Picture it: a group of affluent upper class people with money and influence, power couples, breakups, scheming, and most importantly, gossip. Yea okay, this does sound a lot like Gossip Girl, one of the CW’s most iconic teen dramas, but in reality I’m describing the court of King Henry VIII circa early 1530s. Our royal ginger gent was at this point feeling like relationship with his wife and Queen Katherine was over, new relationship with court queen bee (literally with a capital ‘B’) Anne Boleyn was on. And aside from court records and other accounts, we also know some of the comings and goings thanks to one certain gossip boy: Imperial Ambassador Eustace Chapuys.
Our buddy Chapuys was born somewhere between 1489-1492 in Annecy, France which at that time was part of the Holy Roman Empire. A law student who read at University of Turin, then later University of Valence, and then over at University of Rome, his study in canon laws meant he eventually received the Pope’s blessing. Overachieving? Yes. But considering how religious this period was it was probably a personal high as great as if I got to be within breathing room of Adam Driver. Anyways…
After becoming ordained and becoming a church official, he served as council to Emperor Charles V (aka Katherine of Aragon’s nephew) and then became his ambassador to England in 1529. Given the drama going on in the English court, it was quite the time for him to drop into the role and especially as a staunch Katherine supporter and decided Anne Boleyn detractor. And I do not mean that last point lightly; word on the Hampton Court streets was Chapuys could never bring himself to say Anne’s name and instead she was ‘the concubine’ or ‘the whore’. Never let it be said Chapuys wasn’t spicy, he also hated the French and France so much he threatened to disown his niece if she married a Frenchman. This is made funnier by the fact he often wrote his letters in French, begrudgingly I’m sure.
It’s worth noting that Chapuys was a pretty loyal courtier to Charles and by extension of that to Katherine and Spain, but also more substantially to her daughter Mary throughout his career in the English court that lasted until 1545 when he retired from his post but still advised Charles for a few years after. This is why he had a pretty big hate boner for Anne Boleyn, who usurped Katherine of Aragon as wife and queen. He was also a pretty religiously conservative person and now down with the newfangled Protestantism at all, and he liked to keep company with the same type of men and at some point even considered Cromwell a friend, though probably it’s more apt to say they were probably ‘frenemies’ depending on what was going on politically and who England decided was their BFF at any given time, be it Spain or France or Flanders.
So why is he, in my opinion, a Gossip Boy of the court? From his letters that survive, Chapuys would give Charles V some pretty detailed letters about what was happening in the Tudor court, letters taking the place of Gossip Girl’s signature blog blasts here. In one March 1536 letter, he recounts how he was hearing rumors the King was looking for a new marriage (and getting out of his marriage with Boleyn), his shady chats with Thomas Cromwell (another non-Anne fan), and how England and Spain might be BFFs again like they were when Henry was with Katherine. He also gossips about Jane Seymour in the same letter about how she wouldn’t take money as a gift but instead Henry gave her Cromwell’s apartments so they could rendez-vous in secret. I’m just saying, this stuff was soap opera levels of drama and then some, except breakups got you imprisoned and/or beheaded and Elizabeth Taylor wasn’t there as a supervillain in fab couture.
He was also the one who let Henry know Katherine was dying, let Charles know Henry was apparently feeling old because he was doubting he would have a child/son with his new queen Jane, etc. Sure, there’s a fine line between detailed news and gossip, then and now, but it’s easy to see how Chapuys’ blatant feelings made the line blur from sharing info to the historical equivalent of gabbing on the phone. If you’d like to see some of his letters, there are several of his correspondences transcribed here at British History Online.
Chapuys’ letters are important primary documents we’re fortunate enough to have as political insights (biased as they may be) into one of the most famous periods of Henry’s reign and Tudor history, and have helped us shape the larger general picture of the time.
And he definitely wasn’t Dan Humphries.
Sources
Wikipedia. “Eustace Chapuys.” Last modified April 9, 2023.