Anne Boleyn: Henry VIII's Obsession (4 page)
‘Pleaseth it your grace, the French [king] on Tuesday night last [past], came to visit me, and [had] with me many diverse [discoursin]g, among the which he demanded me whether I had [ever] made any promise of marriage in any place, assuring me upon his honour, and upon the word of a prince, that in case I would be plain [with] him in that affair, he would do for me therein to the best of his power, whether it were in his realm or out of the same. Whereunto I answered, that I would disclose unto him the secret of my heart in hu[mili]ty, as unto the prince of the world after your grace in whom I had m[ost trust], and so declar[ed] unto him the good mind [which] for divers consi[derations I] bear to my lord of Suffolk, asking him not only [to grant] me his favour and consent thereunto, but [also] that he would of
So Pleasing in Her Youthful Age
his [own] hand write unto your grace, and pray you to bear your like favour unto me, and to be content with the same; the which he granted me to do, and so hath done, according as shall appear unto your grace by his said [letters]’.
Mary begged her brother to agree to the marriage saying that she only told Francis this because of ‘the extreme pain and annoyance I was i[n, by reason] of such suit as t[he French kin]g made unt[o me not accord]ing with mine honour’. Mary Tudor was in an agony of confusion as she stayed at Cluny, something that must have been witnessed by her ladies as she attempted to fend off the married Francis’s advances towards her.
Like Suffolk, Mary had assured her brother that she would make no promise of marriage before she returned to England. However, when Suffolk arrived in France Francis gave him an audience, telling him that he knew that he had come to marry Mary. Suffolk tried to protest that this was not the case but Francis ignored him, promising to help him arrange the marriage. Francis had also been putting pressure on Mary and, in terror, she had come to believe that she would be married to Charles V if she returned unmarried to England. When Suffolk went to see Mary he found her in a distressed state and, according to his own account she ‘would never let me [be] in rest till I had granted her to be married, and so, to be plain with you, I have married her harettylle [heartily] and has lyen wyet her, in soo moche [as] I fyer me lyes that sche by wyet chyld’.
Henry VIII was furious when he heard of his sister’s marriage, but the couple had presented him with a
fait accompli
and there was little he could do. The couple returned to Dover on 2 May 1515 and were publicly married later in the month at Greenwich. For Mary Tudor and most of her ladies, the marriage signalled the end of their time in France. Anne Boleyn did not return with her mistress and, presumably using her language skills and other accomplishments, quickly secured a place for herself at the French court in the household of the new queen of France.
MADEMOISELLE BOLEYN
Anne and Mary Boleyn entered the household of Queen Claude upon Mary Tudor’s return to England. Anne was to remain with Claude for seven years and the French queen must have developed a fondness for her. It seems likely that Anne would have been called upon to act as an interpreter between Mary Tudor and her stepdaughter, Claude, and this may be how Anne first came into contact with her.
Claude was fifteen when her father, Louis XII, died and her husband, Francis I, came to the throne. Due to the Salic Law in operation in France, Claude, as a woman, was barred from inheriting the crown but she was Duchess of Brittany in her own right following the death of her mother. Although treated respectfully by Francis I and his court, Claude was overshadowed by Francis’s mother, Louise of Savoy, and his sister, Marguerite of Angouleme. She also suffered yearly pregnancies and died young. Such was her piety, that there were suggestions that Claude should be canonised after her death. Given the fact that Anne Boleyn stayed with Claude for seven years she must have had some regard for her. Claude’s rather staid household was tedious for the lively Boleyn sisters and both would have been glad on the rare occasions when Claude’s household joined the main French court.
Francis I was only in his early twenties when he came to the throne and his court was very different from that of his pious wife. Francis had married Claude at her father’s request and also for her position as heiress of Brittany. While he always showed her the utmost respect in public she was certainly not often in his thoughts and Francis’s court was renowned for its licentiousness. Chasing women was one of Francis I’s chief pastimes and, according to a near contemporary, the Seigneur de Brantome, Francis said that the best way to please him was:
‘By offering to his view on his first arrival a beautiful woman, a fine horse and a handsome hound. For by casting his gaze now on the one, now on the other and presently on the third, he would never be a-weary in that house, having there the three things most pleasant to look upon and admire, and so exercising his eyes right agreeably’.
Following Francis’s accession to the crown the ladies of his court quickly gained something of a reputation with reports that ‘the ladies thereof, both maids and wives, do oft-times trip, indeed do so customarily’. Brantome considered this rumour to be false and that the French ladies were, in fact, honourable and virtuous. He also said that the liberty accorded to ladies in France served only to make them ‘more desirable and loveable, more easy of access and more amenable, than they of any other nation’. Both Anne and Mary Boleyn would have enjoyed the freedom afforded to them as members of the court of France. Mary Boleyn however appears to have taken this freedom a little too far.
The Elizabethan writer Sander, in an account hostile to Anne claimed that at the French court she was known as ‘the English mare, because of her shameless behaviour; and then the royal mule. When she became acquainted with the King of France’. Sander believed that Anne had disgraced herself in France by indulging first in sexual relations with members of Francis’s court and later with Francis himself. According to his account, even in the notoriously licentious French court, Anne Boleyn stood out for her immorality. It is clear that Sander has confused the two sisters in his account and that it was in fact Mary Boleyn who attained the reputation of both the ‘English mare’ and the ‘royal mule’.
Mary Boleyn became the mistress of Francis I soon after his accession. This was only a casual affair and certainly not as lasting as the affair that Mary would later enjoy with Henry VIII in England. Francis quickly tired of Mary and she then became the mistress of other French courtiers. Mary Boleyn quickly obtained a notorious reputation helped in no small part by Francis’s own view of her. Years later he would refer to her as a great prostitute and infamous above all. Anne must have been horrified at Mary for throwing herself away so cheaply. Mary Boleyn received no tangible benefits for the loss of her honour and her conduct horrified her family in England. Mary was quickly sent for by her parents and returned home to England to avoid any further scandal. Anne may have been relieved that her sister was no longer in a position at court to disgrace her further. There is certainly no evidence of closeness between the two sisters and Anne often felt that she had cause for embarrassment due to Mary’s behaviour.
Following Mary Boleyn’s disgrace, Anne may have been glad of the relative seclusion of Claude’s household. Claude was often in ill health and lived quietly away from court. During the times that Claude’s household was separate from the king’s Anne would have spent much of her time at her needlework. She could also play the lute, sing and dance and she may have been expected to help entertain the queen. Anne probably also took part in Claude’s coronation in May 1516 at St Denis and the queen’s state entry to Paris. These were grand state occasions which Anne would have enjoyed. She appears also to have met Francis’s sister, the accomplished Marguerite of Angouleme. Marguerite later became known for her reformist views and Anne may, perhaps, have first become exposed to these ideas through her proximity to Marguerite. It has been suggested by one critical writer that it was while she was in France that Anne first ‘embraced the heresy of Luther’.
Anne would also have had a number of opportunities to see her father whilst she was in France. Thomas Boleyn had continued to rise in prominence during Anne’s absence from England and was frequently sent on missions to France. In early 1519, for example, Thomas was part of a mission to France headed by the Bishop of Ely and the Earl of Worcester. This mission coincided with the birth of Claude’s son Henry, Duke of Orleans, and Thomas Boleyn is known to have attended the christening. Anne must have enjoyed seeing her father on his visits and he was probably pleased with the way that her education and deportment had progressed during his absences. Anne would also have had the opportunity to see Thomas and several other members of her family at the major event of the early years of Francis’s reign, the Field of the Cloth of Gold.
In October 1518 Francis concluded a treaty of perpetual friendship with Henry VIII which included a marriage alliance between Francis’s infant son, the Dauphin Francis, and Henry’s daughter, Mary. As part of this treaty it was agreed that the two kings would meet for the first time, something that both kings were eager to do. Both kings were of a similar age and they were fascinated by each other. One account, written just after Francis’s accession to the throne, shows just how anxious Henry was to ensure that he was the superior of the two kings. According to the account:
‘His Majesty [Henry] came into our arbour, and addressing me in French, said “Talk with me awhile! The King of France, is he as tall as I am?” I told him there was but little difference. He continued, “Is he as stout?” I said he was not, and he then inquired “What sort of leg has he?” I replied “Spare”. Whereupon he opened the front of his doublet, “look here! And I have also a good calf to my leg”’.
Francis was as eager as Henry to impress and he would have been long used to hearing reports of Henry’s handsomeness and his athletic prowess. According to one writer, who saw Henry in 1515:
‘His Majesty [Henry] is the handsomest potentate I ever set eyes on; above the usual height, with an extremely fine calf to his leg, his complexion very fair and bright, with auburn hair combed straight and short, in the French fashion, and a round face so very beautiful, that it would become a pretty woman, his throat being rather long and thick’.
Henry cut a very impressive figure. He could speak French and Latin fluently, as well as a little Italian. He could also play the lute and harpsichord and sing from a book at sight, as well as being an athlete with a bow or at jousting. Both kings were determined to outshine the other at their meeting in France between 7 June and 20 June 1520. The meeting was so renowned for its splendour that it has always been known as the Field of the Cloth of Gold.
Anne Boleyn is not recorded at the Field of the Cloth of Gold but she was almost certainly present. As one of Claude’s ladies, Anne’s presence would have been required and her ability to act as an interpreter would also have been in demand. Anne prepared for the meeting with excitement, both for the spectacle and for the chance to see family and friends from England again. The French party were scheduled to stay at Ardres, a town near the English possession of Calais, and Claude and her ladies began their slow progress towards the town in April. Claude’s household reached Paris on 5 May and was joined there by Francis on 17 May. The court as a whole then moved on to Abbeville and then towards Ardres, arriving there on 31 May. The French were represented by over 6,000 people and they must have waited expectantly for word that the 5,172 Englishmen and women had arrived at the English camp at nearby Guisnes.
The two kings finally met on 7 June about one mile outside Guisnes. Although the meeting had been arranged to be a friendly one there must have been a certain amount of tension and both kings had agreed to be, effectively, hostages for the other. According to one source, the two kings rode out to meet each other and immediately dismounted and embraced as a sign of their friendship. The initial meeting was a success and the two kings retired to a tent made of cloth of gold to speak with each other. Anne Boleyn may have been among the crowds and, if so, this was perhaps her first sight of Henry VIII. Henry was then still only thirty and, like everyone else, she must have been in awe of him.
If Anne was not present on 7 June then she would certainly have been present on 11 June on the opening day of the jousts. A gallery had been built for the two queens beside the tiltyard to allow them to watch the tournament. Catherine of Aragon and her sister-in-law, Mary Tudor, arrived in litters, Mary Tudor’s bearing the emblems and initials of her late husband, Louis XII of France. Catherine and Mary also brought a large retinue of ladies with them either riding in three wagons covered in cloth of gold or riding on horses. Anne would have been amongst Claude’s ladies and followed her mistress, perhaps riding in one of the three wagons covered in cloth of silver. This would have been the first time that Anne was to see Catherine of Aragon and she may have felt that the queen, who was in her midthirties, was a poor match for her glamorous husband.
The jousts continued throughout the week with both Henry and Francis taking part. Anne’s services would have been constantly in demand as an interpreter and she must have enjoyed the opportunity to reacquaint herself with her family. She may also have been present on 13 June when the kings arrived to find that it was too windy for the jousts to take place. Henry asked to wrestle with Francis, aware that he was the larger man. It is probable that Henry expected to easily beat the French king and he was highly embarrassed when Francis threw him to the ground. This cast a shadow over the proceedings for Henry but the jousts continued on 14 June, as did other festivities.