Magic & Mystery : Tales of Tudor England
Magic & Mystery
In
Tudor England
By
Hunter S. Jones
© Copyright 2019
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher in writing. The Author and Publisher have provided this book to you for your personal use only. You may not make this book publicly available in any way. All blog content belongs to the author, originally published via her own sites or in association with Tudor Times, HistoryNet.com, The Anne Boleyn Files, EHFA, or Medievalists.net, 2015-2016. Copyrights for Phoenix Rising (2015) and the revised edition (2019) are registered according to Copyright Law of the U.S. The revised edition of the work is registered according to the Copyright Law of the U.S. Copyright infringement is against the law. Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. If you believe the copy of the book you are reading infringes on the author’s copyright, please notify the Publisher immediately.
Cover design by Robin Ludwig Design
Editing and formatting by Beth Lynne at BZHercules.com
Dedication
For Paul, always and forever.
This collection is for entertainment purposes only and its primary intention is to encourage readers to study the cultural and societal mores of historical eras; in this work I share my fascination and musings on Tudor England. All sources can be utilized for genealogical, fictional and historical research. Enjoy!
Table of Contents
Chapter One: The Mysteries and Myths Surrounding Anne Boleyn and the Tudor Court
Chapter Two: Mystery, Secrets & Magic
Chapter Three: Mysticism and More
Chapter Four: Medicine, Magic and Music; The Healing Properties of Music Observed in the Lives of Anne Boleyn, Mary Queen of Scots & Elizabeth I
Chapter Five: O Deathe Rock Me Asleepe
Chapter Six: Sir Francis Bryan: Tudor England’s Rock Star
Chapter Seven: Tudor Poet
Chapter Eight: Make Me Immortal with a Kiss
Chapter Nine: Midsummer Magic in Tudor England
Chapter Ten: Jane Seymour: “That Kiss is Her Destiny and Her Fortune”
Chapter Eleven: Why Did Henry VIII Marry Jane Seymour on May 30th?
Chapter Twelve: Perseverance
Tudor Dates of Interest
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
About The Author
Chapter One: The Mysteries and Myths Surrounding Anne Boleyn and the Tudor Court
Has any other dynasty in English history captured the imagination the way the Tudors have? It is hard to believe they only reigned 118 years. Five monarchs, six Queen Consorts, three Kings, and two Queen Regnants – three if we count the short reign of Lady Jane Grey. Yet, five hundred years later, we are still completely enthralled by this family soap opera. The color and pageantry entertain us, the factions continue to enthrall us, and we have questions that remain unanswered. At the center of this era is the betrayal of Anne Boleyn by Henry VIII. There is so little documented evidence about Anne’s life, yet we are captivated by the story of this woman who enthralled the King of England. He changed heaven and earth to marry her. Then, after spending ten years finding a way to marry her – a divorce, the founding of a new church – he had her executed after only a few years of marriage. It’s a story that is both enchanting and haunting.
Exactly why did Henry have Anne Boleyn executed? Why not send her to a European nunnery, as had been done to wives and mistresses of previous monarchs once the women fell out of favor. Yet, on the morning of May 19, 1536, Anne Boleyn climbed a scaffold erected within the Tower of London. Her pageantry as Queen continued to her end. She gave a speech praising the King and asked those who were there to pray for her. She removed her ermine-trimmed cover and knelt on the platform. An executioner – an expert swordsman from Saint Omer – had been ordered by Henry VIII for this day. He “divided her neck at a blow” and Anne’s life was ended with one swing of the blade.
From there, legends were born.
If we had to imagine this happening today, how strange it would seem to the realm of England and the courts of Europe. The Queen of England had been executed on charges of adultery, incest, and with conspiring the king’s death. Remember, this was the woman for whom Henry VIII had left his wife of more than twenty years and severed ties with the Catholic Church to form the Church of England, in order to have her as his wife. Yet, just three years later, it ended horribly. The reasons for her death remain one of the great mysteries of English history and possibly one of the greatest secrets in antiquity.
Historians still cannot agree as to why she had to die. Did Henry invent the charges against his wife or was Thomas Cromwell the reason for Anne’s fall from grace? We don’t know if the charges were factual or fabricated, due to very little documented evidence. With such enigmatic subject matter, it’s easy to draw various conclusions.
However, there is actual confirmed information regarding the last days of Anne Boleyn. On Sunday, April 30, 1536, Mark Smeaton, a musician of the Queen’s household, was arrested; he was interrogated at Thomas Cromwell’s house. On the same evening, the king postponed a trip with Anne, which had been planned for May 2nd.
The next day, Smeaton was taken to the Tower of London. Henry attended the May Day jousts at Greenwich but left suddenly with a small group of close friends. Those men included Sir Henry Norris, one of Henry’s personal servants and closest friends. The next morning, Norris was taken to the Tower. Anne and her brother George, Lord Rochford, were also arrested.
On May 4th and 5th, more courtiers from the king’s privy chamber were arrested – William Brereton, Richard Page, Francis Weston, Thomas Wyatt, and Sir Francis Bryan. Sir Francis was questioned and released, but the others were imprisoned in the Tower. On May 10th, a grand jury indicted all of the remaining accused men, expect for Page and Wyatt.
On May 12th, Smeaton, Brereton, Weston, and Norris were tried, found guilty of adultery with the Queen, and of conspiring in the death of the King. May 15th saw Anne and her brother tried by a court of twenty-six peers of the realm; this court was presided over by the uncle of Anne and George Boleyn, the Duke of Norfolk. Both were found guilty of high treason. May 17th saw Archbishop Thomas Cranmer declaring the marriage of Henry and Anne null, and by May 19th, all those convicted had been executed. Also on that day, Cranmer issued a dispensation allowing Henry and Jane Seymour to marry; they were betrothed and married ten days later.
What happened and why did events move so quickly? Theories abound, yet none are conclusive or necessarily satisfying. Smeaton’s confession of adultery with the Queen rings false, like any words given under duress. It is documented that Anne maintained her innocence. During her imprisonment, Sir William Kingston, who was constable at the Tower, reported Anne’s remarks and relayed them to Cromwell. His first letter gives one of Anne’s statements of her innocence: “I am as clear from the company of man, as for sin… as I am clear from you, and the King’s true wedded wife.” The night before her execution, it is recorded that she swore “on peril of her soul’s damnation,” before and after receiving the Eucharist, that she was innocent.
Eustace Chapuys, ambassador for the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Anne’s enemy, would confide in a letter that everyone besides Smeaton was “condemned upon p
resumption…without valid proof or confession.”
Other theories suggest that Cromwell was instigator of a plot to replace Anne with Jane Seymour. Chapuys mentioned Jane in a letter dated February 10, 1536, reporting that Henry sent a gift to her – a purse full of sovereigns along with a letter. She didn’t open the letter, only kissing it. She asked the messenger to let the King know that “there was no treasure in this world that she valued as much as her honour,” and that if the King wanted to give her a present, she begged it might be at “such a time as God would be pleased to send her some advantageous marriage.”
This reply evokes thoughts of Anne during the early days of her courtship with Henry. According to Dr Suzannah Lipscomb – “In response to Jane’s coyness, Henry’s love for her was said to have ‘marvellously increased.’ Yet she was described as a lady whom the King serves – a telling word implying that he sought her as his courtly love mistress. There is little evidence that, before Anne was accused of adultery, Henry had planned to make Jane his wife. Marriage to Jane was, surely, a symptom and a product of Anne’s downfall, not a cause.”
Anne’s trial documents have disappeared. To paraphrase Anne’s biographer Eric Ives, three-quarters of the accusations of adulterous liaisons made in her indictment can be discredited 500 years later.
When writing and researching Phoenix Rising, the charges reported by Chapuys in which he quotes Henry as saying that he had married Anne because he had been “seduced and constrained by sortilèges” captured my imagination. The word translates as meaning sorcery, spells, or charms. In pop culture, this concept has given credence to the theory that Anne Boleyn dabbled in witchcraft. The idea that Henry had been “seduced by witchcraft” has become attached to this theory. Even though this is generally cited as one of the charges of which she was found guilty, it is not mentioned in the indictment against her.
However, it did lead to learning more about how the Tudor mind processed superstition.
Eric Ives noted that the English meaning of sortilèges at this time was divination, a translation that changes the intent of Henry’s comment. It could suggest that he was induced to marry Anne by premarital prophecies saying that she would bear sons or it could refer to Henry’s earlier infatuation or bewitchment” by Anne. Whatever happened, what had once been a devastating infatuation turned into bloodthirsty loathing. And Henry turned on Anne for reasons we will never completely know, understand or comprehend.
Delving into the Tudor Era’s fascination with science and medicine continues to be one of my favorite research topics. Theirs was a world in which religion co-mingled with astrology and magic. Astrologers and seers were considered scientists, and the village wise woman generally took care of the medical needs in their villages. The following essays and articles were written by me as I wrote Phoenix Rising. For the book, I wanted a fresh take on the Anne Boleyn story.
Anne remains an enigma that we have created in our own image.
What Little We Do Know of Anne Boleyn
1501 or 1507
Anne is born at Blickling, Norfolk, to Thomas Boleyn and Elizabeth Howard, daughter of Thomas Howard who would become the second Duke of Norfolk. Historians continue to debate if Anne was born in 1501 or 1507
1513
Anne is given an appointment as maid-of-honor for Margaret, archduchess of Austria. A few years later she leaves this post in order to serve Mary, queen of France, the wife of Louis XIII. (Mary is Henry VIII’s sister-Mary Tudor). After Louis’ death, Anne stays at the court of the new French queen, Claude for seven more years.
1521
Anne is recalled to England by Thomas Boleyn
March 1, 1522
Anne makes her first documented appearance at Henry VIII’s court, playing the part of Perseverance in a Shrove Tuesday pageant.
1526
Sometime circa 1526, Henry VIII falls in love with Anne. A letter from him which is dated 1527 states that for more than one-year Henry had been struck by the dart of love and asks Anne to give herself body and heart.
1532 and 1533:
Anne marries Henry. The official wedding is held in January 1533, but it is suggested that they probably married in a secret ceremony in 1532. However, Henry’s marriage to Katherine of Aragon is not annulled until May 1533
September 7, 1533
Anne gives birth to a daughter, Elizabeth
January 29,1536
Anne has a miscarriage
May 2, 1536
Anne is arrested and taken to the Tower of London.
May 19, 1536
Anne is beheaded on Tower Green at the Tower of London
Chapter Two: Mystery, Secrets & Magic
An artist stands at the edge of chaos. We create something from nothing. Whether it is music, art, dance, or words we all connect with that which is hidden within the ethers of the universe. Everything begins with a thought. From there, dreams and our imagination form a new reality.
The idea of writing about Tudor England has been my long wished for dream. The subject has been something I have studied and read about for a lifetime. I even majored in the English Renaissance and Reformation in school, many moons ago. But, life being what it is, took me down the corporate rabbit hole instead of the academic one. I was supposed to write historical dissertations and articles. Instead, I find myself anticipating the release of the Tudor era historical fiction novella, Phoenix Rising.
When I decided to put pen to paper for a Tudor historical fiction story, I had no idea what I wanted to write about concerning that era. The subject has been analyzed and romanticized for five hundred years. What could I do that would be an original slant on this iconic subject matter? After having a look around I noticed that no one seems to have the exact moment of her execution. From there, the story began to slowly develop and present itself.
What about an astrology chart? Charts have twelve houses. Phoenix Rising has twelve chapters. An astrology chart has a meaning for each house: the self, possessions, children, relationships. Why not have a book that reveals the story through a star map, as they were called in Tudor England?
Why an astrology chart? Well, why not? When I visited Hampton Court Palace years ago, one of the things that captured my imagination was the astrological clock designed by King Henry VIII. Astrology was a science at that point in time. Further research lead me to discover medicine was practiced through astrology. That is when the story line became personal because my career is in pharmaceuticals. That’s what I want to share with you. The little known recognition of the medical arts in Tudor England.
The mystery began as I researched the medicine of the era. Herbs were the best known cure for any sickness. Herbs have been used as cures since ancient times. It was part of the education of a young Tudor woman to learn how to mix potions, or ‘simples’ as they were called. One Tudor headache cure for a headache was to drink a potion of lavender, sage, marjoram, roses and rue. Another cure? To press a hangman’s rope to your head. What if you suffered from rheumatism? It was treated by wearing the skin of a donkey. King Henry VIII was driven by the need for continuity of the Tudor Dynasty. He consulted his physicians yet was known for his reliance on apothecaries and herbalists, to the extent that he kept an apothecary cabinet within his own quarters.
There was a limited amount known about the cause and/or cure for diseases at that time. Medicine and treatment during the Tudor era was nothing like medical treatment today. They had limited knowledge regarding how the human body functioned. Doctors thought the body was made up of four fluids or ‘humors’. The humors were blood, phlegm, choler (yellow bile), and melancholy (black bile). In a healthy person of the Tudor era, all four humors were considered to be balanced. However, if you had too much of one of the humors, you would suffer from an illness.
Here are a few examples of their healing arts. If you had too much blood you would be bled with leeches or by cutting a vein. Tudor doctors also thought infectious disease, like the plague or the sweating sickness, we
re caused by poisonous vapors, which were airborne and absorbed through the skin. An imbalance of the other humors would be treated either by adjusting the patient’s diet, by taking medicines to purge the body of the infected humors–vile humors as they were called.
Tudor physicians were expensive. Since most people could not afford a doctor, they relied on their community’s wise woman when they became sick. These women would have great expertise in the healing properties of different herbs. As a general rule, the wise women were taught with traditions handed down from their mothers and grandmothers. (Sadly, many Tudor cures were useless, such as the treatment for headache, rheumatism and gout, which was treated with goat’s grease blended with saffron.)
You get the basic tenant of medicine from these remedies and the art of medicine behind the cures. The mystery begins to reveal itself. Now, let’s take a glimpse at some of the secrets behind my story. Astrology had a part in Tudor life as well as Tudor medicine. Physicians believed that zodiac signs ruled different parts of the body.
That is where the magic of PHOENIX RISING begins. According to Dr. Elizabeth T. Hurren of Oxford Brookes University:
“Physicians were trained in all the intellectual refinements. They studied astronomy, astrology, geometry, mathematics, music and philosophy. They provided a holistic approach, treating a patient’s mental, moral and physical needs. They believed that a sickness or canker’s root cause might be in the mind, the organs or the human spirit. Fate, fortune and goodwill might cure when a physic (physician) failed. The Tudors believed strongly in a divine plan in the face of providence. That life was “God given” and could also be “God taken“. From birth, Henry’s astrological lore was minutely examined. Born under the sign of Cancer (28 June 1491), he was governed by the watery and maternal cycles of the moon.”