In the year 1522 King Henry VIII had been on the throne for 13 years, having been given papal dispensation to marry his late brother Arthur's wife, Catherine of Aragon 17 years before. Their only surviving child, a daughter Mary was born in 1516; however Henry craved a son and heir. Thus far Catherine had given birth to six of King Henry’s children; including the ill-fated, and much craved for heir Prince Henry. But only the Princess Mary remained. Henry still craved the son and heir he, and England, needed. By 1527 Henry had decided to get his marriage to his Spanish Queen annulled and in 1528 he joined an alliance with King Francis I of France and Pope Clement VII against the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. By 1529 there had still been no agreement over the annulment of his marriage to Catherine between Cardinal Wolsey and Cardinal Campeggio. The same year the case was removed to Rome Cardinal Wolsey lost power and the first Reformation Parliaments sat at a time when anticlericalism was rife at Parliament. In 1530 a concerted effort was made to win support for Henry’s case for an annulment. At this time Thomas Cromwell joined Henry’s Royal Council, who with Edward Foxe had created the ‘Collectanea satis copiosa; ‘The Sufficiently Abundant Collections’, a collection of ancient documents designed to prove that the Kings of England, historically, had no superiors on earth including the Pope. With this the evidence against the Pope’s power was compiled, and Henry would be free to divorce Catherine without permission from the Pope. In 1531 Henry became ‘head of the Church in England and Wales as far as the word of God allows’. In 1533 he passed the Act of Supremacy declaring that he was the head of the English church and the supplication against the Ordinances having been then drawn up by the House of Commons led to the Submission of the Clergy by Convocation and Cranmer was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. He duly annulled Henry’s marriage to Catherine. She having been forced to leave the court and live in much reduced circumstances, with access to her daughter Mary denied, Catherine continued to deny the annulment and rejected her new title of Dowager Princess. She died on 7th January 1536 and was buried at Peterborough Abbey in a small ceremony.
On the 25th January 1533 Henry had secretly married Anne Boleyn.
She had refused to be his mistress, as her sister Mary had been before. Henry VIII pursued her and wooed her for nigh on ten years. He wrote her letters and poetry, despite the fact he hated writing. 17 of his love letters survive today held in the Vatican. Her persistence and tenacity paid off, she stood her ground and kept her honour intact. She was crowned Queen of England in June 1533. However, her honour must have been given up at some point; maybe when Henry finally agreed to her demands to marry, for at their wedding she was heavily pregnant. Their daughter Elizabeth was born on September 7th 1533. And Henry still did not have his male heir. However, although he professed to love Elizabeth he was certain a male heir must follow. Following three miscarriages, however, Henry had her investigated for high treason; amongst the charges were those of adultery, incest and witchcraft. On the 2nd May she was arrested and sent to the Tower of London. At her trial by her peers on the 15th of May 1536 were her uncle Thomas Howard and another young juror, Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland who collapsed at the announcement of her guilty verdict he had agreed, and had to be carried from the courtroom. He died without issue 8 months later. His estates he bequeathed to his king, Henry VIII.
Later in the Tower of London, she called William Kingston; the Constable of the Tower to her cell where she was awaiting her execution, in the early hours of the 19th May and swore in his presence, on the eternal salvation of her soul, upon the Holy Sacraments, that she had never been unfaithful to the King. She ritually repeated this oath both immediately before and after receiving the Sacraments of the Eucharist. At dawn she was taken to her place of execution, and on her walk from the Queen’s House to the scaffold she is said to have showed a ‘devilish spirit’ and looked ‘as gay as if she was not going to die’. That morning she climbed the scaffold and gave a small speech:
“Good Christian people, I am come hither to die, for according to the law and by the law I am judged to die, and therefore I will speak nothing against it. I am come hither to accuse no man, nor to speak anything of that, whereof I am accused and condemned to die, but I pray God save the King and send him long to reign over you, for a gentler nor a more merciful prince was there never: and to me he was ever a good a gentle and sovereign lord. And if any person will meddle of my cause, I require them to judge the best. And thus I take my leave of the world and of you all and I heartily desire you all to pray for me. O Lord have mercy on me, to God I commend my soul.”
She then knelt upright on a straw bale in the French style of executions, her final prayer she constantly repeated: “To Jesus Christ I commend my soul, Lord Jesus receive my soul.” Her ladies in waiting removed her headdress and necklaces, and tied a blindfold about her eyes. Her executioner, the Frenchman Rombaud, having been so taken by her shook and found it difficult to continue. That she might remain still, and with his sword in his hand, he shouted “Where is my sword?!” Anne must have stiffened at the misguiding shout and at the same time Rombaud’s sword swept down and in one swift strike through her slim and tender neck. When her head fell from her shoulders her eyes still moved and her lips were still saying her constant prayer.
Anne Boleyn’s short life was over, she was 35.
It was in the spring of 1522 that the young and handsome Lord Henry Percy, heir to the Earldom of Northumberland; great estates in the north of England, met with the gracious and alluring Mistress Anne Boleyn, daughter of Thomas Boleyn who rose to prominence from a family of merchants, and was benefactor of his daughter Mary’s relationship with King Henry VIII. Anne had legitimate claim to blue blood on her mother Lady Elizabeth Howard’s side, with distant relations like Margaret of France, her husband King Edward I, her great-grandparents seven times removed, and her great-grandfather John Howard; who received the title Duke of Norfolk, which then transferred to her grandfather.
But would this suffice to convince Lord Henry Algernon Percy the 5th earl of Northumberland, Henry’s father, or his patron His Eminence the Cardinal Wolsey, of the legitimacy of their match.
Would His Majesty King Henry VIII support their cause once he discovers their betrothal?
This then, is the little told story of Henry Percy and Anne Boleyn, and how their true love was so doomed.
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