Well, we can all breathe a sigh of relief today! Our court insider has just passed on to The Anne Boleyn Files a photocopy of the King’s correspondence to his ambassadors abroad in which he refers to Queen Anne Boleyn as “our most dear and most entirely beloved wife the Queen” and goes on to say:-
“for as much as there is great likelihood and appearance that God will send unto Us heirs male to succeed Us.”
There were whispers around court on St George’s Day that Anne Boleyn was losing influence and that the election of Sir Nicholas Carew to the order of the Garter, instead of the Queen’s brother, was a public snub to Anne, but it appears that all is well with the King and Queen and that they are hopeful of a male heir. Phew!
Our roving reporter, Sir Tim Ridgway, has spoken to some courtiers for their comments on this letter written by the King and here are their comments:-
Sir David Starkey commented that Anne Boleyn was only mentioned in the King’s summary of Chapuys’s proposals and went on to say “If this is a ringing endorsement of his marriage, it has a distinctly hollow tone” and “Of course, the words are not Henry’s own, but the summary of Chapuys’s proposal.”
Sir Eric Ives points out that “As well as the wording of these letters, the fact that they were sent once again says that Henry had no intention of rejecting Anne” and goes on to say that the King was instructing Richard Pate, his ambassador at Rome, “to implement a course of action predicated on the continuance of the Boleyn marriage.”
Lady Alison Weir comments that this correspondence “suggests that Henry was still sleeping with Anne, and it could even imply that he thought she was pregnant again, which is highly unlikely.”
It looks like we were worrying over nothing!
Sources
- The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn, Alison Weir, p92
- The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, Eric Ives, p321
- Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII, David Starkey
Events are very conflicting so I think there is two possibilities. May be Henry was still seeking one way out to save Anne or Henry was determent to get rid of Anne and played out.
I don’t know which one is true and it think hard but I can’t find the missing piece.I think there is something we don’t know. May be it was all political and there was a thread of war or civil war or he believed Anne can’t give Him a male heir because their marriage wasn’t totally acknowledged. There is so much possibilities because it is Henry’s mind! I don’t know and I can’t understand really. Why He had to kill Her also slander Her like this it is all so meaningless.
Ha! I’ve just seen these reports on the build up to the executions and love them. Claire, I wondered what you would do this year, bearing in mind the depth you when into last year. Brilliant idea!
Just a question, could Henry have done these things (getting Chapyus to recognize Anne and the letter to an ambassador) for Anne’s benefit and to make her feel secure in her marriage. Just curious and I hope someone can answer. This is one thing about Anne I cannot really figure out. Thanks!
As you can read in the article posted by Claire in April 18, On the Tuesday after Easter, the 18th April 1536, the Imperial Ambassador, Eustace Chapuys, was tricked into recognising the woman he called “the concubine” as Queen by King who sent him a message to do so and in the end he bowed to Queen Anne.
I think we can find the same question here (is it to make Her feel secure in her marriage and why?) and there must be an answer…
Read more: https://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/chapuys-bows-to-queen-anne-boleyn/9262/#ixzz1KXpVf6Gm
Was this the first time he “raised someone up” before causing a bigger (and heavier) fall? I know after these events occurred, he did similar things, such as making Cromwell an earl just before his fall.
Indeed *Nods*
It all seems as well as sounds so strange to me to be honest. The only one that would know about that and all of this would be the people involved but unfortunately we cannot ask them can we? as they art now dead and passed. They have been dead nearly 500 hundred plus years. We could have a sayonce. Haha! 🙂 just a joke 🙂 .
This was just King Henry and how his mind was as well as worked, that is all there is to say but I mean it is really a little bit late in the day to take recognisition, recognisation and acknowledgement of someone so late, that late to be honest. I mean like I said before in a previous post why that late? Where the answers are not there if they were ever there tobegin with that is we will just have to put are minds to it and come up with a theory and an answer to everything, to it all whether we are right or wrong. I think that personally people just found it very hard to accept Anne for whom and what she was hence as that would explain the slow recognision. From Henry taking her, accepting her and acknowledging her to other people around her especially her enemies that is more so was very slow. Seven years with the King before edventual marriage and three years nearly with Chapuys to recognise her.
Like a previously blogger said I totally agree the King always had a way of raising people up before then after dropping them for some reason I will never know, we all may never know never not really why. I do think though that this was bad, it was a really bad thing to do. I mean if he did not like them he should of just told them so at the beginning rather than dragging it out over a certain period of time. As they say “What goes up must come down” unfortunate but apparently true” I just feel really sorry for the people that happened to to be honest, Anne included as well as the others. I mean maybe perhaps if they did something wrong, really wrong to offend the King or the country then fair enough but if they did not then that is and would just be unfair and unjust. In other words if it were justified then fair enough but if not then no, not at all.
Am absolutely loving these reports on Anne’s last days, Claire – particularly ‘roving reporter Sir Tim Ridgway!’ Will he be covering the royal wedding by any chance?! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Which one?
William’s or Henry’s 3rd?
This reminds me of when Henry declared, just before the Blackfriars trial to try his and Katherine’s marriage, that Katherine was a wonderfully worthy woman (in different words of course) and if he had his time again there is no one who he would rather wed. It’s just that his marriage was wrong…
Henry saying ‘gosh you’re great’ should have had his courtiers or queens checking theirs necks. He had form on this – praising someone to high heaven when he had his eye on them for other reasons.