41
It appeared significant to some that the patent of creation, when referring to the new Lady Marquess’s heirs male, omitted the usual words “lawfully begotten.” Was Anne’s ennoblement a reward for her surrender and a way of ensuring that any child, legitimate or otherwise, born of her body, was sufficiently provided for? It would seem so. For it is almost certain that, once Warham was dead, Anne, confidently anticipating that she would soon be married, became the King’s mistress in the fullest sense.
Henry was determined that she should be at his side throughout the visit to France, a queen in all but name. He demanded that Katherine surrender the official jewels of the Queens of England, so that Anne could wear them. Katherine indignantly declared she would not give up what was rightfully hers to adorn “a person who is a reproach to Christendom and is bringing scandal and disgrace upon the King through his taking her to such a meeting as this in France.” But the King insisted and she had no choice but to obey.1 Most of the jewels, which included four bracelets with eighteen table rubies, twenty other rubies, and two diamonds, were then reset for Anne.2
Anne was determined to have all the trappings of queenship. Without telling the King, she ordered her Chamberlain to seize the Queen’s barge, a fine vessel with twenty-four oars, and have its coat of arms burned off and replaced with her own; the barge was also painted in Anne’s colours, blue and purple. Chapuys made a formal protest to the King, who angrily censured the Chamberlain.3
Anne then ruffled feathers by ordering some gowns in the French fashion; Polydore Vergil condemned the modes she had copied from the “wanton creatures” at the French court as being “singularly unfit for the chaste.” The French, however, were to be impressed by Anne’s wardrobe, which included a gown of cloth of gold spangled with diamonds, and several items with which the King had provided her: a green damask gown, a gown made entirely of gold-embroidered velvet, which cost £74 (£22,200), silks, furs, and the more intimate gift of a “nightgown” made of fourteen yards of black satin lined with taffeta, banded with velvet, and with upper sleeves stiffened with buckram.4
For all Anne’s grand preparations for the coming visit, no royal lady of the French court could be found to receive her. Henry had no wish to meet Francis’s second queen,5 Eleanor of Austria, who was the Emperor’s sister, and Francis’s own sister Marguerite refused to receive “the King’s whore.”6 Henry was horrified when it was suggested that Francis’s mistress, the Duchess of Vendôme, should do the honours. It was decided, therefore, that Anne should remain in Calais while Henry travelled alone to meet Francis. On 7 October they left Greenwich; among Henry’s retinue of 2,139 persons7 were Richmond, Norfolk, a reluctant Suffolk (whose wife had refused to accompany him),8 Cromwell, Wyatt, and the Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber.9 Anne was attended by thirty ladies, summoned by the King to accompany his “dearest and most beloved cousin.”10 While the main personnel of the court went on ahead to Calais, the royal party spent one night at Stone, the home of one of Anne’s closest friends, Bridget, Lady Wingfield, 11another at Shurland as the guest of Sir Thomas Cheney, and a third at Canterbury in the house of Sir Christopher Hales. Then they rode to Dover. 12
At 5 A.M. on 11 October 1532, the King and his sweetheart set sail in the Swallow. The wind was fair, and they were in Calais by 10 A.M. After being received by the Mayor and Lord Berners, the King’s Deputy, and riding in torchlit procession to the Church of St. Nicholas to hear mass, they were lodged at the Exchequer,13 a great mansion that had been enlarged against their coming. Henry’s bed had been sent ahead from England and set up in his lodgings, which were hung with green velvet. Anne was assigned a suite of seven rooms, and a connecting door linked her bedchamber to the King’s;14 a French source states that they were living openly together. 15 Anne was certainly accompanying Henry to mass and everywhere else, just as if she were queen already, and there was speculation that Henry would secretly marry her while they were in Calais.16 Anne had hinted as much to her sister back in August, when she wrote bidding Mary prepare to attend her to Calais, where “that which I have so long wished for will be accomplished.”17
In Calais, Henry and Anne spent ten days at leisure, hawking, inspecting the town’s defences, gambling with Norfolk, and other courtiers,18 and feasting on gifts of food sent by Anne de Montmorency, Constable of France: carp and porpoise, venison pasties, choice pears, and grapes. 19
By mutual agreement, the coming visit was to bear no resemblance to the Field of Cloth of Gold: Henry insisted there must be “no precious apparel of gold, nor embroidery, nor any other sort of nonsense.” 20 Each King was to be attended by his household only and six hundred men-at-arms. It had also been decided that Henry and Francis would each bear the cost of entertaining the other. In the event, most of these strictures were ignored, and both sovereigns spent lavishly on their attire and the entertainments: Henry is estimated to have outlaid more than £6,000 (£1,800,000).
On 16 October, Norfolk and Montmorency met to finalise the details, and on 19 October King Francis arrived at Boulogne, where he set up court in the Abbey of Notre Dame. Two days later the two Kings were embracing at St. Inglevert, then known as Sandingfield, near the border of the Calais Pale. Henry, who wore russet velvet with borders of goldsmiths’ work and pearls, had with him an escort of 140 velvet-clad lords and gentlemen, 40 guards, and 600 horse. For a mile, Henry and Francis rode hand in hand; then they stopped to drink a toast to one another near the French border. Hawking along the way, they proceeded towards Boulogne, outside of which they were met by the Dauphin Francis and his two brothers, wearing black velvet edged with silver, who were accompanied by four cardinals and a thousand horse. Henry kissed Francis’s sons on the mouth and embraced them fondly,21 then kissed each of the French lords present. A thousand cannon sounded a deafening salute—which could be heard twenty miles away—as the royal procession entered Boulogne.
Here, Henry lodged with Francis in the Abbey of Notre Dame, in a suite of four chambers hung with cloth of silver and tapestries depicting scenes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Every day, he and Francis attended mass in the abbey church, kneeling in separate oratories, and ate in great splendour in the refectory, which had been adorned with tapestries portraying the story of Scipio Africanus. A vast buffet had been set up there, displaying plate glittering with precious gems.
During the four-day visit, an observer noted that the French “far surpassed the English in apparel.” Francis himself once appeared in a doublet “overset with stones and rich diamonds, valued at £100,000” (£30 million),22 and Henry wore an outfit that Francis gave him, a crimson satin doublet encrusted with pearls beneath a long gown of white velvet embroidered in gold.
On the first day, Henry and Francis talked of going on a joint crusade against the Turks, and then went on to discuss the Great Matter. Francis promised to use his influence with the Pope to achieve a favourable outcome, and undertook to dispatch two cardinals to Rome to inform Clement of the alliance and assure him that he need not fear the Emperor.23
The weather remained fine. In the afternoons, Henry watched Francis’s sons playing tennis, and laid bets on the outcome; one day, he lost £157 (£47,100).24 He made an offering at the shrine of Our Lady of Boulogne25 and entertained the French nobles to a sumptuous feast. There was no jousting and no dancing, since there were no ladies present. Henry lavished gifts on his host, among them fine horses, mastiffs, falcons, and jewels, and gave the Dauphin and his brothers 300,000 gold crowns.26 His gifts were so generous that Francis had to borrow funds in order to present Henry with six horses and he also gave him his own bed, hung with crimson velvet.
On 24 October, Francis invested Norfolk and Suffolk with the Order of St. Michael. The next day, he left for Calais with Henry, who was resplendent in a cloth of gold gown over a slashed doublet ornamented with diamond and ruby clasps. Outside Calais, Francis was greeted by the Duke of Richmond, “a goodly young prince full of favour and beauty”;27 three thousand guns sounded another salute as the royal cavalcade rode into the town and through streets lined with English soldiers and serving men. 28 Francis was lodged in great state, at the expense of the Calais merchants, at their headquarters, the Staple Inn, where 2,400 beds and stabling for two thousand horses had been made ready for his retinue. That evening, the French King sent the Provost of Paris to Anne Boleyn with a costly diamond as a token of his esteem.
On the Sunday evening, there was bull- and bearbaiting in the courtyard of the Staple Inn. A huge variety of meat, game, and fish was served at supper in the banqueting hall, which had been hung with silver and gold tissue adorned with gold wreaths which sparkled with precious stones, reflecting the light from twenty silver chandeliers, each bearing one hundred wax candles. A seven-tier buffet groaned under the weight of the Tudor gold plate. Henry appeared in purple cloth of gold with a collar of fourteen rubies, the smallest the size of a goose’s egg, and two rows of pearls, from which hung the Black Prince’s ruby.29
After supper, Anne Boleyn and seven other ladies, including Lady Mary Howard, Lady Rochford, and Lady Fitzwalter, all masked and clothed in unusual outfits of cloth of gold and crimson tinsel with gold laces, danced before the two Kings. Then they led out the gentlemen, Anne herself partnering Francis. Henry could not resist pulling off her mask to show the French King who he was dancing with,30 but Francis rose to the occasion superbly, and after the dance had ceased, sat chatting with Anne in a window seat for an hour.31 The evening ended with Henry escorting his brother monarch to his apartments.
On 28 October, Henry held a chapter of the Order of the Garter, which Francis attended, wearing his Garter robes. Here, the two Kings made a solemn pledge to go on crusade against the Turks. Later that day, they watched wrestling matches between Henry’s Cornish champions and the French, which the Cornishmen won.32 Francis invited Richmond and Surrey to visit his court to complete their education, and it was agreed that they should accompany him back to France, where they would remain until September 1533.
At the end of the visit, on 29 October, Henry accompanied Francis onto French soil, and there the two monarchs said farewell with “princely countenance and hearty words”;33 a stronger rapport had been established between them, and Henry was confident that Francis would prove a supportive friend.
After the King returned to Calais, violent storms lashed the Channel coast, and he and Anne were obliged to remain where they were for nearly two weeks. When the tempest had abated, fog set in, but the King insisted on sailing back to England at midnight on 12 November. He and Anne then took a leisurely route through Kent, staying at Leeds Castle, and again at Stone on 20 November; they arrived at Eltham Palace on 24 November.34 Soon afterwards, the King made a state entry into London and gave thanks at St. Paul’s for the success of his visit and his safe return.
In December, Henry escorted Anne and Giles de la Pommeraye to the Tower of London. After they had inspected the building works, the King allowed his guests the rare privilege of entering his treasure chamber, where he presented a beautiful gold cup to the ambassador as a token of his gratitude. He also gave Anne a cupboard, and she selected gilt cups, flagons, basins, and candelabra for her New Year’s gifts.35 Christmas was spent at Greenwich, with such a lavish banquet being served on Twelfth Night that temporary kitchens had to be built in the grounds. Soon afterwards, Anne realised she was pregnant.