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

admitted to Lord Burghley, he would not have accepted if he "had not been so much bound to the mother". 4
    Matthew Parker was born on 6th August 1504 in Norwich and was educated at Corpus Christi College in Cambridge, where he became friends with a group of humanists and reformers. He arrived at court in March 1535 and was appointed as one of Queen Anne Boleyn's chaplains. He preached in front of both Princess Elizabeth and the King in 1535 and it was due to Anne's patronage that he was appointed Dean of the collegiate church of Stoke by Clare in Suffolk.
    Matthew Parker is known for being Archbishop of Canterbury and also for being one of the men responsible for the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion. These were established in 1563 and are seen today as "the historic defining statements of Anglican doctrine in relation to the controversies of the English Reformation". 5 He served as Elizabeth I's Archbishop of Canterbury until his death on 17th May 1575.

27th April 1536 – Parliament Summoned
    On 27th April 1536, writs were issued summoning Parliament, and a letter was sent to Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, asking him to attend Parliament. Here is the relevant section from the Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII:
"Summons to the archbishop of Canterbury to attend the Parliament which is to meet at Westminster, 8 June; and to warn the prior and chapter of his cathedral and the clergy of his province to be present, the former in person and the latter by two proctors. Westm., 27 April 28 Hen. VIII.
ii. Similar writs to the different bishops, abbots, and lords; to the judges, serjeants-at-law, and the King's attorney, to give counsel; to the sheriffs to elect knights of the shires, citizens, and burgesses; also to the chancellor of the county palatine of Lancaster; to the deputy and council of Calais to elect one burgess, and to the mayor and burgesses to elect another." 1
    Although Anne Boleyn and the five men found guilty of adultery with her were all dead by the 8th June, these writs coming so soon after the setting up of the commissions of oyer and terminer suggests that Parliament was being called in order to deal with issues regarding the Queen, the King's marriage and the succession.
    The King Thinks About Divorce
    According to Chapuys, John Stokesley, Bishop of London, was approached on the 27th April to see if the King could "abandon" Anne Boleyn. Chapuys does not mention who consulted Stokesley, but he was told of it by Geoffrey Pole:
"The brother of lord Montague told me yesterday at dinner that the day before the bishop of London had been asked if the King could abandon the said concubine, and he would not give any opinion to anyone but the King himself, and before doing so he would like to know the King's own inclination, meaning to intimate that the King might leave the said concubine, but that, knowing his fickleness, he would not put himself in danger. The said Bishop was the principal cause and instrument of the first divorce, of which he heartily repents, and would still more gladly promote this, the said concubine and all her race are such abominable Lutherans. London, 29 April 1536."
    Stokesley was not stupid, he was not going to endanger himself by working against the King and Anne.

28th and 29th April 1536
    Something was definitely going on during April 1536. Commissions of oyer and terminer had been set up, writs for Parliament had been sent out and secret meetings were taking place.
    On 28th April 1536, Thomas Warley wrote to Lord Lisle in Calais, informing him that the King's council had been meeting daily at Greenwich "upon certain letters brought by the French ambassador, who was at Court yesterday and divers other times." 1
    The imperial ambassador, Eustace Chapuys, also noticed the goings-on, reporting to Charles V on 29th April:
"The day after the courier Gadaluppe left, the King sent for the French ambassador, and there was great consultation in Court. As I am told