The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn (65 page)
Read The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn Online
Authors: Alison Weir
Tags: #General, #Historical, #Royalty, #England, #Great Britain, #Autobiography, #Biography & Autobiography, #Biography, #Biography And Autobiography, #History, #Europe, #Historical - British, #Queen; consort of Henry VIII; King of England;, #Anne Boleyn;, #1507-1536, #Henry VIII; 1509-1547, #Queens, #Great Britain - History
John Stow
(1525-1605), author of
The Annals of England
(1592) and
A Survey of London
(1598), was an antiquarian writing in the reign of Elizabeth I.Agnes Strickland’s
monumental
Lives of the Queens of England
, dedicated to Queen Victoria, in whose reign it was published, is now much outdated, but in its day was a milestone of historical research, for Strickland was indefatigable in seeking out original source material, traveling around the country to look at documents in private collections. She also made use of secondary works that were respected at the time, but her work reflects the values of the Victorian age and is highly subjective. Its chief value lies in the scattered original sources that it cites.Charles Wriothesley
, Windsor Herald (1508-62), was the first cousin of Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton and Lord Chancellor of England (from 1544), and wrote the larger part of his chronicle over the years before 1552 (although it was not published until 1581). Well placed—he was in the service of Lord Chancellor Audley; and his cousin, the rising courtier Thomas Wriothesley, was Clerk of the Signet and Cromwell’s man—and therefore well informed, he has been shown to be a highly reliable source.George Wyatt’s
late sixteenth-century eulogistic memoir of Anne Boleyn, written in answer to Sander’s virulent attack on her, is one of the chief primary sources for her life. Wyatt (1554-1624), of Boxley, Kent, was the grandson of the poet, Sir Thomas Wyatt, Anne’s Kentish neighbor and sometime admirer, and he had been fascinated by tales of Anne from his youth, when he “gathered many notes touching this lady.”Wyatt himself wrote that he had had “the peculiar means, more than others, to come to some more particular knowledge” of his subject. Much of his information came from anecdotes handed down in his family, from George Cavendish’s
Life of Cardinal Wolsey
, a copy of which he owned, and from the reminiscences of three ladies: his mother, Jane Haute, who married his father Thomas, the poet’s son, the year after Anne Boleyn’s death; Anne Gainsford (later the wife of George Zouche of Codnor), who had been Queen Anne’s maid-of-honor “that first attended on her both before and after she was queen,” and afterward served Jane Seymour in the same capacity; and an unidentified “lady of noble birth, living in those times, and well-acquainted with the persons” about whom Wyatt wrote. Much of this source material survives in the Wyatt manuscripts in the British Library (Loan ms. 15) in the form of drafts, notes, and extracts from various works.Wyatt’s work, which was left unfinished, is so strongly biased in her favor as to be virtually hagiographic, and virulently anti-Catholic.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Additional manuscripts, British Library
Aless, Alexander: “Letter to Elizabeth I, 1 September 1559” (see
Calendar of
State Papers, Foreign Series, of the Reign of Elizabeth
, below, entry 1303)
Allen, Cardinal William:
An Admonition to the Nobility and People of England and
Ireland Concerning the Present Wars
(Antwerp, 1588)
Anthony, Anthony: Chronicle (known only from notes made by Thomas Tourneur in his copy of Lord Herbert of Cherbury’s
Life and Raigne of King
Henry the Eighth
, Bodleian Folio Delta 624)
Ashmole manuscripts, Bodleian Library, Oxford
Bacon, Sir Francis:
The Tragedy of Anne Boleyn: A Drama In Cipher
(ed. Elizabeth Wells Gallup, London and Detroit, 1901)
Baga de Secretis
(The Bag of Secrets), 1499-1537; Court of King’s Bench (Crown Side) Indictments, and documents of state trials (National Archives, KB/2; reproduced in Wriothesley)
Bourbon, Nicolas:
Nicolae Borbonii Vandoperani Lingonensis, Nugarum libri octo
(Basel, 1540)
Brantome, Pierre de Bourdeille, Seigneur de:
Lives of Gallant Ladies
(trans. R. Gibbings, London, 1924)
Burnet, Gilbert, Bishop of Salisbury:
History of the Reformation of the Church of
England
(1679, 1682, and 1714; 7 vols., ed. N. Pocock, Oxford, 1865)
Calendar of Letters, Despatches and State Papers relating to Negotiations between
England and Spain, preserved in the Archives at Simancas and Elsewhere
(17 vols., ed. G.A. Bergenroth, P. de Goyangos, Garrett Mattingley, R. Tyler, et al., HMSO, London, 1862-1965)
Calendar of Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII
(21 vols. in 33 parts, ed. J.S. Brewer, James Gairdner, and R. Brodie, HMSO, London, 1862-1932)
Calendar of State Papers, Foreign Series, of the Reign of Elizabeth, Vol. I, 1558-59
(23 vols., ed. Joseph Stevenson and A.J. Crosby, et al., London, 1863-1950)
Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts relating to English Affairs preserved in the
Archives of Venice and in the other Libraries of Northern Italy
(7 vols., ed. L. Rawdon-Brown, Cavendish Bentinck, et al., HMSO, London, 1864-1947)
Camden, William:
Annales rerum Anglicarum et Hibernicarum regnante Elizabetha
(London, 1615)
Carles, Lancelot de:
Letter containing the criminal trial brought against the Queen
Anne Boleyn of England
(mss. Fr. 1742 and 2370, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, written 1536, published Lyons, 1545, of which a copy is in the British Library; published as “Epistre contenant le proces criminel faict a l’encontre de la royne Anne Boullant d’Angleterre” (in
La Grande Bretagne devant
l’Opinion Francaise
by Georges Ascoli, Paris, 1927)
Cavendish, George:
The Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey
(London, 1557; ed. R. Sylvester, Early English Texts Society, 1959; ed. Roger Lockyer, The Folio Society, 1962)
Cavendish, George:
Metrical Visions
(published in vol. 2 of S.W. Singer’s edition of George Cavendish’s
The Life of Cardinal Wolsey
, London, 1825)
The Chronicle of Calais in the Reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII, to the year 1540
(attributed to Richard Turpin; ed. J. G. Nichols, Camden Society, XXV, 1846)
The Chronicle of King Henry VIII of England (Cronico del Rey Enrico Ottavo de
Inglaterra
, sometimes attributed to Antonio de Guaras; also known as the “Spanish Chronicle;” ed. M.A.S. Hume, 1889)
Clifford, Henry:
Life of Jane Dormer, Duchess of Feria
(1643; ed. E. E. Estcourt and J. Stevenson, 1887)
Collected Poems of Sir Thomas Wyatt
(ed. J. Daalder, Oxford, 1975)
Concilia Magnae Britanniae et Hiberniae
(4 vols., ed. David Wilkins, London, 1737)
Constantine, George: “Memorial from George Constantine to Thomas, Lord
Cromwell” (ed. Thomas Amyot,
Archaeologia
, XXIII, 1831)
Corpus Reformatorum
(ed. C. G. Bretschneider and H. E. Bindseil, Halle and Brunswick, 1834-1900)
Cotton manuscripts, British Library
Dolet, Etienne:
Epigram
(Lyons, 1538)
Excerpta Historica
(ed. S. Bentley and H. Nicolas, 1831)
Foxe, John:
History of the Acts and Monuments of the Church (Foxe’s Book of Martyrs)
(1563; ed. G. Townshend and S. R. Cattley, 8 vols., London, 1837-41)
Fuller, Thomas:
History of the Worthies of England
(1662)
Gascoigne, George:
A Hundred Sundry Flowers Bound up in One Small Poesie
(ed. Richard Smith, London, 1573)
Gascoigne, George:
The Posies of George Gascoigne Esquire
(ed. Richard Smith, London, 1575)
Gruffydd, Ellis: A History of Wales, written by Ellis Griffith, a soldier of Calais, in Welsh (1550) (National Library of Wales ms. 5276D)
Guicciardini, Lodovico:
Comentarii di Lodovico Guicciardini Delle cose piu
memorabilia seguite in Europa: specialmente in questi paesi bassi: dalla pace di
Cambrai, del M.D.XXIX, insino a tutto l’Anno M.D.LX
(Venice, 1565)
Hall, Edward:
The Triumphant Reign of King Henry the Eighth
(London, 1547; 2 vols., ed. C. Whibley and T. C. and E. C. Jack, 1904)
Hargrave manuscripts, British Library
Harleian manuscripts, British Library
Harpsfield, Nicholas:
The Life and Death of Thomas More, Knight
(London,
ca
. 1557; ed. E. V. Hitchcock and R. W. Chambers, Early English Texts Society, London, 1935)
Hayward, Sir John:
Life of King Edward the Sixt
(London, 1630)
Herbert, Edward, Ist Baron Herbert of Cherbury:
The Life and Raigne of King
Henry the Eighth
(London, 1649)
Heylin, Peter:
Ecclesia Restaurata, or the History of the Reformation of the Church of
England
(London, 1661)
Histoire de la Royne Anne de Boullant
(ms., before 1550, in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris)
“Household Expenses of the Princess Elizabeth during her Residence at Hatfield October 1, 1551 to September 30, 1552” (ed. Viscount Strangford,
Camden
Miscellany
, II, Old Series LV, London, 1853)
Il successo in la Morte della Regina de Inghilterra con il consenso del Consiglio di S.M., et la Morte di IIII gran Baroni del Regno
(Bologna, 1536)
Journals of the House of Lords
, vol. I, 1509-1577 (London, 1802)
Lancashire and Cheshire Cases in the Court of Star Chamber
(ed. R. Stewart-Brown, Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, LXXI, 1916)
Latymer, William: Treatise on Anne Boleyn (Bodleian Library, Oxford, ms. Don. C.42)
Letters and Accounts of William Brereton
(ed. E. W. Ives, Lancashire and Cheshire Record Society, vol. CXVI, 1976)
The Letters of King Henry VIII
(ed. Muriel St Clair Byrne, London, 1936)
Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII
(21 vols. In 33 parts, ed. J. S. Brewer, James Gairdner, R. Brodie, et al., 1862-1932)
The Lisle Letters
(6 vols., ed. Muriel St. Clair Byrne, London and Chicago, 1981)
The Love Letters of Henry VIII
(ed. Henry Savage, London, 1949)
The Love Letters of Henry VIII
(ed. Jasper Ridley, 1988)
Meteren, E. van:
Historie der Nederlandscher… oorlogen ende geschiedenissen
(Delft, 1599, 1609)
Milherve, Crispin, Lord de:
Metrical History
(1618)
Miscellaneous Antiquities, or a Collection of Curious Papers, either republished from scarce tracts, or now first printed from original mss
. (from the collections of Horace Walpole and Thomas Gray, including a Life of Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder, copied from an unpublished Harleian ms.; 2 vols., ed. Horace Walpole, privately printed at Strawberry Hill, 1772)
Miscellaneous Writings and Letters of Thomas Cranmer
(ed. J. E. Fox, Parker Society, 1846)
National Archives (Public Record Office): E326: Ancient Deeds SP1: State Papers
Original Letters Illustrative of English History
(11 vols. in 3 series, ed. Sir Henry Ellis, London, 1824, 1827, and 1846)
Parker, Matthew:
The Correspondence of Matthew Parker, 1535-1575
(ed. J. Bruce and T. Perowne, Parker Society, 1853)
Percy manuscripts, Alnwick Castle
Pocock, N.:
Records of the Reformation
(2 vols., Oxford, 1870)
Pollini, Girolamo:
Istoria dell’ Ecclesiastica della Rivoluzion d’Inghilterra
(Rome, 1594)
The Privy Purse Expenses of King Henry the Eighth from November MDXIX to December
MDXXXII
(ed. Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas, London, 1827)
Rawlinson manuscripts, Bodleian Library, Oxford
The Register of the Most Noble Order of the Garter
(2 vols., ed. J. Anstis, London, 1724)
Relations Politiques de France avec l’Ecosse
(5 vols., ed. A. Teulet, 1862)
The Reports of Sir John Spelman
(ed. J. A. Baker, Selden Society, 93, 94, 1977, 1978)
Roper, William:
The Life of Sir Thomas More, Knight (ca
. 1556; ed. E.V. Hitchcock,
Early English Texts Society, CXCVII, 1935)
Rotuli Parliamentorum
(7 vols., ed. J. Strachey, et al., Records Commissioners, 1767-1832)
Royal manuscripts, British Library
Rymer, Thomas:
Foedera, Conventiones, Et… Acta Publica inter Reges Angliae
(London, 1704-1717)
Sander, Nicholas:
Rise and Growth of the Anglican Schism (De Origine ac Progressu
Schismatis Anglicani
, Rome, 1585) (ed. and trans. David Lewis, London, 1877)
