¹ Although the term “Protestant” is imprecise, fraught with difficulties, and not even in use in the early years of the Reformation, nevertheless it will be used here along with “adherents of the New Faith” and even vaguer terms such as “religious reformer” to describe those who were interested in the thought of Luther and the Rhineland reformers, those who were willing to go further than ecclesiastical reform and entertain ideas of doctrinal innovation of the type that Henry deplored.

² The reasons for Henry's inconsistencies are not germane to this study, though they are of considerable interest. For one among many considerations of this, see Smith, Lacy Baldwin, “Henry VIII and the Protestant Triumph,” American Historical Review 71 (1966): 1237–64Google Scholar. They must, to all but the most sophisticated of Henry's Privy Council and court, have seemed extremely confusing. What, indeed, could one make of a religious policy that included the vicious but only sporadically applied Act of Six Articles designed to eradicate heretical thought, when at the same time the royal schoolroom was populated by a number of men and a queen whose religious positions were at best considered “advanced” and by a council increasingly swept clean of churchmen of traditional stance. The king's own Privy Chamber—those with most immediate access to the king himself—was weighted with men whose views were advanced, sometimes to the point of extremism.

³ For an overview and an analysis of the nobility surrounding Henry, including Denny, see Starkey, David R., The Reign of Henry VIII (London: George Phillip, 1985), pp. 133–36Google Scholar. See also Coleman, Christopher and Starkey, David R., eds., Revolution Reassessed (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), p. 56Google Scholar. For recognition of Denny as a significant supporter of reform, see Dowling, Maria, Humanism in the Age of Henry VIII (Beckenham: Croom Helm, 1986), pp. 62–64Google Scholar.

⁴ Elton, G. R., The Tudor Revolution in Government: Administrative Changes in the Reign of Henry VIII (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1953), pp. 378–81Google Scholar. Before Cromwell, Wolsey had been concerned with this office, especially when Henry complained that too few men were available for attendance on his person, a situation inappropriate for the image of royal magnificence with which Henry was necessarily concerned. Wolsey had attempted to rectify this lack in his Eltham Ordinances, and, while the result was still less than opulent, there was at least a core of six gentlemen who performed services pertaining to the King's person, two gentlemen ushers who guarded the door, grooms, a barber, and a page, all of whose duties were meticulously detailed. Cromwell expanded the Chamber and, with it, the number of gentlemen available for patronage to include fourteen to attend the king in a rotating order supervised by the gentlemen ushers. By 1539, Cromwell's reform measures had taken their final shape, and the members of the Chamber numbered two peers, sixteen gentlemen, two gentlemen ushers, four gentlemen ushers' daily waiters, three grooms, and two barbers, plus an additional two officers of the Robes, five of the Bed Chamber, and a groom porter. For a more recent useful study of the history and development of the Privy Chamber, see Starkey, David R., “The King's Privy Chamber” (Ph.D. diss., Cambridge University, Fitzwilliam College, 1973)Google Scholar.

⁵ Braddock, Robert Cooke, “The Royal Household, 1540–1560: A Study of Office Holding in Tudor England” (Ph.D. Diss., Northwestern University, 1971), p. 154Google Scholar.

⁶ Williams, Penry, The Tudor Regime (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979), p. 25Google Scholar. Three gentlemen of the Chamber dismissed in 1519 were observed by the Venetian ambassador as not only having great authority, but being the very soul of the king.

⁷ Starkey, , “The King's Privy Chamber,” p. 8Google Scholar.

⁸ Denny, H. L. L., “A Biography of the Right Honourable Sir Anthony Denny, P.C., M.P.,” East Hertfordshire Archaeological Society Transactions 3, pt. 2 (1905): 197–216Google Scholar. Also useful is the same author's “A Biography of the Hon. Edward Denny,” East Hertfordshire Archaeological Society Transactions 2, pt. 3 (1904): 247–60Google Scholar.

⁹ For Denny's appearance in the registers of St. Paul's and Cambridge, see Henry, Charles and Cooper, Thompson, Athenae Cantabrigienses, vol. 1, 1500–1585 (London: Bell & Daldy, 1858), p. 99Google Scholar. Sil, Narasingha Prusad, “King's Men, Queen's Men, Statesmen: A Study of the Careers of Sir Anthony Denny, Sir William Herbert and Sir John Gate, Gentlemen of the Tudor Privy Chamber” (Ph.D. diss., University of Oregon, 1978)Google Scholar. For a more recent consideration of SirAnthony, by the same author, see “Sir Anthony Denny: A Tudor Servant,” Renaissance and Reformation 8, no. 3 (1984): 190–201Google Scholar. For a study of the career of John Gate, Denny's brother-in-law and associate in the Chamber, see Sil, 's “The Rise and Fall of Sir John Gates,” Historical Journal 24, no. 4 (1981): 929–43Google Scholar. Also useful is Brock, R. E., “The Courtier in Early Tudor Society: Illustrated from Select Examples” (Ph.D. diss., University of London, 1963)Google Scholar.

¹⁰ Denny, , “A Biography of the Right Honourable Sir Anthony Denny, P.C., M.P.”, p. 198Google Scholar. It is from this work that most of the factual information on Denny's early life is drawn. Also useful for biographical comments is Sil, “King's Men, Queen's Men, Statesmen.” Denny did, apparently, have connections with Anne Boleyn who was often dismissed as a flagrant opportunist so far as her theological interests were concerned. She may in fact have been quite firm in her beliefs. See Dowling, Maria, “Anne Boleyn and Reform,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 35, no. 1 (1984): 30–46Google Scholar. There are indications that Denny went on certain business assignments for Anne while she was queen and while he was in the Privy Chamber, but the nature of such assignments is unknown; they may or may not have had anything to do with religious reform. Brewer, J. S., Gairdner, James, and Brodie, R. H., eds., Letters and Papers Foreign and Domestic of the Reign of Henry VIII, 21 vols. (London: Mackie Co., 1862–1932)Google Scholar (hereafter cited as L&P). vol. 8, no. 85. See John Gostwick to Cromwell, August 13, 1535, L&P, vol. 9, no. 85.

¹¹ McConica, James, English Humanists and Reformation Politics (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965), pp. 49, 211Google Scholar.

¹² Sil, , “King's Men, Queen's Men, Statesmen,” p. 21Google Scholar.

¹³ Stephens, Leslie and Reed, George, eds., Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1917)Google Scholar.

¹⁴ Denny, , “A Biography of the Right Honourable Sir Anthony Denny, P.C., M.P.,” p. 198Google Scholar.

¹⁵ Elton, p. 43.

¹⁶ Henry VIII to Brian and Fox, June 1531, L&P, vol. 5, no. 363.

¹⁷ Leland, John, quoted in Denny, , “A Biography of the Right Honourable Sir Anthony Denny, P.C., M.P.” (n. 7 above), p. 199Google Scholar: “[T]aken with a desire to see foreign countries, thou hastened to fulfil thy vow, and Brian was thy leader: and hence flourished for thee [thy] deep knowledge of tongues…. This, that most prudent of kings observed, and as thy Patron, took thee into his service.”

¹⁸ Bernard, G. W., The Power of the Early Tudor Nobility: A Study of the 4th and 5th Earls of Shrewsbury (Sussex: Harvester Press; Totowa, N.J.: Barnes & Noble, 1985), p. 174Google Scholar. Some of the most useful benefits he received, given his extravagant spending habits, included cancellation of his enormous debt to the king. For twenty years, G. W. Bernard says, this debt had never been less than £24,000. and, by 1534, it amounted to £25,853—all forgiven.

¹⁹ Sil, “Sir Anthony Denny” (n. 9 above).

²⁰ Starkey, , “The King's Privy Chamber” (n. 4 above), p. 249Google Scholar. Starkey notes that, by the end of the reign of Henry VIII, the position of Chief Gentleman, to which Denny had by that time been promoted, was usually a direct route to the Privy Council.

²¹ Public Record Office (PRO). Chancery (C) 66/33/6(607), m. 41; Grants in January 1542, L&P, vol. 17, no. 71(14).

²² Sil, , “Queen's Men, King's Men, Statesmen” (n. 9 above), p. 42Google Scholar.

²³ Denny, , “Biography of the Right Honourable Sir Anthony Denny, P.C., M.P.,” p. 202Google Scholar.

²⁴ Grants in February 1538, L&P, vol. 13, pt. 1, no. 384(47), to Denny and Joan Champernown “who he is going to marry,” various manors, etc., in Hertfordshire, Warwick, and other areas.

²⁵ Starkey, , “The King's Privy Chamber,” pp. 242, 243, 254–57Google Scholar. Starkey describes the development of this office, noting that it had grown out of the unglamorous office of Groom of the Stool. There were two such gentlemen, one more or less subordinate to the other. When, in 1538, Bryan incurred the royal disfavor, Denny replaced him as the lesser Chief Gentleman, the position he held until the forced resignation of Thomas Heneage in 1546, at which point Denny moved into the superior position. His former office was then assumed by Sir William Herbert, Queen Katharine Parr's brother-in-law, who served thereafter as one of Denny's assistants. These elevations appear again to have been the result of his ability to ride out and prosper from political storms that sank other careers.

²⁶ Grants in June 1536, L&P, vol. 10, no. 226(35). Anthony Denny to be keeper of the [palace] called York Place, Westminster. Also Grants in January 1536, L&P, vol. 9, no. 226(33–35), indicates that Denny had already been placed in charge of the “new park near Westminster, of the lodges, playhouses, bowling aleyes … gardens and orchards” with a fee of 12d. per day as well as an assortment of tenements attached thereto. It seems that the office of Chief Gentleman involved the keepership of the king's jewels and plate in daily use (see Starkey, , “The King's Privy Chamber,” pp. 254–57Google Scholar), and Denny may have been made Chief Gentleman at least in part because he was already functioning in this capacity before his promotion in 1538.

²⁷ “Remembrances,” L&P, vol. 9, no. 218. A reminder by Henry VIII “to receive of Anthony Denny cloth of gold and silver to be sent to the Scotch Queen.” After the execution of Anne Boleyn, there is reference in L&P 9/912, May 1536, to silver, gold, a great gold chain, and other valuables in keeping of Anthony Denny at Westminster. For a partial inventory of the king's valuables in Denny's keeping, see April 24, 1542, “The King's Jewels and Plate,” L&P, vol. 17, no. 267, along with notes indicating the disposal of many items as well as their origins. These ranged from bullion and coinage, jewels and plate to tapestries, silks and books as well as maps, musical instruments and clocks.

²⁸ Brock (n. 9 above), p. 36n. A recent discovery by Dale Hoak (described in the Sun Francisco Chronicle, Sunday, February 8, 1987) may throw further light on the exact amounts that passed through Denny's hands.

²⁹ Sil, , “King's Men, Queen's Men, Statesmen,” p. 29Google Scholar.

³⁰ Strype, John, Ecclesiastical Memorials Relating Chiefly to Religion and the Reformation of It, and the Emergencies of the Church of England Under King Henry VIII, King Edward VI, and Queen Mary, 3 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1822), 1, pt. 2:458, 459Google Scholar. He had also been among those detailed to receive Anne of Cleves in 1539, see “For the Reception of Anne of Cleves,” L&P, vol. 14, pt. 2, no. 572(3vii), and he and his wife were among the favored few—along with the Duke of Suffolk—to act as witnesses to the King's marriage to Katharine Parr. See Public Record Office (PRO), Exchequer (E) 30/1472/5; 30, The King's Marriage, 1543, L&P, vol. 18, pt. 1; no. 873. It was also Denny who earlier had found Katherine Howard's door bolted against the world when he was sent to fetch her for the king. See Brock, p. 34.

³¹ For the size of Denny's staff, see PRO, C 66/36/22(761), m. 14; Grants in May 1544, L&P, vol. 19, pt. 1, no. 610(5).

³² Brock, pp. 34–38; see also Starkey, , “The King's Privy Chamber,” pp. 326–58Google Scholar.

³³ PRO, C 66/38/2(787), m. 30; Grants in August 1546, L&P, vol. 21, pt. 1, no. 1537(34); Rymer, Thomas, Foedora, Conventions Literae et Cujuscunque Generis inter Regis Angliae, 20 vols., ed. Sanderson, Robert, 2d ed. (London: J. Tonson, 1728), 15:1000Google Scholar. It should be noted, however, that, ever since Henry began in his illness to utilize the dry stamp in late 1545, Denny had supervised and witnessed the proceedings at every session except one at which it was employed. The action of the following year seems to have been largely a formality. Elton finds that Denny had controlled the stamp all along and that William Clerc was a servant of Gate's. See Elton, G. R., Reform and Reformation (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1977), pp. 300, 330Google Scholar. Also, it should not be assumed that Henry had become so careless as to allow Denny or anyone else carte blanche with regard to his royal signature. The dry stamp was subject to strict controls and safeguards and close records were kept of its use. See Starkey, , “The King's Privy Chamber,” p. 347Google Scholar.

³⁴ British Library (BL) microfilm, MSS of the Most Hon. the Marquis of Salisbury, K. G. Preserved at Hatfield House, Hertfordshire, MS 231 #72; Paget to Hertford, April 1544, L&P, vol. 19, pt. 1, no. 293. Although this date is prior to Denny's official control of the dry stamp, he was, in fact, always present and officiating at its use for some time before that.

³⁵ PRO, State Papers (SP) 1/245/160;—to Mr. Cheyne, 1546 (?), L&P, Addendum vol., 1, pt. 2, no. 1794.

³⁶ John Cheke quoted in Denny, , “A Biography of the Right Honourable Sir Anthony Denny, P.C., M. P.” (n. 8 above), p. 203Google Scholar.

³⁷ Ibid., p. 213.

³⁸ Brock, pp. 328, 346.

³⁹ PRO, SP 4/1, Signatures by Stamp, September 1545 to January 1547, October 1545; Warrant to pay John Madewe, L&P, vol. 20, pt. 2, no. 706(50).

⁴⁰ In 1547, he was to give up the position bestowed on him by Henry to another and better known reformer, Martin Bucer, when the latter took up residence in England (see Jordan, W. K., The Young King, vol. 1 of Edward VI [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1968], p. 194Google Scholar). He then became the confidant of the Duke of Suffolk whose Duchess, Katharine Willoughby, was a blunt and outspoken opponent of Gardiner and sponsor of Protestant writings. In 1549, he was involved in a disputation at Cambridge arguing against transubstantiation in which he referred to that doctrine as “that horrible and pestilent invention,” and, in 1553, the Vice Chancellor of Cambridge had him turned out because he had married. See Foxe, John, The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe, 8 vols., ed. Townsend, George (London: Seeley, Burnside, & Seeley, 1866), 6:541, 306Google Scholar.

⁴¹ Denny, , “A Biography of the Right Honourable Sir Anthony Denny, P.C., M.P.,” p. 198Google Scholar.

⁴² Sir John Gate quoted in Sil, , “King's Men, Queen's Men, Statesmen” (n. 9 above), p. 234Google Scholar. So definite were his views that he went to the block in the reign of Mary for supporting Lady Jane Grey and the Northumberland conspiracy that he had adopted at least partially for its Protestant appeal. On the scaffold, he declared himself to be the “greatest reader of Scripture that might be of a man of my degree,” following these words with the assertion that he did not read for his own edification or even to seek the glory of God, but that he might “arrogantly and privately … interpret it after my own brain and affection.” Doubtless his articulated views were somewhat milder when he served Henry in his Privy Chamber.

⁴³ Starkey, , “The King's Privy Chamber” (n. 4 above), pp. 351–54Google Scholar. From the wording on bills by dry stamp in the Letters and papers, we can tell who preferred—or promoted—it, and preferred bills were, Starkey says, a “special category of business which concerned the Chief Gentleman directly, either personally or officially.”

⁴⁴ Sil, , “King's Men, Queen's Men, Statesmen,” p. 234Google Scholar; Strype. 3, pt. 2:264–67.

⁴⁵ PRO SP 4/1 Documents by Stamp, September 1546; Preferment for annuity for John Belmaine, L&P, vol. 21, pt. 2, no. 199(57, 74).

⁴⁶ Brock, p. 34.

⁴⁷ PRO, SP 4/1 Documents by Stamp, September 1546; Preferment for wages for William Man, L&P, vol. 21, pt. 2, no. 199(74); Preferment in favor of John Rudd, vol. 21, pt. 2, no. 199(15). Also included in this petition was Richard Rudd, perhaps a brother of John, to be a fellow at Cambridge at the next vacancy. This last was at the suit of John Redman—a man of distinctly reforming tendencies, sometime master of both St. Johns, Cambridge, and Corpus Christi, Oxford—as well as at the request of John Rudd.

⁴⁸ September 1546, Sir Walter Mildemaie to be auditor of lands beyond Trent, of the Duchy of Lancashire, L&P, vol. 21, pt. 2, no. 199(12).

⁴⁹ September 1546, Preferment for annuity for John Wrothe, L&P, vol. 21, pt. 2, no. 199(68).

⁵⁰ Notes and Queries: A Medium of Intercommunication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquarians, Genealogists, etc., 2d ser. 9 (1860): 32Google Scholar. He did very well in these offices, acquiring from Butley, presumably at its dissolution, its wages and annuities, much of its plate, jewels, and household stuff, as well as its livestock and, it should be noted, its debts.

⁵¹ PRO, SP 1/182/203; Sir Edward North to Denny, January 14, 1543, L&P, vol. 18, no. 2, app. I; PRO, SP 1/182/204; Sir Edward North to Mr. Gate of the Privy Chamber, January, 14, 1543 L&P, vol. 18, no. 2, app. 2. North was Treasurer of Augmentations after 1541.

⁵² BL, Additional MS 38,462, The Isle of Man. He also retained the deanery of Chester and his parish churches of St. Mary's on the Hill in Chester and Fynyngley, Nottinghamshire. See PRO, SP 4/1 Documents by Stamp, January 1546; “Doctor Man preferred by Sir Anthony Denny,” L&P, vol. 21, pt. 1, no. 148(20). It is interesting and somewhat confusing to note the two churchmen preferred by Denny to consecrate the new bishop. One was George Day, Bishop of Chichester, who at the time appeared interested in reform and had a hand in the compilation of the 1548 Prayer Book, though he jumped the Protestant ship thereafter and was deprived under Edward VI. The other was Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London, whose religious views were quite rigidly Catholic. See Commission to Consecrate the said Man (n. 21 above).

⁵³ Tytler, Patrick, England under Edward VI and Mary, 2 vols. (London: Richard Bentley, 1839), 1:32Google Scholar.

⁵⁴ Ibid., p. 31.

⁵⁵ BL, Lansdowne MS 980 fol. 220(205), Bishop Kennett's Collection.

⁵⁶ PRO, SP 1/188/131; Paget to Petre, June 3, 1544, L&P, vol. 19, pl. 1, no. 624.

⁵⁷ PRO, SP 1/189 f. 137; Wotten to Paget, L&P, vol. 19, pt. 1, no. 803.

⁵⁸ PRO, SP 4/1 Documents by Stamp, October 1546; “A letter to the Bishop of Bangor to restore Dr. Wolflete to his prebend of Bytton….” L&P, vol. 21, pt. 2, no. 331(62); also Documents by Stamp, November 1546; George Wolflete, Pardon for all his benefices (except Towan), preferred by Mr. Dennye, L&P, vol. 21, pt. 2, no. 475(62); Wolflete, Presentation to the parsonages of Rybchestre and Chippen, Chester Diocese, preferred by Mr. Dennye, L&P, vol. 21, pt. 2, no. 475(62).

⁵⁹ For Bulkeley as the last Roman Catholic bishop to fill this see, see Storer, James, History and Antiquities of the Cathedral Church and See of Bangor, vol. 1 of History and Antiquities of the Cathedral Churches of Great Britain (London: Rivingtons, Murray, Hachard, Clarke, Taylor & Sherwood, Neeley & Jones, 1814)Google Scholar.

⁶⁰ “The Writings of William Hugh,” in British Reformers (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1842), 3:106Google Scholar. Nor was this the end of the Denny family's connection with William Hugh, though he died in the same year as his employer, 1549. His son, Cuthbert, was a student at the University of Basle during the years of Mary's reign and may have been responsible for the temporary residence there of the Dennys' three sons in 1555. See Garrett, Christina H., The Marian Exiles: A Study in the Origins of Elizabethan Puritanism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1938), pp. 192, 193Google Scholar.

⁶¹ Braddock (n. 5 above), p. 164.

⁶² PRO, C 66/36/21(760, m. 27); Grants in June 1544, L&P, vol. 19, pt. 1, no. 812(53).

⁶³ For Cranmer, see Nichols, John Gough, ed., “Anecdotes of Thomas Cranmer,” in Narratives of the Reformation (London: Camden Society, 1859), pp. 234 ff.Google Scholar For Morice's letter see Morice to Dr. Butts and Denny, November 2, 1543, L&P, vol. 18, pt. 2, no. 1, see also Foxe, 's version in Acts and Monuments (Foxe [n. 40 above], 8:31Google Scholar).

⁶⁴ Foxe.

⁶⁵ Nichols, p. 234.

⁶⁶ Sil, , “Kings Men, Queen's Men, Statesmen” (n. 9 above), p. 22Google Scholar.

⁶⁷ PRO, SP 1/244/90; Wymonde Carew to John Gate, 1542, L&P Addendum, vol. 1, pt. 2, no. 1571.

⁶⁸ Cheke, John, “An Homelie of St John Chrysostome upon that saying of St. Paul. I would not have you ignorant” (1544), in Pollard, A. W. and Redgrave, G. R., comps., A Short Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland and Ireland and of English Books Printed Abroad, 1475–1640 (London: Bibliographical Society, 1956, microfilm), no. 14637Google Scholar.

⁶⁹ Langely, Thomas, trans., An Abridgement of the Notable Works of P. Vergile (R. Grafton, 1546)Google Scholar, in Pollard and Redgrave, comps., no. 24654. Some of the dedications become startlingly fulsome: Thomas Paynell in a translation of St. Cyprian's Sermon on the Lord's Prayer refers to “your sincere affection to God and his holy word … your pure, honest and lowley behavior to all men … your liberal and most gentle nature, I cannot choose but vehemently love you….” See Paynell, T., trans., A Sermon made on the Lord's Prayer (T. Bertheleti, 1539)Google Scholar, in Pollard and Redgrave, comps., no. 6156.

⁷⁰ John Cheke quoted in Strype, John, The Lives of John Aylmer, John Cheke and Sir Thomas Smith (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1821), pp. 167–69Google Scholar.

⁷¹ Jordan (n. 40 above), pp. 56, 57; Burnet, Gilbert, The History of the Reformation of the Church of England, 3 vols. (New York: D. Appleton Co.; and Philadelphia: George S. Appleton, 1843), 1:5Google Scholar.

⁷² For the King's Will, see, PRO, SP (Domestic) 10/1/9, Edward VI: 1547–53; “State Papers, Domestic Series of the Reign of Edward VI,” typescript, edited by C. S. Knighton, 1978. Executors of the King's Will, 13/2/47. For promotions and dispersal of favors, see Burnet, 2:5–9.

⁷³ Denny, , “A Biography of the Right Honourable Sir Anthony Denny, P.C., M.P.” (n. 8 above), p. 210Google Scholar.

⁷⁴ PRO, SP 10/6/27; PRO, typescript, Arraignment of Sir Thomas Seymour, 24/2/48.

⁷⁵ Brock (n. 9 above), p. 67; Dasent, John Roche, ed., Acts of the Privy Council, n.s.. 32 vols. (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1890–1907), 2:15Google Scholar.

⁷⁶ PRO, SP 10/1/69; PRO, typescript, Order of Service for Coronation, 13/2/47.

⁷⁷ PRO, SP 10/6/19; PRO, typescript, Deposition of Katherine Ashley, 2/2/48.

⁷⁸ BL, Additional MS 33,577 fol. 1, Will of Sir Anthony Denny.

⁷⁹ Denny, , “A Biography of the Right Honourable Sir Anthony Denny, P.C., M.P.,” p. 211Google Scholar.

⁸⁰ Ibid.