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Anne Boleyn and Reform

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

Maria Dowling
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Extract

In 1530 or 1531 Thomas Alwaye, an otherwise obscure evangelical prosecuted by Wolsey and the bishops for buying English new testaments and other prohibited books, petitioned Anne Boleyn for intervention in his affairs in the following extraordinary terms:

When extreme need began to compel me, right honourable lady, to make me friends by whose means I might be released out of my miserable thraldom, I could not find one in all this realm in whom I had any hope or looked for any comfort until your gracious ladyship came unto my remembrance. But anon I remembered how many deeds of pity your goodness had done within these few years, and that without respect of any persons, as well to strangers and aliens as to many of this land, as well to poor as to rich: whereof some looking for no redemption were by your gracious means not only freely delivered out of costly and very long imprisoning, but also by your charity largely rewarded and all thing restored to the uttermost, so that every man may perceive that your gracious and Christian mind is everywhere ready to help, succour and comfort them that be afflicted, troubled and vexed, and that not only in word and tongue, but even after the saying of St John.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , January 1984 , pp. 30 - 46
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

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References

1 B.L., Sloane MS 1207 (Petition of Thomas Alwaye). I have preferred the blanket term ‘evangelical’ to the anachronistic ‘Protestant’. Similarly, I have used the contemporary phrase ‘the gospel’ to denote reformed religion. I am grateful to Dr David Starkey for advice on this point and would like to thank him and Joy Shakespeare for reading and commenting on this paper.

2 Lewinsky, E. L., ‘A music book for Anne Boleyn’, in Rowe, J. G. and Stockdale, W. H. (eds.), Florilegium Hisloriale, Essays Presented to Wallace K. Ferguson, Toronto and Buffalo 1971Google Scholar. For Marshall’s tract, cf. G.R. Elton, ‘An early Tudor Poor Law’, Economic History Review 2nd ser. i (1953), 65–7; McConica, J. K., English Humanists and Reformation Politics, Oxford 1968, 170Google Scholar.

3 Bodleian MS C. Don. 42, fos. 20–33 (‘A Brief Treatise or Chronicle of...Anne Boleyn’ (hereafter cited as Chronicle); mentioned briefly in Chester, A. G., Hugh Latimer, Apostle to the English, Philadelphia 1954, 111CrossRefGoogle Scholar).

4 Strickland, A., Lives of the Queens of England, London 1890, ii. 238, 390Google Scholar.

5 Cf. Bruce, M. L., Anne Boleyn, London 1972Google Scholar; Chapman, H., Anne Boleyn, London 1974Google Scholar.

6 Triphook, R. (ed.), Extracts from the Life of the Virtuous, Christian and Renowned Queen Anne Boleigne, London 1817Google Scholar. The original Elizabethan account by George Wyatt is a defence of Anne in the face of the scabrous allegations of Catholic polemicists; its value lies in the fact that he took his stories from those who had known her.

7 Cf. Dickens, A. G., Thomas Cromwell and the English Reformation, London 1959Google Scholar; Elton, G. R., Reform and Renewal, Cambridge 1973Google Scholar.

8 J. S. Brewer (ed.), Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII (hereafter cited as LP), vi. no. 1642, John Creke to Cromwell, 1533; Calendar of State Papers Spanish iv (ii). no. 1158, Chapuys to Charles v, 9 Dec. 1533; LP, vii. no. 964, Wynter to Cromwell, 9 July 1534.

9 B.L., Cotton MSS Cleopatra E iv, fo. 107 (Barlow to Cromwell); LP, viii. no. 466, John Barlow to Bainton, 31 March 1535.

10 Printed in Wyatt, Life of Anne Boleigne, 14.

11 Chronicle, fo. 32; Lowinsky,’ A music book for Anne Boleyn’. Whittington’s verses are described in HMC, Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Marquis of Salisbury, London 1883, i. 9–10.

12 Chronicle, fo. 32.

13 B.L., Additional MS 43, 827, fo. 2 (Narrative of Rose Hickman).

14 B.L., Royal MS 20 B xvii. On 3 April 1529 Cardinal Campeggio reported that Lutheran books were circulating at the English court; LP, iv. no. 5416. For Morley’s volume, B.L., Harleian MS 6561.

15 Chronicle, fos. 31b–32.

16 Wyatt, Life of Anne Boleigne, 18.

17 B.L., Stowe MS 956.

18 Described by Marsham, Robert in Archacologia, xliv (1857), 2590Google Scholar.

19 Chronicle, fo. 31b.

20 Daalder, Joost (ed.), Thomas Wyatt, Collected Poems, Oxford 1975, 7, 90, 113–41Google Scholar.

21 Chronicle of Calais, quoted in Bapst, Edmond, Deux genlilshommes-poètes de la cour de Henry VIII, Paris 1891, 27. CfGoogle Scholar. the almost identical French account in Bibliothèlque Nationale, Fonds Dupuy 373, fo. 11 ib, quoted ibid. 137.

22 Chronicle, fo. 28b.

23 B.L., Cotton MSS Faust. C iii, fo. 456 (Cambridge to Anne Boleyn); Bond, R. Warwick (ed.), The Nobility of Women, Roxburghe Club 1904, 87, 33Google Scholar.

24 Wood, M. A. E. (ed.) Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies, London 1846, 191Google Scholar, Anne Boleyn to the abbot of York, 13 May, c. 1535.

25 Nicolas, N. H. (ed.), Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VIII, London 1827, 23Google Scholar.

26 Public Record Office, State Papers (hereafter cited as SP), 1/121, fos. 58–9 (LP, xii (ii). no. 39), (Bekynsaw to Knight, 5 June 1537).

27 Cf. Venn, J., Biographical History of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge 1897, i. 17Google Scholar; Giles, J. A. (ed.), Whole Works of Roger Ascham, London 1865, i. ep. 60 to Thomas WendyGoogle Scholar.

28 Quoted in Venn, J., Caius College, London 1901, 34Google Scholar.

29 Foxe, John, Acts and Monuments (hereafter cited as AM), ed. Cattley, S. R., London 1837, iv. 657–8Google Scholar.

30 More later claimed in his Apology (ed. A. I. Taft, London 1930, 84) that Fish repented ‘and came into the Church again, and forsook and forsware all the whole hill of those heresies’. His widow, a noted bookdealer, married the martyr Bainham, who evidently did not benefit from the royal protection. On Fish, cf. Guy, J. A., The Public Career of Sir Thomas More, Brighton 1980, 108–9Google Scholar.

31 Strype, John, Ecclesiastical Memorials, London 1820–1840, i. 171–3Google Scholar; Wyatt, Life of Anne Boleigne, 16–17. Anne Gainsford later married George Zouch (who was an exile under Mary), and is possibly the subject of the Holbein drawing labelled ‘M. Zouch’; Wyatt, op. cit. 28. Louthe’s account is printed in Nichols, J. G., Narratives of the Days of the Reformation, Camden Society 1859, 52–7Google Scholar. Louthe was Richard Southwell’s evangelical tutor; ibid, 7–8, Strype, op. cit. 595–6.

32 AM, v. 421–8.

33 B.L., Cotton MSS Vespasian F iii, art. 32 (LP, iv. App. no. 197) (Anne to Wolsey).

34 A.M., v. 42.

35 Identified as such by Elton, G. R., Policy and Police, Cambridge 1972, 37Google Scholar. Cf. SP, 1/103, fo. 304 (LP, x. no. 891), SP, 1/104, fo. 157 (LP, x. no. 1099).

36 Farmer, J. S. (ed.), Dramatic Writings of Nicholas Udall, London 1906, 131Google Scholar; B.L., Royal MSS 18 A lxiv (Verses for the coronation of Anne Boleyn).

37 AM, vii. 6ff., Cf. Scarisbrick, J. J., Henry VIII, London 1974, 335Google Scholar for an assertion of the authenticity of the story.

38 AM, vii. 454. Cf. the amplified account in Gilpin, William, Lives of Hugh Latimer and Bernard Gilpin, London 1780, 32–5Google Scholar.

39 Venn, Biographical History of Caius College, i. 17, 19.

40 AM, iv. 650.

41 Chester, Hugh Latimer, 104, 230. Cf. LP, ix. nos. 203, 252, 27 2–3; x, no. 1257 (ix); no. 117.

42 Wood, M. A. E., Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies, London 1846, 188Google Scholar, Anne Boleyn to Crome.

43 In 1546 he was one of several evangelicals with court connections under investigation for heresy (others included Shaxton, Anne Askew and (Catherine Parr) and was forced to abjure. Cf. McConica, J. K., English Humanists and Reformation Politics, Oxford 1968, 222–3Google Scholar; Smith, L. B., Henry VIII, the Mask of Royalty, London 1973, 257, 275Google Scholar.

44 E.g., in 1534 Cranmer arranged for Latimer and Shaxton to preach before the king in Lent, despite the fact that their preaching had stirred up trouble in the country; Cox, J. E. (ed.), Miscellaneous Writings and Letters of Thomas Cranmer, Parker Society 1846, ii. 308–9Google Scholar.

45 Wyatt, Life of Anne Boleigne, 18.

46 Chronicle, fos. 24–5.

47 Bruce, John and Perowne, Thomas (eds.), Correspondence of Matthew Parker, Parker Society 1853Google Scholar, epp. i and ii, Skip to Parker, 23 March 1535.

48 Ibid. ep. xlvi to Bacon, 1 March 1559. Cf. ep. liv to Elizabeth.

49 AM, vi. 600. It will be remembered that several court evangelicals came under attack in 1546.

50 B.L., Royal MSS, 18 A xl; Cotton MSS Cleopatra E v, fos. 407–8 (LP, xiii (i). 819) (Singleton to Cromwell, 21 April 1538).

51 Chronicle, fo. 20; LP, x. no. 827 (mayor and jurates of Sandwich to Henry viii, 8 May 1536).

52 Parker Correspondence, ep. iii. Cheke, incidentally, was a scholarly protégé of Dr Butts.

53 Chronicle, fo. 27b.

54 Wyatt, Life of Anne Boleigne, 19; Burnet, Gilbert, History of the Reformation, ed. Pocock, Nicholas, Oxford 1965, i. 314Google Scholar.

55 Chronicle, fo. 25.

56 For Marshall’s draft of poor law proposals, see Elton, G. R., Reform and Renewal, Cambridge 1973, 71–6Google Scholar.

57 AM, v. 35, 37; Strype, John. Memorials of Thomas Cranmer, London 1840, i. 643–4Google Scholar. For Hugh Latimer’s mention of Patmore in a sermon against Hubberdine, Strype, , Ecclesiastical Memorials, London 1820–40, i (ii). 179Google Scholar.

58 Chronicle, fo. 28. In November 1535 Simon Heynes reported that Sturmius had sent letters to Cromwell through Shaxton or Skip, LP, ix. no. 765.

59 Chronicle, fo. 28.

60 Vandoeuvre, Nicholas Bourbon de, Nugae, Lyons 1538Google Scholar. Bk. vii, nos xiiii, xc, cix, cxix to Anne Boleyn, ex to Henry and Anne, no. cxiii to Butts; Bk. v no. xxii; Bk vi no. xv; Bk. xvii no. cxli to his pupils. For Anne’s appointment Bk. vii no. xv.

61 Printed in Crapelet, G.-A., Lettres de Henri VII à Anne Boleyn, Paris 1835, xivGoogle Scholar.

62 B.L., Royal MSS 16 E xiii (‘Le Pasteur Évangélique’). Identified as Marot’s work by Lowinsky, ‘A music book for Anne Boleyn’, 189, 230. There is n o parallel manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.

63 Ellis, Henry, Original Letters Illustrative of English History, London 1824, 1st ser. ii, 45 (Anne to Cromwell)Google Scholar. For letters concerning Herman, see Rogers, E. F. (ed.), Letters of Sir John Hacket, Morgantown 1971, 155–6, 161–2, 164, 167–70, 173–5, 178–81, 183–4, 188, 199–202, 207, 216, 226, 229–30, 233–4, 238, 249, 251Google Scholar. In November 1535 Herman sent Cromwell intercepted diplomatic correspondence from Antwerp. LP, ix. no. 746.

64 SP, 1/76, fo. 143, 78, fos. 57, 84–5 (LP, vi. nos. 559, 917, 934) (Vaughan to Cromwell, July and August 1533); Richardson, W. C., Stephen Vaughan, Baton Rouge 1953, 15, 20, 85Google Scholar.

65 LP, x. no. 827, mayor and jurates of Sandwich to Henry viii, 8 May 1536. The Vaughans’ daughter Anne later married Henry, son of William Locke. Like her sister-in-law, Rose Hickman, she was also in exile under Mary. These family links illustrate the closeness of the evangelical merchant community.

66 AM, v. 132, letter of Tyndale to Frith, 1533. The identity of the unnamed intermediary remains unknown, but it is noteworthy that Joye corresponded with Hugh Latimer; cf. LP, vi. no. 402.

67 The sum of Christianity gathered out almost of all places of scripture by that noble and famous clerk, Francis Lambert of Avignon, London, Redman(?) 1536Google Scholar.

68 SP, 1/102, fo. 125 (LP x. no. 371) (Confession of Tristram Revell).

69 Robinson, H. (ed.), Original Letters Relative to the English Reformation, Parker Society 1846, i. 203–4Google Scholar.

70 A confutation of that popish and antichristian doctrine...by Gracyouse Menewe, 1555(?). I am grateful for this and the above reference to Joy Shakespeare, who believes that ‘Menewe’ is Thomas Becon.

71 Spanish Calendar, v (ii), 85, Chapuys to Charles v, April 1536.

72 B.L., Cotton MSS, Otho C x, fo. 260b (LP, x. no. 942) (Shaxton to Cromwell, 23 May 1536).

73 Strype, , Memorials of Cranmer, London 1840, 320–2 (Cranmer to Henry viii, May 1536)Google Scholar.

74 Cf. Elton, G. R., Reform and Reformation, London 1979, 252–3Google Scholar.