On 25th January 1533, the Feast of the Conversion of St Paul, King Henry VIII married his sweetheart Anne Boleyn at Whitehall.
The couple had been together for about seven year, possibly more, but the king was still married to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. However, Henry VIII believed that marriage to be invalid, arguing that a dispensation for it should never have been granted by the pope because the marriage had been contrary to God’s laws. He had no qualms, therefore, in marrying Anne Boleyn.
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Yes I tend to lean towards the earlier date of St Erkenwald’s, there are more personal factors we can take into account as well, these being for one, Henry had taken Anne to meet with the French king, he was in a sense asserting her position as his official consort whilst it would have deemed more subtle to leave her behind, Anne having lived in the French court for many years was in a sense more French than English and her and Francois were good friends, I believe secretly he did applaud Henry’s casting off of Katherine and it was himself who had made insulting words about her before, calling her old and deformed, of course the French did not like Spain, but Anne’s early friendship with Francois was thus more in her favour, on seeking his approval and after waiting six years in the process she must have thought she would throw caution to the winds, and she only did that because she was secure in the kings love, he had shown he was utterly committed to her, therefore they must have started sleeping together around the time they were in Calais, and of course it could have been before they wed at St Erkenwalds day or after, Edward Hall like Chapyus was a good source of information and he must have had proof of the secret ceremony, whereas Chapyus was quite possibly reporting court gossip and he did cite Cranmer as the archbishop who did officiate at their wedding, but in fact we know it was Rolland Lee, he must have been rather overwhelmed as being secret, he could have no prior knowledge, it sounds rather comical he was facing the big blustering king and his radiantly happy bride to be in very bizarre circumstances, how could he in the eyes of god perform a wedding ceremony that was bigamous? He must have quacked in fear for his own soul, Henry V111 produced no dispensation from the pope, but he dared not argue with his king, so marry them he did, but legally it was no marriage, however Henry V111 by breaking with Rome and setting himself up of his own church later changed the laws of the realm and according to his canon lawyers, who had to do his bidding, the marriage to Anne Boleyn was declared legal and binding, but England at the time of the furtive little ceremony, was still under the see of Rome, and therefore only the pope could authorise a second wedding, today it is still disputed if Anne Boleyn was ever his wife and was Henry V111 in fact the husband of five wives not six? he did create a legal quagmire in marrying his mistress and of course officially he did again marry her the next year,on the 25th of January but that to was in secret, however Francois friendship with Anne and the king at the time and his approval of his chosen bride did not carry much weight, when after Elizabeth was born, Anne wished her to wed the Dauphin, it was said Francois was also perturbed by the fact that his brother of England had committed bigamy and Elizabeth’s legitimacy was in doubt, favouring his eldest daughter Mary for his son, France like the rest of Europe was still answerable to Rome, of course there had to be witnesses at a wedding so possibly it was George Boleyn and his wife or Mary Boleyn and her husband who could have been stationed at Calais at the time, but we are told there were two female friends by one source and by another in the company of her mother and father, but whoever were present they must have been sworn to the utmost secrecy.