Wolf Hall Companion

Canterbury, William Warham. She was destined to live an unremarkable life, but in 1525 she began to suffer from fits, falling into trances and having visions. She would speak for hours about the church, heaven and hell, and began to make prophecies, which was a sure way to gain attention. Soon enough, her fame reached the ears of Archbishop Warham, who, upon hearing of some of her miraculous visions, placed Barton as a nun in the Benedictine priory of St Sepulchre in Canterbury, under his protection. In 1528, Barton announced she wanted to meet Cardinal Wolsey, at that time still the most powerful prelate in England – her motives may be guessed at. Wolsey agreed to meet her, and while her message was hardly what he wanted to hear – that God had revealed to her that Henry’s divorce from Katherine was contrary to His will, he was impressed enough to arrange a meeting between Barton and the king. By now Barton was on a roll – upon meeting with Henry in person, she boldly declared that an angel had appeared to her and told her that if he married Anne, he would risk the wrath of God. Henry good-naturedly ignored her words, but the next year she had another vision, which she shared with thousands of followers, before deciding Henry needed to hear it in person, which he would whether he wished to or not. It seemed like Anne and Henry could not venture anywhere near Canterbury without coming across Barton or her followers.

In 1532, Henry, Anne and the court travelled to the coast on their way to Calais, and they stopped briefly in Canterbury. While walking in a monastery garden, Barton intercepted them, failing to show any deference. Mantel places Cromwell in Henry’s entourage as Barton accosts the couple to deliver her crushing prediction. ‘And if you enter into a form of marriage with this unworthy woman, you will not reign seven months.’

By the end of 1533, despite Anne and Henry being married and with a healthy child in the cradle, Barton and her supporters continued to attack the king, so Cromwell made his move.

In Wolf Hall Barton is brought to Cromwell who, together with Cranmer, Richard Rich and Thomas Audley, question her intensely. Before long, Barton has a rather convenient vision that ‘God willed her, by his heavenly messenger, that she should say that she never had revelation of God.’ And Cranmer reports that she confessed she had imagined everything to ‘obtain worldly praise’, though much of Barton’s confession comes to us from Cromwell’s notes. Cromwell and his colleagues needed to destroy her reputation, and on 23rd November Barton made a full confession before a crowd of several thousand, begging the king for mercy. She would repeat this performance through numerous towns around the country. Mantel’s Cromwell visits Barton while she is imprisoned, half hoping she will implicate more people – even Queen Katherine – in her confessions.

Once they were satisfied she had outlived her usefulness, Henry made an example of her. On 20 April 1534, Barton was taken from her cell in the Tower of London where she had been imprisoned for several months, and dragged behind a horse for 5 miles (8km), from the Tower to Tyburn, where she was hanged and then strangled to death in front of a large crowd who came to witness the spectacle. She was then decapitated, her head boiled and set on a spike on London Bridge. Whether her visions were genuine or contrived, Cromwell knew she was too much of a rallying point to be allowed to live.

CALAIS

While Barton was still alive and showing off her divine talents around the country, Henry and his councillors had begun to look for foreign support for Henry’s annulment and marriage to Anne. Options were limited as there was really only Charles V, who as Katherine’s nephew was not a contender as an ally, or Francis I. It had been almost 12 years since the two kings had come face to face in France at the Field of Cloth of Gold, but by 1531 they were both older and were not willing to spend entire fortunes on an event that could come to nothing, which is exactly what had happened all those years previously. But a meeting between Anne and Henry, and Francis and his queen, Eleanor, would be an important stepping stone showing all of Europe that Henry’s actions were legitimate, and that Anne should be his rightful queen. Immediately Henry faced an awkward issue: Eleanor was the sister of Charles V, and familial loyalty made a meeting between the two women almost impossible. Francis, who was trying to be helpful but missed the point entirely, suggested that he too bring his mistress, Madame de Vendôme, a suggestion that was immediately refused.

It was finally decided that Anne and her ladies would remain in Calais, while Henry and his male courtiers would ride on to meet Francis at Boulogne. Before they could leave, it was decided that Anne required a change in title in order to be presented in France as Henry’s future queen. In September 1532, Cromwell and the court witnessed her elevation in a grand ceremony at Windsor to the Marchioness of Pembroke, making her a peer in her own right.

For this important occasion Anne was determined to be attired as befitting a queen of England, and decided she would feel far closer to the throne if she were wearing the queen’s jewels, many of which were still in Katherine’s possession, and some that were actually gifts from Katherine’s mother. But these were technicalities, and Norfolk was sent to fetch them. At first Katherine declared that she would not give up her jewels to ‘ornament a person who is the scandal of Christendom’. But if it was an express command, she would relinquish them. Perhaps she imagined Henry would not go so far, but the command came swiftly. By late 1532 Cromwell was flourishing. Mantel’s Cromwell marvels at how