Henry VIII

[Henry VIII]

1532


Mar 18th - English parliament bans payments by English church to Rome
1532 Cromwell Appointed Receiver General. Also becomes supervisor of the lands at Oxford belonging to Wolsey's former Cardinal's Colleg
12 April 1532 The Convocation of Canterbury met , after its last session ended in March.
14 April 1532 Cromwell Appointed Master of the King's Jewel House (a shared position)
On the 10th May Edward Foxe, the Bishop of Hereford, presented the Convocation with a schedule of three articles which King Henry VIII had sent to the Convocation for ratification.

-the Church of England was to renounce its authority to make church law (canons) without royal licence;
-the Convocation was to submit all existing canons to the scrutiny of a committee, which would be appointed by the King. Half of the members would be from Parliament (eight from each house) and half from the clergy. This committee would proclaim void all canons it found offensive;
- the Convocation was to retain the remaining canons with the King's consent.

may 11 1532 The Convocation was to meet again but the King, accompanied by his councillors in Parliament, made a speech attacking the clergy .

May 1532 - the notorious ‘Submission of the Clergy’, by which the English clergy renounced its traditional right to legislate in ecclesiastical matters on its own authority
and subordinated its power to the pleasure or veto of the king.

This led Henry's Chancellor, Thomas More, to resignhis office in what was widely seen as a gesture of protest.
May 16 ; Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England.
Jun 23rd - Henry VIII & Francois I signs secret treaty against emperor Charles V

The dénouement of the divorce was heralded in 1532 by the death of the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Warham, and the surprising recall of the little-known Thomas Cranmer, then an ambassador at the Emperor;s court in Germany,to become his successor.

June 28th - Birthday
16 july 1532 Cromwell Appointed Clerk of the Hanaper and Master of the Court of Wards
22 August 1532 - Warham died and was buried in Canterbury Cathedral.
September 1 Lady Anne Boleyn is created Marquess of Pembroke by her fiancé, King Henry VIII of England.
Henry renewed his political amity with France that autumn, crossing the Channel to meet
Francis I at Boulogne – and, significantly, taking Anne Boleyn with him in the first public recognition of her role as royal consort.She fell pregnant then or shortly afterwards, and the pace of events quickened.
December - Christmas & New Year

1533
25 January - King Henry VIII marries Anne Boleyn, his second Queen consort.
England's Henry VIII marries Anne Boleyn, now 26, who has been his mistress for the past 6 years. The ceremony is performed in secret January 25 by butcher's son Thomas Cranmer, 43, who has gained influence in the court and advised Henry that his 1509 marriage to Catherine of Aragon is null and void because she was previously married to Henry's late brother Arthur, prince of Wales, even though that marriage was probably never consummated.
6 February - Act in Restraint of Appeals declares England to be a wholly independent 'empire'.
30 March Henry VIII divorces his 1st wife, Catherine of Aragon
As a consequence, Catherine was demoted to Dowager Princess of Wales (a title she would have held as the widow of Arthur).
30 March - Thomas Cranmer becomes Archbishop of Canterbury.
April 1.......................................................Convocation declared by 14 votes to 76 that if Katherine's first marriage had been consumated, then her marriage to Henry was against God's law and as such invalid.
1533-April 5........................................................Convocation ruled that the Pope did not have the authority to issue a bull setting aside the ruling in Leviticus that no man shall marry his brother's wife. The ruling was opposed by Bishop John Fisher
1533-April 9.........................................................Thomas Howard, 34d Duke of Norfolk and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk were sent to Ampthill to tell Katherine that Henry and Anne were married. She was told that as she was now no longer Queen she must use the title Princess Dowager of Wales. She was allowed to keep her property but her servants and household expenses would now be her responsibility. She was also told that if she submitted to the King's will she would be generously provided for. 12 April - Thomas Cromwell becomes Secretary of State.
Thomas Cranmer was formally authorised to pass judgement on the King's marriage to Catherine.
May 1533 Act in Restraint of Annates This Act, first introduced in 1532, was now brought into force.
13 May 1533 Thomas Cranmer - divorce Thomas Cranmer declared Henry's marriage null and void on the grounds that it was contrary to divine law.
23 May - Henry VIII's marriage with Catherine of Aragon officially declared annulled and void. Catherine refuses to accept and continues to believe herself the wife of Henry till her death.
28 May - Cranmer declares the marriage of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn valid.
* Queen Anne Boleyn – The procession of the 29th May 1533 and Anne’s entry into the Tower of London.
* 31st May 1533 – The Coronation Procession and Celebrations – The ceremonies of the 30th May and the Procession of the 31st.
* Anne Boleyn’s Coronation Procession – Details of the route, the pageantry and celebration of Anne’s coronation procession on the 31st May.
* 1st June 1533 – The Whit Sunday Coronation of Anne Boleyn – Details on Anne’s coronation ceremony and banquet.

28th June - Birthday
1534.....................................................................................June/July (?date unclear?-Anne's Stillbirth/miscarriage-Henry orders it to be kept secret
1533-July 3..............................................................Katherine of Aragon is visited by a deputation of Councillors led by Lord Mountjoy. She is told that if she would submit to the King's wishes he would provide her with a handsome estate but that if she persisted in her obstinacy things would go badly for her daughter and servants 11 July - Pope Clement VII excommunicates Henry VIII.
1533-late July............................................................Henry is furious with Katherine's continual obstinacy and orders her to move to the Bishop of Lincoln's Palace at Buckden in Huntingdonshire 8 August - Cromwell Appointed Recorder of Bristol
7 Sept 1533 Birth of Elizabeth I A daughter, Elizabeth, was born to Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, at Greenwich. Henry was obviously disappointed that the baby was not a boy and blamed both God and Anne for denying him the heir he so desired.
mid Sept 1533 Mary Tudor Mary was told that she would no longer be referred to as Princess. Her household was to be disbanded and her servants were told to remove her badge from their liveries.
Mary was styled "The Lady Mary" rather than Princess because of her illegitimate status. She was expelled from Court, her servants (including her favourite maid Susan Clarencieux) were dismissed from her service.

Dec 1533 England/Papacy An order was issued that stated that the Pope had no more authority in England than any other bishop. From now on he would be referred to as the Bishop of Rome. The break with Rome had happened so gradually that there was very little opposition to the move.
December 1533 Mary Tudor was sent to serve as a lady-in-waiting to Elizabeth.
Dec 1533 Anne Boleyn Anne announced that she was pregnant for the second time.
December - Christmas & New Year

1534
early 1534 The Act in Absolute Restraint of Appeals This act put into effect the terms of the Act of 1532 and transferred all payments from the pope to the King. Henry was declared to be, next to Christ, the only Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England. It also laid down that all future abbots and bishops were to be chosen for election by the King.
early 1534 Act Against Peter's Pence An Act was passed that forbade the payment of Peter's Pence. The act also prohibited the selling of Papal dispensations in England. A clause was inconspicuously added giving the King the right to visit and reform all religious houses.
15 January - Parliament of England passes the Act Respecting the Oath to the Succession recognising the marriage of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, and their children as the legitimate heirs to the throne.
27 February 1534 Cromwell Appointed Joint Constable of Hertford Castle and Hertingfordbury, as well as Keeper of the Park there
1534....................................................................................February/March-Anne offers for Princess Mary to reconcile with Henry if she woujld accept her as Queen. Mary's response is that she knew no Queen but her mother but if the King's mistress wished to intercede she would be grateful. Anne would try this again on two more occasions with the same result
23 March 1534 Act of Succession This Act was introduced to exclude Mary from the succession and settle it instead on the children born from his marriage to Anne.
after 23 March 1534 Oath of Succession the King's councillors were to take the oath first, after which they would supervise their inferior officers. the sheriffs would ensure that the Justices of the Peace took the oath and they in turn would ensure that all house-holders took the oath. Refusal to take the oath would be tantamount to treason.
Spring 1534 Act concerning Archbishop of Canterbury An Act was passed that put the Archbishop of Canterbury's power of dispensation under the control of the King. The Archbishop was also to pay 2/3 of any profits made to the King. The Act also gave the King the power to visit the monasteries.
Spring 1534 Act of Parliament - Church An Act was passed that granted 1/10 of all clerical income to the Crown.
13 April 1534 Act of Succession John Fisher, Thomas More John Fisher and Thomas More refused to take the Oath of Succession.
15 April Cromwell Appointed Chief Secretary to King Henry VIII
17 April Sir Thomas Moore confined in London Tower
20 April - Elizabeth Barton executed for making prophesies against King Henry.
26 April - Fisher Arrested
he said “that the King was not, nor could be, by the Law of God, Supreme Head in earth of the Church of England”. The Pope tried to save Fisher by making him Cardinal-Priest of San Vitale (a member of the College of Cardinals)
Henry joked that Fisher would have to wear the Cardinal’s red hat on his shoulders, i.e. he would have no head on which to place it.
John Fisher was kept in the Tower of London from April 1534 until his death in June 1535 and during that time he was denied a priest and had to rely on friends and servants to bring him food.




1 May 1534 Act of Succession The terms of the Act of Succession were proclaimed across the land. The people were warned that if they said or wrote anything against the King's present marriage or his lawful heirs, they would be guilty of treason, punishable by death
23 May.....................................................................Pope pronounces Katherine and Henry's marriage as still valid
1534-May..........................................................................Katherine moves to Kimbolton
Spring/ Summer 1534 Church Henry wanted to be sure that his subjects knew that Papal supremacy had been replaced by royal supremacy. He ordered all parish priests to erase all references to the Pope from the prayer books. All preachers were told that their parishioners must be left in no doubt that the King, and only the King, was Head of the Church.
1534-June.........................................................................The Bishop of Durham is sent to make Katherine swear to the Oath of Succession. However, she steadfastly refuses to take the oath
June/July 1534 Anne Boleyn - Stillbirth Anne was delivered of a stillborn child. Henry who did not want to lose face a second time ordered the details to be kept secret.
28th June - Birthday
September 1534 Cromwell Appointed Joint Constable of Berkeley Castle and Keeper of the Park, Master of the Game, and Keeper of the Woods
1534-July..........................................................................Her health deteriorates & both Chapuys and Maria De Salinas are denied permission to visit her. However Ambassador LChapuys makes a great show of the journey although five miles from the castle he is met by ne of her messengers who tells him that she has been forbidden to meet him. He turns back satisfied that the people knew Spain supported Katherine

October 8 - Cromwell Appointed Master of the Rolls until July 10, 1536
October 12 - Pope Paul III succeeds Pope Clement VII
October 30 The Reformation Parliament passes the Act of Supremacy establishing Henry VIII as supreme head of the Church of England.
Cambridge University Press is given Royal Charter by Henry VIII and becomes the first of the privileged presses.

November 3 English parliament accepts Act of Supremacy: Henry VIII church leader. This Act of Supremacy effectively declared England as a sovereign state with the King as Head of both the country and the Church. The act stated that the king was to become Supreme Head of the Church of England and would have the power to visit, redress, reform, correct or amend all errors, heresies and enormities which would previously have been dealt with by another spiritual authority. The King could define the faith in parliament. The King also had the power to appoint men of his choosing to the most important ecclesiastical posts. The passing of this act gave Henry more power than ever for within his own realm he was superior to the Pope and all taxes formerly paid to Rome would now be paid to the King.

Nov 1534 Treason Act This Act made it a treasonable offence to deny any of the King's titles. It stated that malicious wish, will or desire to deprive the King or Queen of title or name of their royal estates was to be deemed treason. Slanderous publication of writing or words uttered describing the King as heretic, schismatic, tyrant, infidel or usurper would also be deemed treason. The main reason for this act was to make it a treasonable offence to deny that the King was Supreme Head of the Church. It also enabled Parliament to enforce the Act of Succession under penalty of death.

December - Christmas & New Year

[Henry VIII]

1535
1535-April/May...................................................................There are plans for KOA to escape organized by Chapuys & Charles V but they are canceled because of the fear that if they were discovered both she and her daughter would be executed
22nd June 1535, John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, was beheaded

Anne spent Summer and autumn on progress with King Henry VIII

Anne assumes political power independent of Henry VIII, meets with foreign diplomats, religious and cultural patron responds to petitioners

October-Anne is pregnant again

November-Henry goes on a hunting trip and stays at Jane Seymour's father's house

1535-December 1..................................................................Katherine was seriously ill. She is complaining of chest pains, unable to eat and confined to bed

1535-December 14.................................................................KOA has recovered slightly and able to sit in a chair. She writes to Charles V asking for money to pay her servants as her funds were depleted


1536

January 7-Queen Katherine of Aragon dies. Anne realizes her position is now vulnerable
Katherine awakes with stomach pains and nausea. She quickly becomes very weak and her confessor is summoned. She dictates two letters, one to Henry and one to Charles V. She receives Holy Communion and extrme unction then prays aloud for two hours. She dies at 2 p.m at Kimbolton Castle, Huntingdonshire, probably of cancer. She lived the longest of all Henry's wives.

1536-January 8.....................................................................An autopsy was carried out on KOA's body. A black growth was found on her heart but no other abnormalities. It was believed by Chapuys & the Catholic faction that Anne Boleyn had slowly poisioned Katherine to death and the death of Mary was rumoured to follow.

January 24-Henry's jousting accident and he lays unconscious for several hours.


1536-January 29..................................................................Katherine is buried at Peterborough Cathedral. Her successor Anne Boleyn bears a stillborn son the same day which is the beginning of her own demise.
January 29-...........................................................................Anne has a miscarriage 5 days later. No evidence to support foetal abnormalities

February 10-Henry's interest in Jane Seymour was first recorded by Ambassador Chapuys in his letter to Charles V

March-Jane Seymour is installed in Cromwell's old apartments which are adjacent to Henry's

April 24-Two commissions of oyer and terminer were set up by Cromwell and Audley to cover criminal offenses in the couties of Kent and Middlesex, the two counties which were the locations of the alleged criminal offences committed by Anne and the five men in the coming indictments

April 27-writs were issued summoning Parliament and a letter was sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury asking him to attend Parliament

May 1-Anne arrested. Chapuys writes that ''the King has shown himsef more glad than ever since the arrest of the Concubine, for h e has been going about banqueting with ladies, sometimes remaining after midnight, and returning by the river''-not acting like a cuckolded husband at all and further he wrote, "I hear that even before the arrest of the Concubine, the King, speaking with Mistress Jane Semell (Seymour) of their future marriage, the letter suggested that the Princess should be replaced in her former position...."

May 7-letters were sent out to every sheriff in England explaining that-''since the dissolution of the late Parliament matters of high importance have chanced, which render if necessary to discuss the establishment of the succession in a Parliament assembled for that purpose. Writs have been already sent, which the King doubts not he will execute ''which suggests that there was going to be some change in the succession meaning Anne's fate was a foregone conclusion

May 13-Anne's household is broken up before the trial indicating that there was no hope of her being found innocent.

May 9 to 14-For the French swordsman to hve travelled in time for Anne's execution he would have had to have been ordered before the trial possibly as early as May 9th

May 15-Trial. Henry Percy sat on the jury that found Anne guilty of adultery. When the verdict was announced, he collapsed & had to be carried from the courtroom. Percy left no children, suffered from stomach problems & died one year after Anne's death (summer of 1537)

May 19-Executed (likely ge 35 & Henry 45) on Tower Green and interred in an arrow box in the chapel of St Peter Ad Vincula in the Tower precincts

May 20-Henry is betrothed to Jane Seymour

May 30-Henry marries Jane Seymour

On May the 30th , 1536, and attired in the gay robes of a bridegroom, he conducted Jane Seymour to the altar of Tottenham church, Wilts, and in the presence of Sir John Russell, and other members of his obsequious privy council, made her his bride. From Wolf Hall, the wedding party proceeded through Winchester, by an easy journey, to London; where on the twenty-ninth of May, a great court was held, at which Jane was ...introduced as Queen. Feasts, jousts, and other entertainments in honour of the royal nuptials followed; and Sir Edward Seymour was created Viscount Beauchamp, and Sir Walter Hungerford received the title of Lord Hungerford.


Henry pretended, for it was but a pretence, that Jane, through her mother Margaret, had descended from the royal blood of England; and Cranmer, having no desire to dispute the matter with him, on the very day that Anne Boleyn was beheaded, granted a dispensation for nearness of kin, between Jane and Henry, the latter of whom, be the relationship what it might, certainly obtained by this marriage a brother-in-law who bore the not very aristocratic name of Smith, and another (the son of Cromwell), whose grandfather was a blacksmith at Putney.


A few days afterwards, the King summoned a new parliament; and he there, in his speech, made a merit to his people that notwithstanding the misfortunes attending his two former marriages, he had been induced, for their good, to venture on a third. The speaker, the notorious Richard Rich, received this hypocritical profession with complacency; and he took thence occasion to load his oration with the most fulsome and false flattery of the King, comparing him for justice and prudence to Solomon, for strength and fortitude to Samson, and for beauty and comeliness to Absolom. The King replied by mouth of the Lord Chancellor Audley, that he disavowed these praises, since if he were really possessed of such endowment, they were the gift of Almighty God only. This obsequious parliament, being willing to go any length in encouraging the King's vices, and in gratifying his most lawless passions, ratified his divorce from Anne Boleyn, attainted that Queen and her accomplices, declared the issue of both his former marriages illegitimate, made it treason to assert their legitimacy or throw any slander upon the present King, Queen, or their issue; settled the crown upon the King's issue by Jane Seymour, or any subsequent wife, and in case he should die without children, empowered him by his will or letters patent, to dispose of the crown;—an enormous authority, especially when entrusted to so capricious, so self-willed a tyrant as Henry the Eighth.


Before her marriage, Jane Seymour was personally acquainted with the Princess Mary. Afterwards she remained on terms of friendship with her, and although Cromwell was the real agent, Jane was the ostensible mediatrix of the reconciliation between Henry and the Princess Mary. It is on account of this partial intercession for Henry's ill-used daughter, and also out of malevolence to Anne Boleyn, that the Catholic writers have lavished such praise on Queen Jane, whilst Protestants, equally actuated by party motives, have extolled her, not from any real merit, on her part, but solely from complaisance to her son, Edward the Sixth, and to her brother, Somerset.