CHAPTER THREE

A Courtier to his Fingertips

In court to serve decked with fresh array,

Of sug'red meats feeling the sweet repast:

The life in banquets, and sundry kinds of play,

Amid the press of lordly looks to waste,

Hath with it join'd oft times such bitter taste.

That who so joys such kind of life to hold,

In prison joys fett'red with chains of gold.

‘Of the Courtier's Life’, Thomas Wyatt

Thomas Wyatt – poet, courtier and diplomat – wrote several satires on life at the Tudor court. From his privileged position as the son of a wealthy royal councillor, and himself a capable diplomat, Wyatt's biting satires portrayed Tudor courtly life as an empty facade and its participants as lacking moral integrity, intent on enriching themselves and their families, often at the expense of others.¹

But why should Wyatt's descriptions matter? They do so because he reflected a contemporary view towards the court and courtiers that has been recycled by scholars for the past 400 years to highlight the most negative and grasping attributes of an early modern courtier, specifically those attributed to both Thomas Boleyn and his son George.

But this should not be our lingering impression of the men's careers as courtiers, for Wyatt's satires are not the only views of the courtier and courtly literature. Many writers of the day began to theorise about, and move towards creating, the archetype of the courtier, particularly in Italy where they identified more resolute attributes and skills required of the courtier. The subject was one of the most popular themes of Renaissance political writing, found in the works of Desiderius Erasmus, Baldassare Castiglione and Niccolo Machiavelli. But while Machiavelli sought to advise the prince, Erasmus and Castiglione were focused on courtiers. Castiglione's Il Libro de Cortegiano (The Book of the Courtier) was first published in Italy in 1528, in which he detailed his expert and experienced advice to fellow courtiers like himself.² His courtier was a multi-faceted individual, who exhibited skills that ranged from warrior to diplomat, someone who was educated, was au fait with a broad range of topics, and possessed knowledge of art and literature, and further, he stated that there were ‘many of humble birth who, through their virtues, won glory for their descendants’.³

Castiglione's model of the ideal ‘professional’ courtier was well known in English court circles and reflected a new level of awareness regarding the function of courtiers, with his step-by-step guide as to how to achieve excellence in the role.⁴ Castiglione's Book of the Courtier elevated the virtues of public affairs and the concept of the ‘active’ life, as opposed to the ‘contemplative’ life of a scholar, and viewed the acquisition of wealth and service to the crown not as an impediment to knowledge and salvation, but rather a means to promote learning and morality. The ideal courtier was a man who joined the chivalric qualities of courage and prowess to the humanist ideals of culture and learning: he could demonstrate eloquence, wisdom and rhetorical skill in order to ingratiate himself with his prince, so that he might persuade him to rule wisely. The courtier, according to Castiglione, must be adept at dissimulation, and had to:

Steer away from affectation at all costs, as if it were a rough and dangerous reef, and (to use perhaps a novel word for it) to practice in all things a certain nonchalance [sprezzatura] which conceals all artistry and makes whatever one says or does seem uncontrived and effortless. … So we can truthfully say that true art is what does not seem to be art; and the most important thing is to conceal it.⁵

Castiglione also believed that the successful courtier was projected, through self-awareness as an actor, with a careful sense of timing.⁶ This concept of self-awareness and comportment complements the concept of ‘self-fashioning’, the way in which courtiers presented themselves to the world.⁷ In fact, Castiglione's work could easily be seen as a manual for ambassadors, as much as courtiers – as it has been noted, great courtiers were often successful ambassadors, Castiglione himself a prime example.⁸ Thomas and his son George, with their skill in languages, demonstrated attributes of the European intellectual and fashionable context set by Castiglione, and were exemplars of this style. Thomas, whose career at court began to take shape at the beginning of Henry VII's reign, was able to cultivate his own persona, and move from the role of courtier to the father to become one of the son's most trusted ambassadors. Although we do not know which positions he may have held at this time, we do know that he was active at court and in the social sphere. He could be described as a freelance courtier, and his steady rise began with Henry's coronation in 1509, three months after his accession to the throne.

The uncontested transition from Henry VII to Henry VIII held great promise as it launched a new and stable time for England, at least initially, and offered career opportunities for the ‘new men’ like Thomas. With the new accession, the Boleyn name, as we will see, begins to appear more frequently in official documents as almost immediately his world began to change. Henry VII's death also changed the fortune of Katherine of Aragon, who had been the unwanted princess for seven years. Her stock had declined following the death of her mother Isabella in 1504, who had ruled the kingdoms of Aragon and Castile with her husband, Ferdinand, their union uniting Spain. Katherine was no longer the Princess of the Iberian Peninsula, but none of this mattered to the new king, Henry. Katherine was still beautiful, probably the most intelligent and educated woman he had ever met. Above all, Henry had fallen in love with her; the matter of her six-month and reputedly unconsummated marriage to his elder brother would take many years to haunt him. They were married in a quiet ceremony at Greenwich on 11 June, but their coronation just ten days later would be a lavish affair.

English coronations were held on a Sunday, at the end of a week of feasts and processions.⁹ Unusually Henry and Katherine had a joint coronation with celebrations that began on 21 June 1509. The first preferment for both Thomas and his wife came when Elizabeth was appointed ‘Baroness’ of the Queen's Chambers, where her duties included the privilege of arranging Katherine's Great Wardrobe for the joint coronation. Henry and Katherine rode from the palace at Greenwich to the Tower of London, where they hosted a lavish dinner and spent the night before their coronation.¹⁰

Both Thomas and his wife were in attendance at this dinner where 26 honourable persons (Thomas being one of them) were chosen to serve the dishes and wait on the King. Assuming the role of humble servants to their king was a purely symbolic but significant gesture and, for their reward, all those who served ‘in token that they shall never bear none after that day’ were made Knights of the Bath at the coronation, a late medieval order of chivalry.¹¹ The elaborate ritual required that after the feast, 26 baths were laid out in a hall of the White Tower where they were draped with fresh white linen, covered in a canopy. Thomas and the other knights would have bathed ceremoniously before Henry VIII entered the hall, skimming the water of each bath before making the sign of the cross on each knight's bare back, vowing:

You shall honor God above all things; you shall be steadfast in the faith of Christ; you shall love the King your Sovereign Lord, and him and his right defend to your power; you shall defend maidens, widows, and orphans in their rights, and shall suffer no extortion, as far as you may prevent it; and of as great honor be this Order unto you, as ever it was to any of your progenitors or others.¹²

With the others, Thomas spent the evening in a candlelight vigil in the stone hall of the chapel, guarding their knightly armour – helmets, swords and spurs – which had been arranged around the high altar.¹³

On Saturday 23 June, the eve of the coronation, Henry and his new queen processed through London, from the Tower to Westminster. The procession started at 4pm and Boleyn, as a Knight of the Bath, dressed in: ‘Blue long Gowns with hoods upon theyr shoulders spread after the manner of the persons or priests, and tassles of white and blew silk fastened upon one of they shoulders’.¹⁴

The streets of Cheapside and Cornhill, through which Henry and Katherine progressed, were hung with tapestries and cloth of gold. The new royal couple were magnificence incarnate: Henry, resplendent in a robe of crimson velvet trimmed with ermine, his jacket of cloth of gold luminous with diamonds, rubies, emeralds, pearls and other precious stones, Katherine, her long, auburn hair, falling from a coronet ‘set with many riche orient stones’, draped about her shoulders, her white satin dress embroidered in gold, silver and tinsel.¹⁵ Henry was described as being of ‘amiable visage, princely countenance, with the noble qualities of his royall estate, to every man knowen nedeth no rehersall’.¹⁶ Thomas' father-in-law, Thomas Howard, was Earl Marshal for the day followed by his companions ‘Armed at all poyntes, their Basses and Bardes, or trappers were of grene velvet, beaten with roses and pomegranates of gold, bordered with fringes of Damask Gold.’¹⁷

A banquet of ‘high and long solemnitie’ followed the coronation in the Great Hall of Westminster and, for the next few days, tournaments and jousts were scheduled, in which Thomas and his kin played a part. Tensions seemed to run high among the competitive courtiers – no man wanted to lose in front of the king, and when, on the last day, a mock war, complete with a general on horseback took a violent turn, the king's guard was called in and the contest was stopped only with ‘grate payn’.

Despite the slightly awkward conclusion to the coronation festivities, the new reign was to be a new, golden era. The poet, John Skelton, welcomed the changing of the guard, writing: ‘Astrea, justice hight, that from the starry sky. Shall now come and do right.’¹⁸ George Cavendish, who later became servant and biographer of Cardinal Wolsey, also wrote that England was ‘A golden world where grace of plenty Raygned.’¹⁹ And, ensuring that he would not be eclipsed, Thomas More wrote his own tribute, moving from the deferential to the simply obsequious, declaring that the people of England were so enraptured by Henry that all they could utter was ‘The King, The King’.²⁰ For this new, glorious reign, the young king had chosen the wisest of men, namely those who he knew had been dear and loyal friends of his father's, including the Boleyn family and their Howard and Butler kin. They would all continue their rise in this new, glittering realm. Thomas' first opportunity arrived within months of the coronation: he was made Keeper of the Exchange of Calais, and Keeper of the Foreign Exchange in England, the duties of which included taking care of all the money which travellers or merchants required to send abroad, and being responsible for Bills of Exchange.²¹ It was a start, but despite his knighthood and these new responsibilities, Thomas was still only a member of the Presence Chamber, not the Privy Chamber, Council or Star Chamber. That was where fortunes were made.

Two spheres orbited the young king – his friends and councillors – and there was often competition and hostility between them, requiring a delicate balance between the two. Henry's personal sphere consisted of court favourites and boyhood friends, men who loved the more informal pursuits in life, and to whom the 18-year-old Henry gravitated, spending much time in their company.

On the other side of this personal power base stood the King's advisors: the clerics such as Bishop Richard Fox and Archbishop Warham, and the secular advisors, Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, George Talbot, Charles Somerset, Thomas Lovell, Henry Wyatt, Thomas Ruthal and Edward Poynings.²² In between the two groups stood a young man called Thomas Wolsey, a force in his own right, of whom we will hear more later. These men were Henry's core group of advisors who instructed him daily on political matters at home and abroad, forming an ‘attendant council’ when he went on progress throughout his realm. Thomas' father-in-law, Thomas Howard, alongside Wolsey, Fox and others, tutored the King in the art of diplomacy, briefing him on the royal courts of Europe, current alliances and hostilities, where England's opportunities and challenges lay.²³ They were all men of strong opinions, all jostling to influence the King.

Fox particularly was a colossal influence on the Tudors, a supporter of Henry VII during his early years in Paris, then fighting alongside him when he claimed victory at Bosworth Field. Although Fox was a commoner, Henry trusted him implicitly, making him his Secretary, then Lord Privy Seal in 1487, a position he held for almost 30 years and one which would later be bestowed on Thomas Boleyn. Fox was a consummate politician; his cleverness and judgement exceeded that of courtier and noble alike. Artful in the direction he guided his king, he devised and promoted the Scottish-Anglo union, which resulted in Princess Margaret's marriage to King James IV.²⁴ Fox had also seen the potential of a Spanish alliance and sought the union of Henry's son Arthur to Katharine. His fiscal policies of taxing the poor and wealthy alike filled Henry's coffers, which pleased his king. Fox looked to the common men, the clever new men, who were capable and, if so honoured with advancement, would be most loyal and trustworthy. Fox was a founder of careers, as evidenced by his most famous protégés – Thomas Wolsey and John Fisher.

The court was a place where, as scholars have noted, ‘a name dropped could mean much, and a career could be built through second, third, or fourth-hand access to those in power’, and where family connections could make all the difference.²⁵ Family interests were also integral to Thomas, and he was fortunate enough to have such connections at court. Apart from his father-in-law, his grandfather, Thomas Butler, who as mentioned was a great friend of Henry VII, also served as Lord Chamberlain to Henry's queen, Elizabeth of York, and Katherine of Aragon from her first year as queen.²⁶ Butler was close to his grandson, and would have assisted in providing opportunities, but he was very much in the domestic realm. Thomas' father-in-law, on the other hand, while also involved in the affairs of the realm, was from an older generation in the political sphere of court, but he had one foot in the door of Henry's personal sphere. Howard ensured that his two sons-in-law, Thomas, and Anthony Knyvett, as well as his own sons, Edward, the elder, and more charming brother of the younger Thomas, later Duke of Norfolk, extended their reach into social and commercial spheres. A good courtier was not just a shape-shifter, servant or advisor, but needed to be able to entertain, advise and engage in manly activities, all while displaying virtue. It was vital that the young men like Thomas acquired the skill to deftly alternate between the formal sphere of court, and the informal one, as well as demonstrating a physical prowess which in the young king's case was highly desirable.

Celebration and revelry were promoted throughout the new king's court, and performing well at all events ensured one was noticed. It was vital that Thomas and his wife engaged in everything that went on at court, and regularly found themselves taking part in the expensive and often ostentatious entertainment given by and for the youthful king. Among the favourite revels of the carefree monarch and his devoted court were masques, mummeries and plays.²⁷ The court masque or revel was the most favoured royal entertainment which involved music, singing, dancing and acting; elaborate productions usually featured several courtiers enthusiastically portraying historical or classical characters. In 1510, Thomas took part in a revel at Westminster to honour Queen Katherine. Masques were a favourite of Henry's and he took delight in surprising his young wife. Thomas was one of 11 men who joined the King elaborately dressed as Robin Hood's men in their ‘Lincoln’ green coats and hose made of Coventry Blue and Kentish Kendal in order to fawn over Queen Katherine, who was rather suddenly transformed into Robin's beloved Maid Marian.²⁸ Thomas had his share of acting in Henry's masques and was often required to wear bizarre attire, to portray a moor or Muscovite, in Henry's endless merrymaking.

Thomas also showed a considerable passion and skill for the tiltyard and other physical pursuits and, that same year, he took part in one of four days of scheduled knightly combat. The King, Charles Brandon, Edward Howard and Sir Thomas Knight, challenged all to tilts and jousts, and Thomas appears to have accepted a challenge from the King's team.²⁹

As well as jousting, Thomas also participated in hand-to-hand combat and wrestling, and was at one point paired against the King in a Feat of Arms.³⁰ What does this activity tell us about him? We know that in his youth, Henry was tall, athletic and incredibly fit, which required that his young companions must have been similarly strapping to keep up with their king. Without a portrait to use as a reference, we can only imagine that, at 34 years old, Thomas Boleyn must have exuded strength, agility and prowess to engage in such a physically demanding sport as wrestling. Jousting too was not for the faint-hearted of the court; it was not for show, and required a high level of fitness to be able to withstand the heavy armour, then to hold and aim the lance and charge, bracing for the inevitable contact which might result in the opponent's lance splintering into the body or the face, or worse. All these considerations had to be made while one attempted to remain upright in the saddle, and required years of fitness and experience.

Thomas had further opportunities to prove his physicality when the court celebrated the birth of a prince on 1 January 1511, causing the court to whip themselves into an absolute frenzy of celebration. Henry was so moved and overjoyed with this heavenly blessing that he made a pilgrimage to the Priory of Our Lady of Walsingham, Norfolk, to give thanks for the birth. He returned to Richmond Palace to see his son, and then set off for Westminster with the Queen, where the celebrations could begin. On the first day, Henry himself, Edward Howard, Charles Brandon and Edward Neville all jousted, handsome in their coats of green satin and crimson velvet. They jousted against Thomas Howard, the Earls of Essex and Devon. A few weeks later, yet another tournament was held, and Henry jousted for his queen under the banner of Coeur Loyal – Sir Loyal Heart, in his wife's colours.³¹ Thomas rode in with Charles Brandon, Henry Guildford and the Marquess of Dorset, dressed like pilgrims, wearing black velvet tabards and hats over their helmets, all decorated with the gold shells of Santiago de Compostela.³² Their servants, with matching attire, followed them. When he jousted, Thomas performed admirably, his young wife watching from the stalls, and as the day of festivities carried on into the night, with a great feast held at Whitehall, Thomas danced with his wife, who was a part of the court pageant. Even the people of London, who had been invited to witness the spectacle, became so crazed by the excitement of the celebration that they mobbed the lords and ladies of court, stripping even the King himself down to his hose. But Henry and his men were good-natured about the intrusion; the guards were called to calmly restore order, and the court continued their merrymaking, with whatever finery had not been pilfered.³³

The future for Henry and Katherine and their newborn prince was full of promise – promise which was dashed only two months later, when the royal couple were told the devastating news; their young prince had died on 22 February. It was heartbreaking for the couple, and it was a major blow politically. Thomas was one of the chief mourners for the deceased infant, bearing the coffin through Westminster Abbey.³⁴ While Katherine locked herself away in prayer and contemplation, Henry turned to his young sphere of men, hoping to be diverted with court entertainment; in particular he looked to his ‘primus minister in regis cubiculo’– his premier member of the Privy Chamber, Groom of the Stool, William Compton.³⁵

William Compton had been a ward of Henry VII and became a part of his household, growing up alongside the young Prince Henry. Understandably they forged an enduring relationship, as he became Henry's most trusted companion. Where Fox was a founder of careers, Compton was a founder of fortunes – if a courtier sought favour or position, it was worthwhile cultivating William Compton's favour first.³⁶ This may have influenced Thomas' decision to form a rapport with the notoriously influential young courtier, for even close advisors often had to seek Compton's approval before getting near Henry. We might regard Compton as a sort of ‘gatekeeper’ and he would even act as intermediary when the royal signature was required.³⁷ Compton served at court, received grants, deputised offices, and became the conduit through which one could access the King and his favours, so it could surprise no one that along the way he acquired great personal wealth. Yet, in all of this, he remained a highly independent figure as he was void of any political persuasion or alignment: as one historian remarked, ‘Compton merely served Compton.’³⁸

Compton did enormously well out of royal service, receiving a mass of grants and using his influence to create a landed patrimony. Among the most significant grants made to him by the Crown were those of custody of several castles. He and Thomas both seemed to do well in terms of land and property, and the latter's own grants and acquisitions from 1509 to 1512 suggest considerable success.³⁹ As young men who spent a great deal of time with the King, the two knew each other well, and nothing speaks of trust more than money, in this case a loan. At some point between 1513 and 1520, Thomas took a large loan of over £1,000 (over £500,000 in today's currency) from Compton.⁴⁰ If nothing else, business dealings with such a court favourite gave Thomas excellent credit rating and could even lead to further business dealings.⁴¹ In short, Henry's personal sphere of companions provided an important social connection for Thomas, who was still without any discernible political affinity. Crucially, he would build on faint connections with those orbiting Henry's political sphere: Thomas was already moving towards the next phase of his career.

Within the first years of Henry's reign, 60-year-old Fox, who had overseen foreign diplomacy for decades, felt he was at the tail end of a long career, overburdened by work with no prospect of it diminishing, and saddled with an unreliable young monarch. During 1510 he began to groom Thomas Wolsey, the Royal Almoner, to work with him and the Royal Council. He hoped that Wolsey would lessen their workload, perhaps displace the belligerent Earl of Surrey, Thomas' father-in-law, and eventually become heir-protagonist of Fox's peace policies.⁴² Tradition has it that Wolsey, who was only four to six years older than Thomas, was the son of Robert Wolsey, a lowly Ipswich butcher, but he was actually a grazier and wool merchant with financially successful relatives. When we think of Wolsey, we think of the imperious Cardinal of later years – a mountain of scarlet robes, stretched across a jowly barrel of a man. But in 1510, Wolsey was only 38 and in a time of political restlessness he would emerge as a most versatile statesman. Wolsey himself was particularly brilliant – enrolling at Oxford at the early age of 11, and completing his Bachelor of Arts when he was 15.⁴³ He served as Fox's secretary through Henry VII's reign, and was therefore trained in traditional policy, which was not interested in making England glorious, but simply safe and secure.

With dark hair, his face slimmer than in his later portraits, he was charming, highly articulate and learned and, like Thomas Boleyn and William Compton, moved between the spheres of court. He was a good friend of King Henry's companion, Charles Brandon, and, according to historian Polydore Vergil (who meant it disdainfully), made friends through ‘singing, laughing, dancing and clowning about with the young courtiers’.⁴⁴ Knowing that Henry disliked routine administrative work, Wolsey willingly took on additional tasks. George Cavendish, Wolsey's senior aide, noted that he was ‘puttyng the kyng in Comfort that he shall not nede to spare any tyme of his pleasure for any busynes that shold necessary happen in the Councell as long as [Wolsey] beyng there’.⁴⁵ Wolsey was the perfect diplomatic protégé for Fox, cultivating these new men.

The court was the site for several competing agendas, and one such example coincides with the beginning of Thomas' diplomatic career. From 1511 onwards, Thomas' reputation as a skilled courtier who enjoyed good relations with numerous individuals across the court circles contributed to his promotion from domestic duties to foreign affairs. As Fox began to gradually step back from duties from 1511, Thomas' father-in-law used his sons' (Edward and Thomas Howard) popularity, and his own influence, to persuade Henry to go to war with Scotland.⁴⁶ The evidence suggests that Howard appealed to Henry's youth, his virility and enthusiasm to this end.⁴⁷ Wolsey, perhaps on Fox's suggestion, made a counter-move, encouraging Henry to concentrate on France, where he knew that engaging in a battle with the French would be noticed by the rest of world, and place Henry on the European stage. Wolsey won as Henry turned his aggression from Scotland back to France, with its greater opportunities for military glory (and Wolsey's career). Perhaps feeling that he had been ill-advised, and that Howard's urgings had not been in Henry's interest, Henry became quite hostile towards the latter who prudently and promptly left court.⁴⁸

But there was a considerable degree of consternation at how easily swayed the King could be by particular individuals, and the older generation of Henry's advisors, and Fox in particular, referred to these issues not as sin or wickedness, but as damage caused by human weaknesses and error, defining ‘evil courtiers’ as those ‘who never learn upright behavior’, a defect of character and lack of education.⁴⁹ Navigating potentially fractious spheres suggests that Thomas now had to tread carefully as he was also close to several men of whom Fox disapproved, but Fox seems to have worked well with Thomas himself. Like Castiglione's ideal, Thomas must have been a charismatic, charming, intelligent and trustworthy courtier, likeable enough for men from various social circles to engage with him, to trust and solicit his opinion, and to facilitate his career. These connections to individuals such as William Compton, Fox and Thomas Wolsey, all of whom were part of Thomas' social and professional circle, formed a network of influence upon which his own influence gradually expanded.

In 1511, Fox and Wolsey were tasked with forming a team of diplomats with the right experience, education and sensitivity for a foreign embassy, and Thomas was chosen alongside the most experienced of Henry VII's and Henry VIII's diplomats, men with whom Fox had worked: Sir Edward Poynings, Richard Wingfield and John Young. Thomas, listed as Knight for the Body, stands out as a new face in the line-up set by Fox and Wolsey.⁵⁰ Fox had begun to cultivate personality politics – he had in mind a new breed of courtier and ambassador, highly educated men but with guarded minds who could be personal, flexible and adaptable.⁵¹

Fox recognised that England was at the very end of Europe's negotiating table, and sought to remedy this, strategically placing England – militarily, politically and diplomatically – on the political chessboard of Europe and beyond. Henry would need Fox's administrative skills to co-ordinate preparations for war; he would need the talents, energy and enthusiasm of Wolsey; and they would both require the most reliable and persuasive ambassadors.