Charlie Fenton’s Reviews > Anne Boleyn in London > Status Update

'Londoners were happy to join in the celebration, and there is no record, even from Chapuys, of any kind of trouble. And when, a few weeks later, Elizabeth was taken to Hatfield, where she was to live in a household of her own, she was carried in procession through the streets of London on the way north - her first public appearance in London.'

'More recently some historians have suggested that this was much more of a pragmatic alliance of shared interests. We can certainly be sure that Cromwell's London network of places and people was deeper rooted and more extensive than anything available to Anne. London was more home territory to Cromwell in a way it could never be to Anne; the reverse was true at court.'

'It was not until Elizabeth's own coronation, more than a quarter of a century after that of her mother, that Anne Boleyn was again to be mentioned, let alone celebrated, on the streets of London. Anne's effigy was placed beside that of Henry VIII along their daughter's triumphant route through London. At that time both mother and daughter took what turned out to be enduring places in the history'

'The evidence is too sparse to be sure whether the mood of London in 1533 was genuinely and consistently hostile to Anne. What appears certain is that both the King and Anne herself were afraid that it might be, and were determined to take no chances. So this was yet another reason for planning every detail of the coronation with as much care as the limited time available allowed.'

'summer of 1528, opinions were split. By this time, although 'The King's Great Matter' was still officially a secret, it is clear that it was a fairly open one. In London, there was much sympathy for the Queen. It has become received wisdom that Catherine was universally loved by the common people, especially the women, and there are a number of stories that suggest there were demonstrations in her favour.'

'she was recalled, it was partly because of the once more deteriorating relations between England and France, and partly because there was a plan that she should be married. At twenty, in sixteenth-century terms, it was certainly time for a match to be made for her. The one that was proposed was intended to resolve a long-running conflict... a possible way forward might be for James Butler and Anne Boleyn to marry.'

'spent much of his career in London, there is no evidence that the Boleyns had retained many permanent connections there. In addition to their home at Blickling, the family had a town house in Norwich, and appear to have spent large sums on updating Hever. But with that they were content - evidently they had not, and did not, in the last years of the fifteenth century, aspire to have national influence.'