The Anne Boleyn Collection II: Anne Boleyn & the Boleyn Family (28 page)

Later Career Highlights

• •
  1520s
  - Rewards for his diplomacy came thick and fast in the 1520s and included lands which had once belonged to the fallen Duke of Buckingham. Thomas was made Treasurer of the Household in 1522, a Knight of the Garter in 1523 and Lord Rochford in 1525.
  
• •
  1527 – 1529
  - More diplomatic missions were carried out in 1527 to France and then in 1529 to the Pope and Emperor regarding Henry's Great Matter, the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
  
• •
  1529
  - Thomas was created Earl of Wiltshire and the Earl of Ormonde, and after Wolsey's fall in 1530, he became Lord Privy Seal.
  
• •
  1532
  - Thomas was active in Parliament and was, predictably, one of the first men to declare that neither the Pope nor Prelate had the right to make laws. He canvassed heavily for the Statute in Restraint of Appeals, an act passed by Parliament in 1533. This law is considered by many historians to be the key legal foundation of the English Reformation.
  
• •
  1534
  - In July 1534, he and Sir William Paulet were sent to Princess Mary to persuade her to renounce her title of Princess and acknowledge herself as illegitimate.
  

Renaissance Man and Reformer

Thomas Boleyn the Renaissance man and religious reformer has been forgotten by fiction and by some history books, yet he was an incredibly gifted person who was interested in the arts and the religious ideas sweeping into England from the Continent.

As well as being a gifted French speaker, Thomas obviously had a good grip of Latin because he owned a copy of Martial's
Epigrams
. He was a patron of humanism and corresponded with Erasmus, the famous Dutch humanist, scholar and theologian, commissioning several pieces from the latter between 1530 and 1534. In her book
Humanism in the Age of
Henry VIII
, Maria Dowling writes about a humanist scholar, Gerard Phrysius, who was in the service of Thomas Boleyn between 1529 and 1533.
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Thomas was also the patron of Thomas Cranmer, of John Baker, and of Robert Wakefield, who taught Hebrew at Cambridge.

Thomas was also a patron of reform and gave help to reformers when he could, something that his daughter also did when she was Queen. He kept in touch with French reformers, men like Clément Marot, the French poet, and he supported his godson, Thomas Tebold, in his travels around Europe in 1535 and 1536, spreading the news that Thomas was a patron of the New Learning and New Religion. Tebold then reported back to Thomas on the inquisition in Europe. Eustace Chapuys, the imperial ambassador, described Anne and Thomas Boleyn as "more Lutheran than Luther himself" which, although is not a correct description of their religious views, shows that they were enthusiastic about reform.

Thomas Boleyn was also "adept at courtly entertainments",
⁷
fighting with the King in a tournament in May 1510 at Greenwich Palace and then taking part in the Burgundian-style Westminster Tournament Challenge in February 1511 as an answerer. His name is listed as a participating knight on the second day of the tournament along with the likes of Thomas Howard, Henry Stafford and Charles Brandon.
⁸

Thomas the Pimp?

As I said earlier, Thomas's early career highlights show that he had no need to manipulate his daughters into sleeping with the King; indeed, evidence suggests that Thomas Boleyn was actually unhappy about his daughters' relationships with the King. The fact that the King had to step in and ask Thomas to provide for his daughter, Mary, after she was widowed in 1528 suggests that the Boleyns had distanced themselves from Mary after her affair with the King, and there is also evidence that Thomas was initially against Henry VIII's plans to marry Anne. Chapuys wrote to the Emperor in February 1533:

"I must add that the said earl of Wiltshire has never declared himself up to this moment; on the contrary, he has hitherto, as the duke of Norfolk has frequently told me, tried to dissuade the King rather than otherwise from the marriage."
⁹

Then, at the end of May 1533, just before Anne Boleyn's coronation, he wrote:

"Shortly after the Duke [Norfolk] began to excuse himself and say that he had not been either the originator or promoter of this second marriage, but, on the contrary, had always been opposed to it, and tried to dissuade the King therefrom. Had it not been for him and for the father of the Lady, who feigned to be attacked by frenzy to have the better means of opposing it, the marriage would have been secretly contracted a year ago; and for this opposition (the Duke observed) the Lady had been exceedingly indignant with the one and the other."
¹⁰

Chapuys was obviously convinced that Anne's father had opposed the marriage plans and that this had angered Anne.

As for Thomas being cunning, manipulative and cruel, the Duke of Norfolk actually described Thomas Boleyn as "very timid" and "not of a warlike disposition".
¹¹
He must have had drive and ambition to be a successful courtier; but the manipulative, cruel and overbearing Thomas Boleyn definitely belongs in the realms of fiction.

The Fall of Anne Boleyn

In April 1536, Thomas Boleyn was appointed to the commission of oyer and terminer set up to try cases of treason. This led to him trying the men accused of committing adultery with his daughter, who was by then the Queen: namely Mark Smeaton, Henry Norris, Francis Weston and William Brereton. Although some sources - Alexander Aless, Chapuys, the Bishop of Faenza and Dr Ortiz - reported that Thomas sat in judgement too on George and Anne, this is not now thought to be the case as he is not mentioned in the Baga de Secretis, the record of the opening of the trial.

Thomas lost George and Anne to the executioner in May 1536. And although he survived physically, he fell from grace and was stripped of his office of Lord Privy Seal on 29th June 1536. He was also removed from the commission of the peace in Norfolk, although he was kept on this commission in Kent. However, Thomas was the ultimate survivor and after helping squash the rebels of the Pilgrimage of Grace in late 1536, he managed to climb his way back into the King's favour and was present at Prince Edward's baptism in October 1537. Eric Ives describes how he diligently went to Order of the Garter functions, even lending Thomas Cromwell his chain and best Garter badge at one point, and how he was back at court by January 1538.
¹²
In July 1538, three months after Elizabeth Boleyn's death, Henry Maunke wrote to Lady Lisle saying that he had "heard say that my lord of Wolshyre will marry lady Margaret Dowglas".
¹³
The marriage never took place, obviously, but Thomas Boleyn must have been high in favour for it to be rumoured that he was going to marry the King's niece.

I often read comments about how Thomas abandoned his children to their fates and did nothing to help them, but we don't actually know that. We know that various records from that period are missing, so it is impossible to say whether or not Thomas Boleyn wrote to Cromwell or the King.

The Death of Thomas Boleyn

Thomas Boleyn died on the 12th March 1539 at his home, Hever Castle, aged around sixty-two. His servant, Robert Cranwell, wrote to Cromwell the next day to inform him of his death:-

"My good lord and master is dead. He made the end of a good Christian man. Hever, 13 March."
¹⁴

Thomas was laid to rest in a tomb in the family church of St Peter's in Hever, Kent. Visitors to the church today can pay their respects to Thomas and admire the incredibly detailed brass which shows him in the full robes and insignia of a Knight of the Garter, including the badge on his left breast and garter around the left knee. It is said to be one of the finest brasses in England and is beautiful. Near his tomb, set into the stone floor, is a simple brass cross marking the tomb of Thomas's infant son, Henry Boleyn.

1. Figure 38
   - The tomb brass of Thomas Boleyn at St. Peter's Church, Hever, Kent
   

1. Figure 39
   - St. Peter's Church, Hever, Kent
   

Thomas Boleyn Portraiture

Thomas Boleyn's brass and a small drawing of him in profile in The Black Book of the Order of the Garter ca.1534 are the only surviving images of Thomas Boleyn. However, art historian Roland Hui believes that a Hornebolte miniature of an unknown man from ca.1525 could well be Thomas Boleyn:

"As the unknown gentleman is not Charles Brandon, it was someone else drawn from the upper ranks of the King's court. The most feasible nobleman is Sir Thomas Boleyn, father of the future Queen Anne..."

The age fits, and we know that the Boleyns were linked to Hornebolte. Hui makes a convincing argument, but we won't know for sure unless more evidence is found.

Hui's theory can be read at:
http://tudorfaces.blogspot.com/2011/10/two-new-faces-hornebolte-portraits-of.html

The Real Elizabeth Boleyn

Elizabeth Boleyn is a far more shadowy figure than her husband and very little is known about her. She was born around 1476 and was the daughter of Thomas Howard, the Earl of Surrey and later Duke of Norfolk, and his wife Elizabeth Tylney. Her brother was Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, the man who presided over the trials of George and Anne Boleyn in 1536. The Howards were one of the premier families in England, having a long history of service to the monarch. Elizabeth's father had been attainted and stripped of his titles and lands after the Battle of Bosworth because he had fought on Richard III's side, but he managed to work his way back into favour and by 1497 had been restored as Earl of Surrey. In 1514, he was finally restored to the title of Duke of Norfolk.

Marriage and Children

Elizabeth married the up and coming Thomas Boleyn, son of another East Anglian family, in around 1499. We know from a letter written by Thomas Boleyn to Thomas Cromwell that, in the early years of their marriage Elizabeth gave birth on an annual basis. We have evidence of five children – Anne, George and Mary, and then Thomas and Henry who died in infancy and who are buried at Hever and Penshurst - but there may have been others whose graves were lost. We know, for example, that there are further tombs in Hever church but that at some point the floor collapsed and these are now hidden. Intriguingly, Elizabeth's Wikipedia page lists her as also having children called William, Margaret and Catherine (don't you just love Wikipedia?).

Elizabeth's Career

Traditionally, it is said that Elizabeth served as lady in waiting to Elizabeth of York, Catherine of Aragon and then her own daughter, but I have not found any evidence at all of her serving Elizabeth of York. Alison Weir challenges the idea that Elizabeth was one of Elizabeth of York's ladies, due to her series of pregnancies.
¹⁵
Weir also does not believe that Elizabeth served Catherine of Aragon, saying that there is no evidence to back this up and that Elizabeth may have been confused with Edward Boleyn's wife, Anne Tempest, who definitely did serve Catherine.
¹⁶
Elizabeth was, however, present at the Field of Cloth of Gold so may have been called on to serve the Queen at big state occasions, rather than on a permanent basis. We just don't know.

Elizabeth's Dubious Reputation

In her biography of Mary Boleyn, Alison Weir writes of the rumours that Elizabeth had an affair with the King, resulting in the birth of Anne Boleyn. If we were to believe these rumours, then it would mean, of course, that Henry VIII committed incest when he married and slept with Anne Boleyn. The sources Alison Weir
¹⁷
cites for the story are: