The Anne Boleyn Collection II: Anne Boleyn & the Boleyn Family (38 page)

George Boleyn

We also have many clues as to George Boleyn's evangelical beliefs:

• • Books. The books that I've listed under Anne's name previously were books that belonged to both siblings.
  
• • George's translations of Lefèvre's books. He obviously had copies of the printed books from which his translations were derived, and spent a significant amount of time working on the translations.
  
• • His execution speech. In his scaffold speech on 17th May 1536, George described himself as a "setter forth of the word of God", which implied that the two books he translated for Anne were not the only religious works he had completed. Ives describes his speech as "the language of Zion"; it was just as if George was preaching a sermon to the crowd. He said "And yet, my masters all, I have one thing for to say to you, men do come and say that I have been a setter forth of the word of God, and one that have favoured the Gospel of Christ; and because I would not that God's word should be slandered by me, I say unto you all, that if I had followed God's word in deed as I did read it and set it forth to my power, I had not come to this. I did read the Gospel of Christ, but I did not follow it; if I had, I had been a living man among you: therefore I pray you, masters all, for God's sake stick to the truth and follow it, for one good follower is worth three readers, as God knoweth."
  
• • Historian James Carley believes that George may have been responsible for Anne sharing with the King a copy of Simon Fish's
  Supplication for the Beggars
  . This was an evangelical and revolutionary 16-page pamphlet attacking the Catholic Church and accusing it of many crimes. Simon Fish contested the existence of purgatory and the sale of indulgences and also accused the Church of holding half of England's wealth.
  
• • George's evangelism – As I stated earlier, Chapuys spoke of how, when he met with George Boleyn in April 1536, he avoided "all occasions of entering into Lutheran discussions, from which he [George] could not refrain". It seems that George took every opportunity to evangelize.
  

The Other Boleyns

Elizabeth Boleyn's faith is a mystery; but obviously, she was married to a man with reformist views and acted as chaperone to Anne when she was courting Henry and promoting reform. We just cannot say, though, because we have no evidence of her beliefs.

Mary Boleyn, too, is a mystery. Her second husband, William Stafford, and his second wife, Dorothy Stafford, went into exile in Geneva during the Catholic Mary I's reign and the reformer John Calvin stood as godfather for their youngest son, John. In her book on Mary Boleyn, Alison Weir wonders if Stafford's involvement in the fall of Catherine Howard – by giving information about Dereham – was due to him having reformist views, that he perhaps "collaborated with the reformists at court in bringing down the Catholic Howards." Since Mary Boleyn's marriage to him in 1534 was a love match, they may have both been interested in reform. Mary Boleyn's daughter, Catherine Carey, was married to Sir Francis Knollys, a man who had links with Protestant men, and the couple went into exile in Mary I's reign. Mary's son, Henry Carey, was tutored by the French reformer Nicholas Bourbon so it is likely that that had an effect on him. He also had an active political career under Elizabeth I so would have been outwardly "Protestant" whatever his inner beliefs. His daughter, Margaret, married Sir Edward Hoby, a man known for publishing Protestant works in the reign of James I. Of course, Mary's second husband, son and daughter being reformers does not necessarily mean that Mary shared their beliefs, but she was certainly exposed to them.

Anne Boleyn's Religious Stance

Anne Boleyn does not fit the label of Protestant as we use it today, but that does not mean that she was a conservative Catholic. She was neither a radical, a Lutheran nor a Calvinist, but she was an evangelical and her idea of reform was French in its 'flavour'. Eric Ives concludes that "Her attitude would be characteristic of all shades of English evangelical reform for at least a decade more: real spiritual experience, yes; the priority of faith, yes; access to the Bible, yes; reform of abuses and superstition, yes; but heretical views on the miracle of the altar, no." England was on the verge of a true reformation and Anne died before it really took off. When you consider that the Council of Trent was still trying to define Catholicism and Protestantism as late as the 1560s, it is impossible to label Thomas, Anne and George, who died in the 1530s. If you really have to label them, then the correct label would be "Evangelical".

Notes and Sources

1 Foxe, The Acts and Monuments of the Christian Church, 6:321.

2 "Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 5: 1531-1532," n. 148.

3 "Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 10 - January-June 1536," n. 699.

4 "Calendar of State Papers, Spain, Volume 5 Part 2: 1536-1538," n. 43.

5 Ives, The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn.

6 Carley, The Books of King Henry VIII and His Wives.

7 Dowling, "Anne Boleyn and Reform."

8 Bernard, Anne Boleyn, chap. 7.

9 Weir, Mary Boleyn: The Great and Infamous Whore, 208.

10 Loades, The Boleyns: The Rise and Fall of a Tudor Family, 130.

11 Denny, Anne Boleyn: A New Life of England's Tragic Queen.

12 "Index of Kent Wills."

13 Ives, The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, 263.

14 "Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 4: 1524-1530," n. 6304.

15 Pettegree, "Wolfe, Reyner (d. in or before 1574)."

16 Carley, The Books of King Henry VIII and His Wives.

17 Ives, The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, 277.

18 Dowling, Humanism in the Age of Henry VIII, 241.

19 Ives, "A Frenchman at the Court of Anne Boleyn."

20 Dowling, "William Latymer's Cronickille of Anne Bulleyne," 56.

21 Dowling, "Anne Boleyn and Reform."

22 Cavendish, The Life of Cardinal Wolsey, Volume 2, 2:201.

23 Ives, "Anne Boleyn and the Early Reformation in England."

Further Reading

Thank you for reading this book. You can of course read more on Anne Boleyn at
www.TheAnneBoleynFiles.com
and in The Anne Boleyn Collection, but here are some books I highly recommend:

• •
  The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn
  , Eric Ives
  
• •
  The Lady in the Tower
  , Alison Weir
  
• •
  Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII
  , David Starkey
  
• •
  The Anne Boleyn Papers
  (published previously as Anne Boleyn in Her Own Words and the Words of Those Who Knew Her), Elizabeth Norton
  
• •
  The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown
  , Claire Ridgway
  
• •
  Jane Boleyn: The Infamous Lady Rochford
  , Julia Fox
  
• •
  The Reformation Experience
  , Eric Ives
  
• • I
  n the Footsteps of Anne Boleyn
  , Sarah Morris and Natalie Grueninger
  
• •
  Henry VIII
  , J. J. Scarisbrick
  

Do check out the Resources page of
TheAnneBoleynFiles.com
and the Extras page of
www.TheAnneBoleynCollection.com
for more book recommendations and links to sources.

Illustrations

FRONT PAGE: Design by Timothy Ridgway. Featuring a vintage engraving of Hever Castle, Kent, and a photo of a miniature of Anne Boleyn painted by Roland Hui. The miniature is available from
www.TheAnneBoleynFiles.com

Figure 1
Anne Boleyn, engraving from History of England by George F. Raymond (1787)

Figure 2
The Boleyn Genealogical Tree, from Some Notes on the Boleyn Family by Rev. Canon W. L. E Parsons (1935) in Norfolk Archaeology or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to the Antiquities of the County of Norfolk, Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society, XXV p386

Figure 3
Provisional family tree showing direct line from the Counts of Boulogne to Queen Anne Boleyn © 2013 Claire Ridgway and Tim Ridgway.

Figure 4
Statue of Margaret of Austria in Mechelen, Belgium, from iStock

Figure 5
Engraving of Château Blois, from iStock

Figure 6
Marguerite of Angoulême, from Five Famous French Women by Millicent Garrett Fawcett (1907)

Figure 7
Renée of France, from Five Famous French Women by Millicent Garrett Fawcett (1907)

Figure 8
The Boleyn-Butler Link, simplified family tree showing the link between Anne Boleyn and James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond © 2013 Timothy Ridgway.

Figure 9
Kilkenny Castle, from iStock

Figure 10
Sir Thomas Wyatt, vintage engraving from a painting by Holbein, from iStock

Figure 11
King Henry VIII, engraving from 1855 and toning by D Walker, from iStock

Figure 12
Anne Boleyn, engraved by H. T. Ryall after Holbein, from Portraits of Illustrious Personages of Great Britain, Vol. I, Edmund Lodge (1835). Labelled as "from the collection of the Right Honourable the Earl of Warwick at Warwick Castle."

Figure 13
Knights of the Bath, from The Tower from Within by George Younghusband (1919)

Figure 14
Knights of the Bath, from The Tower from Within by George Younghusband (1919)

Figure 15
Coronation Procession © 2013 Timothy Ridgway

Figure 16
Westminster Abbey © 2013 Timothy Ridgway

Figure 17
Westminster Hall, the oldest existing part of the Palace of Westminster, from iStock

Figure 18
Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, from Portraits of Illustrious Personages of Great Britain, Vol. II, Edmund Lodge (1835). Engraved by J. Cochran and based on the original by 'Gerricus Fliccus' in the British Museum."

Figure 19
Queen Anne Boleyn, from The Tower from Within by George Younghusband (1919)

Figure 20
The church of St Peter & St Paul, Salle, Norfolk, from iStock

Figure 21
Sir Henry Carey, 1st Lord Hunsdon, from Brooke House, Hackney, by Ernest A. Mann, Committee for the Survey of the Memorials of Greater London (1904)

Figure 22
Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, engraved by S. Freeman after Holbein, from Portraits of Illustrious Personages of Great Britain, Vol. I, Edmund Lodge (1835). Labelled "from the original of Holbein in the collection of Sir Thomas Constable Bart."

Figure 23
Tower of London © 2013 Timothy Ridgway

Figure 24
Tower of London 1597, Spencer Arnold on iStock

Figure 25
The Great Hall, Winchester Castle, built in 1222 by Henry III. Copyright Graham Horn and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

Figure 26
The Parade Ground, site of Anne Boleyn's execution in 1536, Tower of London © 2013 Timothy Ridgway

Figure 27
Glass memorial on Tower Green, Tower of London © 2013 Timothy Ridgway

Figure 28
The Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula, Tower of London © 2013 Timothy Ridgway

Figure 29
Probable positions of interments up to 1685, from The Tower from Within by George Younghusband (1919), based on one from Notices of the Historic Persons Buried in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula in the Tower of London, Doyne C Bell (1877)

Figure 30
Chancel of the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula in the Tower, from The Tower from Within by George Younghusband (1919)

Figure 31
Modern plan of Tower of London © 2013 Timothy Ridgway

Figure 32
Stone carving attributed to John Dudley, son of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, in the Beauchamp Tower, Tower of London. Timothy Ridgway

Figure 33
Stone carving of "Jane" in the Beauchamp Tower, Tower of London © 2013 Timothy Ridgway

Figure 34
Thomas Abell stone carving in the Beauchamp Tower, Tower of London © 2013 Timothy Ridgway

Figure 35
Anne Boleyn's Falcon Badge stone carving in the Beauchamp Tower, Tower of London © 2013 Timothy Ridgway

Figure 36
The Court Gate of the Byward Tower, Tower of London © 2013 Timothy Ridgway

Figure 37
Traitors' Gate, Tower of London © 2013 Timothy Ridgway

Figure 38
Tomb brass of Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wiltshire, at St Peter's Church, Hever © 2013 Timothy Ridgway

Figure 39
St. Peter's Church, Hever, Kent © 2013 Timothy Ridgway

Figure 40
St Mary's Church, Lambeth (now The Garden Museum), resting place of Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire © 2013 Timothy Ridgway

Figure 41
Tower Hill Scaffold Memorial © 2013 Timothy Ridgway

Figure 42
Clement Marot, from Les vrais pourtraits des hommes illustres en piete et doctrine by Théodore de Bèze (1581)

Figure 43
Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples, from Les vrais pourtraits des hommes illustres en piete et doctrine by Théodore de Bèze (1581)

Bibliography

A

Amt, Emilie. T
he Accession of Henry II in England: Royal Government Restored, 1149-1159
. Boydell Press, 1993.

"Anne Boleyn, Six Wives Info."
Six Wives Info
, http://www.sixwives.info/anne-boleyn.htm

Archaeologia: Or Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity.
Vol. III. London, 1775.

Ascoli, Georges.
La Grande-Bretagne Devant L'opinion Française Depuis La Guerre de Cent Ans Jusqu'à La Fin Du XVIe Siècle
. Paris, 1927.

Aubrey, John.
The Natural History and Antiquities of the County of Surrey: Begun in the Year 1673
. Vol. V. London: E Curll, 1719.