Anne Boleyn, a King's Obsession

His insistence brought home to her, for the first time, the fact that, as his wife, she was now bound to obey him in all things. When she had been his mistress, she had had the mastery of him, and he could only have commanded her as her King, which he had rarely done, having always played the role of devoted servant. But now that they were married, he seemed to think he could be master of her as he had been master of Katherine. Well, he must think again! This pilgrimage was a small issue; she would let it go. But she was not about to let any man, be he king or husband, order her about.

Together they hosted a great banquet in Anne’s presence chamber at Whitehall, and anyone might have guessed it was a wedding feast, for Henry was behaving like a bridegroom, fawning upon Anne, unable to refrain from caressing her. By the end of the evening he was so drunk that most of what he said was incomprehensible, but Anne’s aunt, the Duchess of Norfolk, gave him a sharp look when he began waving his hands at the sumptuous furnishings and asking her, “Has not the Lady Marquess got a grand dowry and a rich marriage, and all that we see? And the rest of the plate belongs to the lady also.”

So much for discretion! Anne nudged him sharply to make him shut up.



Henry sent George to France discreetly to inform King Fran?ois that he had married Anne. Soon after George had sailed, the unsuspecting Pope’s bull confirming Cranmer as Archbishop of Canterbury arrived in England, speedily followed by the good doctor’s consecration in Canterbury Cathedral. Henry and Anne had privately feared that Clement would reject Cranmer, but whatever he might have heard about him, he too seemed keen to avoid an irrevocable breach between Henry and Rome.

George returned to court early in April, whereupon Henry summoned his Council and informed them that he had married Anne two months before, and that she was carrying the heir to England.

“You should have seen their faces!” he recounted, joining her for dinner afterward. “Stunned silence—then a belated rush to congratulate me. They have advised me to inform Katherine at once. I’m sending Norfolk and Suffolk to Ampthill the day after tomorrow.”

“I don’t envy them,” Anne said. “You know how she will take it.”

“I don’t care how she takes it! I’ll not have her making any more trouble. She must accept that I am married, and that henceforth she is to abstain from the title of queen and be called the Princess Dowager of Wales, as Arthur’s widow.”

Neither of them was surprised when the two dukes returned and reported that Katherine had defied them. As long as she lived, she had declared, she would call herself queen.

“By God, I’ll silence her!” Henry raged.

“What can she do?” Anne asked. “She is isolated from her friends, a lone woman protesting in vain. No one hears her.”

“The whole of Europe hears her!” Henry stormed. “That weasel of an ambassador has his agents in her household, be sure of it. And although the Emperor is busy fighting the Turks, we cannot be certain of what he will do when he hears of our marriage. It could mean war. Darling, I’m not jesting.”

Anne paused as the implications of their marriage began to sink in.

“It could happen,” Henry said, “especially if Katherine appeals to Charles. And the worst of it is, she’d have a lot of my ignorant subjects on her side.”

“If she is the true wife she claims to be, then her first duty is to you, and she would surely never do anything to your hurt,” Anne reassured him.

“Yes, but what if she considers that her first duty is to persuade me that my conscience is in error?”

“Henry, she’s been doing that for years. And the Emperor has his hands full.”

“I know, but he could still make trouble. Why doesn’t Katherine just accept things? I’m never going back to her. Let’s hope that Cranmer’s judgment makes that plain.”

The very next day, Henry instructed Cranmer to proceed to the examination, final determination, and judgment of his Great Matter.



Henry had decided that on the eve of Easter Sunday, Anne would appear as queen in public. On that Saturday morning, wearing robes of crimson velvet and decked with diamonds and other precious stones, she walked through Greenwich Palace in royal state to hear Mass in her closet, with sixty maids of honor following her, escorted by servants in liveries bearing her new motto, “The Most Happy.” In all the royal palaces, stonemasons, carpenters, glaziers, and seamstresses were even now at work replacing Katherine’s initials with hers, and the pomegranate of Spain with the crowned falcon, the badge she had chosen for herself. As she made her way slowly to Mass, past the astonished courtiers crowding into the halls and galleries, she made a point of cradling her hands over the slight swell of her stomach, hinting at the prince that lay within her.

Some of those watching looked shocked, others as if they did not know whether to laugh or cry. Most made obeisance as Anne passed by, but others just stared.

After Mass, Henry was waiting with Cromwell when Anne returned to her privy chamber. She was relieved to see him. It had been an ordeal.

“Were you well received?” he asked.

“I think that some of your nobles are less than enthusiastic about their new Queen,” she told him.

“I was listening in the privy gallery,” Cromwell said. “Some were saying that His Grace has gone too far and that the Princess Dowager is the rightful Queen.” He turned to Henry. “A few, if they dare, will offer all possible resistance to this marriage. Men like Bishop Fisher.”

“Have him placed under house arrest,” Henry ordered. “I want him out of the way when Cranmer gives judgment.” He bent down and kissed Anne. “Do not fret, darling. I will suggest that my lords and gentlemen come and pay court to you, and tell them that I intend to have you solemnly crowned after Easter.”

That was the moment, the supreme triumph, that Anne had been longing for. “This is the best news you could have given me,” she smiled, her spirits soaring.

“It will be the greatest public celebration since my own coronation,” he beamed. “It will sweeten my subjects and proclaim my esteem for you to the world. I’m having you crowned as Queen Regnant, Anne, not just as my consort, and all eyes will be on you alone, for I would not draw attention from you. But I shall be in Westminster Abbey, watching behind a lattice.”

“Was ever woman so honored?” Cromwell smiled.

Anne embraced Henry with tears in her eyes. “Your Grace’s kindness to me is boundless. I am utterly beholden to you. Thank you, thank you!”

“I cannot do sufficient honor to the mother of my son,” he declared.



The Queen’s chair of estate was smaller than the King’s. It stood beside it beneath the ornate canopy of estate emblazoned with the royal arms of England. Wearing her robes of estate again for this first occasion on which she would preside as queen over the court, Anne seated herself beside Henry, arranging her heavy skirts around her. The presence chamber was crowded with courtiers and petitioners, craning to see how she conducted herself.

She was dismayed to see that the first person who came forward and bowed was Chapuys.

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