The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown Read Online Free PDF

she walked into the room and that was the end of his love for Anne Boleyn. The facts do not support this. Henry VIII was on progress with his wife, Anne Boleyn, and Wolf Hall was one of the main stops on the progress, with the visit lasting from around the 4th to the 10th September. 5 He was not there alone. Plus Jane had served Catherine of Aragon and had been in Anne Boleyn's employ since at least early 1535, so it was hardly a first meeting. However, as Eric Ives points out, this visit did show that the Seymour family had risen at court, in that they were important enough to visit on this progress.
    Anne Boleyn miscarried in January 1536 and it was reported that she had been around 15 weeks pregnant when she lost her baby. Therefore, Henry VIII was still sleeping with Anne in autumn 1535. He had not put her aside and moved on to Jane Seymour. In fact, there is no hint of Henry showing Jane any favour or attention until February 1536, when Chapuys reports Anne's miscarriage and writes of how Anne may have miscarried because of "a fear that the King would treat her like the late Queen, especially considering the treatment shown to a lady of the Court, named Mistress Semel, to whom, as many say, he has lately made great presents." 6 The Catholic recusant Nicholas Sander, writing in Elizabeth I's reign, recorded that Anne Boleyn's miscarriage was caused by her anger and sadness at finding Jane Seymour sitting on Henry VIII's lap. 7 However, we do not know if this is true. Furthermore, this incident was also in the January, four months after the couple's stay at Wolf Hall, rather than during the progress.

7th January 1536 – Death of Catherine of Aragon
    On the 7th January 1536, at two o'clock in the afternoon, Henry VIII's first wife, Catherine of Aragon, died at Kimbolton Castle. She had been ill for a few months but felt worse after drinking a draught of Welsh beer in December 1535. This, combined with the embalmer's report that all of her organs were healthy apart from her heart, "which was quite black and hideous to look at", 1 gave rise to rumours that Catherine had been poisoned. However, the embalmer, who was a chandler (candlemaker and wax worker) and not a medical expert, 2 also found a black body attached to Catherine's heart. It is thought that this was probably a secondary heart tumour caused by cancer in another part of the body.
    On 29th December 1535 Catherine's doctor sent for Eustace Chapuys, the Imperial Ambassador and a friend of Catherine's, because Catherine had taken a turn for the worse. Chapuys sought permission from the King to visit Catherine and it was granted. Mary was not so lucky, Henry refused to let her see her mother in her last days, something which must have broken the hearts of both women. As Chapuys travelled to Kimbolton, Catherine received a surprise visitor on New Year's Day. It was her former lady-in-waiting and confidante, María de Salinas, now Lady Willoughby. Apparently, Maria begged entry to the castle by pretending that she'd been thrown from her horse and that her letter of permission to visit had been delayed. 3
    The Catherine that María saw on that day must have been a far cry from the Catherine she had once known, a shadow of her former self due to her weakness and lack of appetite. Chapuys arrived the next day and although the former queen was weak, she was still lucid enough to know that when she first spoke to him she needed witnesses in the room so that she could not be accused of plotting against the King. Later conversations, however, were in private. For four days, Chapuys visited Catherine every afternoon. He reported that Catherine was worried about her daughter, Mary, as well as concerned that the Pope and Emperor were not acting on her behalf. 4 Catherine was also worried that she might be to blame for the "heresies" and "scandals" that England was now suffering because of the battle over the divorce. She was haunted by the deaths that had resulted from Henry's