February 11: Birth and Death Anniversary of Elizabeth of York, Queen of England (1466-1503).

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Edward V of England, Elizabeth of York, Elizabeth Woodville, Henry VII of England, House of Tudor, House of York, King Edward IV of England, King Henry VIII of England, Kings and Queens of England, Queen of England

Elizabeth of York (February 11, 1466 – February 11, 1503) was Queen of England from her marriage to King Henry VII on 18 January 1486 until her death. Elizabeth married Henry after his victory at the Battle of Bosworth Field, which marked the end of the Wars of the Roses. Together, they had seven children.

Elizabeth’s younger brothers, the “Princes in the Tower”, mysteriously disappeared shortly after the death of her father, King Edward IV. Although the 1484 act of Parliament Titulus Regius declared the marriage of her parents, Edward and Elizabeth Woodville, invalid, she and her sisters were subsequently welcomed back to court by Edward’s brother, King Richard III. As a Yorkist princess, the final victory of the Lancastrian faction in the Wars of the Roses may have seemed a further disaster, but Henry Tudor knew the importance of Yorkist support for his invasion and promised to marry Elizabeth before he arrived in England. This may well have contributed to the haemorrhaging of Yorkist support for Richard.

Although Elizabeth seems to have played little part in politics, her marriage appears to have been a successful and happy one. Her eldest son Arthur, Prince of Wales, died at age 15 in 1502, and three other children died young. Her second, and only surviving, son became King Henry VIII of England, while her daughters Mary and Margaret became queens of France and of Scotland, respectively; many modern royals, including Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom trace their line through Margaret.

In 1469, aged three, she was briefly betrothed to George Neville. His father John later supported George’s uncle, the Earl of Warwick, in rebellion against King Edward IV, and the betrothal was called off. In 1475, Louis XI agreed to the marriage of nine-year-old Elizabeth of York to his son Charles, the Dauphin of France. In 1482, however, Louis XI reneged on his promise. She was named a Lady of the Garter in 1477, at age eleven, along with her mother and her paternal aunt Elizabeth of York, Duchess of Suffolk.

Wife of the king

As the eldest daughter of Edward IV with no surviving brothers, Elizabeth of York had a strong claim to the throne in her own right, but she did not assume the throne as queen regnant. There was no queen regnant until 1553, when her granddaughter, Mary I, acceded to the throne; the last attempt a female had made at ruling in her own right resulted in disaster when the mother and first cousin once removed of Henry II of England fought bitterly for the throne in the 12th century. Though initially slow to keep his promise, Henry VII acknowledged the necessity of marrying Elizabeth of York to ensure the stability of his rule and weaken the claims of other surviving members of the House of York. It seems Henry wished to be seen as ruling in his own right, having claimed the throne by right of conquest and not by his marriage to the de facto heiress of the House of York. He had no intention of sharing power. He consequently chose to be crowned on 30 October 1485, before his marriage.

Henry VII had the Act of Titulus Regius repealed, thereby legitimising anew the children of Edward IV, and acknowledging Edward V as his predecessor. Though Richard III was regarded as a usurper, his reign was not ignored. Henry and Elizabeth required a papal dispensation to wed because of Canon Law frowning upon ‘affinity”: Both were descended from John of Gaunt or his older brother Lionel in the 4th degree, an issue that had caused much dispute and bloodshed as to which claim was superior. Two applications were sent, the first more locally, and the second one was slow in reaching Rome and slow to return with the response of the Pope. Ultimately, however, the marriage was approved by papal bull of Pope Innocent VIII dated March 1486 (one month after the wedding) stating that the Pope and his advisors “approveth confirmyth and stablishyth the matrimonye and coniuncion made betwene our sou[er]ayn lord King Henre the seuenth of the house of Lancastre of that one party And the noble Princesse Elyzabeth of the house of Yorke.

Because the journey to Rome and back took many months, and because Henry as king wanted to be certain that nobody could claim that his wedding to Elizabeth was unlawful or sinful, the more local application was obeyed first – it was sent to the papal legate for England and Scotland, which returned in January 1486. Cardinal Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, officiated at the wedding of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York on 18 January 1486 in Westminster Abbey. Their first son, Arthur, was born on 20 September 1486, eight months after their marriage. Elizabeth of York was crowned queen on 25 November 1487. She gave birth to several more children, but only four survived infancy: Arthur, Margaret, Henry and Mary.

Despite being a political arrangement at first, the marriage proved successful and both partners appear to have slowly fallen in love with each other. Thomas Penn, in his biography of Henry VII writes that “[t]hough founded on pragmatism, Henry and Elizabeth’s marriage had nevertheless blossomed throughout the uncertainty and upheaval of the previous eighteen years. This was a marriage of ‘faithful love’, of mutual attraction, affection and respect, from which the king seems to have drawn great strength.”

Death

In 1502, Elizabeth of York became pregnant once more and spent her confinement period in the Tower of London. On 2 February 1503, she gave birth to a daughter, Katherine, but the child died a few days afterwards. Succumbing to a post partum infection, Elizabeth of York died on 11 February, her 37th birthday. Her family seems to have been devastated by her death and mourned her deeply. According to one biographer, the death of Elizabeth “broke the heart” of her husband and “shattered him.” Another account says that Henry Tudor “privily departed to a solitary place and would no man should resort unto him.” This is notable considering that, shortly after Elizabeth’s death, records show he became deathly ill himself and would not allow any except his mother Margaret Beaufort near him, including doctors. For Henry Tudor to show his emotions, let alone any sign of infirmity, was highly unusual and alarming to members of his court. Within a little over two years, King Henry VII lost his oldest son, his wife, his baby daughter, and found himself having to honour the Treaty of Perpetual Peace.

Henry VII entertained thoughts of remarriage to renew the alliance with Spain — Joanna, Dowager Queen of Naples (daughter of Ferdinand I of Naples), Joanna, Queen of Castile (daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella), and Margaret, Dowager Duchess of Savoy (sister-in-law of Joanna of Castile), were all considered — but he died a widower in 1509. The specifications that Henry gave to his ambassadors outlining what he wanted in a second wife described Elizabeth. On each anniversary of her death, he decreed that a requiem mass be sung, the bells be tolled, and 100 candles be lit in her honour. Henry also continued to employ her minstrels each New Year.

The Tower of London was abandoned as a royal residence, as evidenced by the lack of records of its being used by the royal family after 1503. Royal births in the reign of Elizabeth’s son, Henry VIII, took place in various other palaces.

Henry VII’s reputation for miserliness became worse after Elizabeth’s death.

He was buried with Elizabeth of York under their effigies in his Westminster Abbey chapel. Her tomb was opened in the 19th century and the wood casing of her lead coffin was found to have been removed to create space for the interment of her great-great-grandson James VI-I of England and Scotland.

On this date in history… January 28.

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Charlemagne, Charles the Great, Edward VI of England, Emperor of the Romans, Henry VII of England, Henry VIII, Holy Roman Emperors, Holy Roman Empire, King Henry VIII of England

814 – The death of Charlemagne, retroactively considered the first Holy Roman Emperor, brings about the accession of his son Louis the Pious as ruler of the Frankish Empire.

1547 – Edward VI, the nine-year-old son of Henry VIII, becomes King of England on his father’s death. Henry VIII died at the age of 55, ironically, on the same date of the birth anniversary of his father, Henry VII, king of England (d. 1509), who was born on this date in 1457.

Today I will highlight the death of Emperor Charlemagne.

Charlemagne (Charles the Great (April 2, 748 – January 28, 814), numbered Charles I, was the King of the Franks from 768, the King of the Lombards from 774, and the Emperor of the Romans from 800. During the Early Middle Ages, he united the majority of western and central Europe. He was the first recognised emperor to rule from western Europe since the fall of the Western Roman Empire around three centuries earlier. The expanded Frankish state that Charlemagne founded is called the Carolingian Empire. He was later canonised by Antipope Paschal III.

In 813, Charlemagne called Louis the Pious, king of Aquitaine, his only surviving legitimate son, to his court. There Charlemagne crowned his son as co-emperor and sent him back to Aquitaine. He then spent the autumn hunting before returning to Aachen on 1 November. In January, he fell ill with pleurisy, inflammation of the membranes that surround the lungs and line the chest cavity. In deep depression (mostly because many of his plans were not yet realised), he took to his bed on 21 January and as Einhard tells it:

He died January twenty-eighth, the seventh day from the time that he took to his bed, at nine o’clock in the morning, after partaking of the Holy Communion, in the seventy-second year of his age and the forty-seventh of his reign.

He was buried that same day, in Aachen Cathedral, although the cold weather and the nature of his illness made such a hurried burial unnecessary. The earliest surviving planctus, the Planctus de obitu Karoli, was composed by a monk of Bobbio, which he had patronised. A later story, told by Otho of Lomello, Count of the Palace at Aachen in the time of Emperor Otto III, would claim that he and Otto had discovered Charlemagne’s tomb:

Charlemagne, they claimed, was seated upon a throne, wearing a crown and holding a sceptre, his flesh almost entirely incorrupt. In 1165, Emperor Frederick I re-opened the tomb again and placed the emperor in a sarcophagus beneath the floor of the cathedral. In 1215 Emperor Frederick II re-interred him in a casket made of gold and silver known as the Karlsschrein.

Charlemagne’s death emotionally affected many of his subjects, particularly those of the literary clique who had surrounded him at Aachen.

September 19/20, 1486: Birth of Arthur, Prince of Wales.

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Arthur Tudor, Battle of Bosworth Field, Elizabeth of York, Henry VII of England, House of Tudor, King Ferdinand II of Aragon, King Henry VIII of England, Prince of Wales, Queen Isabella I of Castile, Richard III of England, Wars of the Roses

Arthur Tudor (September 19/20 1486 – April 2, 1502) was Prince of Wales, Earl of Chester and Duke of Cornwall. As the eldest son and heir apparent of Henry VII of England, Arthur was viewed by contemporaries as the great hope of the newly established House of Tudor. His mother, Elizabeth of York, was the daughter of Edward IV, and his birth cemented the union between the House of Tudor and the House of York.

Henry VII became King of England upon defeating Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. In an effort to strengthen the Tudor claim to the throne, Henry had royal genealogists trace his lineage back to the ancient British rulers and decided on naming his firstborn son after the legendary King Arthur.

On this occasion, Camelot was identified as present-day Winchester, and his wife, Elizabeth of York, was sent to Saint Swithun’s Priory (today Winchester Cathedral Priory) in order to give birth there. Born at Saint Swithun’s Priory on the night of 19/20 September 1486 at about 1 am, Arthur was Henry and Elizabeth’s eldest child. Arthur’s birth was anticipated by French and Italian humanists eager for the start of a “Virgilian golden age”. Sir Francis Bacon wrote that although the Prince was born one month premature, he was “strong and able”.

Young Prince Arthur was viewed as “a living symbol” of not only the union between the House of Tudor and the House of York, to which his mother belonged as the daughter of Edward IV, but also of the end of the Wars of the Roses. In the opinion of contemporaries, Arthur was the great hope of the newly established House of Tudor.

Arthur became Duke of Cornwall at birth. Four days after his birth, he was baptised at Winchester Cathedral by the Bishop of Worcester, John Alcock, which was immediately followed by his confirmation. John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford, Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby, William FitzAlan, 16th Earl of Arundel, Queen Elizabeth Woodville and Cecily of York served as godparents; the latter two, his grandmother and aunt, respectively, carried the prince during the ceremony.

Initially, Arthur’s nursery in Farnham was headed by Elizabeth Darcy, who had served as chief nurse for Edward IV’s children, including Arthur’s own mother. After Arthur was created Prince of Wales in 1490, he was awarded a household structure at the behest of his father. Over the next thirteen years, Henry VII and Elizabeth would have six more children, of whom only three—Margaret, Henry and Mary—would reach adulthood. Arthur was especially close to his sister Margaret (b. 1489) and his brother Henry (b. 1491), with whom he shared a nursery.

The popular belief that Arthur was sickly during his lifetime stems from a misunderstanding of a 1502 letter, but there are no reports of Arthur being ill during his lifetime. Arthur grew up to be unusually tall for his age, and was considered handsome by the Spanish court: he had reddish hair, small eyes, a high-bridged nose, resembling his brother Henry, who was said to be “extremely handsome” by contemporaries. As described by historians Steven Gunn and Linda Monckton, Arthur had an “amiable and gentle” personality and was, overall, a “delicate lad”

Plans for Arthur’s marriage began before his third birthday; he was installed as Prince of Wales two years later. At the age of eleven, he was formally betrothed to Catherine of Aragon, a daughter of the powerful Catholic Monarchs in Spain, Fernando II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, in an effort to forge an Anglo-Spanish alliance against France.

Arthur was well educated and, contrary to some modern belief, was in good health for the majority of his life. Soon after his marriage to Catherine in 1501, the couple took up residence at Ludlow Castle in Shropshire, where Arthur died six months later of an unknown ailment. Catherine later firmly stated that the marriage had not been consummated.

One year after Arthur’s death, Henry VII renewed his efforts of sealing a marital alliance with Spain by arranging for Catherine to marry Arthur’s younger brother Henry, Prince of Wales. Arthur’s untimely death paved the way for Henry to ascend to the throne in 1509 as King Henry VIII.

Whether Arthur and Catherine consummated their six-month marriage was much later (and in a completely different political context) exploited by Henry VIII and his court. This strategy was employed in order to cast doubt upon the validity of Catherine’s union with Henry VIII, eventually leading to the separation between the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church.

August 14, 1473: Birth of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury.

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Countess of Salisbury, Duke of Clarence, George Plantagenet, Henry VII of England, King Edward IV of England, King Henry VIII of England, Margaret Pole, Richard III of England, Richard Pole

Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (August 14, 1473 – May 27 1541), was an English peeress and member of the English Royal Family and one of the last of the Plantagenets.

She was the daughter of George, Duke of Clarence, the brother of kings Edward IV and Richard III. Margaret was one of two women in 16th-century England to be a peeress in her own right with no titled husband. One of the few surviving members of the Plantagenet dynasty after the Wars of the Roses, she was executed in 1541 at the command of Henry VIII, who was the son of her first cousin Elizabeth of York. Pope Leo XIII beatified her as a martyr for the Catholic Church on December 29, 1886.

Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury

Margaret was born at Farleigh Hungerford Castle in Somerset, the only surviving daughter of George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, and his wife Isabel Neville, who was the elder daughter of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, and his wife Anne de Beauchamp, 16th Countess of Warwick. Her maternal grandfather was killed fighting against her uncle, Edward IV, at the Battle of Barnet.

Her father, already Duke of Clarence, was then created Earl of Salisbury and of Warwick. Edward IV declared that Margaret’s younger brother Edward should be known as Earl of Warwick as a courtesy title, but no peerage was ever created for him. Margaret would have had a claim to the Earldom of Warwick, but the earldom was forfeited on the attainder of her brother Edward.

Margaret’s mother died when she was three, and her father had two servants killed whom he thought had poisoned her. George plotted against Edward IV, and was attainted and executed for treason; his lands and titles were forfeited. Edward IV died when Margaret was ten, and her uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester, declared that Edward’s marriage was invalid, his children illegitimate, and that Margaret and her brother Edward were debarred from the throne by their father’s attainder. Married to Anne Neville, younger sister to Margaret’s mother Isabel, Richard assumed the throne himself as Richard III.

Richard III sent the children to Sheriff Hutton Castle in Yorkshire. He was defeated and killed in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth by Henry Tudor, who succeeded him as Henry VII. The new king married Margaret’s cousin Elizabeth of York, Edward IV’s daughter, and Margaret and her brother were taken into their care.

In November 1487, Henry VII gave Margaret in marriage to his cousin, Sir Richard Pole, whose mother was half-sister of the king’s mother, Margaret Beaufort. Richard Pole held a variety of offices in Henry VII’s government, the highest being Chamberlain for Arthur, Prince of Wales, Henry’s elder son. When Arthur married Catherine of Aragon, Margaret became one of her ladies-in-waiting, but her entourage was dissolved when the teenaged Arthur died in 1502.

When her husband died in 1505, Margaret was a widow with five children, a limited amount of land inherited from her husband, no other income and no prospects. Henry VII paid for Richard’s funeral. To ease the situation, Margaret devoted her third son Reginald Pole to the Church, where he was to have an eventful career as a papal Legate and later Archbishop of Canterbury. Nonetheless, he was to resent her abandonment of him bitterly in later life.

When Henry VIII came to the throne in 1509, he married Catherine of Aragon himself. Margaret was again appointed one of her ladies-in-waiting. In 1512, an Act of Parliament restored to her some of her brother’s lands of the earldom of Salisbury (only), for which she paid 5000 marks (£2666.13s.4d). The same Act also restored to Margaret the Earldom of Salisbury.

Henry VIII, King of England and Ireland

Margaret’s own favour at Court varied. She had a dispute over land with Henry VIII in 1518; he awarded the contested lands to the Dukedom of Somerset, which had been held by his Beaufort great-grandfather—and were now in the possession of the Crown. In 1520, Margaret was appointed governess to Henry’s daughter Princess Mary; the next year, when her sons were mixed up with Buckingham, she was removed, but she was restored by 1525.

When Princess Mary was declared a bastard in 1533, Margaret refused to give Mary’s gold plate and jewels back to Henry. Mary’s household was broken up at the end of the year, and Margaret asked to serve Mary at her own cost, but was not permitted. The Imperial Ambassador Eustace Chapuys suggested two years later that Mary be handed over to Margaret, but Henry refused, calling her “a fool, of no experience”. When Henry’s second wife, Anne Boleyn, was arrested, and eventually executed, in 1536, Margaret was permitted to return to Court, albeit briefly.

In 1531, her son, Reginald Pole, warned of the dangers of the Boleyn marriage. He returned to Padua in 1532, and received a last English benefice in December of that year. Chapuys suggested to Emperor Charles V that Reginald marry Princess Mary and combine their dynastic claims.

Reginald also urged the princes of Europe to depose Henry immediately. Henry wrote to Margaret, who in turn wrote to her son a letter reproving him for his “folly”. In May 1536, Reginald finally and definitively broke with the king.
In 1537, Reginald (still not ordained) was created a Cardinal.

Pope Paul III put him in charge of organising assistance for the Pilgrimage of Grace (and related movements), an effort to organise a march on London to install a conservative Catholic government instead of Henry’s increasingly Protestant-leaning one. Neither François I of France nor the Emperor supported this effort, and the English government tried to have him assassinated.

The Exeter Conspiracy of 1538 was a supposed attempt to overthrow Henry VIII, who had taken control of the Church of England away from the Pope, and replace him with Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter, who was a first cousin of the King.

As part of the investigations into the so-called Exeter Conspiracy, Geoffrey Pole was arrested in August 1538; he had been corresponding with Reginald, and the investigation of Henry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter (Henry VIII’s first cousin and Geoffrey’s second cousin) had turned up his name. Geoffrey had appealed to Thomas Cromwell, who had him arrested and interrogated. Under interrogation, Geoffrey said that his eldest brother, Lord Montagu, and the Marquess had been parties to his correspondence with Reginald. Montagu, Exeter, and Margaret were arrested in November 1538.

In January 1539, Geoffrey was pardoned, but Margaret’s son Henry, Baron Montagu (and cousin Exeter) were later executed for treason after trial. In May 1539, Henry, Margaret, Exeter and others were attainted, as Margaret’s father had been. This conviction meant they lost their titles and their lands—mostly in the South of England, conveniently located to assist any invasion.

Margaret Pole, as she now was styled, was held in the Tower of London for two and a half years. She, her grandson Henry (son of her own son Henry), and Exeter’s son were held together and supported by the king. She was attended by servants and received an extensive grant of clothing in March 1541. In 1540, Cromwell himself fell from favour and was attainted and executed.

On the morning of 27 May 1541, Margaret was told she was to die within the hour. She answered that no crime had been imputed to her. Nevertheless, she was taken from her cell to the place within the precincts of the Tower of London where a low wooden block had been prepared instead of the customary scaffold. As she was of noble birth, she was not executed before the populace.

Eye witness accounts state that, “at first, when the sentence of death was made known to her, she found the thing very strange, not knowing of what crime she was accused, nor how she had been sentenced” and that, because the main executioner had been sent north to deal with rebels, the execution was performed by “a wretched and blundering youth who literally hacked her head and shoulders to pieces in the most pitiful manner”.

Her son, Reginald Pole, said that he would “never fear to call himself the son of a martyr”. She was later regarded by Catholics as such and was beatified on 29 December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII.

Was Lady Jane Grey a legitimate Queen of England and Ireland?

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Catherine of Aragon, Felipe II of Spain, King Henry VIII of England, Lady Jane Grey, Queen Mary I of England, Roman Catholic Church, Third Succession Act, Treason Act, Usurper, Wyatt’s Rebellion

When reading the lists of the Kings and Queens of England, Scotland, Great Britain or the United Kingdom, there can be discrepancies regarding the reign of Lady Jane Grey; some will list her as a legitimate Queen of England and some will not.

The question I am examining is whether or not Lady Jane Grey can be considered a legitimate Queen of England and Ireland or should she be considered a usurper? The issue at hand is there is no authoritative body to judge either the legitimacy or illegitimacy of Jane’s 9 day reign. Therefore it is open to interpretation and historians have been debating this for many, many years.

I am just another voice in this chorus of historians debating this issue. I will state my case in this post to why I don’t believe that Jane Grey was the legal successor to King Edward VI.

Lady Jane Grey

My basic foundational premise is that England was and is a Kingdom ruled by laws and it is upon the interpretation of the laws and statutes in effect at the time of Edward VI’s death which forms my opinion on the legitimacy of Janes position as Queen.

When Edward VI died on July 6, 1553 at the age of 15 the Third Act of Succession was still the law of the land, and so was the 1547 Act of Treason. This means that both Mary and Elizabeth were still the legal heirs to their brother Edward.

The motive for Edward VI’s attempt at altering the succession was that the king’s death and the succession of his Catholic half-sister Mary would jeopardise the English Reformation, and Edward’s Council and officers had many reasons to fear it. Edward himself opposed Mary’s succession, not only on religious grounds but also on those of legitimacy and male inheritance, which also applied to his sister Elizabeth. Edward VI composed a draft document, headed “My devise for the succession”, in which he undertook to change the succession, most probably inspired by his father Henry VIII’s precedent. The provisions to alter the succession directly contravened Henry VIII’s Third Succession Act of 1543 and have been described as bizarre and illogical.

In early June of 1553 Edward VI personally supervised the drafting of a clean version of his devise (his Will altering the succession) by lawyers, to which he lent his signature “in six several places.” Then, on June 15, he summoned high ranking judges to his sickbed, commanding them on their allegiance “with sharp words and angry countenance” to prepare his devise as Letters Patent and announced that he would have these passed in Parliament.

However, before his Letters Patent could be passed by Parliament and receive the Royal assent, Edward died. Edward’s failure to have his Letters Patent passed by an Act of Parliament meant that The Treason Act, which made it high treason to change the line of succession to the throne, and the Third Act of Succession, we’re still the law of the land. Of course as king, Edward VI could have had both the Third Act of Succession and the Treason Act replaced with new laws, but since he died prior to accomplishing that requirement that means his sister Mary was the legal Queen per the terms of the Third Succession Act.

Let me restate what these two acts were. The Third Succession Act of King Henry VIII’s reign, passed by the Parliament of England in July 1543, returned his daughters Mary and Elizabeth to the line of the succession behind their half-brother Edward.

Edward VI, of England and Ireland

The Act was formally titled the Succession to the Crown Act 35 Hen. 8 c.1, and is also known as the Act of Succession 1543. The royal assent was given to this bill in the spring of 1544 at the conclusion of the 1543/1544 Parliament, but until 1793 acts were usually backdated to the beginning of the session of Parliament in which they were passed. (The Act is also often dated 1544.)

The Treason Act 1547 made it high treason to interrupt the line of succession to the throne established by the Act of Succession. Edward VI meant to bypass this Act in his “Devise for the Succession”, issued as Letters Patent on June 21, 1553, in which he named Lady Jane Grey as his successor. Prevailing over Lady Jane Grey, Mary ascended the throne under the terms of the Third Succession Act.

There is an interesting issue that the Third Act of Succession and the Treason Act 1547 did restore Mary and Elizabeth’s succession right but they did not restore their legitimacy.

The Third Succession Act superseded the First Succession Act (1533) and the Second Succession Act (1536), whose effects had been to declare bastards Henry’s daughters Mary and Elizabeth, and to remove them from succession to the throne. This new act returned both Mary and Elizabeth to the line of succession behind Edward, any potential children of Edward, and any potential children of Henry by his then wife, Catherine Parr, or any future wife Henry might have.

Mary I, Queen of England and Ireland

With the 1536 Act, Mary and Elizabeth, who had both been declared illegitimate and incapable to inherit, expressly remained illegitimate in the 1543/44 Act; they were only capacitated to succeed to the Crown (with several provisos, such as they could not marry without the Privy Council’s approval). This meant that the place in the succession of Mary and Elizabeth remained doubtful. Henry’s actual will (1547) simply confirmed their position as outlined in the 1543/44 statute.

Therefore Mary and Elizabeth’s right to accede to the throne is accepted by most as fact, but actually, this could be disputed. Under English law at this time, only legitimate children could inherit the throne. Mary had been declared illegitimate by her father Henry VIII after he proclaimed his marriage to Mary’s mother, Katherine of Aragon, invalid. Likewise, Elizabeth Tudor, half-sister to Edward and Mary, had also been declared illegitimate after Henry VIII declared that his marriage to her mother, Anne Boleyn, had also been invalid.

However, this all seems like a moot point in 1553. For after Mary entered London and Jane was arrested, Parliament declared Mary the rightful successor and denounced and revoked Jane’s proclamation as Queen of England and labeled her position as that of a usurper. In my view this Act of Parliament along with the fact that Edward never legalized his Letters Patent through an Act of Parliament is enough reason to view Jane as not the legitimate successor to Edward VI but as a usurper…albeit a puppet or pawn of those using her.

Also the question of Mary’s legitimacy is another moot point as evidenced by her Spanish marriage.

At age 37, Mary turned her attention to finding a husband and producing an heir, which would prevent the Protestant Elizabeth (still next-in-line under the terms of Henry VIII’s will and the Act of Succession of 1544) from succeeding to the throne. Edward Courtenay and Reginald Pole were both mentioned as prospective suitors, but her cousin, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V suggested she marry his only son, Prince Felipe of Spain.

Felipe II, King of Spain

Lord Chancellor Gardiner and the House of Commons unsuccessfully petitioned her to consider marrying an Englishman, fearing that England would be relegated to a dependency of the Habsburgs. The marriage was unpopular with the English; Gardiner and his allies opposed it on the basis of patriotism, while Protestants were motivated by a fear of Catholicism. When Mary insisted on marrying Felipe, insurrections broke out. Thomas Wyatt the younger led a force from Kent to depose Mary in favour of Elizabeth, as part of a wider conspiracy now known as Wyatt’s rebellion, which also involved the Duke of Suffolk, the father of Lady Jane. This rebellion sealed the fate of Lady Jane and her husband.

Mary declared publicly that she would summon Parliament to discuss the marriage, and if Parliament decided that the marriage was not to the advantage of the kingdom, she would refrain from pursuing it. After The Act for the Marriage of Queen Mary to Felipe of Spain or Queen Mary’s Marriage Act (1 Mar. Sess. 3 c. 2) was passed by the Parliament of England in April 1554, their wedding at Winchester Cathedral on July 25, 1554 took place just two days after their first meeting. Felipe could not speak English, and so they spoke in a mixture of Spanish, French, and Latin.

My point in stating the history of her marriage suggests that the Spanish Government, along with Emperor Charles V and Felipe of Spain, did not view her as illegitimate. Indeed, being a strongly Catholic country all involved would not have sanctioned such a union if Mary carried the taint of illegitimacy. Further, now enthroned as Queen this did place the Catholic Church back in power in England and according to the Church Mary was legitimate as the legal offspring of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon and never recognized their divorce and Mary being a bastard.

Jane Grey is seen as a tragic figure and she certainly was. “The traitor-heroine of the Reformation”, as historian Albert Pollard called her, was only 16 or 17 years old at the time of her execution. During and in the aftermath of the Marian persecutions, Jane became viewed as a Protestant martyr for centuries, featuring prominently in the several editions of the Book of Martyrs (Actes and Monuments of these Latter and Perillous Dayes) by John Foxe.

Incidentally, There is no proven contemporary portrait of Lady Jane Grey that survives.

July 16, 1557: Death of Anne of Cleves, Queen Consort of England and Ireland.

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Amalia of Cleves, Anne of Cleves, Annulment, Earl of Southampton, Elector Johann-Friedrich I of Saxony, Hans Holbein, Holy Roman Empire, King Henry VIII of England, Kings and Queens of England, Sibylla of Cleves, Six Wives of Henry VIII

Anne of Cleves (1515 – July 16, 1557) was queen consort of England from January 6, to July 9, 1540 as the fourth wife of King Henry VIII. Anne was born in 1515, on either 22 September, or more probably 28 June. She was born in Düsseldorf, the second daughter of Johann III of the House of La Marck, Duke of Jülich jure uxoris, Cleves, Berg jure uxoris, Count of Mark, also known as de la Marck and Ravensberg jure uxoris (often referred to as Duke of Cleves) who died in 1538, and his wife Maria, Duchess of Jülich-Berg (1491–1543). She grew up in Schloss Burg on the edge of Solingen.

Anne of Cleves

Not much is known about Anne before 1527, when she became betrothed to François, Duke of Bar, son and heir of Antoine, Duke of Lorraine, although their marriage did not proceed.

In March 1539, negotiations for Anne’s marriage to Henry VIII began, as Henry believed that he needed to form a political alliance with her brother, Wilhelm, who was a leader of the Protestants of western parts of the Holy Roman Empire, to strengthen his position against potential attacks from Catholic France and the Holy Roman Empire.

Anne arrived in England on December 27, 1539 and married Henry on January 6, 1540. However, after six months, the marriage was declared unconsummated and, as a result, she was not crowned queen consort. Following the annulment, she was given a generous settlement by the King, and thereafter referred to as the King’s Beloved Sister. She lived to see the coronation of Queen Mary I, outliving the rest of Henry’s wives.

Henry VIII, King of England and Ireland

The Rejection

We all know the story. The marriage was arranged by Henry’s chief minister, Thomas Cromwell. The artist Hans Holbein the Younger was dispatched to Düren to paint portraits of Anne and her younger sister, Amalia, each of whom Henry was considering as his fourth wife. Henry required the artist to be as accurate as possible, not to flatter the sisters.

After seeing a portrait of Anne, Henry proceeded with the marriage. However, upon seeing his new bride Henry was immediately repulsed. I would like examine just watch Henry found unacceptable with Anne of Cleves.

Amalia of Cleves

Outside of the portrait by Hans Holbein Henry had to rely on the observations of others to obtain the attractiveness of Anne of Cleves. The reports Henry received were not solely about Anne but we’re placed in juxtaposition with sisters. One report claimed that Anne’s beauty outshined that of her eldest sister, Sibylla, who was married to Elector Johann-Friedrich I of Saxony. The quote stated that Anne’s beauty was ‘as the golden sun does the silver moon’.

Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton was another who had the responsibility to be honest with Henry regarding the truth about Anne’s attractiveness (or perceived lack thereof). The Earl of Southampton reported to the king that he had heard nothing but praise concerning her appearance.

Sibylla of Cleves

By the time Anne reached Calais, she was promised to the king and the marriage contract was set. Therefore Henry was given the advice that it was ‘no time to dispraise her’. At this point in the proceedings the Earl of Southampton’s hands were tied. There was no backing out of this contract and even if the Earl had harbored negative thoughts regarding his future Queens attractiveness he wouldn’t have voiced those thoughts in fear of encountering the wrath of his master the king.

Although beauty is in the eye of the beholder and is therefore subjective, the majority of descriptions and opinions of Anne’s attractiveness were positive. One description of Anne comes from the French ambassador, Charles de Marillac. Marillac had the reputation of never giving complimentary remarks about any women at the English court.

With Anne of Cleves, Charles de Marillac had no reason to either praise or denigrate Anne, whose brother, Wilhelm, had been an ally of King François I. Therefore his account of Anne’s beauty does seems reliable, although the first description is hearsay. Marillac wrote that ‘according to several who have seen her close, she does not seem so young as expected, nor so beautiful as everyone affirmed. She is tall and has an assurance in her carriage and countenance giving the impression that vivacity of spirit will supply as much beauty as one could desire.’ 

Marillac added that her ladies-in-waiting were even less good-looking, but they were all dressed in clothes so hideous they would have made even the most beautiful women look ugly.

Although Henry VIII’s immediate reaction to Anne is well-documented, the information does not date from the meeting between Henry and Anne but from papers relating to the annulment case in June and July of 1540.

Miniature portrait of Anne of Cleves by Hans Holbein the Younger

These documents in affirmed that Henry had told Cromwell immediately after meeting Anne that he did not want to go through with the match if it could at all be avoided. Henry proceeded to give uncomplimentary reports of Anne’s body, which were cited by the king as his reason for his inability, or reluctance, to consummate the marriage. The report states Henry had felt her breasts and belly, and wondered if she were, in fact, a virgin.

There are accounts of Henry and Anne’s January meeting from the same time (July 1540) as the previous account mentioned. One report was by Sir Anthony Browne, a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber, who had taken Henry to greet Anne. Henry met her privately on New Year’s Day 1540 at Rochester Abbey in Rochester on her journey from Dover. Henry and some of his courtiers, following a courtly-love tradition, went disguised into the room where Anne was staying

Sir Anthony claimed that, on entering the room, with a mind prepared by all the praise of her to find a beautiful woman, ‘he was never more dismayed in all his life, lamenting in his heart …to see the lady so far and unlike that was reported, and of such sort that he thought the king’s grace could not content himself with her.’ Sir Anthony may have been recalling a genuine memory or being wise after the event.

It is well known and psychological disorders that memory is not reliable. In a court of law evidence-based and memory as often considered the most unreliable source of evidence. However, there is enough evidence to conclude and he did indeed find Anne of Cleves unattractive and that was the reason the marriage was never consummated.

My Favorite Crown #1: The Imperial State Crown of the United Kingdom.

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Crown of Henry VIII, Crown of St. Edward, Cullinan diamond, Imperial State Crown., King Henry V of England, King Henry VIII of England, King William III of England, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Star of Africa, Stuart Sapphire, Tudor State Crown

The Imperial State Crown is one of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom and symbolises the sovereignty of the monarch.

 
Queen Victoria wearing the 1838 Imperial State Crown with the Stuart Sapphire in the front.

It has existed in various forms since the 15th century. The current version was made in 1937 and is worn by the monarch after a coronation (St Edward’s Crown having been used to crown the monarch) and used at the State Openings of Parliament.

The crown is adorned with 2,901 precious stones, including the Cullinan II diamond, St Edward’s Sapphire, the Stuart Sapphire, and the Black Prince’s Ruby.
History

Origin

St Edward’s Crown, used to crown English monarchs, was considered to be a holy relic, kept in the saint’s shrine at Westminster Abbey and therefore not worn by monarchs at any other time. Instead, a “great crown” with crosses and fleurs-de-lis, but without arches (an open crown), was a king’s usual headgear at state occasions until the time of Henry V, who is depicted wearing an imperial crown of state with gold arches (a closed crown).

Arches were a symbol of sovereignty, and by this point in history, the king of England was being celebrated as rex in regno suo est imperator – an emperor of his own domain – owing obedience to no one but God, unlike some continental rulers, who owed fealty to more powerful kings or the Holy Roman Emperor.

Replica of the Tudor State Crown of Henry VIII

Henry VII or his son and successor Henry VIII may have commissioned a more elaborate version of the state crown which is first described in detail in an inventory of royal jewels in 1521, and again in 1532, 1550, 1574 and 1597, and was included in a painting by Daniel Mytens of Charles I in 1631.

The Tudor Crown had more pearls and jewels than its medieval predecessor, and the centre petals of each of the fleurs-de-lis had images of Christ, the Virgin Mary and St George. The crown weighed 3.3 kg (7 lb 6 oz) and was set with 168 pearls, 58 rubies, 28 diamonds, 19 sapphires and 2 emeralds. Following the abolition of the monarchy and the execution of Charles I in 1649, the Tudor Crown was broken up by Oliver Cromwell during the Interregnum, and its valuable components were sold for £1,100.

Restoration to present day

Upon the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, a new state crown was made for Charles II by Sir Robert Vyner. About 10 versions of the crown have existed since the restoration. The one made for Queen Victoria in 1838 is the basis for today’s crown. Made by Rundell and Bridge in 1838 using old and new jewels, it had a crimson velvet cap with ermine border and a lining of white silk. It weighed 39.25 troy ounces (43.06 oz; 1,221 g) and was decorated with 1,363 brilliant-cut, 1,273 rose-cut and 147 table-cut diamonds, 277 pearls, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds, 4 rubies, and the Black Prince’s Ruby (a spinel). At the State Opening of Parliament in 1845, the Duke of Argyll was carrying the crown before Queen Victoria when it fell off the cushion and broke. Victoria wrote in her diary, “it was all crushed and squashed like a pudding that had sat down”.

The gems in the crown were remounted for the coronation of George VI in 1937 by Garrard & Co. The crown was adjusted for Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953, with the head size reduced and the arches lowered by 25 mm (1 inch) to give it a more feminine appearance.
Description

The Imperial State Crown is 31.5 cm (12.4 in) tall and weighs 1.06 kg (2.3 lb), and has four fleurs-de-lis and four crosses pattée, supporting two arches topped by a monde and cross pattée. Its purple velvet cap is trimmed with ermine. The frame is made of gold, silver and platinum, and decorated with 2,868 diamonds, 273 pearls, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds, and 5 rubies.

Imperial State Crown with the Stuart Sapphire in its present location in the back of the crown.

Notable stones are St Edward’s Sapphire on the top cross, reputedly taken from the ring of Edward the Confessor when he was re-interred at Westminster Abbey in 1163, and the Black Prince’s Ruby (a large spinel) on the front cross. In 1909, the 104-carat (21 g) Stuart Sapphire, set in the front of the crown, was moved to the back and replaced by the 317-carat (63 g) Cullinan II. Below the monde hang four pearls, three of which are often said to have belonged to Queen Elizabeth I, but the association is almost certainly erroneous.
Usage

The crown is worn by the monarch on leaving Westminster Abbey at the end of his or her coronation. It is usually also worn at State Openings of Parliament, although Elizabeth II wore a hat in March 1974, June 2017 and December 2019 after snap general elections, and in October 2019 she wore the State Diadem, while the Imperial State Crown was carried beside her.

Usually, it is taken to the Palace of Westminster under armed guard in its own carriage and placed in the Robing Room, where the Queen dons her robes and puts on the crown before giving her speech to Parliament. If a State Opening occurs before a coronation, the crown is placed on a cushion beside the monarch. In 1689, one week after being proclaimed king, William III wore his crown in Parliament to pass the Crown and Parliament Recognition Act 1689. When not in use, the Imperial State Crown is on public display in the Jewel House at the Tower of London.
Gallery

June 28, 1491: Birth of Henry VIII, King of England and Ireland.

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Anne Boleyn, Anne of Cleves, Carlos I of Spain, Catherine Howard, Catherine of Aragon, Catherine Parr, Elizabeth of York, Elizabeth Woodville, Henry VII of England, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Jane Seymour, King Edward IV of England, King Edward VI of England, King François I of France, King Henry VIII of England, King James V of Scotland

Henry VIII (June 28, 1491 – January 28, 1547) was King of England from 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry was the third child and second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, the eldest child of King Edward IV and his wife, Elizabeth Woodville.

Henry is best known for his six marriages, and, in particular, his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disagreement with Pope Clement VII on the question of such an annulment led Henry to initiate the English Reformation, separating the Church of England from papal authority. He appointed himself the Supreme Head of the Church of England and dissolved convents and monasteries, for which he was excommunicated. Henry is also known as “the father of the Royal Navy,” as he invested heavily in the navy, increasing its size from a few to more than 50 ships, and established the Navy Board.

Henry VIII, King of England and Ireland.

Domestically, Henry VIII is known for his radical changes to the English Constitution, ushering in the theory of the divine right of kings. He also greatly expanded royal power during his reign. He frequently used charges of treason and heresy to quell dissent, and those accused were often executed without a formal trial by means of bills of attainder.

King Henry VIII achieved many of his political aims through the work of his chief ministers, some of whom were banished or executed when they fell out of his favour. Thomas Wolsey, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, Richard Rich, and Thomas Cranmer all figured prominently in his administration.

King Henry VIII was an extravagant spender, using the proceeds from the dissolution of the monasteries and acts of the Reformation Parliament. He also converted the money that was formerly paid to Rome into royal revenue. Despite the money from these sources, he was continually on the verge of financial ruin due to his personal extravagance, as well as his numerous costly and largely unsuccessful wars, particularly with King François I of France, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, James V of Scotland and the Scottish regency under the Earl of Arran and Mary of Guise.

King François I of France.

Charles V (Carlos I), Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain.

James V, King of Scots.

At home, he oversaw the legal union of England and Wales with the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542, and he was the first English monarch to rule as King of Ireland following the Crown of Ireland Act 1542.

Henry’s contemporaries considered him an attractive, educated, and accomplished king. He has been described as “one of the most charismatic rulers to sit on the English throne”. He was an author and composer. As he aged, however, he became severely overweight and his health suffered, causing his death in 1547. He is frequently characterised in his later life as a lustful, egotistical, harsh and insecure king. He was succeeded by his son Edward VI.

Favorite Crown #3: The Tudor Crown.

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Crown of Henry VIII, English Civil War, Harry Colins, King Charles I of England, King Henry VIII of England, king James I-VI of England and Scotland, Queen Elizabeth I of England, The King’s Crown of Gold, The Tudor Crown

One of the interesting facts about this favorite Crown of mine is, it no longer exists except in replica form!

Tudor Crown

The Tudor Crown, also known as Henry VIII’s Crown, was the imperial and state crown used by the monarchs of England and Great Britain from around the time of Henry VIII up to the English Civil War in 1649. It was described by the art historian Sir Roy Strong as “a masterpiece of early Tudor jeweller’s art”, and its form has been compared to the crown of the Holy Roman Empire.

Description

Its date of manufacture is unknown, but Henry VII or his son and successor Henry VIII probably commissioned the crown, first documented in writing in a 1521 inventory of Henry VIII’s jewels, naming the crown as “the king’s crown of gold”. More elaborate than its medieval predecessor, it originally had two arches, five crosses pattée and five fleurs-de-lis, and was decorated with emeralds, sapphires, rubies, pearls, diamonds and, at one time, the Black Prince’s Ruby (a large spinel). The centre petals of the fleurs-de-lis had images of Christ, the Virgin Mary and St George, in an effort by Henry VIII to secure his position as head of the new Church of England. The crown was mentioned again in 1532, 1550, 1574 and 1597.

Fate of the Crown

After the death of Elizabeth I and the end of the Tudor dynasty, the Stuarts came to power in England. Both James I-VI and Charles I are known to have worn the crown. Following the abolition of the monarchy after the execution of Charles I in 1649, the Tudor Crown was broken up and its valuable components sold for £1,100. According to an inventory drawn up for the sale of the king’s goods, it weighed 7 lb 6 oz (3.3 kg).

Use in heraldry

From 1902 to 1953, a stylised image of the Tudor Crown was used in coats of arms, badges, logos and various other insignia throughout the Commonwealth realms to symbolise the Crown and the monarch’s royal authority.
Replica

In 2012, a replica of the crown, based on research by Historic Royal Palaces, was made by the retired royal jeweller Harry Collins, using authentic Tudor metalworking techniques and 344 pearls and gemstones. It can be viewed as part of an exhibition in the Royal Chapel at Hampton Court Palace.

May 2, 1536: Arrest of Anne Boleyn, Queen of England.

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1st Earl of Essex, Adultery, Anne Boleyn, Archbishop of Canterbury, George Boleyn, Incest, King Henry VIII of England, Mark Smeaton, Thomas Cranmer, Thomas Cromwell, Tower of London, Traitors' Gate

Anne Boleyn (c. 1501 – May 19, 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 as the second wife of King Henry VIII. Their marriage, and her execution for treason and other charges by beheading, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that marked the start of the English Reformation.

Anne was the daughter of Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Howard, and was educated in the Netherlands and France, largely as a maid of honour to Queen Claude of France. Anne returned to England in early 1522, to marry her Irish cousin James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond; the marriage plans were broken off, and instead she secured a post at court as maid of honour to Henry VIII’s wife, Catherine of Aragon.

Anne, Queen Consort of England

Henry VIII and Anne formally married on January 25, 1533, after a secret wedding on November 14, 1532. On May 23, 1533, newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer declared Henry and Catherine’s marriage null and void; five days later, he declared Henry and Anne’s marriage valid. Shortly afterwards, Pope Clement VII decreed sentences of excommunication against Henry and Cranmer.

As a result of this marriage and these excommunications, the first break between the Church of England and Rome took place, and the King took control of the Church of England. Anne was crowned Queen of England on June 1, 1533. On September 7, she gave birth to the future Queen Elizabeth I. Henry was disappointed to have a daughter rather than a son but hoped a son would follow and professed to love Elizabeth. Anne subsequently had three miscarriages and, by March 1536, Henry was courting Jane Seymour. In order to marry Seymour, Henry had to find reasons to end the marriage to Anne.

Henry VIII, King of England

Given Henry’s desperate desire for a son, the sequence of Anne’s pregnancies has attracted much interest. Author Mike Ashley speculated that Anne had two stillborn children after Elizabeth’s birth and before the male child she miscarried in 1536. Most sources attest only to the birth of Elizabeth in September 1533, a possible miscarriage in the summer of 1534, and the miscarriage of a male child, of almost four months gestation, in January 1536. As Anne recovered from her miscarriage, Henry declared that he had been seduced into the marriage by means of “sortilege”—a French term indicating either “deception” or “spells”. His new mistress, Jane Seymour, was quickly moved into royal quarters. This was followed by Anne’s brother George being refused a prestigious court honour, the Order of the Garter, given instead to Sir Nicholas Carew.

Anne’s biographer Eric Ives (and most other historians) believe that her fall and execution were primarily engineered by her former ally Thomas Cromwell. The conversations between Chapuys and Cromwell thereafter indicate Cromwell as the instigator of the plot to remove Anne; evidence of this is seen in the Spanish Chronicle and through letters written from Chapuys to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex

Anne argued with Cromwell over the redistribution of Church revenues and over foreign policy. She advocated that revenues be distributed to charitable and educational institutions; and she favoured a French alliance. Cromwell insisted on filling the King’s depleted coffers, while taking a cut for himself, and preferred an imperial alliance. For these reasons, Ives suggests, “Anne Boleyn had become a major threat to Thomas Cromwell.”

Cromwell’s biographer John Schofield, on the other hand, contends that no power struggle existed between Anne and Cromwell and that “not a trace can be found of a Cromwellian conspiracy against Anne… Cromwell became involved in the royal marital drama only when Henry ordered him onto the case.” Cromwell did not manufacture the accusations of adultery, though he and other officials used them to bolster Henry’s case against Anne. Historian Retha Warnicke questions whether Cromwell could have or wished to manipulate the king in such a matter. Such a bold attempt by Cromwell, given the limited evidence, could have risked his office, even his life.

Regardless of the role Cromwell played in Anne Boleyn’s fall, and his confessed animosity to her, Chapuys’s letter states that Cromwell claimed that he was acting with the King’s authority. Most historians, however, are convinced that her fall and execution were engineered by Cromwell.

Jane Seymour, Queen Consort of England

Henry himself issued the crucial instructions: his officials, including Cromwell, carried them out. The result was by modern standards a legal travesty, however the rules of the time were not bent in order to assure a conviction; there was no need to tamper with rules that guaranteed the desired result since law at the time was an engine of state, not a mechanism for justice.

Towards the end of April a Flemish musician in Anne’s service named Mark Smeaton was arrested. He initially denied being the Queen’s lover but later confessed, perhaps tortured or promised freedom. Another courtier, Sir Henry Norris, was arrested on May Day, but being an aristocrat, could not be tortured. Prior to his arrest, Norris was treated kindly by the King, who offered him his own horse to use on the May Day festivities. It seems likely that during the festivities, the King was notified of Smeaton’s confession and it was shortly thereafter the alleged conspirators were arrested upon his orders.

Norris denied his guilt and swore that Queen Anne was innocent; one of the most damaging pieces of evidence against Norris was an overheard conversation with Anne at the end of April, where she accused him of coming often to her chambers not to pay court to her lady-in-waiting Madge Shelton but to herself. Sir Francis Weston was arrested two days later on the same charge, as was Sir William Brereton, a groom of the King’s Privy Chamber.

Sir Thomas Wyatt, a poet and friend of the Boleyns who was allegedly infatuated with her before her marriage to the king, was also imprisoned for the same charge but later released, most likely due to his or his family’s friendship with Cromwell. Sir Richard Page was also accused of having a sexual relationship with the Queen, but he was acquitted of all charges after further investigation could not implicate him with Anne. The final accused was Queen Anne’s own brother, George Boleyn, arrested on charges of incest and treason. He was accused of two incidents of incest: November 1535 at Whitehall and the following month at Eltham.

On May 2, 1536, Anne was arrested and taken to the Tower of London by barge. It is likely that Anne may have entered through the Court Gate in the Byward Tower rather than the Traitors’ Gate, according to historian and author of The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, Eric Ives. In the Tower, she collapsed, demanding to know the location of her father and “swete broder”, as well as the charges against her.

Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury

On the very next day, Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote a letter to the king expressing his doubts about the queen’s guilt, highlighting his own esteem for Anne. After it was delivered, Cranmer was resigned to the fact that the end of Anne’s marriage was inevitable.

Four of the accused men were tried in Westminster on May 12, 1536. Weston, Brereton, and Norris publicly maintained their innocence and only the tortured Smeaton supported the Crown by pleading guilty. Three days later, Anne and George Boleyn were tried separately in the Tower of London, before a jury of 27 peers. She was accused of adultery, incest, and high treason.

By the Treason Act of Edward III, adultery on the part of a queen was a form of treason (because of the implications for the succession to the throne) for which the penalty was hanging, drawing and quartering for a man and burning alive for a woman, but the accusations, and especially that of incestuous adultery, were also designed to impugn her moral character. The other form of treason alleged against her was that of plotting the king’s death, with her “lovers”, so that she might later marry Henry Norris.

Anne’s one-time betrothed, Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland, sat on the jury that unanimously found Anne guilty. When the verdict was announced, he collapsed and had to be carried from the courtroom. He died childless eight months later and was succeeded by his nephew.

On May 16, Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Archbishop of Canterbury saw Anne in the Tower and heard her confession and the following day, he pronounced the marriage null and void.