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12:38 pm
January 9, 2010
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I’ve been reading a lot on Anne’s religion recently and it got me thinking if she would have approved of the dissolution of ALL the monasteries.
If she’d lived another five years or so there wouldn’t have been a single one left in England and I wonder how she would have felt about that. Had she gone so far down the reformation road that she wouldn’t have cared that monks and nuns were turfed out with no place to go and would she have approved and backed it whole heartedly? She had fought so hard to have William Carey’s sister installed as prioress of Wilton Abbey, but that was when Wolsey was still around and that episode may have been more about scoring points against him rather than any personal conviction on Anne’s part but it does make me wonder. And the dissolution really only got into gear AFTER her death. Did she still see a place for the monasteries so long as they swore allegiance to Henry rather than the pope? Would she have approved of the dissolution of the smaller and more corrupt monastic houses but kept the bigger ones? And would it have been something else she would have clashed with Cromwell over?
I really can’t make up my mind – so what does everyone else think?
2:22 pm
June 7, 2010
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I recall reading (perhaps in Ives or Starkey) that Anne argued with Cromwell about what would happen to the monies earned in the Dissolution. She wanted the money to be reinvested in the communities, so they could have some social support, since their churchs were no longer there. I also recall she only wanted the monasteries that were acting against proper doctrine to be closed, after a thorough and proper investigation. I cannot imagine she would support the complete destruction of social life. Despite what some claim, Anne strikes me as someone who did care, but lacked the adequate resources to halt the destruction once it happened. It must have been hard to deal with Henry and Cromwell knowing they were more interested in personal gain, than the actual introduction of the new learning. Henry and Cromwell wanted to fill the coffers; Anne wanted a better religious life for people.
"By daily proof you shall find me to be to you both loving and kind" Anne Boleyn
2:42 pm
May 7, 2010
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Yes I think I would agree with the DuchessofBrittany. I have been musing on it since reading the question and just came back to post. I too think Anne would have wanted to see some of the monastries where a lot of good was being done to have been left alone. We know she was well miffed at the money not being ploughed back into services for the people. Education, health etc. I think she was a caring person who saw her ideas taken by Henry and then twisted into something she hadn’t envisaged, with Cromwell egging him on of course.
Let us show them that they are hares and foxes trying to rule over dogs and wolves - Boudica addressing the tribes Circa AD60
4:48 am
March 28, 2012
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Cromwell betrayed Anne, amd that’s when she threatened him in a rage. Read the beginning of the end, with that wolf in sheep’s clothing Jane creeping in the grass huh.
7:14 am
January 3, 2012
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Good one Bella.
I think Anne had a good idea in some ways and yes I can wholely see her point about where the money should have been spent. However I rather think that the madness that seem to infect Stinky’s and Cromwell’s minds came from their own ideas.
Anne was in a lot of ways a humanist she wanted to make sure that even the lowliest of the people had food in their bellies and a roof over their heads. I don’t think she meant for every Abbey and religious house to be torn down and the Monks and Nuns thrown out without so much as a pot to pee in. I rather think that her idea was to shut down the smaller and less profitable abbey’s and convents and allow the Monks and Nuns to either join bigger and more profitable houses.
The newly aquired land of the smaller dwelling could be put to better uses such as farming or even industry hence creating jobs etc. Unfortunely to Stinky it to mean “oooooh money, money, money, and Cromwell was just rubbing his hands together as the more Money Stinky had the more money he could fleece off people.
Anne tried her best to do what she felt was right by the people, and although they hated her, she still tried to help them. Perhaps if she had had a Son the people would see what she was trying to do to help them.
Stinky’s statement to Jane Seymour shortly after she became Queen makes me wonder if Stinky knew that and so did Jane too and Jane thought well Anne didn’t succeed but maybe I can. The statement “don’t meddle in my affairs and remember Anne Boleyn”.
If Anne had lived for a little longer and again had,had a son then perhaps Stinky would have seen Anne’s ideas as being good one’s, but somehow I doubt it. Stinky got it into his head that money was all the mattered and to hell with everyone else..
Semper Fidelis, quod sum quod
4:03 pm
February 24, 2012
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Boleyn, I like the name “Stinky”.
I think the only thing he was interested in was how much the dissolution would add to the coffers. I think Anne’s vision was different in that she believed in helping the poor and being rid of the corrupt religious houses, not all of them. Stinky only thought of helping himself. Typical of him. I don’t think Cromwell had intended the dissolution to become so extreme, but he wanted to keep Stinky happy and keep his head. In the end though, it didn’t do him much good. 
