Brass Rubbing: Sir Thomas Bullen (Boleyn)

From Horowitz. 2002. Two striking features of this brass catch the eye. The first is the elaborate tilting helmet, with a falcon placed at the pinnacle: the crest of the Bullen family. The second is the full robes of the Order of the Garter, with the insignia attached to the left shoulder, the collar of the Order and the Garter itself on the left knee. (Only one other brass in England depicts the full costume of the Order, that of the Earl of Essex, 1483.) His feet rest on a griffin-like creature, and the hands are in an open posture of prayer. Sir Thomas Bullen, or Boleyn as is now the common spelling, is best known as the father of King Henry VIII's second wife, Anne, and therefore the grandfather of Queen Elizabeth I. Although there is little doubt that he owed much of his prosperity to the king's infatuation with his daughter, Sir Thomas came from an influential family and rose steadily as a loyal servant of the Tudor monarchs. In 1497, he fought against the Cornish rebels rioting because of a tax imposed by Henry VII. When Henry VIII became king in 1509, Boleyn was appointed to several offices and two years later fought in a tournament. He served on several royal embassies abroad, with his first major assignment coming in 1519 when he went to France and arranged the famous meeting in 1520 of Henry VIII and Francis I of France at the Field of Cloth of Gold. (The two cousins wrestled during their visit; Henry lost.) Boleyn served on both foreign embassies and on local courts in the county of Kent. On 16 June 1525, he was created a noble with the title Viscount Rochford. Two years before, he was made a KG (Knight of the Garter). He was a Member of Parliament when it met in November 1529, and a month later he was created the Earl of Wiltshire and Ormonde. During the divorce proceedings whereby Henry VIII sought to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn, Thomas embarked on embassies to the Continent, seeking learned opinions in the king's favor. When Rome refused the divorce, Henry VIII proceeded to declare himself, not the Pope, head of the English Church; the divorce was therefore granted by the Church. Once Henry VIII married, tired of, and beheaded Anne Boleyn, her father led a precarious existence until his death. He apparently died at his manor house of Hever in Kent on 13 March 1539. His tomb inscription states 12 March; the "1538," in Arabic numerals, refers to the Old Style of dating. Thomas's manor was later given to another Anne in the king's life: Henry VII's fourth wife, Anne of Cleeves.

Horowitz, Mark R. The Monumental Brasses of England: The Horrowitz Collection. Morton Grove, IL: Portcullis Productions, 1980 (1979). p. 32-33. Horowitz, Mark R. The Monumental Brasses of England. The Horowitz Collection. New Edition, 2002. p.42-43. Howden, Jacqueline.Brass Rubbing Catalogue. Bucks, England: Clark Paterson Limited. p. 20, 108.