40

“The Lady Marquess”

In the summer of 1532, the King presented to Anne Boleyn the royal manor house at Hanworth, near Hounslow in Middlesex. The house had been rebuilt by his father on the site of an older one; Henry now extended the property and had it remodelled in the Renaissance style, with terracotta roundels of goddesses by Giovanni di Maiano,¹ and completely refurnished. The house stood to the south of the present parish church, and was connected by bridges over the moat to the beautiful gardens laid out by Henry VII with ponds, strawberry beds, an orchard, and an aviary. Beyond was a park where the King “took great delight” hunting “buck and hare.” ² Anne was also given the royal manor of Ditton Park at this time.

Another major building project on which the King embarked in 1532 was the embellishment of the chapel of King’s College, Cambridge. He paid for a superb rood screen, organ loft, and stalls, which were wonderfully carved by Italian craftsmen with Henry and Anne’s initials and devices. The King later provided the magnificent stained-glass windows, which were the work of his own glaziers, Galyon Hone and Bernard Flower. These works are some of the most outstanding examples of English Renaissance art to survive from the period.

The improvements at Hampton Court were progressing rapidly. In 1532, work was begun on the vast great hall—106 feet long, 40 feet wide, and 60 feet high—on the site of Wolsey’s old hall, from which the large oriel window by the dais may be a survival. “The King’s new hall” was built of brick and stone in the Perpendicular style, with buttresses surmounted by octagonal turrets bearing the King’s Beasts and gilded vanes; erected at first-floor level, above the cellars, it was designed as the first of the outward apartments, and was accessed by a processional stair. When completed, it would have a tiled floor³ and a fine minstrels’ gallery above an oak screen. Crowning all was a magnificent hammerbeam roof designed by the King’s Master Carpenter, James Nedeham, which was decorated with red, blue, and gold badges and initials—among them those of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn—as well as figures, antique scrollwork and putti, and elaborate pendants, all carved by the royal joiner, Richard Ridge of London. A three-tiered, hexagonal, domed louvre in the roof let out the smoke from the central hearth. The hall was completed in 1535, and was hung with the tapestries depicting the story of Abraham, which are still there today.⁴

The hall at Hampton Court, although calculated to impress, was the only one of its type built by Henry VIII, and it was already outdated by the time building work commenced. At several other houses, Henry was demolishing his great halls and replacing them with an outward firstfloor chamber accessed by a great processional, or “halpace,” stair from the courtyard—an arrangement that would endure in English palaces for three hundred years.

Work at York Place was forging ahead. In 1531, the King had aquired the old leper hospital of St. James, which stood in open countryside nearby, and had pensioned off its three remaining inmates and had the old buildings demolished. Between 1532 and 1540 he erected there “a magnificent goodly house”⁵ as “a residence for the royal children,” ⁶ which was known as St. James’s House or St. James’s in the Fields. Ranged around four courtyards, it was approached via a mighty gatehouse embellished with octagonal turrets and decorated with a Tudor rose and the initials H and A. The new palace boasted fine royal lodgings, a tennis court, a tiltyard, and a beautiful chapel,⁷ but no great hall. Out of sixty acres of nearby marshland, which he had drained, the King created St. James’s Park, and he stocked it with deer for his “greater commodity and pleasure.”⁸ To this he added a hunting chase for his own exclusive use; it stretched as far as Hampstead Heath and Islington. Henry himself rarely stayed at the palace. It was used mainly as a London residence for the Duke of Richmond.

In the summer of 1532, Henry’s new mania for building was extended to the Tower, which he wanted refurbished in time for Anne Boleyn’s coronation, an event which he confidently expected would take place in the near future. At a cost of £3,500 (£1,050,000), Cromwell arranged for the old royal apartments to be gutted, and their walls and ceilings decorated in the antique style. A new Queen’s lodging was built in the Inner Ward, north of the Lanthorn Tower, with a presence chamber, a dining chamber, a bedchamber with a privy, a gallery that led to the King’s apartments, and a bridge across the moat leading to a private garden. A novel “mantel of wainscot with antique” was installed in the dining chamber, and Henry was so pleased with the effect that he began tearing out fireplaces in his other houses and replacing them with similar antique-style mantels. Back at the Tower, St. Thomas’s Tower was converted into new lodgings for court officials, and the White Tower was put in repair.⁹

In 1532, Andrew Wright replaced John Browne as Serjeant Painter to the King. Essentially a decorative artist, he had commended himself by his work on royal ships, carriages, banners, and pageant scenery. Another artist who may have worked for Henry at this time was one “Ambrose,” who may be identified with Ambrosius Benson, a Lombard who had been a member of the Painters’ Guild of Bruges since 1519. Benson is known for his religious pictures and portraits, and almost certainly painted Lord Berners, the translater of Froissart, but no royal commissions can be traced.¹⁰

The work of such artists was soon to be utterly eclipsed by that of Hans Holbein, who returned to England in 1532 and settled in London, where, since his former patron, Sir Thomas More, was no longer in a position to help him, he made a living painting the portraits of the German merchant community. Yet Holbein’s links with the court were by no means broken, and within a year his growing reputation would ensure that he would be again in demand.

In the field of music, as in art, there were rising stars at court. One was a “very handsome”¹¹ young man called Mark Smeaton, who was appointed a Groom of the Privy Chamber in 1532.¹² He was not only a gifted player on the lute, virginals, and portable organ, but also an excellent singer and dancer. His talent had been spotted while he was quite young, and he had joined Wolsey’s choir, transferring to the Chapel Royal after the Cardinal’s fall. It was talent alone that accounted for his rise, not birth, since he was merely the son of a carpenter and a seamstress, with whom he now disdained to have much contact.¹³ He also dressed badly, usually in “yerns” (which have been improbably identified as jeans), and the King occasionally provided him with shirts, hose, shoes, and bonnets.¹⁴ People addressed him as Mark, which indicates his lowly status within the Privy Chamber.¹⁵

Smeaton, whose name was later to be irrevocably and tragically linked with Anne Boleyn’s, was soon taken up by Lord Rochford, through whom he became associated with the Boleyn circle at court. His signature—“A moi, M. Marc S.”—appears at the bottom of Rochford’s manuscript of Jean Lefèvre’s poems; this manuscript later came into the possession of Wyatt, whose name is written in it, along with a number of proverbs on the flyleaves.¹⁶ There is no evidence that Rochford and Smeaton were ever involved in a homosexual relationship, as has recently been suggested. ¹⁷

Mark Smeaton has also been associated with a music book written for Anne Boleyn.¹⁸ His signature on the Lefèvre manuscript has been identified with the handwriting in this book, from which it has been inferred that he wrote it, but this is by no means certain. The music book is a collection of thirty-nine Latin motets and five French chansons, all written before 1515; among them are works by the great French composer Josquin des Prés, with which Anne had probably become familiar in Burgundy and France. One initial letter depicts what has been described as Anne’s armorial falcon pecking at a pomegranate, the badge of Katherine of Aragon; this, if correct, would date the book’s completion to 1533 at the earliest, since Anne adopted her falcon badge in that year. However, this bird bears no resemblance to Anne’s crowned falcon. Thomas Boleyn’s motto, “Now thus,” also appears, as does a reference to “Mres. [Mistress] A. Bolleyne,” which indicates that the manuscript was begun before December 1529, in which case it cannot have been Smeaton’s work. Anne may even have brought it home with her from France in 1522.

In the summer of 1532, the King and Anne Boleyn left Hampton Court on a progress to Woodstock and Abingdon,¹⁹ but this was curtailed for fear of demonstrations against Anne.²⁰ In August, on his return south, Henry visited Waltham Abbey,²¹ and was then entertained by Sir Thomas Cheney, now Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, at Shurland House on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, which had been extended and improved in honour of the King’s coming.²² The King and Anne spent the rest of the summer hunting at Hanworth.

Throughout the progress, Giles de la Pommeraye was at the King’s side; he had come to negotiate a new treaty of friendship between Henry and Francis I and discuss Henry’s forthcoming visit to France, during which the King hoped to persuade Francis to intercede on his behalf with Pope Clement VII. In order to win over the French, Henry showed great favour to the ambassador, personally showing him the improvements he had made at the houses they visited, ²³ singling him out as his sole companion on hunting expeditions, and inviting him to partner Anne Boleyn in archery contests. When Anne hosted a feast for the King at Hanworth, de la Pommeraye was guest of honour. ²⁴

Henry was feeling far from well at this time. He was suffering from chronic toothache and sinus trouble, as well as gout, which was probably the result of eating too much rich food. Nevertheless, he did not let his ailments interfere with his enjoyment of the progress nor his plans for the French visit. A majority of the universities had declared in his favour, and he was confident that pressure could be brought to bear on Clement to give a decision in his favour. If not, it was open to him to take the ultimate step and break with Rome.

Then, opportunely, on 22 August, Archbishop Warham died, aged eighty-two. As his long life drew to a close, his conscience had finally moved him to condemn the King’s nullity suit and state his intention of opposing any legislation that might be injurious to the Church. Henry had angrily threatened him with the Statute of Praemunire, but the Archbishop was too ill to leave his bed and past worldly considerations. Now he was dead, and the King could choose in his place someone who would prove more amenable. Henry opted for Thomas Cranmer, who was duly elected Archbishop of Canterbury, unopposed by an unsuspecting Pope.

The King was optimistic that Anne would soon be Queen, and on Sunday, 1 September 1532, in order to increase her status, and give her equal rank with some of the noble ladies whom she would meet in France, he took the unusual step of creating her a peeress—Lady Marquess of Pembroke—in her own right, in a glittering ceremony at Windsor. Before mass, Anne, wearing a gown of crimson velvet “completely covered with the most costly jewels,” ²⁵ with her hair loose about her shoulders, was escorted by the Countesses of Rutland and Sussex into the presence chamber. The Duchess of Norfolk appears to have refused to attend,²⁶ so her daughter, Lady Mary Howard, followed behind, carrying a crimson velvet mantle and gold coronet. Anne knelt before the King, who was attended by the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk and Giles de la Pommeraye, and he invested her with the mantle and coronet as the patent of creation, which also granted her £1,000 a year “for the maintaining of her dignity,” was read aloud by Bishop Gardiner. Then the new Lady Marquess rose, curtseyed, and thanked the King before retiring, to the sound of trumpets, to her chamber.

After mass in St. George’s Chapel, the King and Giles de la Pommeraye both swore to abide by the terms of the new Treaty of Windsor, after which the ambassador was again the guest of honour at a state banquet held in celebration of the new alliance and Anne’s ennoblement.²⁷