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00:00She was our most infamous queen, the second wife of Henry VIII, tried on his
00:18orders for crimes of adultery and treason. Anne Boleyn was led from her
00:25rooms at the Tower of London to her death by an executioner's sword.
00:39This Tudor saga is one of the most familiar tales in English history.
00:47But to really understand Anne's rise and fall, we need to know more about those
00:53who helped shape her. Her tight-knit, cunning and power-hungry family.
01:00The Boleyns are one of the great stories in British history. It is an extraordinary epic
01:09of hubris and pain, the good and the bad kind of ambition.
01:13Every member of the family had a part to play.
01:21Thomas Boleyn, the ambitious patriarch. George, the fearless son. His sisters, Mary, the reluctant
01:32mistress. Anne, the calculating courtier. And their brutal uncle, Thomas Howard.
01:41The Tudor public had always been used to stories of tragic falls, the stories of falls of kings
01:48and princes. But even they might not have imagined a fall as graphic as the fall of the Boleyn family.
01:54Based on rare original letters and documents, the Boleyns will tell this story from their own perspectives.
02:03The court could produce no proof of my incestuous guilt. Other than that I had spent hours in the presence of my own sister.
02:13I will not say your sentence is unjust. My savior has taught me how to die. And he will strengthen my resolve.
02:22The family played a dangerous game and paid the ultimate price. But they left a remarkable legacy.
02:34Changing the course of British history. And taking their name from obscurity to the apex of power.
02:52Henry VIII has been on the throne for 17 years.
03:09The Boleyns are one of many ambitious families jostling for power at the Tudor court.
03:17Led by Thomas Boleyn, this is a dynasty on the make.
03:28The Boleyns may not have begun as a family born into wealth and privilege, but they were certainly among those who achieved it.
03:36In the mid-1520s, Thomas Boleyn has an impressive property portfolio of over 30 manors.
03:42Some of his properties end up being some of the most beautiful in Tudor England. They're coveted even by Henry VIII himself.
03:50Thomas is a career courtier, climbing the greasy pole by exploiting the influence of powerful patrons.
04:01Like his brother-in-law, Thomas Howard, the Duke of Norfolk.
04:07And the king's right-hand man, Cardinal Wolsey.
04:12I think we can see from Thomas Boleyn's career up to this point that he is an opportunist, but he plays on his strengths.
04:24And his strengths are getting on with people, charming them.
04:29His children have vital roles to play.
04:33His son George is forging his own career as a courtier.
04:40His daughter Mary has been the king's mistress, though Henry's interest has now waned and she has been cast aside.
04:49But Anne remains a valuable asset to the family.
04:54Her star is on the rise.
04:57She has escaped the threat of marriage to her Irish cousin, and her father has secured her the coveted position of maid of honour to Queen Catherine.
05:13This puts her in close contact not just with the queen, but with the king.
05:22The Tudor court is a complex web.
05:28Henry sits at the centre, surrounded by his council of ambitious, power-hungry men, all jockeying for position.
05:37But there is another shadow court, controlled by the queen.
05:47The Tudor court is actually a very strange phenomenon.
05:53You have these two households, the king and the queen.
05:56The queen's household, full of her ladies-in-waiting.
05:59It becomes a magnet for all the young men of the court, fuelled up with romance, seeking the company of ladies.
06:06I think to modernise, we might look at this sort of beauty parade as slightly problematic.
06:19But this was a sort of standard feature of the court.
06:23Women were there to be admired for Anne.
06:30It's an opportunity for her to mark herself out.
06:34We know that from her time at the French court, Anne very much embodies the spirit of France.
06:41It becomes part of her identity and what made her different.
06:46She is bright, she is intelligent, she is beautiful.
06:52There are a lot of reports about the beauty of Anne, but also her eyes.
06:57Everything goes through her eyes.
06:59She charms through her eyes.
07:05Anne Boleyn is seen as being a bit different and exotic.
07:10It gave her this kind of exotism.
07:14She's like no-one else at Henry VIII's court.
07:21Anne was sophisticated in terms of her style, in terms of her knowledge of flirtation,
07:28which the French court was decades ahead of the English with.
07:32So, you know, she could flirt, she could present herself as an alluring woman.
07:38We have to remember that.
07:40Henry himself lived in a bubble in which there were probably only 30 women.
07:45So, to have Anne there, bringing in this sophistication from outside,
07:49I suspect would have looked remarkably attractive.
07:55And indeed, Anne does catch the eye of the king.
07:59Little clues begin appearing that suggest the start of a budding romance between Anne and Henry.
08:20How do you communicate with a lady in your wife's household?
08:29So, secret notes, these are one of the few ways in which courtly love can express itself.
08:35There are real pieces of concrete evidence that link Anne with Henry.
08:41One is a book of ours in which he had written a love note to her.
08:45Now, if you think about that, that's a remarkable thing to do,
08:48to deface a religious book with erotic messages.
08:52They choose specific illuminated images in which to write their messages to each other.
09:03Henry chooses an image of the wounded Christ to write to Anne of his pains of love towards her.
09:12Anne writes a rather clever little couplet to Henry.
09:16By daily proof you shall me find to be to you both loving and kind.
09:25It's a very eloquent message.
09:27The image that she chooses to convey this to Henry alongside is an image of the Annunciation.
09:34So, here, Anne is saying, I will provide you with an heir.
09:39Because it's very unlikely that Queen Catherine of Aragon will.
09:44I think he certainly, at this point, is obsessed with her.
09:50He wants to possess her.
09:54He's physically attracted to her.
09:57As for Anne, I would be surprised if she was really in love with Henry VIII.
10:03That's mainly because I can't imagine anyone being in love with Henry VIII.
10:08But she could see a very bright future ahead of her if she became Queen of England and the mother of the next king.
10:17I think we can sense that Henry is the one that falls in love first.
10:22He is attracted to her.
10:24But Anne does what all Boleyns do and makes use of a good opportunity.
10:31When Thomas finds out about Henry's interest in Anne, he takes her away from court to their family seat of Heaver Castle in Kent.
10:48So, this is a place where the Boleyns often retreat to get away from the court gossip and to discuss, to plan.
11:03And they can do so in relative privacy.
11:10This is a pivotal moment for the family's fortunes.
11:13One they've experienced before.
11:19The king has already taken and discarded Mary, staining her reputation.
11:24So, how does Mary Boleyn react when she sees the king's attentions falling on her sister, Anne?
11:41She surely felt very worried for her, very fearful, very concerned for Anne's future.
11:48I think everyone was unsure where they were, Anne would have been anxious, excited, but wary, rightly wary, of what being Henry's mistress involved.
11:59Like all relationships at court, they're fraught with danger.
12:03To have a member of your family as the king's mistress was both a possibility, but also a time-limited issue.
12:12The moment he discards that, does he also discard the whole family?
12:15Thomas would be somewhat more reluctant and reticent at this point.
12:22He knows the natural limitations of such relationships.
12:26Indeed, he has seen it with his own daughter, Mary.
12:30Is Anne different?
12:32Will this opportunity be different?
12:35Or is he recognising that absence makes the heart grow fonder?
12:40Is this a strategy on Thomas' part?
12:45While it's down in Hiva, Anne writes to Henry.
12:46Now, we actually don't have her letters, but we can understand a bit of what she was talking about from Henry's responses.
13:01There is a sense that perhaps she's being advised by her father.
13:05I mean, this is a man who is the master of diplomacy.
13:09So if anyone's going to know how to react to Henry, it's Thomas.
13:12His French was impossible.
13:13Some of them are written in French.
13:14Is this Henry showing off his sophistication to the sophisticated French-educated Anne?
13:17Possibly it is.
13:18In turning over, in my mind, the contents of your last letters, I have put myself into great agony, not knowing how to interpret them.
13:24Whether to my disadvantage, as you show in some places, or to my advantage, as I understand them in others.
13:25I have put myself into great agony, not knowing how to interpret them, whether to my disadvantage, as you show in some places, or to my advantage as I understand them in others.
13:38I beseech you earnestly to let me know expressly your whole mind as to the love between us two.
13:59If you please to do the office of a true friend and mistress, and give yourself body and heart to me, then I will be your most loyal servant.
14:12If your scruples allow you to become my mistress in this full sense, I promise not only that you shall be given the name and status befitting you, but also that I will take you for my only mistress, casting off all others to serve you alone.
14:30What Henry is doing is asking for a carnal relationship, a sexual relationship.
14:38He wants her to give herself body to him, and that in so doing, he will give her, in return, the honour and status of being his only and official mistress.
14:52It's a form of negotiation in what kind of relationship they're going to have.
14:59I beseech you to give an entire answer to this, my rude letter, that I may know on what and how far I may depend, written by the hand of him who would willingly remain yours.
15:10Henry Rex.
15:16He's still married to Catherine of Aragon, but she would be known as the king's mistress.
15:21He would be faithful to her.
15:22Their children would have status, albeit they would be illegitimate and couldn't inherit the throne, but they would have a status.
15:29What's also very clear from the sequence of the letters is that Anne Boleyn says, no, she doesn't want this.
15:35Anne, it seems to me, is holding off having a relationship which would be like the one her sister had, where she would be the mistress of the king and might very well, as Mary was, be cast off.
15:49We can also get a sense of Thomas Boleyn and what he feels in this, because, of course, Hever is his house.
15:58If he'd said, no, you cannot go back there, you must stay at court, then that would be a sure sign that he wants her to become the king's mistress.
16:08But he takes her back to Hever.
16:10So it's clear that Thomas Boleyn also wants more for Anne.
16:13The entire Boleyn family is being drawn into these delicate negotiations, including Anne's brother George, who quickly benefits from his sister's newfound favour with the king.
16:25George Boleyn, he's at court and still in attendance on the king.
16:30And where before he's been a bit of an outlier, not particularly close to Henry, now that Henry is interested in George's sister, he's all over George Boleyn.
16:39It had a massive impact on George Boleyn's standing and on his fortunes.
16:45He'd been steadily rising through court for a number of years.
16:49Firstly, he's a royal cup bearer.
16:51He's in attendance at every ceremonial event.
16:55He's there with his cup, offering it to the king at banquets, at dances, when he meets ambassadors.
17:01Through the relationship with his sister, his career has accelerated.
17:06He is able to access patronage from the king in a way that he didn't necessarily get before.
17:13He's master of the king's buckhounds, which means that he's in control of the king's hunting dogs.
17:17And in fact, we have payments in royal accounts for George being paid to buy the dog food for these dogs.
17:23George Boleyn begins to act as a messenger between Anne and Henry, taking letters back and forth between the court and the family's home in Kent.
17:37He's intemperate, he's cocky, he's popular, he's very handsome, he's athletic.
17:43He's not quite as smooth as his father. He doesn't quite have that natural instinct for diplomacy.
17:50He's seen as the messenger. So he becomes closer to Henry, but really only because at this stage he is Anne Boleyn's brother.
18:03Dearest Anne.
18:05George and Anne Boleyn were an absolute pair together.
18:08So they were perfectly matched and they had this very, very special bond.
18:12I thank you most cordially for the gift of the fine diamond attached to the little ship within which the solitary damsel rattles about inside.
18:21And for the fine interpretation you sent me to explain its meaning.
18:26Henry thanks her for the image of a maiden tossed in a storm in a boat, which is a very pointed gift for her to send to him, I think.
18:39Suggesting the woman who is at sea who does not quite yet trust the security of getting to harbour, getting to land in Henry's promises.
18:49She's saying, look, I don't know how to take what you're saying. And he again reassures her that his desires are honest and trustworthy.
19:02And for submitting yourself to me with all your goodness.
19:05When we look at the letters, we can actually see the moment when Henry VIII's intentions towards Anne change and when he makes her an offer that she can't refuse.
19:17From this point on, my heart shall be dedicated to you alone.
19:22I wish my person was so too. God can do it if he pleases.
19:26To whom I pray every day for that to end, hoping that at length my prayers will be heard.
19:37This is the moment that the relationship changes.
19:40And this is undoubtedly Anne's acceptance of the offer of marriage.
19:47She knows it's going to be a difficult path that they're going to follow.
19:51But marriage is an offer that she is prepared to accept.
19:54As she reaches this new understanding with Henry, the balance of power between Anne and her father, Thomas, shifts.
20:04I don't think we can see the hand of Thomas Boleyn here.
20:10Anne is a very independent woman and I think she is probably doing much of the negotiations.
20:14However, it's perfectly plausible that she would discuss with her father and possibly even her mother about the way to go, sound out their opinion.
20:27She's not a weak partner or a pawn on the political chessboard.
20:31She's sort of positioning herself as a woman of power who commands respect from the king.
20:35And I think that only furthers to fan that flame of desire in Henry.
20:41Henry must have realised that the very precariousness of his own dynasty.
20:46Catherine is considerably older.
20:48There are no offspring in the offing.
20:51Miscarriages have begun to peter out.
20:54Once he comes to the conclusion that Catherine is not going to bear him a legitimate son,
20:58he decides to invest all he has in Anne Boleyn.
21:06It appears that Anne has skilfully negotiated her own position in this relationship.
21:12And by securing a marriage proposal, has achieved exactly what she wants.
21:17In so doing, she turns the role of Tudor women and royal mistresses upside down.
21:24Anne returns to court, eager to exert her newfound influence.
21:43But one major obstacle stands in her way.
21:48In order to progress, she needs to become Henry's wife.
21:55How is that going to play out?
21:58How is she going to resolve the very real and problematic issue at hand,
22:05the fact that Henry is married to Catherine of Aragon?
22:10Catherine of Aragon had always been really popular,
22:13right from the point when she had arrived in England.
22:17People see her as this wonderful, smiling, pious queen who's kind and gentle.
22:25And Anne is seen very much as the complete antithesis to everything that Catherine represents.
22:31The gossip starts circulating.
22:38Foreign embassy representatives, ambassadors start beginning to mention Lady Anne.
22:45And the fact that Henry is engaging in this affair while Catherine is still in the same palace.
22:52To help him end his marriage, Henry turns to Wolsey, the most senior churchman in England.
23:11His hope is that Wolsey can persuade the Pope to grant an annulment.
23:15Wolsey's first reaction is probably being rather appalled at the prospect, but the king must have what the king wants.
23:29As far as Wolsey is concerned at the outset of all of this, it was a relatively straightforward case, you know.
23:35Clergy to clergy, canon law to canon law, we'll sort it and everything will be all right.
23:40Henry isn't asking for something completely unprecedented.
23:43Kings annul marriages, queens retire into a life of religious chastity, and kings move on all the time.
23:50This won't be Wolsey's first dealings with the Boleyns.
23:56Thomas has worked closely with him in the past, and the two get on well.
24:01Unlike Wolsey and Thomas Howard, who are old rivals.
24:11But the Cardinal's relationship with Anne is strained.
24:16He was responsible for ending her tryst with the man she considered her first true love, Henry Percy.
24:22Leaving her, according to one source, swearing vengeance upon him.
24:31If it ever lies in my power, I will work as much displeasure for Wolsey as he has shown me.
24:42But Anne can't afford to let her animosity towards Wolsey show.
24:46Although she is suspicious of Wolsey, thinking he's not going to promote her interests,
24:55she realises that she's got to get him on her side,
24:59and she will use him as best she can to get what she wants.
25:03When Wolsey returns from a mission abroad, he suddenly realises quite how much power Anne and the Boleyns now hold.
25:18The first thing that Wolsey knows when he comes back is that he's used to walking more or less straight into the king,
25:31but he's told to wait at the insistence of Anne Boleyn, and only when she says so, that he's allowed in.
25:37And that certainly telegraphs immediately to Wolsey that things have changed.
25:41This, I think, is the first moment when people realise that Anne has influence.
25:48She's not just a mistress, she can actually tell someone as powerful as Wolsey what the king wants.
25:56And that, I think, brings Wolsey up quite sharp, because he suddenly realises there's a challenge in the intimacy stakes between him and the king.
26:06There's Anne in the middle, saying, no, no, Henry thinks this.
26:11Whereas, of course, Wolsey, for the last ten years, have been telling people what Henry thinks.
26:15This is probably the first time that he has had to wait in order for someone else to tell him he can come into the room and talk to the king.
26:23She's making it quite clear to Wolsey that there are two ears that he needed to please now.
26:29This is a very bold move on Anne's part, and it must have been fairly humbling for Wolsey.
26:39Wolsey's very well aware that Anne and her family are a force to be reckoned with.
26:48Anne's position of influence is steadily growing.
26:52Now even the king's right-hand man is under her sway.
26:55Behind her, her Boleyn relatives are also moving closer to the centre of power.
27:06The family are in an unprecedented situation.
27:09This is much more complicated than Thomas simply wanting to slip his daughters into the king's bed for his own betterment.
27:20Henry very much is in control here.
27:24He is the one that has singled out Anne.
27:27But that doesn't mean to say that Thomas, ever the strategist, isn't going to make the best of the opportunity in front of him.
27:34For Anne's uncle, Thomas Howard, the situation also brings new possibilities.
27:43The news that Anne Boleyn is on the rise as a potential love interest and then incredibly as a potential queen for Henry VIII, certainly offers Thomas Howard opportunity.
27:55Of course it's going to offer greater access to the heart of the royal family, to the heart of patronage, and to increased privileges as the uncle of the future queen.
28:02But it does also carry great risks. If the love affair runs sour between Henry and Anne, the family are going to be caught in the crosshairs.
28:13They are going to be left to pay a price for this. Her becoming queen might be a silver noose around the family's neck.
28:20In 1528, all of the Boleyn family's hopes could have come crashing down.
28:35In Tudor England, there's an illness called the sweating sickness.
28:44It's possibly some type of flu. Nobody quite knows. Clearly very catching and very, very deadly.
28:51It was known for taking out the fittest, the youngest in society, and it reaches the court.
28:57This is Covid with bells on to the pewter period.
29:07That intimacy between Henry and Anne at court is then suddenly disrupted because the sweating sickness is unpredictable and it's virulent.
29:17You could be happy in the morning dead by tea time.
29:19And Henry knows absolutely that his own personal safety is not only primed to him, but it's the future of the nation as well.
29:29He can't get sick. All the performance of the ardent, desirous lover, that has to go on hold until the sickness is over.
29:38He sends Anne away. He sends her back to Hever.
29:41Unfortunately for the Boleyns, all wasn't well at Hever, and Thomas Boleyn and Anne Boleyn both came down with the sweating sickness themselves.
29:52Henry Gates was hugely anxious. He sent Anne his second best doctor, obviously keeping the first with him just in case.
30:07But it's a mark of his respect for Anne that he was prepared to get rid of his second best doctor to send him to her.
30:15But he's clearly very, very anxious about Anne Boleyn, and with good reason.
30:20Very, very fortunately for the family, both Thomas Boleyn and Anne survived the outbreak of sweating sickness.
30:28But the Boleyn family don't escape entirely unscathed.
30:31Mary Boleyn's husband, William Carey, dies during this outbreak.
30:42William Carey was young and healthy with his future ahead of him, but this disease took him out, leaving her a widow.
30:49Leaving her a widow.
30:57There are advantages to being a widow in Tudor England.
31:02Suddenly, you're independent.
31:05You can make your own choices.
31:08You have your own money.
31:09But Mary doesn't seem to have seen many of these advantages.
31:17So we know that Mary Boleyn was left in financial straits, and that Thomas Boleyn doesn't seem to have been very willing to support her.
31:25In fact, one of Henry VIII's letters to Anne Boleyn actually mentions this and talks about getting her father to pay for Mary Boleyn's upkeep.
31:33For surely, whatsoever is said, it cannot so stand with his honour, but that he must needs take her, his natural daughter, now in her extreme necessity.
31:51Does this show a rift between Thomas Boleyn and his daughter Mary at this stage?
31:56Certainly, he wasn't willing to put his hand in his pocket to support her as a widow.
31:59It does rather suggest that maybe he wasn't particularly proud of the marriage that she had made, because Mary Boleyn's husband, William Carey, was a solid match.
32:13He was a courtier, a gentleman.
32:15But Thomas Boleyn is a highly ambitious man and highly ambitious for his daughters.
32:19So, perhaps he was disappointed in Mary.
32:22You could say that her father did not technically have any responsibility, financial responsibility, for his adult widowed daughter.
32:33But I think we'd all agree that a loving father would want to help his daughter, to give her emotional as well as financial support.
32:45We just know that she was unhappy, desperate, alone.
32:53Her sister is becoming more important, and she is being kept in the shadows, possibly because of her previous relationship with the king.
33:06Reputation means everything to families at the Tudor court.
33:13Perhaps to the more ambitious members of the Boleyn clan, Mary is regarded as no longer worth helping.
33:20However these two sisters may have felt when they were young, they certainly go very different ways as they become older.
33:33Anne is interested in power and influence in a way that Mary does not appear to be.
33:41After recuperating from her illness in Kent, Anne returns to court, keen to regain her position at the centre of power.
33:56Of course, the great matter, the annulment, is the great issue at hand, and things are rumbling on at a slow pace.
34:05I think we can actually gain a sense of acute frustration on Anne's part that the divorce proceedings or the attempt to even get close to them by Wolsey are taking quite as long as they are.
34:21It is good to return to this place.
34:24Now the cardinal is trying to secure lodgings for me miles away.
34:28Let him try.
34:29My Lord Henry's letters counsel my patience in our great matter.
34:34It is all in hand, I am told.
34:36We shall see about that.
34:38Despite the urgency, Wolsey finds it harder than expected to secure the annulment.
34:55The Pope keeps stalling due to family allegiances with Catherine of Aragon.
35:02But from Anne's perspective, Wolsey still looks like her safest bet.
35:11Cardinal Wolsey seems like the best person to secure the divorce from Catherine of Aragon.
35:18He knows church politics, he can speak to the Pope.
35:20So she attempts to work through Wolsey, but it's clear that there is always some level of suspicion between the two.
35:31They're not friends.
35:33There's no necessary reason why they need to fall out, provided Wolsey has got the necessary means to get the Pope to do what's required.
35:42And that's when we get a series of letters in which it's clear that Anne is prepared to recognize Wolsey's skills and talents, provided she can be sure and he can assure her that he's going to work to the ultimate goal, which is the annulment.
36:02My lord, in the humblest way my heart can imagine. Please pardon me for being so bold as to trouble you with my simple writing. I assure you it comes from the desire to know that your grace does well. And also, my lord, I do so long to hear from you news of the legate who has come from Rome to grant the king, our master, his divorce.
36:25For I trust this man will be most good and successful in resolving our great matter as he is being chosen by you.
36:37For I feel sure you desire this divorce every bit as much as I do. Your humble servant, Anne Boleyn.
36:46She writes in her own hand. That is a sign of intimacy rather than if she had left a secretary to write. But the reality is this is very much a sign to Wolsey that she is wooing him and wanting him to work for her.
37:08She wants to know the news, what is happening on the king's divorce. And then there is a postscript to the letter.
37:16The writer of this letter would not cease though she had caused me likewise to add my hand, desiring you to take it in good part.
37:24I ensure you both of us greatly desire to see you.
37:33By your loving sovereign and friend, Henry.
37:40So the fact that Anne Boleyn forced him to write this brief postscript speaks volumes of how important it was to her.
37:46But she's making a very clear statement of her power because Henry VIII is doing what she says. He is writing to Wolsey because she has told him to do so.
37:58My hunch is that Anne begins to suspect that things aren't developing as they should.
38:04And I think Anne's intuition is kicking in here. Whereas Henry, I think, is still very much hoping that Wolsey will deliver. I think Anne has her suspicions.
38:18Anne begins to consider whether Wolsey is in fact trying to frustrate the divorce, whether it's actually that he doesn't want it.
38:24All the eggs are in that particular basket. And there is no alternative strategy. And who best to get what they want from the Pope than Wolsey?
38:37So even if Anne was suspicious that Wolsey wasn't really on her side, I think she has to go along with the Wolsey route.
38:45Meanwhile, the growing influence of the Boleyns is not going unnoticed at court.
38:58I don't think people are particularly surprised that a family would rise in power because Tudor power has always run in very tight-knit circles, familial circles.
39:10But what they are surprised by is the reach of that power and the speed at which it has come together.
39:20Within about a decade, Thomas Boleyn has gone from the margins of that circle to being front and centre.
39:31Even within the Tudor court, that kind of meteoric rise is pretty unprecedented.
39:36You do start to see through the end of 1528 and early into 1529, an awful lot of court commentators, ambassadors and people writing letters back and forth,
39:46are starting to note that Wolsey is failing to get the king what he wants, which is never a wise move.
39:51The Lady Anne is the cause of all disorder at court.
39:58Now she finds her marriage plans delayed, she's becoming suspicious that Cardinal Worsley is putting impediments in her way.
40:05Because when she's queen, his power will decline.
40:12Her father, Thomas Boleyn, shares this view, as does her uncle, Thomas Howard.
40:18People say power is increasingly in their hands and they have conspired to overthrow Worsley,
40:23but there seems no evidence they have persuaded the king yet.
40:32Though I have observed at courts, Henry is not so friendly towards his cardinal.
40:38There's a clear sense at court that you're either on Wolsey's side or you're on the side of the Boleyn-Howard faction.
40:49And there's a certain degree of pressure on choosing those sides.
40:54And very soon people start shifting their allegiances towards the Boleyns.
40:58It's also obvious by the number of other people that are also now at court, who weren't necessarily at court as regularly before.
41:05And Thomas Howard is among those.
41:07While his niece is now starting so clearly to rise, while the king needs something done, Thomas Howard is straight in there.
41:16While not particularly politically sensitive, he's by no means stupid.
41:20And he's disliked Wolsey for so long that any hint that Wolsey is out of favour, he is going to jump on that.
41:25They don't seem to have got on as individuals.
41:30Thomas Howard doesn't like Wolsey because he thinks he's an upstart and he thinks he's too close to the king.
41:36Wolsey doesn't like Howard because Howard's not a very pleasant man.
41:41Howard is definitely on Anne's side, so to speak.
41:46And this is not only because what helps Anne helps the Howards, but it's also because he's very self-serving
41:52and he knows the best way to get what he wants, the power that he wants, is to do what the king wants.
42:01This is more of an uneasy, temporary alliance between the Boleyns and the Howards rather than a united political coup d'etat.
42:09But the old tensions about conflicting personalities between different agendas are still there.
42:14Thomas Boleyn is a little more removed from this particular faction.
42:19He's still waiting to see if Wolsey might come through with an annulment.
42:24Thomas Boleyn has the history with Wolsey and there are years of trust between them.
42:30He has been Wolsey's right-hand man and Wolsey has never let him down.
42:34He's watching it happen, but he's still waiting to see which way the wind's blowing.
42:37At the same time, the tables have turned between Thomas and his daughter.
42:44For the moment, Anne is the de facto head of the Boleyn family.
42:49Their fate and future lie in her hands.
42:53I think Thomas Boleyn is having many sleepless nights.
42:58I think he is very uncertain about the future.
43:01It could have gone either way for him.
43:04He could have had Anne as Queen of England or he could have Anne discarded as a mistress.
43:10He's also terribly concerned about his own position. He's torn.
43:15He has a lingering loyalty to Wolsey.
43:19He's being pulled in different directions and he has no real agency here.
43:23Thomas Wyatt is probably one of the most important early Tudor poets.
43:27He writes about a moment where, at court, if someone's favour is sinking,
43:33people rush away from them like ants from a body.
43:37And that's exactly what's happening with Wolsey at this point.
43:41There are people who are very, very keen to wash their hands off him.
43:45From May 1529, letters show the Cardinal's failure to deliver the annulment to be the talk of the King's inner circle.
44:07Wolsey is in the greatest pain he ever was.
44:09The French ambassador even reports that the Berlin faction are beginning to turn the King's mind against the Cardinal.
44:19The Berlin's lead the King to believe that he has not done as much as he could have done to promote the marriage.
44:29With Henry losing patience, Wolsey takes a huge gamble.
44:38He announces a public trial which he hopes will prove before a representative from Rome that Henry's marriage to Catherine was never legal in the first place.
44:52Well, the atmosphere of the Blackfriars trial is likely to have been quite formal, quite tense.
45:03Henry has asked the papacy to rule on the validity of his marriage.
45:10So a lot is riding on it, everybody knows about it, everybody who's anybody is there or close by in attendance.
45:19Wolsey was always capable of pulling the rabbit out of the clerical hat and maybe he hoped he could do it one more time.
45:27What he couldn't have planned or perhaps anticipated is Catherine's extraordinary intervention.
45:35Henry clearly expects this to go his way, but Catherine spectacularly upstages him on the opening day.
45:43She stands up, crosses the court and kneels at his feet and tells him that he knows in his heart that they were truly married.
45:50And then she walks out of the courtroom and she's called back, I think, two or three times.
45:57But with her ladies and courtiers of her household around her, she makes this dramatic exit from the court.
46:05She completely undercuts from the outset the basis of the trial.
46:10After Catherine's dramatic withdrawal from the trial, Wolsey is just exhausted and trying to give himself some space to think, what can I do next, you know?
46:26But Henry wants immediate action.
46:30He wants Wolsey to try again to get Catherine to accept the annulment.
46:34And the person he sends to tell Wolsey this is Thomas Boleyn.
46:55The King demands you must repair to Catherine without delay.
46:59As always, I am ready to fulfill the King's pleasure.
47:04If you are now his messenger, tell him I'm readying myself to come.
47:09The split feelings that Thomas has becomes obvious, particularly at the moment when Thomas Boleyn recognises, of course, that it isn't going to work, that Wolsey is going to be in trouble with the King.
47:28He is in as impossible a situation as is Wolsey.
47:33We're not looking at Thomas Boleyn as a man who is in charge and in control and manipulating Anne onto Catherine's throne.
47:42We're looking at a man, I think, who is extremely worried about the future.
47:46If I've taught you any foresight, you know the outcome will be nothing.
47:54You and your party are in no small part to blame for this matter.
47:58You have fed the King fantasies, put new ones into his head.
48:01The power you crave makes you the cause of the trouble in this realm.
48:05And in the end, you'll get no thanks.
48:09In this world or the next.
48:12It is at this moment when Thomas Boleyn begins to see Wolsey is not their route to this annulment anymore.
48:33It's not that he's turning against Wolsey, it's that he's starting to realise he has to back his family now, rather than the Cardinal.
48:45And it's, I think, at that time, and he mulls it over, maybe talks to her brother, maybe talks to her father,
48:52and that they really do come to the conclusion that Wolsey isn't going to do it for them.
49:00The Blackfriars' trial is suspended.
49:03And with it, all hopes of Wolsey ending the marriage.
49:09Finally, it's clear this isn't going to produce the verdict that Wolsey wanted.
49:13Henry is furious, ballistically angry.
49:16There is no gentle retirement at the Tudor court.
49:19You're either in or you're out.
49:21And suddenly, Wolsey is out.
49:30Thomas Howard has a particularly unpleasant trait in how hard he kicks when someone is on the ground.
49:37I told you I would be returning today.
49:39You will not get the seal.
49:41He enjoys humiliating the politically out of favour.
49:45And so, as a result, this almost hunter's instinct is on full display when it comes to Cardinal Wolsey.
49:54Thomas Howard pays the Cardinal a visit to remove his great seal.
49:58The thing which once gave Wolsey the power to authorise state documents on behalf of the king.
50:03I came here yesterday to demand that Wolsey surrender into my hands the great seal,
50:12and that he ready himself to depart this place and quit London.
50:16The curious Cardinal wished to know what authority I had for this command.
50:21I would regard my presence as authority enough in that regard, but no.
50:24As the great seal of England, the symbol of royal power, was delivered to him by the king himself,
50:30Wolsey insisted that only the king's word could relinquish it.
50:39So, an extra journey.
50:43But there you have it.
50:48This marks really the end of Wolsey's official might.
50:51It looks like a settling of scores between them.
50:58Thomas Howard, who has felt that he has had this stunted career,
51:02who has endured things being taken off him seemingly by Wolsey's initiative,
51:07can now take the greatest symbol of Wolsey's success from him.
51:11The deposing of Wolsey is the Boleyn family's greatest victory so far.
51:24I think, ultimately, Anne is responsible for Wolsey's downfall.
51:38Thomas Boleyn had had a lasting working relationship with Wolsey.
51:42Anne never had that.
51:44He was purely a functionary person who was there to do the king's bidding,
51:48and therefore her bidding, and he'd utterly failed to do so.
51:51It's a ruthless downfall.
51:54This is the only time that Wolsey isn't able to deliver.
51:58But Anne is unforgiving in that regard.
52:00There's no doubt that Anne Boleyn relished Wolsey's fall.
52:14She goes with Henry to his palace to view his goods and possessions,
52:19decide what do they want, what would they like to keep of his goods,
52:22because they don't belong to Wolsey anymore.
52:24They're the king's, and through the king, of course, they're Anne's.
52:26Ultimately, that is the prize of ambition, and Anne seems to be unashamed by that.
52:36I think Anne can be vengeful.
52:39She really is dancing on Wolsey's grave.
52:51The Boleyns and Howards are now the most powerful people in Henry VIII's court.
52:56Thomas Howard takes over the role of President of the Royal Council.
53:06Thomas Boleyn is made Earl of Wiltshire, and becomes Lord Privy Seal.
53:13George Boleyn takes on his father's former title, Viscount Rochford.
53:20Who is left to carry out the king's will when Wolsey has gone?
53:27There's Thomas Howard, the most powerful nobleman,
53:30who's good at shouting and bullying people and leading armies,
53:33but not a sophisticated operator.
53:35Then there's Thomas Boleyn, a diplomat, someone with greater skill,
53:39someone with a facility with languages,
53:42who can talk to ambassadors in their own language.
53:44And, of course, then there's George Boleyn, who has a certain style and elegance of his own.
53:52And, of course, above them all there's Anne Boleyn herself,
53:56directing Henry's attention one way and another, suggesting strategies,
54:02urging him and pushing him to get on with the job of producing the divorce.
54:07All of a sudden, the Boleyn ambition has been revealed and exposed,
54:16and, of course, with that there's a lot of judgements.
54:19They always have relied on Wolsey, and Wolsey is now gone.
54:23They have to actually solve the dilemma that they accused Wolsey of not being able to solve.
54:28They are in uncharted waters.
54:29Holding the reins of power makes the Boleyns acutely vulnerable.
54:49Henry is a dangerous and unpredictable master to serve.
55:01Now that Wolsey is gone, there's no one standing between them
55:05and the increasingly unrealistic demands of the king.
55:11Henry begins to make impulsive decisions,
55:14some of which look outrageously ill-advised.
55:17For instance, he sends Thomas Boleyn as the envoy to the Pope himself
55:22to try and persuade him to support the case for a divorce.
55:26He hasn't quite thought through the obvious logic
55:29that Thomas Boleyn, Anne's father, is the last man
55:32who's going to persuade the Pope of absolutely anything.
55:36The ambassadors from continental Europe
55:39who are observing this from the sidelines
55:42are, I think, generally all quite puzzled.
55:43Why is Henry taking this step?
55:46Thomas is an experienced diplomat, but he's also an interested party.
55:53It's incredibly awkward for all involved.
55:59I don't think Thomas believes he has any hope of succeeding in this embassy,
56:03but his hands are tied.
56:09He was able to meet the Pope, but he was immediately shot down.
56:13His very presence there was an offence.
56:17What it really shows Thomas is that they have to find alternative routes to an annulment.
56:22It would be wrong, I think, to consider this a carefully worked out coup d'etat by the Boleyns and their allies.
56:35No one was confident in this period.
56:38Everyone was playing an extraordinarily high-stakes game
56:41to try and achieve what Anne and what Henry wanted.
56:44Wolsey is gone, but Catherine of Aragon is still there.
56:52She's still Henry VIII's wife, and Anne Boleyn is as far from being Queen as she ever has been.
56:59The Boleyns have power.
57:01They've removed potential enemies.
57:04And they're rather stuck. What are they going to do now?
57:14Next time, the Boleyns attempt to push Henry into a revolution that overturns a thousand years of history.
57:23It is the King's duty alone to execute the office of spiritual administration in the church of which he, not the Pope, is head.
57:32Anne finally achieves her long-held dream.
57:37Anne Boleyn had gone from being a nobody to being crowned Queen of England.
57:42But at a terrible cost.
57:45It was at that point that Anne's enemies begin to move in.
57:51To her and her closest, dearest kin.
57:54George Boleyn, brother of the Queen, must also be eliminated.
57:59The Queen incited her own natural brother George Boleyn, Lord Rochford, gentleman of the Privy Chamber, to violate her.
58:08To be at court around a tyrant is to be in the eye of a storm which could blow any of them away at any moment.
58:14All episodes of the series are streaming now on BBC iPlayer.
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