Anne Boleyn Part Ten: Anne’s Magnificent Coronation as the Queen of England

                                   Written By: Katelyn Abbott

                              A picture of Anne at her coronation as the Queen of England

Katherine had been formally stripped on her title as the Queen of England and Anne was consequently crowned Queen Consort on June 1, 1533 in a magnificent ceremony at Westminster Abbey with a banquet afterwards. Many important people had been known to refuse to attend including the Duke of Norfolk, Anne’s own uncle Thomas Howard, and Sir Thomas More, who had disapproved of King Henry VIII’s divorce to Katherine of Aragon, yet had nothing personal against Anne. She came to be the last Queen Consort of England to be crowned separately from her husband. Anne did get crowned with St. Edward’s crown unlike any other queen consort which had previously been used to crown only a reigning monarch. Historian Alice Hunt ended up suggesting that this was done because Anne’s pregnancy was visible by then and she was carrying the heir to the English throne who was presumed to be male.  On the previous day Anne had taken part in an elaborate procession through the streets of London seated in a litter of “white cloth of gold” that rested on two palfreys clothed to the ground in white damask, while the barons of the Cinque Ports held a canopy of cloth of gold over her head. She wore white in accordance with tradition and on her head was a gold coronet beneath which her long dark hair hung down freely. The public’s response to her appearance was lukewarm at best though Joanna Denny stated that Anne was accepted for who she was, cared about, and loved by many of the English city dwellers who welcomed her with open arms as many in the city were staunch believers in reform. Anne was popular among reformers who saw her as the champion of the Christian truths, scholars saw her as a shining example of the new educated woman, and there were English subjects that either believed or hoped that Anne would be the mother of England’s long-awaited prince. The people Anne was unpopular among  was many of the English rural country folk especially in the North who were pro-Katherine of Aragon and remained staunchly Catholic and never saw Anne as the Queen of England. Henry was said to have asked Anne, “How liked you the look of the City?” and that Anne replied to him, “Sir, I liked the City well enough—but I saw a great many caps on heads, and heard but few tongues.”

 

                    A second picture of Anne at her coronation as the Queen of England

This is a detailed account that Edward Hall had wrote about Anne’s coronation as the Queen of England:

 “On Thursday 29 May, Lady Anne, Marquess of Pembroke, was received as queen of England by all the lords of England. And the mayor and alderman, with all the guilds of the City of London, went to Greenwich in their barges after the best fashion, with also a barge of bachelors of the mayor’s guild richly hung with cloth of gold with a great number to wait on her. And so all the lords with the mayor and all the guilds of London brought her by water from Greenwich to the Tower of London, and there the king’s grace received her as she landed, and then over a thousand guns were fired at the Tower, and others were fired at Limehouse, and on other ships lying in the Thames.

 And on Saturday, the last day of May, she rode from the Tower of London through the City with a goodly company of lords, knights, and gentlemen, with all the peers of the realm, richly appareled. She herself rode in a rich chariot covered with cloth of silver, and a rich canopy of cloth of silver borne over her head by the four Lords of the Ports, in gowns of scarlet, followed by four richly hung chariots of ladies; and also several other ladies and gentlewoman riding on horseback, all in gowns made of crimson velvet. And there were various pageant made on scaffolds in the city; and all the guilds were standing in their liveries, everyone in order, the mayor and aldermen standing in Cheapside. And when she came before them the Recorder of London made a goodly presentation to her, and then the mayor gave her a purse of cloth of fold with a thousand marks of angel nobles in it, as a present from the whole of the city, and so the lords brought her to the palace of Westminster and left her there that night.

On 1 June Queen Anne was brought from Westminster Hall to St Peter’s Abbey in procession, with all the monks of Westminster going in rich copes of gold, with thirteen mitered abbots; and after them all the king’s chapel in rich copes with four bishops and two mitered archbishops, and all the lords going in their parliament robes, and the crown borne before her by the duke of Suffolk, and her two specters by two earls, and she herself going under a rich canopy of cloth of gold, dressed in a kirtle of crimson velvet decorated with ermine, and a robe of purple velvet decorated with ermine over that, and a rich coronet with a cap of pearls and stones on her head; and the old duchess of Norfolk carrying her train in a robe of scarlet with a coronet of gold on her cap, and Lord Burgh, the queen’s Chamberlain, supporting the train in the middle.

 After her followed ten ladies in robes of scarlet trimmed with ermine and round coronets of gold on their heads; and next after them all the queen’s maids in gowns of scarlet edged with white Baltic fur. And so she was brought to St. Peter’s church at Westminster, and there set in her high royal seat, which was made on a high platform before the altar. And there she was anointed and crowned queen of England by the archbishop of Canterbury and the archbishop of York, and so sat, crowned, in her royal seat all through the mass, and she offered at the said mass. And when the mass was done they left, every man in his order, to Westminster Hall, she still going under the canopy, crowned, with two scepters in her hands, my Lord Wiltshire her father, and Lord Talbot leading her, and so dined there; and there was made the most honorable feast that has been seen.

 The great hall at Westminster was richly hung with rich cloth of Arras, and a table was set at the upper end of  the hall, going up twelve steps, where the queen dine; and a rich cloth of estate hung over her head. There were also four other tables along the hall; and it was railed on every side, from the high dais in Westminster Hall to the platform in the church in the abbey.

 And when she went to church to here coronation there was a striped blue cloth spread from the high dais of the king’s bench to the high altar of Westminster on which she went.

 And when the queen’s Grace had washed her hands, then came the duke of Suffolk, high constable for that day and steward of the feast, riding on horseback, richly dressed and decorated, and with him, also riding on horseback, Lord William Howard as deputy for the duke of Norfolk in his office of Marshall of England, and there came the queen’s service followed by the archbishop’s with a certain space between, which was all borne by knights; the archbishop sitting at the queen’s board, at the end of her left hand. The earl of Sussex was sewer, earl of Essex carver, earl of Derby cup bearer, earl of Arundel butler, Viscount Lisle panter, and Lord Grey almoner.”

Anne was said to have eaten three dishes out of the twenty-eight dishes served at the first course and twenty-three dishes at the second course of her coronation banquet where she was afterwards served with comfits, sweets, and wine once the feast had ended.

                         A third picture of Anne at her coronation as the Queen of England

Clement Marot dedicated a specialized edition of his 'Le Pasteur Evagelique' to Anne with her arms amongst the Tudor roses on the cover most likely as a coronation gift from the French ambassador Jean de Dinteville.

Meanwhile the House of Commons had been able to make all appeals to Rome forbidden and exacted the penalties of praenunire against all who introduced papal bulls into England. It had been only then that Pope Clement at last took the step of announcing a provisional sentence of excommunication against Archbishop Cranmer and King Henry VIII. He condemned King Henry VIII’s new marriage to Anne and in March 1534 he declared that King Henry VIII’s marriage to Katherine of Aragon was legal and he again ordered King Henry VIII to return to her. Henry now required his English subjects to swear the oath attached to the First Succession Act, which effectively rejected papal authority in legal matters and recognized Anne as the Queen of England. Those who refused, such as Sir Thomas More, who had resigned as Lord Chancellor and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, were arrested and brought to be placed in the Tower of London. Parliament sought to declare King Henry VIII as “the only supreme head on earth of the Church of England.” The Church in England was now under King Henry VIII’s control, not Rome’s. Anne wrote a letter to Thomas Cromwell seeking his aid in ensuring that the English merchant Richard Herman be reinstated a member of the merchant adventurers in Antwerp and he no longer be persecuted simply because he had helped in “setting forth of the New testament in English” on May 14, 1534 in one of the realm’s first official acts protecting Protestant Reformers. Anne wounded up protecting and promoting evangelicals and those wishing to study the scriptures of William Tyndale before and after her coronation as the Queen of England. She would have had a decisive role in influencing the Protestant reformer Matthew Parker to attend the English Court as her chaplain and prior to her death entrusted her daughter Princess Elizabeth into Matthew Parker’s spiritual care.