Part 2: The Trip of King Henry VIII & Anne Boleyn to Calais By Olivia Longueville

After a week of celebrations, the Tudor monarch traveled to Boulogne to meet with King François I, while Anne awaited him in Calais. François organized a series of opulent banquets while his English counterpart was his guest in Boulogne.

King Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, and King François I of France

François set up his court in the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Boulogne, where Henry and François heard Mass every day in separate chapels and feasted splendidly in the refectory, adorned with tapestries portraying the story of Scipio Africanus. Henry’s chambers were swathed in silver cloth and tapestries portraying scenes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Much to Henry’s jealousy, the French courtiers were dressed in more eccentric and expensive clothes, and François even gifted to Henry a crimson satin doublet encrusted with pearls beneath a gown of white velvet embroidered in gold.

During Henry’s sojourn in Boulogne, the two monarchs talked about a joint crusade against the Turks in the East, which must have been a tongue-in-cheek conversation. They also discussed the Great Matter, and François promised to use his influence over the Pope to help Henry with his divorce from Catherine of Aragon. It was a promise that the Valois ruler could not keep, and François must have known that in advance. There was no dancing as no women were present, and to compete with his rival, Henry lavished gifts, including fine horses, falcons, and jewels on François and his two eldest sons, Dauphin François and Prince Henri, Duke d’Orléans (the future Henri II of France).

Basilica of Notre-Dame de Boulogne

On the 24th of October, François invested the Duke of Norfolk and the Duke of Suffolk with the Order of St Michael. Henry and François arrived at Calais with great pomp on the 25th of October 1536. According to the Tudor chronicler Edward Hall, François had a train of 1200 people and many horses. Near Calais, they were met by Henry FitzRoy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset (and Henry’s illegitimate son), and a group of bishops and aristocrats, including the Earl of Wiltshire and the Viscount Rochford. The kings competed in hospitality and extravagance. Henry escorted François to his chambers at the headquarters of the Staple Inn, which had been made magnificent at the expense of Calais merchants; more than 2,000 beds and stabling for 2,000 horses had been prepared for the French king’s retinue.

Anne Boleyn was nowhere to be seen. King François sent her an expensive diamond via the Provost of Paris. The Staple Inn became the scene of Anne’s grand presentation to the Valois monarch at a masque on the 27th of October 1532. In the evening, the two rulers dined together in the spacious chambers, illuminated by a profusion of gilded candelabrum and candles, and decorated with gold wreaths and precious stones. A huge variety of victuals were served. The merry conversation of the two kings was interrupted by the appearance of Anne and seven other ladies, including Lady Mary Howard and Lady Jane Rochford, all masked and garbed in eccentric gowns of gold cloth and crimson tinsel with gold laces. They danced enticingly in front of the monarchs who continued drinking and eating jocundly.

A masked and elated Anne approached King François with an audacity that was an organic part of her character. François was encouraged to dance with her by Henry. It is interesting that despite his wife’s absence, King Henri II of Navarre attended the event, perhaps because of his interest in new religion despite his Catholic faith, or maybe because he was François’ friend and another monarch, who, unlike his wife, Marguerite, could come to Calais. 

Anne Boleyn and François I of France in ‘The Tudors’

After the dance was over, Henry approached his counterpart’s partner and took off her mask. François likely feigned his astonishment, because he probably guessed the identity of his partner. Shortly afterwards, Anne and François talked in private for about an hour or so, and she must have sought reassurance that the King of France would support her union with Henry.  After the banquet, the Tudor monarch escorted the Valois ruler to his apartments. Anne and Henry were both exhilarated, perhaps believing that they had really obtained another ally.

Edward Hall wrote of Anne’s appearance in front of the two monarchs:

“After supper came in the Marchiones of Penbroke, with. vii. ladies in maskyn apparel of strautige fashion, made of clothe of gold, compassed with crimosyn tinsell satin, owned with clothe of siluer, liyng lose and knit with laces of gold: these ladies were brought into the chamber, with foure damoselles apparele in crimosin satlyn, with tabardes of fine cipres: the lady Marques tooke the Frenche Kyng and the Countes of Darby, toke the Kyng of Nauerr, and euery Lady toke a lorde, and in daunsyng the kyng of Englande, toke awaie the ladies visers, so that there the ladies beauties were shewed and after they had daunsed a while they ceased, and the French Kyng talked with the Marchiones of Penbroke a space, then he toke his ieaue of the Indies, and the kyng escorted hym to his lodgyng: the same night the Duke of Norffolke feasted all the nobles of Fraunce, beyng there in the castle of Caleis, with many goodly sportes and pastymes.”

King Henry bestowed the Knights of the Order of the Garter on Anne de Montmorency, Philippe de Chabot, Admiral de Brion, and several other French courtiers. On the 29th of October, Henry accompanied François outside of Calais, and they both appeared cheerful and friendly with each other. It was all an illusion because these two monarchs could never be friends – they were rivals from the moment of François’ ascension in 1515 until their deaths in 1547. I wonder whether Henry and Anne, who were both clever people, realized that François, the French Catholic ruler, could not support them without risking excommunication by the Vatican.

Emblem of Order of the Garter

It was all politics for François, who hated Emperor Charles V for compelling reasons and naturally sought allies against his life-long nemesis, and it was not hypocrisy on his part to try to help Henry resolve the question of his annulment with the Vatican. François indeed wanted to ask some of his cardinals to speak to Pope Clement VII, but they could not have accomplished anything because Charles V had Clement in his complete control after the Sack of Rome in 1527. I do not blame François; politics and kingship are never entirely congruent with the good intentions of someone who aspires to one course of action while they are constrained by political and religious limitations.

The English court stayed at Calais for some time, with Henry and Anne reveling in their triumph and enjoying what can be called their honeymoon. The Milanese ambassador to the French court, who saw the couple together, was certain that they had already had a clandestine marriage, although it seems that their wedding would take place later, shortly after their return to English soil. Because of autumn storms, Henry and his beloved delayed their departure and finally sailed on the 12th of November 1532, and in two days, they landed at the port of Dover. The couple then journeyed through Kent and arrived at Eltham Palace within the royal borough of Greenwich on the 24th of November. Anne’s doomed path to the throne was only beginning.

References

  1. ‘The chronicle of Calais in the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII, to the year 1540.”
  2. ‘The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn’ by Eric Ives, 2004.
  3. ‘Six Wives: The Queens of Henry’ by David Starkey, 2004.
  4. The Harleain Manuscripts (Harley MS 303) in the British Library.

READ PART 1 HERE.


About the Author

Olivia has always loved literature and fiction, and she is passionate about historical research, genealogy, and the arts.  She has several degrees in finance & general management from London Business School (LBS) and other universities.  At present, she helps her father run the family business. 

During her first trip to France at the age of ten, Olivia had a life-changing epiphany when she visited the magnificent Château de Fontainebleau and toured its library.  This truly transformed her life as she realized her passion for books and writing, foreshadowing her future career as a writer.  In childhood, she began writing stories and poems in different languages.  Loving writing more than anything else in her life, Olivia has resolved to devote her life to creating historical fiction novels.  She has a special interest in the history of France and England. 

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