Henry VIII, the Reign - Holinshed's Articles
By Mark Holinshed
The 1535 Royal Progress, Tewkesbury to Berkeley Castle - Norman
Knight, Why Wykes at Leonard Stanley? And Tyndale Country
Anne de Boulogne
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“Anne became daily more overbearing. The latest Anne’s exploit in her honour had been the fabrication of the wonderful pedigree, in which good Sir William Bullen the mercer was represented as the descendant of a Norman knight. Though these pretensions were laughed at, and though Anne’s aunt the duchess freely told her what they were worth, she was nowise abashed.”
So said Eustace Chapuys, Imperial Ambassador, four years or so before, when relating the Duchess of Norfolk’s ridicule of Anne de Boulogne’s arrogance. |
Norman Knight Eustace de Boulogne
Norman Knight
Eustace de Boulogne
Nowise abashed, Anne, or more likely Wolsey, had drawn up a pedigree to promote her status detailing descent from the Counts de Boulogne. At the time the cardinal needed to form an alliance with France, at first, he was able to manipulate Anne, but in the end, she outsmarted him.
Be it authentic or not, she used it as a piece of propaganda, self-promotion – it was what she would have people believe, and some did. Others including her aunt, the Duchess of Norfolk, who thought it all a nonsense and derided her pride.
Pride, as they say, often comes before a fall, and her enemies used her arrogance against her. The royal progress had come to the lands of The Anarchy. Here in the West of England was where A brutal war, fought between 1135 and 1153, more than eighteen years of mayhem When Christ and His Saints Slept.
The Anarchy raged between the forces of Matilda and Stephen. Matilda claimed she was Queen of England and on the other side Stephen claimed he was the king, but the conflict was driven on viciously by two others;
Be it authentic or not, she used it as a piece of propaganda, self-promotion – it was what she would have people believe, and some did. Others including her aunt, the Duchess of Norfolk, who thought it all a nonsense and derided her pride.
Pride, as they say, often comes before a fall, and her enemies used her arrogance against her. The royal progress had come to the lands of The Anarchy. Here in the West of England was where A brutal war, fought between 1135 and 1153, more than eighteen years of mayhem When Christ and His Saints Slept.
The Anarchy raged between the forces of Matilda and Stephen. Matilda claimed she was Queen of England and on the other side Stephen claimed he was the king, but the conflict was driven on viciously by two others;
Robert of Gloucester
For Matilda, her half brother, Robert of Gloucester, and for Stephen, his son, the Norman knight, Eustace de Boulogne.
Matilda’s son was the future Henry II, founder of the Avignon dynasty – but Eustace de Boulogne fought to the death, craving to seize the kingdom for himself. If Eustace had won there would otherwise have been a de Boulogne dynasty, and so the wholly French Anne imagined herself reviving what Eustace had lost.
But here in 1535 her detractors, the anti-French, anti-clerical regime, the Seymour – Cromwell faction would use their own propaganda to all but wipe out the de Boulogne pretenders and at the same time eliminate foreign sponsorship of the Queen of England.
In the Summer of 1535, this time, Seymour would trounce de Boulogne.
Matilda’s son was the future Henry II, founder of the Avignon dynasty – but Eustace de Boulogne fought to the death, craving to seize the kingdom for himself. If Eustace had won there would otherwise have been a de Boulogne dynasty, and so the wholly French Anne imagined herself reviving what Eustace had lost.
But here in 1535 her detractors, the anti-French, anti-clerical regime, the Seymour – Cromwell faction would use their own propaganda to all but wipe out the de Boulogne pretenders and at the same time eliminate foreign sponsorship of the Queen of England.
In the Summer of 1535, this time, Seymour would trounce de Boulogne.
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The Lands of The Anarchy in Red - Imposed over a Map of the 1535 Royal Progress
The civil war known as the Anarchy began as a consequence of the White Ship Disaster when Henry I’s only legitimate male heir William Adelin was drowned in 1521.
Henry subsequently attempted to install his legitimate daughter, Matilda but on his death in 1535 Stephen of Blois seized the throne. The Anarchy followed, the kingdom descended into a long and brutal civil war, chaos and disorder ruled in the kingdom. Robert of Gloucester lead the fight for Matilda, battling for her son, Henry to be king. On the other Stephen’s son, Eustace de Boulogne fought for the throne, for himself – in 1153 he lost. |
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Gloucester, the First Days of August 1535
It was and, indeed, it still is ten miles south from Tewkesbury to Gloucester, running parallel with the River Severn, perhaps some travelled downriver by boat.
Henry’s court would spend almost the entire month of August in Gloucestershire and the highways and byways of the county were bustling with the comings and goings of administrators, entertainers, clergy, jesters, guards and vagabonds, fancy carriages and robbers, lords, ladies and Members of Parliament, horses and a whole lot of blacksmiths.
The king and queen lodged at Gloucester Abbey but were soon out and about half a dozen miles away hunting at Painswick and after returning to Gloucester overnight the party travelled back this time to Miserden Park and spent the day in the company of Sir William Kingston.
Henry’s court would spend almost the entire month of August in Gloucestershire and the highways and byways of the county were bustling with the comings and goings of administrators, entertainers, clergy, jesters, guards and vagabonds, fancy carriages and robbers, lords, ladies and Members of Parliament, horses and a whole lot of blacksmiths.
The king and queen lodged at Gloucester Abbey but were soon out and about half a dozen miles away hunting at Painswick and after returning to Gloucester overnight the party travelled back this time to Miserden Park and spent the day in the company of Sir William Kingston.
Sir William Kingston – Anne de Boulogne’s Jailor
Anne de Boulogne - she had few friends in 1535, her enemies were advanced in their planning for her downfall
Sir William Kingston has come down as a shadowy but ubiquitous figure. When Cardinal Thomas Wolsey was returning to London to face treason charges, Kingston, MP for Gloucestershire, took him into his custody. Sir William, along with Wolsey’s gentleman-usher, George Cavendish, listened to Wolsey’s deathbed speech in which the cardinal demanded that Henry VIII be warned of what he perceived as the dangers of the rising influence of Lutheranism in England – either the king didn’t listen, or Kingston didn’t tell him.
It was Sir William Kingston who recorded his conversations with Anne de Boulogne and sent them to Cromwell. His evidence was instrumental in her conviction, he was her jailor in the Tower he walked with the queen to the scaffold and delivered her up to the executioner. Here in Gloucestershire, Kingston was already an integral part of Anne de Boulogne’s planned downfall.
It was Sir William Kingston who recorded his conversations with Anne de Boulogne and sent them to Cromwell. His evidence was instrumental in her conviction, he was her jailor in the Tower he walked with the queen to the scaffold and delivered her up to the executioner. Here in Gloucestershire, Kingston was already an integral part of Anne de Boulogne’s planned downfall.
Why Wykes at Leonard Stanley?
Thomas Cromwell - We know so little about him
From Gloucester, directly to Berkeley Castle on the Roman Road is a little over sixteen miles. Gloucester to Leonard Stanley is 11 miles, and there is a sustained uphill climb at the end of the journey. Gloucester to Berkeley Castle via Leonard Stanley is twenty-one miles.
A five-mile detour, over more difficult terrain, adding an overnight stop to a journey that could have been done in a day.
Why?
Leonard Stanley was, and still is an idyllic, quintessentially English village overlooking the Severn Vale with a priory dedicated to St. Leonard, founded in about 1131. By way of an aside, later on, 11 June 1538, Henry VIII sent an imperative request to the abbot and convent of Gloucester to recall the monks from Stanley St. Leonard and grant a lease of the priory to that ubiquitous Sir William Kingston.
Thomas Cromwell, the enigmatic politician,and Henry's first minister was married to Elizabeth Wykes who to many will be familiar from Wolf Hall. She was from a wealthy family, Wykes of Chertsey.
I have not succeeded in establishing a connection and can prove nothing save that a Nicholas Wykes held the manor of Leonard Stanley in 1535. He also held nearby Dursley and Dodington. The Wykes also had further land to the north-west at Arlingham, a ferry crossing point over the Severn, a route to South Wales. As we shall see shortly, Cromwell was joint constable of Berkley Castle with his Welsh nephew, Richard Williams.
Nicholas Wykes was married to Elizabeth Poyntz, and her nephew, also a Nicholas held Iron Acton which was on the itinerary for a visit later in the month – more on that at Iron Acton.
A five-mile detour, over more difficult terrain, adding an overnight stop to a journey that could have been done in a day.
Why?
Leonard Stanley was, and still is an idyllic, quintessentially English village overlooking the Severn Vale with a priory dedicated to St. Leonard, founded in about 1131. By way of an aside, later on, 11 June 1538, Henry VIII sent an imperative request to the abbot and convent of Gloucester to recall the monks from Stanley St. Leonard and grant a lease of the priory to that ubiquitous Sir William Kingston.
Thomas Cromwell, the enigmatic politician,and Henry's first minister was married to Elizabeth Wykes who to many will be familiar from Wolf Hall. She was from a wealthy family, Wykes of Chertsey.
I have not succeeded in establishing a connection and can prove nothing save that a Nicholas Wykes held the manor of Leonard Stanley in 1535. He also held nearby Dursley and Dodington. The Wykes also had further land to the north-west at Arlingham, a ferry crossing point over the Severn, a route to South Wales. As we shall see shortly, Cromwell was joint constable of Berkley Castle with his Welsh nephew, Richard Williams.
Nicholas Wykes was married to Elizabeth Poyntz, and her nephew, also a Nicholas held Iron Acton which was on the itinerary for a visit later in the month – more on that at Iron Acton.
Leonard Stanley to Berkeley Castle and William Tyndale Country
William Tyndale - Venomous in His Opposition to Anne de Boulogne
This was also William Tyndale country. He was born at nearby Stinchcombe and a tutor at Walsh’s place at Little Sodbury, another destination for the king and his entourage later in the month.
William Tyndale wrote in his The Practice of Prelates that Cardinal Thomas Wolsey had engineered a breakup of Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon. His purpose, claimed Tyndale, was to unite England and France by way of a matrimonial union between Henry and the French king’s sister Marguerite de Angoulême. As things turned out, the French offered up Anne de Boulogne instead.
In the publication Tyndale, page after page lambasts the reasons for Henry’s divorce from Catherine and the notion of a second queen to replace her.
Six years later, here in the western counties of England, most of the population was – and for centuries, for the most part, had been – anti-prelate and anti-French.
William Tyndale wrote in his The Practice of Prelates that Cardinal Thomas Wolsey had engineered a breakup of Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon. His purpose, claimed Tyndale, was to unite England and France by way of a matrimonial union between Henry and the French king’s sister Marguerite de Angoulême. As things turned out, the French offered up Anne de Boulogne instead.
In the publication Tyndale, page after page lambasts the reasons for Henry’s divorce from Catherine and the notion of a second queen to replace her.
Six years later, here in the western counties of England, most of the population was – and for centuries, for the most part, had been – anti-prelate and anti-French.
They were in Tyndale Country were now his monument dominates the Severn Vale
The entourage snaked its way down from the hills to the levels alongside the Severn. Today a little off the route, high on a hill at North Nibley, built in 1866 is a monument over a hundred feet high, it dominates the landscape in memory of William Tyndale.
At some time in 1535, he was arrested as a heretic in Antwerp and despite Cromwell’s efforts to have him spared he suffered a gruesome execution the following year.
Tyndale wrote some prophetic words during his lifetime.
‘The King's grace, will ye say, shall have another wife, and she shall bear him a prince, and he shall break strife? Who hath promised him a prince? Moreover, if his new marriage be not well proved, and go forth with good authority, so shall we yet follow the Princess still, or, if she be sent away, some other?’
Well, the some other turned out to be Jane Seymour, and she was probably in the train of several hundred of the Tyndale inspired faction as they filed under the gatehouse at Berkeley Castle arriving in from Leonard Stanley and the Wykes hospitality there.
At some time in 1535, he was arrested as a heretic in Antwerp and despite Cromwell’s efforts to have him spared he suffered a gruesome execution the following year.
Tyndale wrote some prophetic words during his lifetime.
‘The King's grace, will ye say, shall have another wife, and she shall bear him a prince, and he shall break strife? Who hath promised him a prince? Moreover, if his new marriage be not well proved, and go forth with good authority, so shall we yet follow the Princess still, or, if she be sent away, some other?’
Well, the some other turned out to be Jane Seymour, and she was probably in the train of several hundred of the Tyndale inspired faction as they filed under the gatehouse at Berkeley Castle arriving in from Leonard Stanley and the Wykes hospitality there.
The Severn Vale
Berkeley Castle
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Previous Tewkesbury to Berkeley Castle
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Henry VIII, the Reign