As predicted by The Anne Boleyn Files yesterday, Sir Francis Weston, Gentleman of the Privy Chamber, has been arrested and taken to the Tower of London.
We think that this is a direct consequence of Queen Anne Boleyn’s ramblings about him which we reported yesterday – click here to read that report. It is sad that simple courtly love flattery has ended up with a man being arrested and imprisoned in this way.
The shock news of today is that William Brereton has also been arrested. Brereton is Groom of the Privy Chamber, a rather colourful character and, according to one of our sources, Sir David Starkey, “a mighty figure in the local administration of his native Chester and North Wales” and, call us cynical if you want, we are wondering if his surprise arrest has more to do with his alliance with the Duke of Richmond and Norfolk, which is a powerful one, and Thomas Cromwell’s plans to make reforms in the way that Wales is governed. Hmmm… you can almost hear the cogs working in Mr Secretary’s mind, can he kill 2 birds with one stone and get rid of the Boleyn faction and get his way in Wales?
Our informant, George Constantine, servant of Henry Norris, had this to say of William Brereton:-
“By my troth, if any of them was innocent, it was he… just this morning I spoke with him, about 9am, and he told me that there was no way but one with any matter. I asked him and was bold with him because we were born just 4 miles from each other and went to Grammar School together. By two o’clock this afternoon he was in the Tower! I don’t know what he is accused of.”
Here at The Anne Boleyn Files we are losing hope that justice will be done, it seems like one big plot against the Queen and those friendly with her faction.
Sir Tim Ridgway, our roving reporter, has just heard that a TV company is planning on making a series about King Henry VIII and they are going to be turning William Brereton into some kind of Jesuit assassin on a mission to kill Queen Anne Boleyn! Really! We have, of course, been digging into Brereton’s background and can find nothing to back up this rather strange story.
There are now 5 men imprisoned in the Tower and we have created bio pages on them for your reference:-
You can read more about these arrests in “The Arrests of Sir Francis Weston and William Brereton”.
Sources
- Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII, David Starkey, Chapter 69: The Tower
- George Constantine’s words are based on his record of events in “A Memorial from George Constantyne to Thomas Lord Cromwell” which can be read in Anne Boleyn: In Her Own Words & the Words of Those Who Knew Her by Elizabeth Norton, p205
- The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn, Alison Weir
