Anne met Henry Percy, the brown-haired and blue-eyed handsome and
intelligent son of the Earl of
Northumberland, who was a member of Cardinal Wolsey’s household, during his
visits to Queen Katherine’s apartments to chat and delightfully flirt with the
maids of honor there. Both of them came to accept each other for who they are,
care about each other, and fell in love with each other and Henry Percy courted
Anne during 1523. The two of them did enter into a secret engagement with each
other. Anne might have ended up enjoying Henry Percy’s title and felt excited
to be the future Countess of Northumberland and the chatelaine of Alnwick
Castle, but her feelings for Henry Percy seemed to be genuine for the most part with her gladly making plans in her mind of the list of all of the fine
wine and game needed for the wedding feast, the cloth merchants and dress
makers needed to make her bridal wardrobe and her wedding gown, and the
excellent artist needed to paint a wedding portrait of the couple.
Cardinal Wolsey’s gentleman usher, George Cavendish, maintained that the two of
them were not lovers with each other and that meant their relationship was
celibate with them most likely resolving to embraces,
holding hands, kisses, and Anne sitting on his lap until they had consummated
their relationship once they were married. Their secret engagement soon reached the ears of Cardinal Wolsey as
it alarmed him since he knew that Henry Percy had been betrothed to Lady Mary
Talbot, daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury, since 1516 and it had been very
rash for Henry Percy to involve himself with Anne as pre-contracts were as
legally binding as a marriage then. Cardinal Wolsey saw Anne as no fit bride
for Henry Percy and thought that it was unlikely that his father, the Earl of
Northumberland, would ever agree to such a match for his son. He wasted no time
in making King Henry VIII aware of the matter without whose permission no
aristocratic marriage could be contracted and he was furious at not being
consulted on the matter. Cavendish, who would have inside knowledge of the
whole episode, went on to say that it King Henry VIII had already begun to
accept Anne for who she was, care about her, and deeply fall in love with her
and the thought of her being betrothed to another man disturbed him so much so
that he reluctantly confessed the ‘secret affection’ he had been nurturing for
her to Cardinal Wolsey and set him to break off the engagement.
Cardinal Wolsey agreed with King
Henry VIII that breaking up Anne’s secret engagement to Henry Percy was the
best course. He had been able to summon Henry Percy when he arrived back at
York Place and he came to lecture him sternly over his folly in involving
himself with ‘that foolish girl yonder in the court, Anne Boleyn.’ Cardinal
Wolsey did accuse Henry Percy of having offended both his father and his
sovereign and ended up informing him that Anne was ‘one such as neither of them
will be agreeable with the matter’ and anyway, ‘His Highness intended to have
preferred Anne Boleyn unto another person, although she knoweth it not’ in
front of Cavendish and other onlookers. King Henry VIII, of course had done no
such thing as he wanted to reserve to have Anne for himself.
Henry Percy was dismayed by Cardinal Wolsey’s words, but he ended up
fighting with the Cardinal as he argued that he was ‘old enough to choose a
wife as my fancy served me best’ with himself emphasizing Anne’s ‘right noble parentage,
whose descent is equivalent with mine,’ but Cardinal Wolsey was not swayed. He
called Henry Percy a ‘willful boy.’ Henry Percy retorted that he had ‘gone so
far, before so many worthy witnesses’ and said that he knew of no way of
extricating himself from his engagement with Anne without offending his
conscience. Soon he too late realized his error for Cardinal Wolsey,
well-versed in canon law, swooped in. ‘Think ye that the King and I know not
what we have to do in as weighty a matter as this?’ he interrupted smoothly.
Henry Percy was beaten and he knew it. His father the Earl of Northumberland
was sent for and he was commanded in the King’s name not to seek out Anne’s
company again. The Earl of Northumberland soundly berated his son over his engagement
to Anne and threatened to disinherit him if he did not do his duty went he
arrived. Then he had a long talk with Cardinal Wolsey and King Henry VIII which
resulted in a decision that Henry Percy should marry Lady Mary Talbot as soon
as it was possible for him to do so.
Cardinal Wolsey severed Anne’s
engagement with Henry Percy. Anne was deeply furious by this at Cardinal Wolsey
as he had both thwarted her by breaking her engagement to Henry Percy and
insulted her by calling her “a foolish girl” which made her unable to accept him for who he
was, care nothing for him, and despise him and she ended up vowing to seek
revenge on Cardinal Wolsey if it were ever in her power to do so according to
George Cavendish. For other sources such
as historian Eric Ives stated that Anne would never have childishly and
definitely unwisely go making threats against him since she was a mere maid and
he was a powerful Cardinal though that
does not mean Anne did not have enmity towards him as he was an enemy of the
Boleyn family. She was forced to be sent back to her girlhood home
of Hever Castle for her anger and her behavior over her broken engagement to
Henry Percy and she got even reportedly locked in her bedchamber at one time in
order to stop her from having any form of communication with Henry Percy. Henry
Percy was frantic with worry about her as he had no means of knowing what she
had heard. In desperation he sent her a message via his friend James Melton in
which he begged her that she would never allow herself to be married to another
man: “Bid her remember her promise, which none can lose but God only,” but his
hopes were in vain. In September 1523 Henry Percy married Lady Mary Talbot and
he went home to Northumberland. His marriage to Lady Mary Talbot was a
disaster, he proved to be ineffectual when he became the next Earl of
Northumberland, and he suffered from ill health.
Anne might have been furious with him for not
fighting harder for them to be married to each other.
Anne was left to simmer in her anger and sorrow over
her broken engagement to Henry Percy at Hever Castle for a year or more. Her
life during her exile which was unknown how long it went on for was not
documented. She might have attended the wedding of her brother George to Jane
Parker in 1524 and King Henry VIII granted George the manor of Grimston in
Norfolk as a wedding present to him. Sir Thomas Boleyn was made Viscount
Rochford by King Henry VIII in 1525. Anne most likely occupied her time with
conversation with her mother Lady Elizabeth Boleyn, drawing, embroidery, getting exercise in the Long Gallery, making
music, needlework, painting, reading books, and writing poetry when not helping
her mother with the running of the household or outside going on walks in the
gardens, hawking, horseback riding, or hunting. She took the time to visit her childhood friends Margaret Wyatt and Mary
Wyatt. The death of Queen Claude on July 24, 1524 must
have upset Anne for she had been greatly fond of her. Upon Anne’s return to the English Court, she again entered the service
as a lady-in-waiting of Catherine of Aragon and established herself as one of
the most intriguing ladies in the English Court.
A picture of Sir Thomas Wyatt
Anne caught the eye of the distinguished courtier
poet dark-brown haired and dark-brown eyed Thomas Wyatt with her beauty and her witty and graceful speech. Both
of them accepted each other for who they were, cared about each other, and
developed a special friendship with each other. Sir Thomas came to deeply fall
in love with Anne. Rumors of romance did occur between Sir Thomas Wyatt and
Anne and some people even went so far to say that the two of them were lovers with
each other even when there was never proof of this documented though it seemed
unlikely given her previous track record of not getting herself involved with
married men. More likely Sir Thomas Wyatt ended up having romantic feelings for
Anne and Anne was flattered by such attention towards her since he might have
been a handsome, brilliant, charismatic, and dashing man, but she refused his
sexual advances towards her. Sir Thomas Wyatt often visited Anne while she was
staying at Hever Castle since his family estate Allington was close in
proximity to Anne’s family estate at Hever Castle in Kent, but Anne probably
had no real interest in him since he was a married man. There was the idea that
some of the most yearning poetry attributed to Sir Thomas Wyatt was inspired by
his platonic relationship towards her and that his most famous poem Whoso
List to Hunt, written in about 1532 after it was clear that
Anne was King Henry VIII’s choice of a second wife, about Anne whom he
describes as unobtainable, headstrong, and belonging to the King:
“Whose list to hunt; I know where there is a hind.
But as for me, alas I may no more:
The vain travail hath wearied me so sore,
I am of them that farthest cometh behind.
Yet may I by no means my wearied mind
Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore
Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore
Sithens in a net I seek to hold the wind.
Who list to hunt, I put him out of doubt,
As well as I may spend time in vain,
And graven with diamonds in letters plain
There is written her fair neck round about:
‘Noli me tangere, for Caesar’s I am,
And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.”
However Sir Thomas Wyatt’s poetry about Anne was to
come to an end since it became clear that to him King Henry VIII’s relationship was done with his previous mistress Mary Boleyn and his attentions were
turning towards her younger sister Anne. In fact there was a legend that Sir
Thomas Wyatt had been entertaining Anne with his poetry while she did
needlework when he noticed a jewel(most likely a locket) hanging from Anne’s pocket. He snatched it
playfully off of her and took it as a trophy. Sometime later he played a game
of lawn bowling with King Henry VIII and the two of them argued over a shot.
Sir Thomas Wyatt said that the shot was his, but King Henry VIII told him, “Wyatt,
I tell thee it is mine,” with him pointing to the wood with the finger on which
he was wearing Anne’s ring as a token of her affection for him. Wyatt saw
Anne’s ring on King Henry VIII’s finger and said to him, “ If it may like Your
Majesty to give me leave to measure it, I hope it will be mine,” and then he
took Anne’s jewel from around his neck and begun to measure the cast with its
ribbon of Anne’s “affection” for him. King Henry VIII was furious when he saw
that Sir Thomas Wyatt had Anne’s jewel and took off from the game in search of
Anne for an explanation as to way he had it. Anne told King Henry VIII that Sir
Thomas Wyatt meant nothing to her and that he had taken her jewel without her
permission to do so. With such a rival
for Anne’s affections as King Henry VIII himself Sir Thomas Wyatt conceded
defeat to King Henry VIII and decided to look elsewhere for another woman other
than Anne. Anne was not affected by Sir Thomas Wyatt’s defect as she was
probably preoccupied with a “bigger fish” and a much more persistent one in
King Henry VIII himself.
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