Before I go into details on today’s event of 1536, let’s just have a recap of the events so far:
- 24 April 1536 – Legal commissions are set up
- 25 April 1536 – Henry VIII writes to his ambassadors abroad
- 26 April 1536 – Queen Anne Boleyn meets with her chaplain
- 27 April 1536 – Writs are issued summoning Parliament
- 28 April 1536 – Council meetings and more
- 29 April 1536 – Anne Boleyn has encounters with Sir Henry Norris and Mark Smeaton
- 30 April 1536 – Marm Smeaton is arrested and the king and queen argue
- 1 May 1536 – The May Day joust and Norris is interrogated
- 2 May 1536 – Queen Anne Boleyn and her brother, George Boleyn, Lord Rochford, are arrested
- 3 May 1536 – Archbishop Cranmer writes to the king
- 4 May 1536 – Jane Boleyn sends a message to her husband
- 5 May 1536 – More interrogations and arrests
- 6 May 1536 – The date of the “To the King from the Lady in the Tower” letter
- 7 May 1536 – William Latymer, one of the queen’s chaplains, is searched
Phew! Things were moving very fast, weren’t they?
The first arrests took place on 30th April and the final ones on 5th May, and by 8th May 1536 (and as early as 2nd May) men at King Henry VIII’s court were already hoping to benefit from the fall from favour of the queen and these courtiers. They were like vultures circling. Courtiers were clamouring over the spoils, hoping for lands and offices. But you had to be quick!
Click here to read about these vultures and what they were after.
