More breaking news!
Sir Tim Ridgway has just sent The Anne Boleyn Files an urgent message saying that Mark Smeaton has been seized and taken to Thomas Cromwell’s house in Stepney.
Nothing more is known but court gossip is that someone told Cromwell of Queen Anne Boleyn’s conversation with Smeaton yesterday – see “29th April 1536 – Mark Smeaton Moons Over Anne Boleyn”. Either that or Cromwell is a secret reader of that gutter press, “The Spanish Chronicle”.
Of course, we all know that there is no truth to the whole “Mark Smeaton with the Marmalade in the Cupboard” scandal and there were plenty of witnesses to Her Majesty reprimanding the sulky Smeaton yesterday. Let us hope that Cromwell gives the surly youth a good telling off!
More news just in…
Alexander Alesius has just informed Sir Tim that there has been a “protracted conference of the council” and that it is “most obvious to everyone that some deep and difficult question was being discussed.”
Now, we all know that Cromwell has had 4 days of meeting with Dr Richard Sampson, Dean of the Chapel Royal, and that writs for Parliament have been issued but we just don’t know why. None of our informers know what’s going on. We will, of course, keep you updated as news comes in.
Sources
- Calendar of State Papers Foreign, Elizabeth, Volume 1: 1558-1559, 1303, Letter from Alexander Ales to Queen Elizabeth I, 1st September 1559
- The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, Eric Ives, p320
