Prison chamber in Henry the Eighth's Gateway, view of a significant interior setting in Windsor Castle, based on a sketch made by Sandhurst Military Academy drawing-master W. Alfred Delamotte for the eleventh and final instalment of Windsor Castle. An Historical Romance for the June 1843 issue of Ainsworth's Magazine, which Ainsworth had founded after he had quarrelled with the publisher and left his editorial post at Bentley's Miscellany. "Book the Sixth: Jane Seymour," headpiece for Chapter VI, "What passed between Anne Boleyn and the Duke of Suffolk, and how Herne the Hunter appeared to her in the Oratory," top of p. 305: height 7.5 cm width 9.4 cm, framed. Running head: "Anne's Supplication for Forgiveness." [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
PassageComplemented: Sir Henry Norris's supposed place of incarceration in Windsor Castle
"Captain Bouchier," said the Duke of Suffolk, addressing that officer,who stood near him, "you will convey Sir Henry Norris to the strong-room in the lower gateway, whence he will be removed to the Tower."
"Farewell for ever, Norris!" cried Anne. "We shall meet no more on earth. In what has fallen on me I recognise the hand of retribution. But the same measure which has been meted to me shall be dealt to others. I denounce Jane Seymour before Heaven! She shall not long retain the crown she is about to snatch from me!"
"That imprecation had better have been spared, madam," said the duke.
"Be advised, my gracious mistress," cried Norris, "and do not let your grief and distraction place you in the power of your enemies. All may yet go well."
"I denounce her!" persisted Anne, wholly disregarding the caution; "and I also denounce the king. No union of his shall be happy, and other blood than mine shall flow."
At a sign from the duke she was here borne, half suffocated with emotion, to an inner apartment, while Norris was conveyed by Bouchier and a company of halberdiers to the lower gateway, and placed within the prison chamber.[Book VI, "Jane Seymour," Chapter V, "What happened at the Jousts," p. 304]
Commentary: Norris and the Queen Arrested for "Incontinency"
Suddenly breaking off the tournament, Henry rides off in high dudgeon, and Anne, retiring to her apartments, is placed under arrest, along with her "lover," on a charge of "incontinency towards the king's highness" (303). Captain Bouchier's halberdiers under the command of the Duke of Suffolk also arrest the hapless Sir Henry Norris for treason and march him to the strong-room in the lower gateway (sketched by Delamotte a year before Cruikshank composed his steel-engraving of the May Day tournament). Even though Norris had apparently agreed to co-operate with the devious Herne, who had caught him in a compromising position with the Queen after the scene with Henry and Jane Seymour, he seems doomed. Thus, Ainsworth exonerates all but Herne, and, in particular, dramatizes Anne Boleyn, mother of the future Queen Elizabeth, as blameless of anything other than sympathy for the smitten Norris.
Cruikshanks's Complementary Steel-engraving for Chapter V: The Tournament Broken Up
Above: George Cruikshank's realisation of the baroque scene that precipitates Norris's being arrested for having an elicit affair with the Queen, Henry perceiving Norris Take up Anne Boleyn's Handkerchief at the Jousts (Book VI, Chapter V). [Click on image to enlarge it.]
References
Ainsworth, William Harrison. Windsor Castle. An Historical Romance. Illustrated by George Cruikshank and Tony Johannot. With designs on wood by W. Alfred Delamotte. London: Routledge, 1880. Based on the Henry Colburn edition of 1844.
Patten, Robert L. Chapter 30, "The 'Hoc' Goes Down." George Cruikshank's Life, Times, and Art, vol. 2: 1835-1878. Rutgers, NJ: Rutgers U. P., 1991; London: The Lutterworth Press, 1996. Pp. 153-186.
Worth, George J. William Harrison Ainsworth. New York: Twayne, 1972.
Last modified 26 December 2017