EP 05 - No more ménage à trois - Henry VIII: the King, his wife, his lover, the French

Henry VIII: the King, his wife, his lover, the French

- Episode 05 -

No more ménage à trois

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No more ménage à trois

Wednesday 3 August 2022

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Suleiman 'the Magnificent' rewarded the French for their covert support with the gift of a stuffed crocodile and three Arab horses

One stuffed crocodile and three Arab horses

Horrified by the brutal but brief Turkish siege of Vienna in 1529, pope Clement VII called for a crusade against the invading Turkish armies of Suleiman the Lawgiver, usually known in the west as Suleiman‘the Magnificent’.

While the King of France, Francis I, loudly and publicly backed the pope’s calls, he had at the same time secretly agreed with Suleiman that they should work together against the Spanish and their relations and allies in Austria and Germany, in the Holy Roman Empire. When Suleiman retreated from Vienna he’d presented his French liaison officer with a stuffed crocodile and three Arab horses as a token of good will.

By the spring of 1531 it was obvious that Suleiman was preparing another attack. Reports began to reach the west of alarming activity in the Sultan’s arsenal and the assembling of a huge army of Tatars, Vlachs and others. No wonder therefore that, from that time, Henry was in a mood to get on with taking power over the English church. The pope needed all the friends he could muster. The international situation was ideal.

Now we see a significant change in Henry's relationship with Anne Boleyn. He finally installs her in her own palace, Whitehall Palace, which had been hugely expanded by his disgraced minister Wolsey. Actually, whether that was a step up or a step down for Anne is an open question. There was no talk of Anne personalizing Whitehall palace. No Hs and As to match the ubiquitous Hs and Ks everywhere else.

Henry probably still spent most of his time at Greenwich. And everyone knew that Anne was still effectively a commoner, still without an aristocratic title and so still unfit to marry a king. She was still just the king’s mistress. On formal occasions, such as 3 May 1531, Holy Rood Day, King Henry and queen Katherine were still dining together.

Windsor Castle from the north, surrounded by hunting grounds, by Joris Hoefnagel (1542-1601)

No more ménage à trois

In July 1531 however Henry finally severed relations with Katherine.

It was the 14 July 1531, whilst he, Katherine and Anne were staying at Windsor Castle. By now everyone was quite used to this ménage a trois. But this time Henry broke with protocol. He rode out with Anne without taking formal leave of his wife. There was just a message to say that he had gone hunting at Chertsey Abbey. He had in fact left her for good. Some would say it was a coward’s way out.

To begin with, the situation suited Katherine because her daughter Mary, deeply hated by Anne, could spend precious time with her at Windsor. Anyway Katherine and Henry kept up their long-standing habit of exchanging messages every three days.

On 31 July however Henry ordered Katherine out of Windsor so that he and Anne could hunt in the grounds without seeing her. Katherine would be moved to Wolsey’s luxurious manor house, The More, in Hertfordshire. But Mary would be sent to Richmond.

Katherine went on pointedly stitching shirts for Henry until the end of her life. But she would never see her daughter again. Katherine continued to attend formal occasions at Court, but Henry would not meet her any more.

Christmas 1531 at Greenwich was miserable. To everyone’s dismay they discovered Anne was in charge instead of Katherine and they were forbidden to send presents to the out-of-favour Queen.

As Henry drew his ménage a trois with Katherine and Anne to a close, he was also preparing to break up another trio: England, France and the papacy

Henry begins to give himself absolute power - imperium - like a Roman emperor. This is Augustus, the first Roman Emperor

Henry's dash for power against the English Church

Earlier in 1531 Henry made his first concrete towards imperium - absolute power in his realm like the Roman emperors - and it came four years after his divorce had begun and eight years after he had first begun distancing himself from Katherine. He'd got his councillor, Thomas Audley, to begin drafting Parliamentary legislation which would allow the English church to decide Henry’s divorce case.

But Henry soon found to his aggravation that Parliament was still in no mood for imperium. In fact many MPs got up and demanded Henry take Katherine back. The Archbishop of Canterbury, William Warham, who had originally married Henry and Katherine, demanded that Henry repeal all the measures he had so far taken against the English church.

Henry was now in no mood to compromise. He despatched the Duke of Norfolk and Thomas Boleyn (that’s Anne’s uncle and father) to the upper house of the Church’s own Parliament. It was an unprecedented move. Most bishops and abbots fled. The elderly archbishop Warham and the few who remained meekly agreed that the English Church could no longer make any of its own laws without the king’s consent.

In June 1532 Henry signed a new treaty with the French. Publicly it was to join forces to fight the barbarian Turk. Privately, Henry and Francis had no intention of doing that. What they intended to do was to fight Charles V.

Henry and Francis also arranged to meet – for the first time since they had wrestled at the rain-soaked Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520.

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29 Oct 1532 - Henry bids Francis goodbye outside English-held Calais where Francis had danced with Anne but not given his support to a marriage

A new black satin nightgown for Anne

It was this French treaty which finally gave Henry the courage to act. On 1 September, with the French treaty in his pocket and the visit to Calais coming up, he made Anne the Marchioness of Pembroke. After at least five years as his mistress, he had given her the kind of title that made her fit to marry him.

It was, surprisingly, the first clear sign Henry had given that he was probably intending to marry her. We say probably because unusually, at the same time he made provision for her yet-to-be-conceived son to inherit from her, ‘whether or not born in wedlock.’

Henry also kitted Anne out with some new clothes, including a black satin nightgown, and began renovating the royal apartments in the Tower of London. Now he didn’t use the Tower very often, but he would need the apartments if he was going to stage a coronation for a new Queen Anne.

The French community in London still thought Henry was going to meet the king of France in order to marry a French princess. It would have been the most sensible thing to do diplomatically. But when on 25 September 1532 Henry crossed the Channel to English-held Calais, he took Anne, the brand new Marchioness of Pembroke.

Henry and Anne stayed until the end of October, although Anne never went further than Calais. Henry met Francis at Boulogne, and the French king presented him with white velvet and satin robes that matched his own. Then they went to Catholic Mass dressed as twins.

But the real business was discussing military and diplomatic co-operation between the two nations. After all, it was only two years since the king of France had made his never-to-be-repeated offer to send French troops to England to defend it against a Spanish invasion.

The pope was horrified at rumours that the ‘twins’ were setting up their own national churches. And they were happy to let him think that. They offered rather ominously to meet the Pope to discuss things on neutral ground.

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