She accompanied Henry to Calais, and remained there while he proceeded to join Francis at Boulogne. The two Kings returned together to Calais, and Francis presented Anne with a valuable jewel, complimenting her much on her beautiful dancing. But all this was humiliation compared with the ambitious hopes she had founded on the meeting, and she was more than ever impatient for her marriage, when she imagined that slights would no longer be her portion.
Warham had died on the 23rd August, and Cranmer, already prominent as a creature of Henry’s and of the Boleyns, and a zealous favourer of the divorce, was at once put forward as a candidate for the vacant see of Canterbury. His election was pushed on, in the hope that if the Pope gave an adverse sentence, the new archbishop might then dissolve the King’s marriage by his own authority. But some time must necessarily elapse before the bulls of consecration could be issued, and meanwhile matters were precipitated by Anne’s announcement in January 1533, that Henry might expect an heir to the Crown. It was necessary, if this passionately hoped-for heir was to be Prince of Wales, that Henry and Anne should be married at once.[96] The ceremony was accordingly performed at York Place, on the 25th January, by Rowland Lee, one of the King’s chaplains, whom Henry deceived with the assurance that he had leave from the Pope to contract a new marriage. The event was at first kept secret even from Cranmer, who was informed of it a fortnight later, but Chapuys, ever vigilant and alert, discovered that it had taken place, and informed the Emperor, naming the date as the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul.[97] The object of the secrecy was twofold; first, in order that a semblance of friendship might be kept up with the Pope till he had granted Cranmer’s bulls, and also that the date of the marriage might be afterwards falsified to claim legitimacy for Anne’s child.[98]
The bulls arrived in March, and Cranmer was immediately consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury. The next step was to pronounce sentence of divorce. A court was opened at Dunstable, on the 10th May, and the Queen cited to appear before it. On her failing to do so, Cranmer declared her contumacious, and on the 23rd, proceeded to pronounce her marriage null, Henry himself dictating the form of the sentence.[99]
Katharine, when she was informed of this proceeding, was at Ampthill, near Dunstable, whither she had been removed from Buckden or Bugden, a house which she had occupied for some months, very inferior to the More, and very damp in winter, belonging to Longland, Bishop of Lincoln, one of the first promoters of the divorce. Since her arrival at Ampthill, Henry had twice sent to her to inform her of his marriage with Anne, and to forbid her any longer to take the title of Queen. She was henceforth to be styled Princess Dowager, to retire to one of the houses settled on her by his brother, Prince Arthur, and live on a small income, as the King would no longer pay her expenses, or the wages of her servants. She answered on both occasions with calmness and dignity, that as long as she lived she would call herself Queen, but that if the King objected to the expense of her allowance, she would be contented with what she had, and with her confessor, physician, apothecary and two women, would go wherever he wished. If food for herself and servants failed her, she would go and beg for the love of God.[100]
Anne was now triumphant. Her coronation was fixed for the 1st June, and the nearer she approached to the desired goal, the more insolent became her conduct and language.[101] Already, on the 10th April, Chapuys had written with great earnestness to the Emperor, urging him to make war upon Henry, considering the very great injury done to madame, his aunt, “for it is to be feared,” so ran the letter, “that the moment this accursed Anne sets her foot firmly in the stirrup she will try to do the Queen all the harm she possibly can, and the Princess also, which is the thing your aunt dreads most. Indeed, I hear she has lately boasted that she will make of the Princess a maid-of-honour in her royal household, that she may perhaps give her too much dinner on some occasion, or marry her to some varlet, which would be an irreparable evil.”[102]
In another part of the same letter he says: “I hear that the King is about to forbid every one, under pain of death, to speak in public or private, in favour of the Queen. After that, he will most likely proceed to greater extremities, unless God and your Majesty prevent it. Again, I beseech your Majesty to forgive me if I dare give advice in such matters, for besides the above causes, the great pity I have for the Queen and the Princess, your Majesty’s aunt and niece (sic), absolutely compel me to take this course. Though the King is by nature kind and generously inclined, this Anne has so perverted him, that he does not seem the same man. It is therefore to be feared that unless your Majesty applies a prompt remedy to this evil, the Lady will not relent in her persecution, until she actually finishes with Queen Katharine, as she once did with Cardinal Wolsey, whom she did not hate half so much. The Queen, however, is not afraid for herself; what she cares most for is the Princess.”
And again, in the same letter: “The Queen is to take the title of old dowager Princess. As for the Princess Mary, no title has been yet given to her,” and Chapuys fancies that they will wait to settle this until “la dame aye faict lenfant”.[103]
Anne’s coronation in Westminster Abbey, magnificent as a ceremony and a procession, was marked by an absence of popular enthusiasm amounting to general stupefaction. The crowd, silent and sullen, could not be persuaded to take off their hats and cry “God save the Queen,” and when one of Anne’s attendants told the lord mayor to order them to cheer as usual, he answered that he “could not command people’s hearts, and even the King could not do so”. The court and the nobility did their best to grace the ceremony, but the Duchess of Norfolk refused to be present, and no one was surprised, for her loyalty to Queen Katharine was known.
Henry had caused his own and Anne’s initials, H. and A., to be interwoven in every imaginable device, but the people interpreted them derisively—Ha! ha! They even went so far as to insult the French ambassador and his suite, because they were known to be Anne’s friends, calling them “French dogs”.[104]