The New Queen Esther

King Henry grew increasingly horrified as he listened to the sermon by John Skipp, his wife Anne's Almoner, on Passion Sunday at Greenwich.  The man actually had the temerity to insult him! He had talked about King Solomon who was immoral in his last years and took 'wives and concubines'. There was no doubt that Skip was referring to Henry!

Thomas Cromwell was also extremely angry because the sermon was a thinly disguised attack on his bill for the dissolution of the smaller monasteries and it must have been approved by Anne herself. Skipp was obviously defending the clergy who he felt were treated as if they were all guilty. He compared them to the Jews in the Bible story who were persecuted by the evil and greedy councillor Haman.  This was certainly meant to be a reference to Cromwell.

The only one who may have been pleased was Anne who Skipp compared with the good Queen Esther who saved the Jews and hanged the mendacious Haman. Unfortunately, she had no way of knowing that her fight with Cromwell would be the beginning of her downfall.

Anne was angry about the dissolution of the monasteries because she had thought that that its purpose was reform and the bill referred to using the confiscated assets for the pleasure of Almighty God and to help maintain people of good learning and educational institutions. Instead, she discovered that Henry and Cromwell were selling the highly-valued assets to the Crown, selling off monastery land cheaply to nobles and merchants and using proceeds to shore up defences. Cromwell may also have siphoned some of the money for himself.

The Queen wanted the monasteries to be reformed or converted to educational foundations. She also wanted the money from any dissolutions to be committed to university bursaries and scholarships to train clergymen or given to the poor.  She may even  have personally requested the King to preserve Catesby Abbey but he refused because the nuns could not support themselves.  (However, Elizabeth Norton thinks that it was Jane Seymour who made the appeal).  She also gave English prayer books to the nuns at Syon Priory after giving them a lecture about using Latin primers.

According to Eric Ives, Chapuys wrote that Cromwell actually tried to conciliate Anne by moderating the dissolution, but Henry, seeing the coffers of gold, opposed this.  Cromwell's desire for an imperial alliance also boded badly for the poor Queen. The final straw was the King's liking for the quiet and sedate Jane Seymour.  Cromwell would have to choose...

Anne's Marriages

I was going to write about the marriage or marriages of the enigmatic Anne Boleyn, my favourite wife.  However, I found this excellent post about Henry and Anne.  This is a comprehensive look at the subject.  Enjoy it.

The Weddings of the Six Wives: Part One

                              Catherine of Aragon's Splendid Wedding

Catherine of Aragon's splendid wedding to Prince Arthur on Sunday, November 14, 1501 was one of the most expensive royal weddings of all time.  No money was spared for the union of this young couple!

The huge church of old Saint Paul's, London looked resplendent with its colourful tapestries, glittering relics, and its other festive decorations.  A raised platform, covered in rich red baize, was built so that everyone could see the young couple but the King and Queen were able to watch the actual wedding ceremony privately through a separate door.

 Every eye turned to see the Princess when they heard the fanfare of trumpets which greeted her at the Galilee porch.  The pretty Princess was arrayed in a white satin gown with a train and a glittering Spanish-style veil of white and gold.  The veil contained pearls and other precious gemstones.  Like the Duchess of Cambridge, she had a long procession

The Princess and Prince exchanged vows of fidelity and promised to care for each other 'in sickness and in health' and 'for richer or poorer' during their glittering wedding ceremony. The wedding was conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Henry Deane. They then celebrated High Mass.

Afterwards, the marriage was celebrated with great rejoicing.  There were feasts, tournaments, masked balls, and plays.

Unfortunately, the couple had no children and Prince Arthur died five months later.  The Princess eventually married his younger brother, King Henry VIII.  They had one child, Princess Mary.  Many years later, he King fell in love with the charming and alluring Anne Boleyn King Henry worried that he had not been given an heir because he had married his brother's widow - according to a verse in Leviticus, this was a sin.  He obtained a 'divorce' so that he could marry his mistress, Anne Boleyn.  This started England on the path to the Reformation.

Catherine of Aragon as Mary Magdelene

The King's Secret Matter by Jean Plaidy

This is a sympathetic portrayal of Catherine of Aragon who suffered so much at the hands of Henry VIII. Plaidy paints a vivid picture of the splendour of Henry's court and the life that Catherine is forced to endure after her downfall.

Catherine is depicted as proud and determined to fight for her daughter's legitimacy. She is a very loving wife and mother, and remains very fond of Henry even when he subjects her to great trials. She is, perhaps, shown as a little bit too saintly, but Plaidy does an excellent job of making the reader feel very sorry for her.

Plaidy's character analysis of Henry is also excellent. He could be kind and loving, but quickly change to being nasty. His mercurial nature must have been extremely frightening! Henry was capable of turning against people very quickly, and the fear of death became ever-present for those close to him.

Plaidy also wrote well about Wolsey, but I got a bit tired of reading about him. He wasn't a very likeable character, and I wasn't especially interested in reading about his thoughts. Plaidy probably thought that this made the story clearer, but I am not sure that it was necessary.

I enjoyed this book and thought that it was one of Plaidy's better novels. The story is depressing and the reader knows that at the start. This probably made the novel even harder to write because many readers like happy endings. This book is worth reading if you like historical novels set in Tudor times.

Six Wives by David Starkey

This is a clearly written and interesting book in which Starkey attempts to get rid of many misconceptions about Henry VIII's wives. These misconceptions have existed for centuries. Catherine of Aragon has always been regarded as saintly, for example. Although Starkey agrees that she was very religious, he does think that she probably lied about her first marriage. She did spend a long time with Henry's brother, Arthur, who was quite healthy. It is unlikely that the marriage wasn't consummated.

He also writes sympathetically about Katherine Howard. She is usually regarded as a rather stupid tecenager, but Starkey's book shows that she really wasn't stupid. She also had a mind of her own and spoke up for some people whose lives were in danger.

I did think that Starkey got carried away by speculation at times. He writes that Anne Boleyn, for example, had her bed hung with richly embroidered crimson velvet of the 'Bed of Alancon'. He thinks that Anne may have wanted this because she got the Duke of Alancon mixed up with the French duke, Longueville, captured by the English during Henry's war with the French. Catherine had written that she would exchange the coat of the dead King of Scots, killed in the great battle of Flodden, for the Duke. Starkey thinks that Anne may have regarded the relic as a symbol of Catherine's finest hour, and appropriated it for herself. This seemed to me to be rather a stretch. Perhaps Anne just liked the beautiful fabric?

One reviewer wrote that Anne was Starkey's favourite, but I didn't think so. He annoyed me by attributing ulterior motives to her at almost every turn. The passage about the bed was just one example.

He also appeared to dislike Jane Seymour, who didn't seem to have too many qualms about Anne's death. His view of her was more understandable, I thought.

This was not a riveting book. The beginning was a bit dull but Starkey got into his stride when he started writing about Anne Boleyn and the book became more interesting. Most people who like to read about Henry's fascinating wives will enjoy it.

NB: I also posted this review at my Book Addiction blog.

The Rose of Christendom

The beautiful Princess Mary Tudor was once called 'the Rose of Christendom' by a French admiral. You can read about her here: Mary Tudor, Queen of France.

The Duchess of Suffolk and Charles Brandon were friendly with Katherine of Aragon and didn't approve of Anne Boleyn. They took Katherine's side in 'the Great Matter'.