The 1535 Progress of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII
Your Progress Starts Here!
Be sure to read this blog to set the context for this progress. At the bottom of each blog, each location on the progress is linked to the next. I advise you to read each blog in order. However, to jump to a particular location, click on the relevant pin on the map below to show the associated link.
Please note that the following progress is adapted from In the Footsteps of Anne Boleyn by Sarah Morris and Natalie Gruneniger. However, this blog and those following contain additional updates, including visitor information updates and additional information on nearby places of interest.
Introductory Notes on the 1535 Progress
Anne Boleyn was not a catalyst in the English Reformation; she was a key element in the equation.
Professor Eric Ives.
1535 was a tumultuous year. Having ‘set the country in a roar’, Anne Boleyn had finally triumphed after six long years of waiting, being crowned Queen of England on 1 June 1533 at Westminster Abbey. Henry’s decision to set aside his first wife of over 20 years, Katherine of Argon, in his well-documented quest for a long-for male heir had violently divided his court and country; however, so far, Anne had singularly failed in her duty to deliver on her side of the bargain. All the couple had to show for the bloodshed relating to The King’s Great Matter, and Henry’s determination to dominate his nobles and the church, was a healthy daughter, Elizabeth, born in September 1533 and, most likely, a stillborn child (delivered at Hampton Court in the summer of 1534).
The annual summer progress got underway around 8-9 July, leaving Windsor Castle a little later than scheduled. It would be one of the longest and most politically significant progresses of the King’s reign, and while outwardly Anne was still the King’s ‘most dere and entierly beloved lawfull wiff’, behind the scenes, there must have been simmering tensions between the royal couple.
If this was not enough to contend with, 1535 was a year of pestilence. The Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, which set out the King’s geists, or itinerary, show that the King and Queen had planned to travel through the West Country to Bristol before arriving back at Windsor on 1 October. In the end, the royal couple did not make it to the city due to an outbreak of plague there. Furthermore, towards the end of the progress, they also altered the final leg of their intended route to avoid disease-blighted areas around Farnham and Guildford in Surrey, instead lodging with one of Anne’s kinswomen at Bramshill.
However, these were not the only troubles afflicting the Kingdom. The cost of basic foodstuffs like bread was soaring due to earlier crop failures and the resulting scarcity of wheat. At the same time, religious strife had begun to tear apart the kingdom as a belligerent king increasingly asserted his dominance over Rome. Henry had demanded complete submission to the Crown from his nobles and clergymen alike, demanding they recognise him as the Supreme Head of the Church in England.
By the time the royal progress was underway, these new Acts of Parliament had claimed the lives of two prominent men of the court: Bishop John Fisher and Henry’s long-time friend, Sir Thomas More. To cap it all, due to Henry’s actions against the church and the increasing schism with Rome, the Pope had issued a Bull of excommunication against the King of England, resulting in a looming threat of invasion from neighbouring Catholic France.
Despite all this, it seems Henry and Anne were determined to make the most of their time away from the pressure of London. They were to delay their return by almost one month, enjoying the hunting and hawking in Hampshire so much that they did not arrive back at Windsor Castle until Monday, 25 October.
However, this progress was intended to be much more than merely ‘pastime with goode companie’. It was to have enormous political significance. Were Henry and Anne making a point when they departed from Windsor just days after the execution of Sir Thomas More? Bishop Fisher was already dead, and the new Pope, Paul III, was left outraged at Henry’s conduct, the King having executed Fisher only days after he had been created a cardinal by the Holy See. Certainly, their itinerary sought to honour those landed gentry and courtiers who were known reformists and had strongly supported the King’s second marriage.
A ceremonial centrepiece of the trip had been masterminded to underline how Henry’s will was clearly bent. This was no doubt heavily influenced by a determined collaboration between Anne and the King’s principal minister, Thomas Cromwell; it was to be the consecration of three hand-picked reformist bishops, Foxe, Hilsey and Latimer, at Winchester Cathedral on 19 September 1535. All were staunch supporters of Anne.
Henry VII and Anne Boleyn as they would have looked around the time of the 1535 progress.
A little while afterwards, Thomas Cromwell left Anne and Henry to their pursuit of pleasure; he returned to London, the royal couple dallying in Hampshire amongst some of the best hunting grounds in the country. And take pleasure they seemed to do; three letters note that ‘the King and Queen are merry’. And indeed, if we calculate backwards from Anne’s fateful miscarriage on 29 January 1536, we find ourselves somewhere between Salisbury and Easthampstead in the latter part of the 1535 progress.
Exactly where is impossible to pinpoint, made even more muddied by two different accounts. Wriothesley records that Anne felt that she was about fifteen weeks pregnant at the time of her miscarriage; the Imperial Ambassador, Eustace Chapuys, stated that the aborted foetus looked to be about three and a half months gestation, in other words, about fourteen weeks. This would bring us to a date of conception between 16-23 October, placing Anne at either the Vyne, Basing House, Bramshill or Easthampstead. Clearly, during their time away from London, Henry and Anne had regained some level of intimacy despite Anne’s second pregnancy ending in a devastating stillbirth the preceding summer.
This section will follow Henry and Anne’s progress, recapturing lost locations and setting the scene by touching on key events unfolding during this historic fourteen-week royal tour.
Note: Where possible, exact dates of the progress from one location to another will be given. However, sometimes there are gaps in contemporary records or last-minute changes of plan, which appear to put one piece of information in direct conflict with another. This is particularly true during the second half of the progress. So, in some cases, it is impossible to be certain of precise dates. In these instances, the closest approximation will be given.
CONGRATULATIONS! YOU ARE NOW READY TO FOLLOW THE 1535 PROGRESS OF ANNE BOLEYN AND HENRY VIII. OUR STARTING POINT IS READING ABBEY (POINT A on the map): Click here to continue.
The links to all podcast episodes and associated blogs for the 1535 progress are below:
EPISODE 1
Reading Abbey
Ewelme Manor
Abingdon Abbey
Old Palace of Langley
EPISODE 2
Sudeley Castle
Tewkesbury Abbey
EPISODE 3
Gloucester Abbey
Berkeley Castle
EPISODE 4
Acton Court
Wolfhall
Wolvesey Palace and Winchester Cathedral
EPISODE 5
Church House, Salisbury
