The Anne Boleyn Collection II: Anne Boleyn & the Boleyn Family (15 page)

Childbirth was also dangerous, although a mortality rate of 1% for each birth made it no more than a woman's chance of dying from disease.
³
Women feared it though, because they all knew someone who had died in childbirth or shortly afterwards due to puerperal fever or some other type of infection.

The Conception of Elizabeth

Anne was around thirty-one
⁴
when she became pregnant with her first child, Elizabeth. It was perfectly common for women to have children between their mid 20s and late 30s, so in that respect Anne was perfectly normal, although perhaps slightly old for a first child.

Elizabeth was born on 7th September 1533. If she was born around Anne's due date for her, then she was conceived between 12th and 20th December 1532, before Anne and Henry VIII's secret wedding ceremony on 25th January 1533. It appears that Anne and Henry began cohabiting on their return from Calais in November 1532, a trip on which Anne had acted as Henry's consort, and it is possible that they had some kind of betrothal ceremony or wedding ceremony around then. The Tudor chronicler, Edward Hall, wrote:

"The king, after his return [from Calais] married privily the Lady Anne Bulleyn on Saint Erkenwald's Day, which marriage was kept so secret that very few knew it, till she was great with child, at Easter after."
⁵

St Erkenwald's Day was 14th November, the day after the couple's return from Calais. We do not know where Hall got his information about the wedding, but a formal commitment at that time fits in with the couple beginning sexual relations. Alternatively, Henry and Anne may have held off consummating their relationship until after their wedding in January 1533 and Elizabeth may have been born slightly prematurely. Anne took to her chamber fewer than two weeks before Elizabeth's birth, rather than the usual four to six weeks so it is a possibility. But even if Elizabeth was actually due between 23rd September and 7th October, she still would have been conceived before the January wedding (a conception date of between 28th December and 19th January, depending on Anne's menstrual cycles and ovulation date. Anne is unlikely, in this scenario, to have realised she was pregnant as early as she actually did.

By February 1533, Anne's pregnancy was common knowledge at court. According to Chapuys, in open court in mid February Anne told her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, that if she wasn't pregnant soon she would go on a pilgrimage after Easter.
⁶
Then, on 22nd February, Anne came out of her apartment into the hall and, spotting Thomas Wyatt, told him that a few days previously, she had had a violent desire to eat apples. She informed Wyatt that, when she had told the King, he'd said that it was a sign that she was pregnant, but she had denied it. She then burst out laughing.
⁷
Anne obviously knew that this would be gossiped about and was perfectly happy for her pregnancy to be hot news around court.

Historian Eric Ives writes that after Anne's coronation on 1st June 1533, reports of her health continued to be good. However, Ives tells us, the latter stages of Anne's pregnancy were difficult. He writes that the King "had been at his wits' end, even hoping for a miscarriage if it would save Anne's life."
⁸
Ives' source for this is the poetry of Lancelot de Carles. Here is what de Carles says:

"Quant commença de sentir remuer Les petitz piedz, et qu'elle se veit prise,O! qu'elle estoit bien saigement apprise De se bien plaindre, et faire la dolente,En voix piteuse et parolle tremblante,Pour demonstrer la doulleur qu'elle avoit!O! quel ennuy le Roy en recevoit,De veoir sa mye en si piteuse sorte!Je croy qu'il eust voullu sa fille morte,Mais qu'elle en fust delivree sans tournament,Tant la faisoit traicter songnieusement,S'y travaillant de toute son envye,Qui n'eust tant faict pour conserver sa vye.Or pensez doncq, puis que le roy lui-mesmes Estoit en deuil et soucy tant extresme,Si ung chacun s'efforçoit de trouver Mille moiens pour plaisir recouvrer!"
⁹

It is in 16th century French, but it roughly translates as:

"When she began to feel stirrings and she felt the kicking of the little feet how quickly did she learn to complain of the pain in a pitiful and trembling voice to show how great was the pain!And how worried was the King at the sight of his dearest in such a predicament why I believe he may have wanted his daughter dead but she was delivered without a hitch.So much did he care that he would have done anything to save her life.He was like a man in mourning overwhelmed with cares needing a 1000 diversions to get over it."

It is hard to know whether the "stirrings" mentioned in the poem were Anne simply feeling the baby move, and being in discomfort, or whether the words referred to her contractions beginning. Whatever it means, Henry was obviously very worried about Anne's health and safety, and he didn't go on his usual royal progress that summer.

Pregnancy

We know nothing more about Anne's pregnancy, her feelings about it, or how she looked after herself; but we do know some facts about pregnancy in Tudor times. There was little pre-natal care, and women didn't have much choice about the food they ate or what they drank.
¹⁰
Water wasn't safe to drink, so Anne would have continued with wine or ale, but these were not as strong as today's wine and beer. There is some evidence that women were advised to eat protein and to avoid highly spiced foods, to wear low-heeled shoes, to loosen lacings on their garments and to avoid strenuous lifting.
¹¹
There were also debates on whether sexual intercourse and blood-letting were safe during pregnancy.

The ingestion of herbal remedies was very common. Sage was known as the "holy herb" and was thought to strengthen the womb. Seventeenth century midwife Jane Sharp advised women to drink a "good draught" of sage ale every morning during pregnancy and to either drink "Garden Tansie Ale" or to apply tansy and muscatel to the navel to prevent miscarriage. Sharp advised a woman nearing her due date to boil mallows or hollyhocks in spring water with honey and salt, and to use this as an enema. The woman could also bathe in warm water infused with hollyhock leaves, betony, mallows, mugwort, marjoram, mint, camomile, linseed and parsley, and then be "anointed" on her back and belly with an ointment made from sweet almond oil, lilies, violets, duck and hen fat, hollyhock roots, fenugreek seeds and butter.
¹²

Pregnancy was surrounded by superstition, and there was a strong belief in the power of the maternal imagination. It was believed that what a woman saw or experienced during pregnancy affected the child. For example, a strawberry birthmark was thought to be caused by eating strawberries or by drinking red wine, and a hare lip by seeing a hare.
¹³
Deformities and miscarriages were linked to sudden frights, bad experiences during pregnancy or contact with animals. Women were advised, therefore, to avoid shocks, funerals, ugly sights and pictures. They put their faith in amulets, charms and objects like eagle stones. An eagle stone, which symbolised the pregnant woman, was a hollow stone with a smaller stone inside. It was worn around the woman's neck so that it touched her skin and it was thought to prevent miscarriage by acting a bit like a magnet and anchoring the unborn child to the woman's body, preventing miscarriage.

Royal astrologers would predict whether the queen was expecting a boy or a girl based on astral arrangements at the time of conception, and there were also superstitions to predict the sex of the unborn baby. Signs that the woman was expecting a boy included:

• • The woman being "better coloured"
  
• • Her right breast being more swollen than her left
  
• • The right side of her tummy being more rounded
  
• • The baby moving more on the right side
  
• • The woman being more cheerful
  
• • Her right breast being harder and the nipple being redder
  
• • The woman using her right foot first when she rose from sitting to standing
  
• • The woman choosing to lean on her right hand when she rested
  
• • Drops of breast milk floating on top of the water in a basin, rather than sinking.
  ¹⁴
  

Taking Her Chamber

One of the rituals associated with childbirth was called "taking her chamber". A Tudor woman usually "took to her chamber", or went into confinement, four to six weeks before her due date. Anne took to her chamber on 26th August 1533, fewer than two weeks before Elizabeth was born. As I said earlier, Elizabeth may have been premature, Anne may have miscalculated her dates, or she may have purposely entered confinement late to suggest that Elizabeth had been conceived legitimately. Ives suggests that the rapid appointment of Thomas Cranmer as Archbishop of Canterbury, the promotion of Thomas Audley, the burst of parliamentary drafting and the hurried secret ceremony on 25th January 1533 were because Anne suddenly realised that she was pregnant. However, conception was hard to recognise in the early stages of pregnancy, so this burst of activity may simply have been because the couple were sleeping together and so were risking pregnancy.

Anne's "taking her chamber" ceremony took place at Greenwich Palace. A heavily pregnant Queen Anne Boleyn attended a special mass at the palace's Chapel Royal and then processed with her ladies to the Queen's great chamber. There, the group enjoyed wine and spices before Anne's lord chamberlain prayed that God would give the Queen a safe delivery. After the prayer, Anne and her ladies retired to her chamber, which, from that moment on, would be a male-free zone. The fifteenth century "Royalle Book"
¹⁵
and the ordinances added to it by Lady Margaret Beaufort stipulated that the birthing chamber should:

• • Be carpeted
  
• • Have its walls, ceilings and windows covered with blue arras; these beautiful tapestries were to have calming and romantic images
  
• • Have one window slightly uncovered to let in light and air when needed
  
• • Be furnished with a bed for the Queen and a pallet at the foot of it. The Queen would give birth on the pallet and it was set at a height appropriate for the midwife. This was set up close to the fire and away from cold draughts.
  
• • Have soft furnishings of crimson satin embroidered with gold crowns and the Queen's arms
  
• • Have an altar
  
• • Have a tapestry covered cupboard to house the birthing equipment and swaddling bands
  
• • Have a font in case of a sickly baby needing to be baptised straight after the birth
  
• • Have a display of gold and silver plate items from the Jewel House
  ¹⁶
  - It was important for the Queen and her baby to be surrounded by symbols of her wealth and status.
  

This was the norm. Birth rooms were fastened up against fresh air, which was thought to be harmful; candles were lit in the darkened room and special objects to speed delivery were brought in – objects such as amulets, relics of saints and herbs. It was thought that this womb-like chamber would protect the baby from evil spirits as it came into the world. The woman was advised to remove all types of knots, fastenings, laces, buckles and rings so that she wouldn't be restricted in any way and so that they wouldn't get in the way. This was also a symbolic gesture, with their removal being seen as promoting an easier birth.

Although "taking her chamber" is often referred to as "confinement", the woman was not actually alone. Men were banned from the chamber, but close female friends and relatives joined the woman there, and a Queen would have a certain number of her ladies. It was a social occasion; when the labour began, the ladies would spring into action helping the midwife and making the caudle, which was a spiced wine or ale that was given to the woman during labour to give her strength.

The Tudor Midwife

The midwife was the one in charge in the birthing chamber. She was there to comfort the woman, to ease her pains with remedies and to deliver the baby. She would come armed "with a convenient stool or chair, with a knife, sponge, binders, and with oil of lilies warmed, with which she may profitably anoint both the womb of the labouring woman and her own hands."
¹⁷
Unfortunately, though, midwives and doctors didn't know the importance of washing their hands and so left the woman and baby at risk of infection. Once the baby was born, the midwife would swaddle the child with bands of cloth and hand it to its father with the traditional words "Father, see there is your child, God give you much joy with it, or take it speedily to his bliss."
¹⁸

The midwife's job was not finished after the birth. She was also an important part of the baptism ceremony and would carry the child to the font. She also attended the mother's churching ceremony.

The Birth of Elizabeth

We don't know the details of Princess Elizabeth's birth, only that she was born at 3 o'clock on the afternoon of 7th September and that she was named after her paternal grandmother, Elizabeth of York, and possibly also after her maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Howard. The little girl had her father's red hair and long nose, and her mother's dark eyes.

The birth appears to have been straightforward; the baby was healthy, and so was Anne. However, the baby was a girl, and not the predicted son and heir. So sure were Henry and Anne that the baby would be a prince that a celebratory tournament had been organised and a letter announcing the birth of a prince had been written. The joust was cancelled and the word "prince" had an "s" added in the birth announcement letter, but it is easy to read too much into the cancellation of the festivities. As Eric Ives points out, the celebratory jousts were cancelled in 1516 too, when Catherine of Aragon gave birth to Mary, and it was traditional for the celebrations of the birth of a princess to be low-key. Although the joust was cancelled, Ives writes that "a herald immediately proclaimed this first of Henry's 'legitimate' children, while the choristers of the Chapel Royal sang the Te Deum".
¹⁹
In addition, preparations were already underway for a lavish christening.