On 7th May 1536, William Latymer, one of Queen Anne Boleyn’s chaplains was stopped and searched on his arrival back in England from the Continent, where’d he’d been on behalf of the queen.
Why was he searched? What had been his business abroad? What was found in his possession? And what happened to him?
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What William Latymer thought that day only he knew and those closest to him, to say he was shocked was an understatement he was Anne Boleyn’s chaplain and in her group of reformist friends, as soon as he landed in Sandwich a port of the Dover and Kent coast he was met with two grim faced men, one the mayor who had been ordered by Henry V111 to have him searched for any incriminating material, he was used to fetching books back from the continent for the queen and these were of the evangelical teachings she wished her household to study, I have often thought that the king and Cromwell maybe considered at one point to have her charged with heresy as well, the king abhorred heresy and it is quite sinister the way Anne’s chaplain was searched, however the books he had on him he was allowed to keep and he forwarded them on to Anne’s silk woman who was also Lady Lisles silkwoman, this lady called Joan made bonnets and accessories for the queen and Lady Lisle, Latymer was informed of his patrons arrest her imprisonment in the tower and the awful charges against her, like Cranmer Parker and others of her friends he was deeply saddened, but her fall from grace did not founder his career and he rose to become Dean of Peterborough where in his old age, having breathed his last, he was laid to rest, keeping company with him was that other forsaken queen of Henry V111, his first wife Katherine of Aragon, there is comfort indeed in knowing he did survive the turbulent events of 1536 and went onto to serve Anne’s daughter Elizabeth 1st, a thought which would have given the tragic queen some comfort at least.