The King had turned into a mad tyrant.
Anne Boleyn fanned the flames of his vanity and insanity by giving him heretic books to read, and putting into his head ideas that the Church was poisoned and he would be the one to cleanse it. She, and her heretic preachers, convinced him that all the men of the Church, even the Holy Father himself, were corrupt and greedy and hellbent on acquiring as much earthly wealth as they could.
He summoned the Church clergy to Westminster and demanded that they all reimburse him for the costs of sending a delegation to Rome which failed to achieve the annulment that the King sought.
The Men of the Church, both young and old, kept silent as the King raged at them and insulted them, calling them usurers and thieves. Old Bishop Fisher, who had been the closest and dearest friend of his late grandmother The Lady Maragaret Beaufort and was now one of the greatest men in the Church kept quiet and regarded him silently.
Then the King got carried away in his power. He demanded that he be declared head of the Church in England, and declared that the Pope was just the Bishop of Rome and had no business presiding over the countries in Christendom.
There the Old Bishop stood up, in front of everyone, hobbled over to the King and went down on his knees to beg, very respectfully, that the King stop acting like a godless lustful fool for his own dear good, for the sake of his immortal soul . The King seethed in rage and foamed at the mouth but he kept silent. What could he say after all? He knew, deep down in his heart he knew that he was in the wrong.
* * * * * *
But he would not stop.
We all sat back and watched wonderingly, wondering what kind of grasping, heretical monster Anne Boleyn had turned the King into as he insisted that he was the rightful head of the Church, that the Pope was merely the Bishop of Rome, and that the Church should submit to him.
I could not sit by and watch this happen. Jesus Christ himself gave the leadership of the Church to Saint Paul, who was the first Bishop of Rome and therefore the first Pope. Everyone knew this, everyone knew that the Pope was granted authority by God himself. Were we to go against Jesus Christ now? Were we to disobey the will of God in heaven? Were we to all risk burning in hell just to get Anne Boleyn on the throne?
"What are we to do?" I whispered to my father one morning while we walked from the morning mass together as a family. Anne Stanhope looked at me, her frosty blue eyes gleaming with amusement. Lizzie kept her gaze down and acted as though she was deaf. My brother Thomas regarded me as though I was the greatest fool there ever was. My other brother Edward was absent, sent to the Austrian Court on some diplomatic business.
"About what?" My Father said cheerfully, feigning ignorance.
I dropped my voice to a whisper so low not even the keenest listener could hear in. "About the King's heresy."
He turned to me, and his cold eyes reminded me of those of a dead fish on a marble slab. "If we were not in public," he said quietly. "I would box your ears until you got some sense in that foolish little head of yours. Never mention this matter to anyone, in public or in private, unless you wish for your head to be chopped off like the Duke of Buckingham's or to be hounded to your death like Wolsey. These are dangerous times, girl. The only way to survive this is to keep silent and to give the King what he wants."
* * * * * *
Thomas More, heartbroken with what his great friend the King was doing to the Church and to his wife, resigned his post as Lord Chancellor and went home. The Princess Mary, Dowager Queen of France, had fallen grievously ill and her husband Charles Brandon rushed to her side to comfort her. Maria de Salinas, Gertrude Courtenay, Anne Hussey and Elizabeth the Duchess of Norfolk, all staunch, relentless supporters of Queen Catherine, were either kept from court by order of Anne Boleyn or gave out one excuse or the other as to why they could not come, and so the Queen was left all alone to bear a Boleyn whore flaunting herself before her.
Safe from anyone who would tell him the truth to his face, that he was wrongfully putting his wife aside, the King sent a messenger to inform Queen Catherine, now referred to as "The Dowager Princess" that she was to leave Richmond Palace at once and go to Kimbolton Palace.
The Queen, to show wifely obedience, obeyed.
Anne Boleyn was now Queen in all but name; she preceded every other person at court, a triumphant smirk on her lips as the King rushed to do her every bidding.
* * * * *
Bishop Fisher, stubborn, old Bishop Fisher was unyielding in his support of the King and the Church.
He even preached in a summon that he would rather die, as John the Baptist did, than allow the King to turn himself into Herod and be lost to the sin of adultery.
One day two men dining at the Bishop's table died. It was found out that someone had bribed the cook to put poison in the porridge and it was only by luck that he was fasting that day and did not touch the food.
The Cook, though sentenced to a painful death for petty treason, would not name his co-conspirator. He did not have to. We already knew who it was.
Anne Boleyn, or at least one of her family.
"I hear the Queen lives in fear of poisoning," Lizzie whispered to me one night as we lay in our bed. "Her little dog Flo died the other day after eating some chicken from her table."
I kept silent, as our father had ordered me to. But I wondered, could Anne Boleyn bring herself to try and kill a Bishop? Could she dare to try and poison a Queen?
