The Boleyns: The Rise & Fall of a Tudor Family Read online

  Thomas’s younger brother James, who was born in 1480, has always been overshadowed by his sibling. In his youth he may well have received some legal training, and he served on the commission of the peace for Norfolk from 1511 until his death in 1561, but he seems to have been handicapped through most of his career by his lack of lands.[23] Although described as ‘of Blickling’ he used that house by courtesy of his brother, and most of the successes of his life can be attributed to the latter’s patronage. He was knighted in 1520 for no obvious reason, and was a Knight of the Body by 1533, a position which did not involve regular attendance at court, and was largely honorific. In 1529 he sat for Norfolk in the Reformation parliament, and may also have sat in 1536, for which the returns do not survive.[24] He survived the storm which destroyed his niece and nephew in 1536 and the death of his distinguished brother in 1539, his own favour not having been notable enough to have attracted the attention of his family’s enemies. He attended the third Duke of Norfolk, who was his kinsman by marriage, at the reception of Anne of Cleves in January 1540, and in February of the same year was granted livery of his brother’s lands as his heir male, although he was not permitted to claim the earldom of Wiltshire, which remained in abeyance.[25] The following month he exchanged Thomas’s former lands in Kent with the Crown for other properties in Norfolk, thus confirming his intention to retain his local base, and resolving his relative lack of property in the county. In 1542 he received a grant of all the moveable property which Jane Rochford had left at Blickling. Jane was the widow of James’s nephew George, Viscount Rochford, who had been executed in 1536 for treasonable incest with his sister Anne. She had presumably lived at Blickling after that disaster, when she was not at court. Jane had herself been attainted and executed for acting as a pander in Queen Catherine Howard’s infidelities during the summer of 1541, so her goods were in the hands of the Crown, but not apparently, considered to be of sufficient value to be worth retaining.[26] James was also considered to be sufficiently trustworthy to serve on the jury which in 1546 indicted his kinsman Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey for high treason, and as custos rotulorum for Norfolk from 1558 to 1560. He lived to see his great niece ascend the throne in November 1558, and when he died in 1561 left various things to her in his will. There is no evidence of any particular favour from Elizabeth, but his will was overseen by his kinsman, Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon. James had married, at some time before 1520, his wife being Elizabeth, the daughter of one John Wood of East Barsham in Norfolk, but she presumably predeceased him and they had no children who survived.[27] He was a very advanced age by the time that he died, and with him the direct male line of the Boleyns became extinct.

  Meanwhile, with the accession of Henry VIII, Thomas’s career at court had taken off. The origin of his favour seems to have lain in his skill at the joust, because in spite of being a man in his thirties, and thus too old to have been a companion to the Prince of Wales, he had nevertheless tilted with the Prince and won his regard. He was knighted at Henry’s coronation, and took part in all the ‘feats of arms’ which attended that event, being particularly conspicuous at the tournament called to celebrate the birth of the short-lived Prince Henry in January 1511.[28] He was given a number of minor offices, not individually significant but enough to indicate that he was well thought of, and probably quite close to the King. He was close enough at any rate to make his support for Henry’s warlike ambitions audible, and to impress the King with his excellent knowledge of French. He served as sheriff of Kent in 1510–11, which is another indication that his principal base was at Hever, and in 1512 was selected to lead an important diplomatic mission to the court of Margaret of Austria, the regent of the Low Countries. Henry had been spoiling for a fight since coming to the throne, and his target was the King of France. There was no objective political reason for this desire, but it had a great deal to do with the King’s self image, and his relations with his own aristocracy. Henry was young, and anxious to make his mark as quickly as possible. This, he judged, could be best done upon the field of battle, as his great ancestor Henry V had done.[29] It was also true that his nobles, and particularly the younger ones, still saw their service to the Crown primarily in military terms, and there had not been a decent war for many years. Henry VII’s expedition to Etaples in 1492 hardly counted, because there had been no fighting. So they shared Henry’s chivalric dreams, and urged him on. Sir Thomas Boleyn would have been typical in this respect, and may even have been a mouthpiece for his mentor, the Earl of Surrey. Constrained by his council, which was dominated by clergy and not at all bellicose, in the spring of 1510, the King renewed his father’s treaty with France, but he had no intention of abiding by it.[30]

  However, even Henry realised that he could not fight the French on his own. Allies would be needed, and he naturally looked first to his father-in-law, Ferdinand of Aragon. Perhaps he had even married Catherine within weeks of his accession with that very thought in mind. Catherine had been his brother Arthur’s wife, and had been a widow since 1502. Some thought that she was forbidden fruit, but the King had swept all obstacles aside, and driven either by desire for her or by ambitions for a link to her formidable father, had wedded her.[31] In the summer of 1511 he signed a treaty with Ferdinand, which was a direct breach of his obligations to Louis XII. Fortunately, Pope Julius II then stepped in to save him from any moral embarrassment by falling out with Louis himself. The origins of this contretemps lay in the collapse of the League of Cambrai, formed in 1508 against the Venetians, at that time deemed to constitute a threat to the papal patrimony. That League had consisted of the Emperor Maximilian, Ferdinand of Spain and Louis XII in addition to the Pope, but by the summer of 1510 Julius had concluded that the French constituted a bigger menace than the Venetians, and was trying to turn the League around. Getting wind of what was afoot, Louis struck back, first by convening a council of French clergy to make Gallican and antipapal noises, and then by calling a general council of the Church to meet at Pisa in the spring of 1511 for no less a purpose than the deposition of the Pope.[32] Needless to say, the council never met, but Louis’ action had given Julius the pretext that he needed to convert the League of Cambrai into a Holy League against France. The negotiations went on throughout the summer, and in October the League was signed in Rome. Originally it consisted of Ferdinand, the Venetians and the Pope, but Henry VIII was quick to join, and in November, having delivered an ultimatum to the French king, he declared war.[33] So keen was he to display his intentions, and keep his aristocracy on their toes, that this had been preceded earlier in 1511 by two small military expeditions – one to support a strike which the King of Spain was proposing to make against the Muslims of North Africa, and the other to assist the Emperor against the rebellious Duke of Gueldres. Both of these were goodwill gestures, and although the latter was militarily successful, it failed of its diplomatic intention to persuade Maximilian to adhere to the Holy League. The expedition to Spain failed for the quite different reason that Ferdinand cancelled his proposed crusade, leaving Lord Darcy, the commander, with the problem of maintaining discipline among his unemployed troops. In that he was deplorably unsuccessful, and his small army returned home in considerable discredit. It was not a good omen for future collaboration.[34] Against this background of large aspirations and limited attainment, Sir Thomas Boleyn was given his first diplomatic assignment.

  2

  THOMAS AT COURT – THE HEVER YEARS

  When Henry needed someone to undertake the delicate task of coaxing Maximilian into the Holy League, he was naturally looking for his own man – someone with a commitment to the war upon which he was now embarked. That man was Sir Thomas Boleyn. Sir Thomas was a courtier to his finger tips, a man who had been made a Knight of the Bath at Henry’s coronation, who had jousted with him, and who had been a pall bearer at the funeral of Prince Henry in February 1511, the latter a mark of particular intimacy.[35] He was too old to be one of the King’s mignons, but as a Knight of the Body was as
close as it was possible to get. He was also one of those who swung the council in favour of war after the formation of the Holy League, and was actively involved in the preparations for the Marquis of Dorset’s expedition to Guienne, which was to open hostilities in April 1512. He was not, however, destined to accompany that army. Instead, on 17 May, he was sent on embassy to Margaret of Austria, the Regent of the Low Countries.[36] This was an indirect way of approaching the Emperor, because Margaret was thought to be sympathetic to the war, and was know to have great influence with Maximilian. An embassy based in her court at Mechelen was therefore likely to stand a greater chance of success. It was also a French-speaking court, and Sir Thomas’s command of the language was an additional reason for choosing him for the mission. He was accompanied by Richard Wingfield, but it is obvious from the reports sent back that he was in charge. The negotiation got off to a slow start. The Emperor was very poor, Boleyn wrote on 7 June, ‘which my lady knows right well’, and was therefore probably going to need a hefty subsidy before he would move.[37] Although Margaret had written in support of the English request, this had produced no result and at the end of June it was decided that a direct approach might be better. On the 29th Sir Thomas set off in search of Maximilian, but this turned out to be frustrating hunt, because the Emperor kept on the move, and no one seemed to be able to anticipate where he would go next. However, he caught up with him eventually, and a sequence of some half dozen letters in late July and early August outline the progress which had been made. So confident was Boleyn of ultimate success that he returned to the Low Countries, where on 20 August he reported that he had struck an amicable wager with the Regent that there would be an agreement within ten days – her Spanish courser against his hobby.[38] He probably lost his wager, because it was 4 September before he was able to report that agreement had actually been reached. In spite of this, the Emperor was in no hurry to conclude, and on 10 November Boleyn wrote in some frustration that there was still no word of his final decision. It was April 1513 before he finally signed the coveted treaty, and within a couple of weeks Sir Thomas was on his way home. The cost to Henry was 35,000 crowns, due one month after Maximilian’s declaration of war, and which was duly paid in June.[39]

  Throughout this mission he had reported directly to the King, and although this probably means in effect to the council, it is sufficient indication that Thomas Wolsey, although rising in the King’s favour, had not yet acquired that general control of business which he was to display a year or so later. It was also part of Sir Thomas’s business to recruit mercenaries for Henry’s service, in anticipation of the campaign which he was to launch in 1513, and on 4 July 1512 he was able to report that he had paid retainers to 2,000 such, although he did not say where he had got them from. Presumably they had come courtesy of the Archduchess Margaret, with whom he seems to have been on friendly, even familiar terms from the beginning.[40] It is possible that Boleyn was becoming anxious as his mission dragged on, of the influence which Thomas Wolsey was beginning to acquire over the King, but in terms of his own affairs, he need not have worried. In spite of a somewhat sinister reference to ‘debts owed to the late king’ in November 1512, in March of the following year he was released of all such accruing from his service at Sheriff of Kent in 1510–11, including the bond of £40 which he had entered into on assuming office. The remainder were not pursued, and in January 1513 he was duly paid the 200 marks which were due to him for his ambassadorial expenses, the kind of favour which most diplomats had to wait until their return to enjoy.[41] Henry had been more than a little dismayed by the chaos which accompanied the Marquis of Dorset’s expedition to Guienne in the early summer of 1512, which had been aborted on account of Ferdinand’s failure to provide the expected back up, and even more annoyed by the latter’s decision to sign a truce with France in direct breech of his obligations under the Holy League. 1513 had not been a good year for English arms either. Sir Edward Howard, the Lord Admiral, had been killed in a foolhardy attack on some French galleys near Brest, and his fleet had retreated in confusion.[42] Consequently the King was even more determined to take advantage of the Treaty which Sir Thomas had negotiated with Maximilian, in order to redeem some honour from two otherwise unfortunate seasons. In the high summer he mustered an army royal of some 40,000 men, and invaded Hainault via Calais at the beginning of July. Accompanying him in the ‘middle ward’ of this host were about 800 members of his household under arms, and one of these would have been Sir Thomas Boleyn.[43]

  The nature of Sir Thomas’s service in this connection can only be guessed at, because he does not feature in the surviving records, but as a Knight of the Body he must have been with Henry, and may well have acted as an interpreter during the constant discussions which went on between the English and Burgundian forces. He may not have had any active military role, because in spite of his chivalric skills, his only field experience had been at Blackheath nearly twenty years before. Maximilian duly put in an appearance at the siege of Therouanne in August, offering to serve under Henry’s command in return for another hefty dollop of cash, and when the town surrendered on the 23rd, it was handed over to him and largely destroyed.[44] In the wake of this victory, Henry took himself off to Lille to celebrate with his ally Margaret of Austria, and it is hard to imagine that her friend Sir Thomas Boleyn was not of the company. Apart from any other consideration, it would have given him a chance to visit his younger daughter Anne, whom he had successfully established as a demoiselle d’honneur in her household before his departure in the spring. Indeed it is very likely that Anne herself was involved in the endless discussions which resulted in Henry turning his next attentions to the town of Tournai, a place in which Maximilian’s interest was more marked than his own. This time, however, there was no hand over. When the town surrendered on 23 September it was on the understanding that the citizens would acknowledge Henry as King of France, which was a polite way of choking off the Emperor’s ambitions.[45] Maximilian seems to have swallowed the rebuff with equanimity and the town remained in English hands for the next five years. About a week later Henry returned to England, and his household travelled with him. The King seems at first to been determined to fight another campaign in the summer of 1514, and mobilised ships and men for that purpose, but he changed his mind. It may have been doubts about the effectiveness of his ally, and the expense of maintaining him, or it may have been disgust at the withdrawal of Ferdinand from the alliance, but most probably it was because the Pope was anxious to abandon the Holy League. Julius II had died in February 1513 and his successor Leo X was not committed to the war. By the beginning of 1514 he was putting pressure on the belligerents to settle, and after some hesitation, Henry responded positively.[46] This may have been because he was beginning to appreciate the fearsome cost of hostilities, but more likely it was on account of the influence of Thomas Wolsey, his almoner, who was rising very fast in the royal favour during 1513 and 1514. Wolsey had been responsible for the logistics of the Tournai campaign, and had been rewarded with the revenues of the see after its fall. It was consequently Wolsey who organised the peace negotiations which took place in the summer of 1514, and in which Sir Thomas Boleyn seems to have played no part. As one of the councillors most committed to the war, he was probably omitted deliberately. Wolsey was, however, careful to ensure that the latter’s services did not go unrewarded, and in May 1514 Sir Thomas was granted four lordships in the hundreds of Wayland and Greymanshaw in the county of Norfolk, for which he was required to pay an annual rental of £71 6s 8d.[47] This would have been a very profitable deal for its recipient, and would have strengthened considerably his hold upon the landed estates of the county.

  There are a number of indications that Sir Thomas Boleyn was in high favour at this point. In spite of his known opposition to the peace he was able to take advantage of it in one very significant way. His elder daughter, Mary, was one of those named to accompany the King’s sister when she went to marry Louis XII, by the term
s of the treaty. This was certainly an appointment which owed more to Sir Thomas than it did to any qualities in the girl herself, because although she was attractive to look at, she seems to have had no gifts either of character or ability which would qualify her for such a posting.[48] It may be that the King regarded the Boleyns as a trustworthy family, because at about the same time their father wrote a somewhat embarrassed letter to the Archduchess, asking her to release Anne for the same service. He would hardly have done this of his own volition, and we must assume that Henry had for some reason decided that both the Boleyn girls should accompany his sister to France. Sir Thomas and Lady Boleyn both took part in the mumming at the Christmas revels in 1514, along with the Guildfords, the Duke of Suffolk and ‘Mistress Elizabeth Blunt’, which was again a mark of particular favour.[49] Unfortunately Mary Tudor’s reign as queen of France came to an abrupt end only weeks after it had started, because Louis died on 1 January 1515, leaving her and her entourage stranded in a France now run by the twenty-year-old Francis of Angouleme. Mary solved this problem tidily by marrying Charles Brandon, the Duke of Suffolk whom Henry had sent to bring her home. There is much controversy surrounding this marriage, with which the King was alleged to be offended, but which Wolsey seems to have approved. Did Mary take the initiative? Was she trying to escape the unwelcome attentions of Francis? The French king approved of the union because he was anxious to prevent Henry from deploying her on the international market, and it may have been for that reason that Henry was annoyed.[50] Anyway, when she returned to England in May 1515 it was as the Duchess of Suffolk, and the couple faced stiff financial penalties until the King was placated. At the same time, Anglo-French relations began to deteriorate, not least because the two kings were now alike in their age and ambitions. The Boleyn girls, however, did not return. Sir Thomas must have enjoyed some especial favour at the French court because he was able to transfer both his daughters to the service of the new Queen Consort, Claude, who was a girl not much older than themselves. Given the competition which must have existed within France for such positions, it is remarkable that Claude chose to retain two English girls among her personal attendants, but so it was.