Sunday, October 04, 2009

Question from Shannon - Mary and Cromwell's conspiracy against Anne Boleyn

I read in one of the Alison Weir books, I think, that Cromwell plotted to bring down Anne Boleyn and that Chapuys knew this. The book also mentions that Princess Mary approved of the plot before it was put into place. Can you shed more light on this? Was Mary actually in conspiracy with Cromwell?

3 comments:

Laura said...

I have to say that I've never once heard of any connection between Mary and Cromwell, and I'd be very hesitant to believe any source that claims one. Mary was a fervent Catholic and Cromwell was a reformer. Yes, Cromwell was involved heavily in the plot that landed Anne on the scaffold, but while Mary hated Anne and was thrilled to see her fall, involving herself with Cromwell would have been as repugnant to her as aligning herself with Anne would have been. Recall that Cromwell brought Cranmer to Harry's attention and that Cranmer and Cromwell were heavily involved in the demise of her parents' marriage.

Before considering this story to have any kind of validity I'd need to know what it's based on...is there a primary source? Or is ti just a baseless theory

Anonymous said...

I have seen this before. It is mentioned in Alison Weir's Henry VIII and His Court, pg. 366:

"During the last two weeks of April, in the privacy of his London house, Cromwell hatched the plot that would not only bring down Anne but would also purge the Privy Chamber and the court of her supporters...Another ally was Chapuys, who obtained the Lady Mary's qualified approval of the plot."

The citation in the text is to the Spanish state papers and letters.

So I don't know that Mary was directly conspiring with Cromwell, but it seems she might have known what was going to happen through Chapuys, and gave her "qualified approval", whatever that means.

Anonymous said...

I just wanna say I think Weir is extremely factual and you should read her other works (The Lady Elizabeth and Innocnet Traitor, however,are fiction).