3 May 1536 A.D. Thomas Cranmer Re: Ann Boleyn’s Arrest—“I’m clean amazed…”
3 May 1536 A.D. Thomas
Cranmer Re: Ann Boleyn’s Arrest—“I’m clean amazed…”
Mann, Claire. “3 May 1536—Archbishop is `clean amazed.’” Tudor History Since 2009. 3 May 2015. http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/3-may-1536-archbishop-cranmer-is-clean-amazed/#ixzz3ZCoRclaf.
Accessed 4 May 2015.
Posted
By Claire on May 3, 2015
On
3rd May 1536 Archbishop Cranmer wrote a letter to King Henry VIII expressing
his shock at the arrest of Queen Anne Boleyn, a woman who had acted as his
patron and who was his friend:
“Have
come to Lambeth, according to Mr. Secretary’s letters, to know your Grace’s
pleasure. Dare not, contrary to the said letters, presume to come to your
presence, but of my bounden duty I beg you “somewhat to suppress the deep
sorrows of your Grace’s heart,” and take adversity patiently. Cannot deny that
you have great causes of heaviness, and that your honor is highly touched. God
never sent you a like trial; but if He find you no less patient and thankful
than when all things succeeded to your wish, I suppose you never did thing more
acceptable to Him. You will give Him occasion to increase His benefits, as He
did to Job.
If
the reports of the Queen be true, they are only to her dishonor, not yours. I
am clean amazed, for I had never better opinion of woman; but I think your
Highness would not have gone so far if she had not been culpable. I was most
bound to her of all creatures living, and therefore beg that I may, with your
Grace’s favor, wish and pray that she may declare herself innocent. Yet if she
be found guilty, I repute him not a faithful subject who would not wish her
punished without mercy. “And as I loved her not a little for the love which I
judged her to bear towards God and His Gospel, so if she be proved culpable
there is not one that loveth God and His Gospel that ever will favor her, but
must hate her above all other; and the more they favor the Gospel the more they
will hate her, for then there was never creature in our time that so much
slandered the Gospel; and God hath sent her this punishment for that she
feignedly hath professed his Gospel in her mouth and not in heart and deed.”
And though she have so offended, yet God has shown His goodness towards your
Grace and never offended you. “But your Grace, I am sure, knowledgeth that you
have offended Him.” I trust, therefore, you will bear no less zeal to the
Gospel than you did before, as your favor to the Gospel was not led by
affection to her. Lambeth, 3 May.
Since
writing, my lords Chancellor, Oxford, Sussex, and my Lord Chamberlain of your
Grace’s house, sent for me to come to the Star Chamber, and there declared to
me such things as you wished to make me privy to. For this I am much bounden to
your Grace. They will report our conference. I am sorry such faults can be
proved against the Queen as they report.”1
Cranmer
must have spent hours working on this letter. He had to balance his defence and
support of the queen with his allegiance to the king. Beth von Staats, in her
book Thomas Cranmer: In a Nutshell, writes that
this letter is evidence of Cranmer’s “political naivety” and that “His first
response was to plead to the benevolence of King Henry VIII by composing a
letter to him.” She goes on to say that “Though some view the letter’s prose to
be a condemnation of his close friend Queen Anne Boleyn, it is actually an
example of highly cautious advocacy. Though he could plant a seed of doubt,
Cranmer was wise enough to know not to question the king’s decision-making.”2
Cranmer’s biographer Diarmaid MacCulloch writes of how this letter and
Cranmer’s handling of the situation show his wisdom and courage, rather than
his cowardice as some suggest.3 Cranmer definitely knew how to
handle the King and when not to question the King’s actions. Angering the King
would not have helped Anne.
Also
on 3rd May 1536, Sir William Kingston, Constable of the Tower of London, wrote
his first report to Thomas Cromwell regarding Anne Boleyn’s imprisonment in the
Tower of London. Click here to
read more about this.
Notes and Sources
1. Letters
and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 10 – January-June 1536,
792
2. von
Staats, Beth (2015) Thomas Cranmer: In a Nutshell
3. MacCulloch,
Diarmaid (1998) Thomas Cranmer: A Life,
157.
Read
more: http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/3-may-1536-archbishop-cranmer-is-clean-amazed/#ixzz3ZCoRclaf
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