The Early Life of Anne Boleyn E-Book

J.H. Round

• Herausgeber: Charles River Editors
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 68

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

The Early Life of Anne Boleyn is a succinct overview of her early life with references to authoritative works on Boleyn.

Das E-Book The Early Life of Anne Boleyn wird angeboten von Charles River Editors und wurde mit folgenden Begriffen kategorisiert:
henry viii; friedmann; biography

Leseprobe

THE EARLY LIFE OF ANNE BOLEYN

..................

J.H. Round

LACONIA PUBLISHERS

Thank you for reading. If you enjoy this book, please leave a review or connect with the author.

All rights reserved. Aside from brief quotations for media coverage and reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form without the author’s permission. Thank you for supporting authors and a diverse, creative culture by purchasing this book and complying with copyright laws.

Copyright © 2016 by J.H. Round

Interior design by Pronoun

Distribution by Pronoun

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE.

The Early Life Anne Boleyn.

THE

Early Life Anne Boleyn:

A CRITICAL ESSAY.

BY

J. H. ROUND, M.A.

PREFACE.

..................

THE APPEARANCE, WITHIN SO SHORT a time of one another, of two works of such marked importance as Mr. Brewer’s Reignof Henry VIII., and Mr. Friedmann’s Anne Boleyn—both of them the fruit of long study and of the most elaborate original research—has invested with a new and striking interest the story of one whose sad career has always possessed a romantic charm, and whose rise and fall, as we are now learning, was closely connected with great events at a crisis of our national history. Mr. Gairdner, who, since the appearance of the above works, has briefly written her life for the Dictionary of National Biography, reminds us that “some points in her early history are still beset with controversies.” On these I shall here endeavour to throw some fresh light. I have been led more especially to select this subject, because it will be found, I think, to suggest to those of us engaged in the study of history a useful and needed lesson. We shall, on the one hand, be forced to confess that, boast as we may of the achievements of our new scientific school, we are still, as I have urged, behind the Germans, so far, at least, as accuracy is concerned. We shall find further that, strange as it may sound to those who are not behind the scenes, the higher criticism of modern scholars has not only failed, in some instances, to extend our previous knowledge, but has even, while professing to correct error, given us error in the place of truth. So, to take an apt illustration, has Naville’s discovery of Pithom and identification of Succoth disposed of the modern (Brugsch’s) theory that the Exodus was by the northern road, and restored the pre-scientific, or at least the older, view that it was by way of the Wâdy Tumulat.

But if it is somewhat disheartening to learn that the new lamps of historical research are at times inferior to the old, it is, per contra, no small encouragement to find that even in those fields where the grain has been carefully gathered by the most diligent and skilful of reapers, the humblest gleaner may still work and obtain no small profit. It may perhaps be urged that I should not have ventured to write on a period that I have not studied, or on subjects certainly distinct from those with which I am familiar. To this I reply that the facts must decide, and that if I have succeeded in throwing light on some, at least, of the points in controversy, I shall claim to have proved that none need despair of adding somewhat to the results obtained even, by the ablest writers who adorn our English school.

J. H. ROUND.

THE EARLY LIFE ANNE BOLEYN.

..................

SIR THOMAS BOLEYN, ANNE’S FATHER, was the grandson, as is well known, of Sir Geoffrey Boleyn, Lord Mayor of London in 1457, who purchased extensive estates in Kent and Norfolk, with Hever and Blickling for their respective capita. A list of these estates is given in his Inq. Post mortem (3 Ed. IV., No. 1), and will be found in the printed Calendar. Mr. Friedmann, however, states that they were bought, not by him, but by his son and successor, an error which I here note only as suggesting, at the outset, the need for caution.

Now, firstly, as to Sir Thomas himself. It is stated even in the Extinct Peerage of the much-abused patron of “Pedigree-Makers” that he was the “son and heir” of his father. So, indeed, it has been always believed, and the fact that, as such, he was “one of the Earl [of Ormond]’s heirs-general” as Percy (teste Cavendish) reminded Wolsey, is the very pivot on which turns the whole series of the Ormond negotiations. He is styled for instance in the Carew Papers (vi. 446), edited by Messrs. Brewer and Bullen, “Thomas Lord Rochford, son and heir to Dame Margaret Bulleyne.” Now Mr. Brewer himself, on this point, writes merely as follows:

“He was the [sic] son of Sir William Boleyn of Blickling, Norfolk, and of Margaret daughter and co-heir of Thomas Butler, Earl of Ormond. . . . The estate at Blickling descended to Sir James, who died without male [sic] issue. As he was still living in 1534, Anne Boleyn could never have resided on the estate at Blickling.”—Reign, ii. 164-5; Letters and Papers, iv., ccxxv.

The writer, it will be seen, does not commit himself as to who “Sir James” was, or why he, and not Sir Thomas, succeeded to Blickling. Mr. Friedmann, we find, goes further:

“James Boleyn, the eldest son, was to inherit the bulk of the family property. . . . Thomas Boleyn, the second son of Sir William, inherited some of his grandfather’s ability, and went to court to make his fortune in the royal service.”

Mr. Gairdner’s testimony is to the same effect, asserting, as he does, that:

“Sir Thomas . . . had an elder brother Sir James, to whom the Norfolk estate first descended.”—Dictionary of National Biography, i. 425.

Strange as the statement may doubtless appear, the old belief is entirely correct, and these three eminent authorities are all equally mistaken. We need not appeal to the Ormond evidence, to which I have already alluded. We have only to turn to Blomefield’s Norfolk (1807) to learn that Sir Thomas was the “eldest son and heir” of his father, in succession to whom

“He held this manor [Blickling] of the Bishop of Norwich, and paid 3s. 6d. every 30 weeks for castle guard.”

That Blomefield, though his account is not wholly accurate, is on this point absolutely correct, is clear from such documents of those calendared by Mr. Brewer himself, as the pardon and release to Sir Thomas as “of London, alias of Hever, of BliklyngNorff.” (6 March, 1518), or the grant to him of a fair “at the town of Blyklyng, Norf” (15 June, 1533). Lastly, here is the conclusive evidence afforded by his father’s will, evidence which has been in print for the last sixty years:

“I will that my son Thomas Boleyn, according to the will of Geoffrey Boleyn my father, have the manors of Blickling, Calthorp, Wykmore,and Mikelbarton, to him and his heirs male, he paying to Dame Margaret my wife cc marks yearly.”

It is clear then that Thomas Boleyn succeeded his father, as son and heir, at Blickling on his death (1505).

The mistake seems to have arisen thus. “After the death of Anne Boleyn’s father,” as Miss Strickland observes, “Blickling fell into the possession of the infamous Lady Rochford, on whom it had possibly been settled as dower.” She in her turn fell a victim to Henry at the close of 1541, and on the 22nd February, 1541-2, we read that—

“The King’s hignes had appoynted to Sir Jamys Boulloyne Knight syche stuff as remayned in the hows of Blikhng lately appertayning to the Lady off Rochefort,” etc., etc.

“Sir Jamys,” thus succeeding to Blickling, not in 1505, but in 1542, died, seized of it, in 1561, and was buried there.”

Having disposed of the birth of Sir Thomas Boleyn, let us now turn to his marriage. On this Mr. Brewer writes: