Free The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown by Claire Ridgway

is no reply on record. We will never know exactly what Cranmer was trying to say.

23rd April 1536 – A Warning Sign?
    On St George's Day (23rd April) 1536 the annual chapter meeting of the Order of the Garter took place at Greenwich. A record of this meeting can be found in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 10:
"On St. George's Day, 23 April 28 Hen. VIII., a chapter of the Order of the Garter was held at Greenwich, at which were present the King, the dukes of Richmond and Norfolk, the earls of Northumberland, Westmoreland, Wiltshire, Sussex, Rutland, and Oxford, lord Sandys, and Sir Wm. Fitzwilliam. It was determined to hold the feast on May 21, the earl of Northumberland taking the Sovereign's place, assisted by the earls of Rutland, Westmoreland, and Oxford, and Sir Wm. Fitzwilliam. Votes were taken for the election of a knight; and the next day, after mass for the dead, the King declared Sir Nic. Carew elected. He was installed when the feast was kept, on May 21. On this occasion the earl of Northumberland was seized with vertigo and weakness, so that it was feared he would not be able to take his part as deputy, but he recovered. The next day the hatchments of the deceased were offered up." 1
    As you can see, Sir Nicholas Carew was elected a Knight of the Garter at this chapter. His appointment was significant because Queen Anne Boleyn had put forward her brother George Boleyn, Lord Rochford, for the post. Her wish had been denied.
    Was this a warning sign of the trouble to come? Maybe. Sir Nicholas Carew was an enemy of the Boleyn faction and he had also been mentoring Jane Seymour, Henry's new flame, in how to appeal to the King. The Imperial ambassador, Eustace Chapuys, wrote that "the Concubine has not had sufficient influence to get it for her brother," 2 seeing it as a sign that Anne Boleyn had lost her influence over the King. But perhaps Chapuys was reading too much into Carew's appointment. Henry VIII had promised the French King, Francis I, that Carew would be considered when a vacancy arose. Francis I's request to Henry VIII was made in May 1533 3 and was referred to in a letter from Palamedes Gontier to Admiral Chabot in February 1535:
"Presented the letter in favor of the "Grand Escuyer" of England [Carew], to which he replied that the said place of the Chancellor of the Order was filled by the king of Scotland, and the number of 24 could not be exceeded. On the first vacancy he would remember the said Grand Escuyer." 4
    With the benefit of hindsight we see this as a warning sign of the events to come, as a sign that Anne had lost her influence with the King and as a sign that the Boleyn faction was losing favour. But perhaps we, like Chapuys, are reading too much into it. It is not known what Anne and George thought of this event.
    Incidentally, Sir Nicholas Carew came to a sticky end. He was implicated in the 1538 Exeter Conspiracy, a plot to depose Henry VIII and to replace him with Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter and cousin of the King through his mother Katherine of York. Courtenay was executed on 9th January 1539 and Carew was executed on 3rd March 1539.

24th April 1536 – Legal Machinery
    On 24th April 1536, Sir Thomas Audley, Henry VIII's Lord Chancellor and Thomas Cromwell's right hand man, set up two commissions of oyer and terminer at Westminster.
    'Oyer and terminer' comes from the French 'to hear and to determine' and denotes a legal commission formed to investigate and prosecute serious criminal offences, such as treason, committed in a particular county. A grand jury in the county would first investigate the alleged offence and then approve a bill of indictment, if there was sufficient evidence. The case would then go on to the commission of oyer and terminer, the court with jurisdiction to try the offence(s). 1
    The two commissions of oyer and terminer set up by Audley were for offences committed in the counties of Middlesex and Kent and covered the crimes