not the problem in our matter always been that canon law speaks of one thing, and yet divine disclosure speaks another?” he asked. “This man hath the sow by the right ear!”

  Henry peppered them with questions on this Master Cranmer, this obscure cleric who somehow had seen straight to the heart of our problem where none of his own advisors had. Foxe and Gardiner answered their excitable King as best they could, and Henry asked that they seek Cranmer out and invite him to court; he wanted to meet with him as soon as possible.

  Even before meeting Cranmer, however, Henry asked du Bellay to send men to France, men who would begin canvassing opinion there as swiftly as possible! Henry sent for me and as I entered, he bounded towards me, wrapped his hands about my waist and swung me up and into the air. Over and over he twirled me about, as I shrieked and giggled helplessly.

  “My lord is a happy man this day!” I panted as he set me down and re-arranged my French hood which he had knocked loose of its pins. I turned my head sharply to the window as a clatter of rain and ice hit the panes. The storm outside was growing, and all in London were fleeing to their homes to take shelter.

  “Finally, Anne!” he cried exuberantly, walking to the window, sitting in a seat and gazing at me with a pink and happy face. “Oh!” he cried as though a great weight had been taken from him. “All has been so heavy of late… I have felt as though my shoulders might never rest for all the troubles upon them… and then, then you send me such messengers!”

  “Foxe and Gardiner are good friends to us, my lord. I should like to reward them for their efforts on our behalf.”

  “Give them whatever gold and silver you want, my Anne.” He beamed at me. “I would empty my treasury this day if one man alone would say that we could be together!”

  I knelt at his side. “This man, Cranmer, Henry… he said that opinion could be gathered in a matter of months… think on that! A matter of months, after all the time that we have waited!”

  He put a hand against my cheek. “A matter of months… It is almost unbelievable. I think of the beginning so often now, Anne… Do you remember? How I chased you and you held me off! How you teased me and danced about me and I came to you, seeking you as a mistress! How could I have treated you so? You have been, through all of this, as a lioness at my side, never weakening, never giving up… You alone held your nerve better than any of your family or my advisors. So often have people told me to go back to my sinful bed with Katherine, but not you… You are my rock, Anne, you are my safe harbour… and now… Perhaps now we are almost at an end!” He sighed, his eyes shining with warmth and love.

  I put my hands into his. “I was sustained by the constancy of your love, Henry,” I whispered. “And I will always be here, in whatever form you need me to be, to help you, aid you and protect you, as best I can. I was not as strong as you thought… all these months, there were many times when I was afraid. But as I knew I loved you with all my heart, so I also knew that you loved me. It is our love that gives me strength. Even if all of the world were to turn on us, even if all of the people of the earth were to turn their faces from me, I would have you, and that would be enough.”

  Tears came to his eyes at my words and he slipped from the window seat to the floor beside me. He pulled me into his arms and kissed me, long and hard. His hands moved, pulling my hood from my head, so that he could run his fingers through my dark tresses. Then he pulled me to him so that my head rested on his chest. “I would give up the world and all in it, for you, Anne,” he whispered.

  “Many in this world despise me, sire, for my love for you… But I care not for them. I have put myself into your hands entirely. As long as I have your love, I have all I will ever need.”

  He gripped me closer. “When you are Queen, Anne, they will love you… It is Katherine… She tricks them.” He pulled back and put his hand to my chin, lifting my eyes to his. “But when they have a chance to know you, when they see past Katherine’s sinful wickedness, they will love you, as I do.”

  “You will always be enough for me, Henry,” I murmured. “As long as I have you, I fear nothing.”

  He set his lips to mine, kissing me with passion. Outside, the wind blew and the rain fell. Voices seemed to scream in the storm, begging, demanding and pleading for things that we could not understand. We sat in each other’s arms, listening to nothing but the sound of the storm and the thoughts in our heads.

  Later that day, in his own excitement as well as at my urging, Henry sent once more for Gardiner and Foxe. They were to find Cranmer personally, Henry said, and give him a message: The King not only wants to meet with him, but wishes him to put together a proposal for the universities of Europe. We wanted to meet with him, and if Cranmer proved suitable then he was going to be invested as a royal agent in order to solicit
the views of the theologians of the world on our behalves.

  Chapter Sixty-Five

  York Place

  Spring 1530

  Wolsey took a long time to leave Esher. He dithered and hesitated, not wanting to head towards the lonely north to York. He protested that the roads were still bad in this cold spring, that his wagons would get stuck in the mire and mud. The next week he said he had not enough servants to aid him in packing. Wolsey’s excuses grew like weeds. Despite his many new riches, Wolsey asked Gardiner to obtain more money from Henry for his journey, but Gardiner reproved the greedy Cardinal, saying if he had not money enough then that was his own fault, and that he ought to be grateful the King had offered him as much as he had. The man had a point.

  Norfolk complained to Cromwell that his master was delaying. Wolsey even took a trip to the Carthusian Monastery in Richmond and, it was said, had started to wear a hair shirt in order to atone for his sins; something that Henry took as a true mark of a recovering faith and goodness. It seems to me, however, that when such a thing is done, and it is made known that it is done, it loses the benefit of true and honest spirituality. It becomes, rather, a pretence, a show designed to tell the world just how very good that person is… Eventually Norfolk lost his patience. “Tell Wolsey,” he hissed at Cromwell. “If he goes not away, and tarries longer, I shall tear at him with my own teeth!”

  Cromwell was growing weary with his erstwhile master, my father informed me, and he had, as I had suspected, run up great debts in attempting to clear Wolsey’s name. Cromwell was ripe, father said, for plucking off of Wolsey’s branch and transferring to our waiting basket. Cromwell had recently been appointed secretary to the King, and my father invited Cromwell to dine with him, pointing out what we Boleyns could do for his career at court. At the time, I do not think Cromwell was entirely persuaded to turn on his old master. But there soon came opportunities for me to lean on him further…

  Cromwell was often with Henry. The two were growing close, not only in matters of work and state affairs, for which Henry increasingly relied on Cromwell, but a true friendship was also budding between the two men. I would invite Cromwell to York Place, to walk in the gardens with Henry and me, and dine with us. Since he had been a mercenary, Cromwell talked with Henry often about war, battle and tactics; all subjects the King loved. He had worked as a lawyer when returned from his adventures abroad, and was thick with the merchants of London as well. He had a good eye for figures and money, and had trained under the Cardinal on how to best line his pocket… something at which Wolsey had been ever so talented as well.

  Despite the fact that he was still working for the fat bat of the North, I liked Cromwell. It was hard not to. He had charm… When first you met him, he seemed to fade against the cloth on the chamber walls. One got the impression that he would never bring himself to your attention, but would wait until called on by you. When he had worked for Wolsey, I had barely noticed him. But once noted, you would never forget him. He had an air about him of confidence and security. He had charisma and intelligence. It only took one conversation to understand that Cromwell was an unusual and astute soul. It was difficult to get close to him, since he was, after all, still Wolsey’s agent. But at times it did seem that he was coming to regard me and my family as allies. This was the impression when we met with Master Cranmer….

  The gentle-mannered Thomas Cranmer was most interesting. He was not of noble birth, but had been born into a family of modest wealth and standing. He had large blue-grey eyes and thick brown hair. His nose was rather long, and his lips small, but he seemed wise and gentle, and was clearly rather overwhelmed by the sudden interest that Henry had shown in him. He was about forty years of age when first I met him, and all about him there hung an air of modesty… almost innocence, which charmed me. I had made it my business to find out more about this man, and I was not disappointed in what I had uncovered.

  At the age of fourteen, Cranmer had been sent by his father at great expense to Jesus College, Cambridge, and had taken rather a long time to achieve his degree. It was said this was due to his tendency to constantly read subjects other than those he was meant to be studying. He had studied politics, logic, classical literature and philosophy, and was a great collector of books, on which he spent more coin than his sparsely filled purse could perhaps afford. What interested me the most about the days of his scholarship was that he had chosen to concentrate on the works of humanist, and one might say reformist, scholars, such as Jacques Lefevre and Erasmus; men I also greatly admired.

  When he had finished his schooling, he had rebelliously married a woman called Joan. Since fellows of the college were not supposed to wed, this had lost him his fellowship, and he had taken a post as a reader at Buckingham Hall instead. Joan had died in childbed, and took their child with her to the grave. Cranmer returned to Jesus College, where he continued to study theology and philosophy. He seemed to have many reformist leanings. A few years after Joan’s death, he had been ordained by the Church, and became a Doctor of Divinity only two years before coming to Henry’s attention.

  Cranmer had previously worked for Wolsey in a minor role, as part of an envoy to Spain, and Henry had met him once before. Henry, however, met so many people in passing that, he admitted, he remembered this humble man not. But now he was interested in Cranmer… Most interested.

  “Your thoughts bring fresh hope to me and to my Great Matter, Master Cranmer,” Henry said after we had greeted the man. “I would like you to work for our cause, setting forth our arguments for annulment in order to present them to the universities of Christendom, so that their scholars may rightly understand all the issues involved and deliberate in good conscience. When we have their opinions, we may find a new path for England.”

  “I… would be honoured to work for you, Your Majesty,” Cranmer stuttered, earning a look of pleasure from Henry who always appreciated humility in his subjects. “I will put myself to work with all haste.”

  “I am told, Master Cranmer, that you are a scholar of the works of Jacques Lefevre?” I asked. “In his works I have found great wisdom on the many corruptions of the Church and on how it may yet be redeemed.”

  He blinked at me with a touch of surprise. “Indeed, my lady?” His eyes lit up with the enjoyment that comes when one soul recognises a shared pleasure with another. I liked his expression. I saw within him that same spark I had experienced upon reading the works of such a master of reformist thought.

  “I have shown the King many of his good works,” I continued, glancing at Henry with affection. “And he agrees with me that Lefevre’s ideas are most interesting… no matter what Bishop Fisher has to say against them.”

  “Bishop Fisher is a man ever apt to back the wrong cause…” Henry added.

  Cranmer’s lips twitched. I believed there was a chuckle hidden under his solemn appearance. “I admire the works of Lefevre greatly, my lady,” he said. “It is unusual to find a woman of the court so interested in such matters.”

  “Lady Rochford is a scholar of some renown herself, Master Cranmer… In my eyes at least,” Henry said. “You should meet with her and talk, for she is almost the match for me in her love for the Church, and in seeking always to better it… She has introduced me to many works, which we discuss together, and I have found her influence in such affairs to be to my betterment. So should all women serve their husbands and betrothed lords.”

  I blushed. “My gracious King flatters me overly, Master Cranmer,” I said. “But it is true that I have a great passion for those who speak of how to better the Church, to remove corruption and to work always to better our understanding of God.”

  “A cause also dear to my heart, my lady,” Cranmer replied, the warmth in his voice growing.

  “And such is the case with my Great Matter,” interjected Henry, rising from his chair of estate and throwing an arm about Cranmer, which surprised the man greatly. “Come, and I will talk to you.” Henry led Cranmer off and as they walked abou
t the chamber I could hear him speaking of his arguments, and present disappointment with the Pope.

  I stepped from my chair and walked to the fireplace where a softly spoken voice made me turn. “It is interesting to me, my lady,” said the voice, “that you should indeed profess such an avid interest in the works of reformers… Many would call them heretical.”

  I turned towards the voice to find Cromwell standing nearby, his soft brown eyes gazing at me quizzically. Did I not say he had a talent for merging with the shadows? He had managed to emerge without me noticing.

  “When I was a young maid in the service of Queen Claude of France, Master Cromwell,” I replied. “I learned much from the great Princess Marguerite, a known patron of Catholic scholarship and thought.” I held my chin high and then smiled. “I learned that to love something is to question it… to be allowed to discuss it, and to only fall the more in love with greater knowledge.” I breathed in. “Many in the Church would say that some of the works I have come to know and appreciate are works of scandal,” I said boldly, “but I disagree. We come to the Church as those who love it, and only want to see it bettered for the glory of God. Such is my faith in this that I would gladly stake my life on the truth of my words.” I smiled more widely. “And besides, sir, were you not involved in the dissolution of certain monasteries under the command of the Cardinal Wolsey and the Pope? So you must have seen with your own eyes that there is much in the practises of the Church requiring correction?”