Anne Boleyn
|
A portrait of Anne Boleyn painted some years after her death. |
Anne Boleyn, 1st Marchioness of Pembroke [ She was sometimes known by the surname of "Bullen", which was the original pronunciation of her family-name. However, Anne herself used "Boleyn", which was the closest translation of her name into French â€" her preferred language. ] (c.1501/1507–
19 May 1536), was the second wife and
Queen Consort of
King Henry VIII and mother of
Queen Elizabeth I.
Henry's divorce from
Catherine of Aragon and marriage to Anne was part of the complex beginning of the considerable political and religious upheaval which was the
English Reformation, with Anne herself actively promoting the cause of Church Reform. She wielded immense political influence and has been called "the most influential and important queen consort this country has ever had".
[ Ives, p. xv ]She is particularly remembered because she was beheaded on charges of
adultery and
treason on
19 May 1536.
Historians do not agree when Anne Boleyn was born. The debate may never be fully solved since parish records chronicling precise dates of birth were not kept until the time of
Elizabeth I. An Italian historian, writing in 1600, suggested that she had been born in
1499; whilst Sir
Thomas More's son-in-law suggested a much later date of
1512. All other guesses fall within this period of
1499 -
1512. Nowadays, the academic debate centres around two key dates:
1501 and
1507.
[ The date of 1507 was first put forward by an Elizabeth scholar, William Camden and it was the most popular date for Anne's birth until the work of art historian, Hugh Paget, argued against it in 1981 ] Two great authorities on the period,
Eric Ives and
Retha Warnicke (both of whom have written biographies of Anne) disagree. Ives, a British historian and legal expert, promotes the 1501 date, whilst American scholar Warnicke prefers 1507. Some other writers, like Paul Friedmann, Norah Lofts and Hester W. Chapman, all suggested that a birthday somewhere between 1501 and 1507 might be the safest guess â€" such as 1505.The key point in the argument is
a letter written by Anne in about 1514. It was written to her father, who was still living in England, whilst Anne was completing her education in the Netherlands. Professor Ives insists that the style of the letter proved Anne must have been about thirteen at the time of its composition. Warnicke argues the spelling is too juvenile and phonetic for a mature teenager and is therefore clearly the work of a child. A full examination of the letter is still required, as both sides currently claim it as supporting evidence. Both sides of the argument continue to hold their ground. The entry on Anne (written by Professor Ives) in the new
Dictionary of National Biography opts for
1500 and entirely dismisses the claims of 1507. In several articles in the
English Historical Review, Warnicke has dismissed the
1501 date as implausible.
Boleyn was the daughter of
Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire and 1st Earl of Ormonde, and his wife
Lady Elizabeth Boleyn (born Lady Elizabeth Howard), daughter of the
2nd Duke of Norfolk. It is not known for certain where she was born, but it was either at her family's mansion of
Blickling Hall in
Norfolk or at their favourite home of
Hever Castle in
Kent.
It was later rumoured that she had been born with six fingers on her left hand (at the time considered a sign of
the devil.) Although this legend is popular, it has recently been questioned on the grounds that there is no contemporary evidence to support it and it is not mentioned by anyone until the following generation. None of the many eyewitness accounts of Anne Boleyn's appearance â€" some of them meticulously detailed â€" mention any deformities, let alone a sixth finger. On the basis of this overwhelming evidence, many academics dismiss these stories as nothing more than spiteful legends.
[ Warnicke, pp. 58 â€" 9; Lindsey, pp. 47 - 8]She had two siblings. It is impossible to say when they were born, but it seems clear that her sister,
Mary, was older than she was. Mary's children clearly believed their mother had been the elder sister; so did Anne's daughter,
Elizabeth.
[ Only one historian argues that Mary ‘‘might have been the younger sister. There is, however, firm evidence from the reign of Queen Elizabeth I that the surviving Boleyns knew Mary had been born before Anne, not after. See Ives, pp. 16 â€" 17 and Fraser, p. 119 ] Their brother
George may have been older, depending on when one believes Anne herself was born. George was born sometime around
1504, thus making him either three years older or three years younger than Anne.
[ Warnicke, p. 9; Ives, p. 15 ]In later life, Boleyn did not have a particularly affectionate relationship with her father, but in her childhood she seemed anxious to please him. Her relationship with her sister Mary was initially affectionate, but they quarrelled over her choice of husband and were not on speaking terms at the time of her death. She enjoyed a much happier relationship with her mother and her brother, both of whom she was very close to.
The Boleyn family were considered one of the most respectable families in the English aristocracy,
[ Starkey, p. 257 ] although they had only held a title for four generations. Later, they were criticised for being social-climbers, but this was a political attack against them. Anne's family were wealthy and very well-connected. Her father had married into the powerful Howard family and she had a great aristocratic heritage; her great-grandparents included a
Lord Mayor of London, a
duke, an
earl, two aristocratic ladies and a
knight. She was certainly more aristocratic than either
Jane Seymour or
Catherine Parr, two of Henry's other wives.
[ Ives, p. 3; Strickland, p. 273] She was also the elder cousin of Henry's fifth wife, Lady
Catherine Howard.
Boleyn's father was a respected diplomat with a gift for languages who had been a favourite of
Henry VII, who sent him on many diplomatic missions abroad. He continued his career under
Henry VIII, who also relied upon his skills. In
Europe, Thomas Boleyn's professionalism and charm won many admirers, including Archduchess Margaret of
Austria, the daughter of
Maximilian I, the
Holy Roman Emperor. Margaret was currently ruling the
Netherlands on behalf of her father and she was so impressed with Boleyn that she offered his youngest daughter Anne a place in her household. Ordinarily, a girl had to be 12 years old to have such an honour, but Anne might have been somewhat younger, as Margaret affectionately referred to her as "la Petite Boleyn''".
[ Fraser and Ives argue that this appointment proves Anne was probably born in 1501 making her the same age as the other girls; but Warnicke disagrees, partly on the evidence of Anne's nickname of "petite." ] She made a good impression in the Netherlands with her manners and studiousness. She lived there from the spring of
1513 until her father arranged for her to continue her education in
Paris in the winter of
1514.
In
France, she was a favoured lady-in-waiting to
Queen Claude of France and also a translator whenever any English visitors arrived to meet the Queen. In the Queen's household, she completed her study of
French and acquired a thorough knowledge of French culture and
etiquette. She also developed an interest in fashion and the religious philosophy that called for reform of the Church. Her European education ended in the winter of 1521 when she was summoned back to England on her father's orders. She sailed from
Calais in January 1522.
Anne Boleyn was not considered a great beauty of the time. Her body was too thin and her complexion slightly too dark for the day's conventions of beauty. However, many observers commented on her magnificent dark eyes and beautiful dark hair. The most famous man to be attracted to her was, of course, King Henry VIII. One
Italian who met Anne in 1532 wrote that she was "not one of the handsomest women in the world", but others thought she was
"competent belle" ("quite beautiful") and "young and good-looking." One historian has compiled all the descriptions and concludes thus: -
"She was never described as a great beauty, but even those who loathed her admitted that she had a dramatic allure. Her dark complexion and black hair gave her an exotic aura in a culture that saw milk-white paleness as essential to beauty. Her eyes were especially striking: "black and beautiful" wrote one contemporary, while another averred they were "always most attractive," and that she "well knew how to use them with effect."[ Lindsey, p. 48 ]It was her charisma that made her attractive rather than her looks â€" although the evidence proves that she was by no means ugly. Anne made a big impression with her fashion sense, inspiring many new trends amongst the court ladies and she was probably the biggest fashion
icon of her time. William Forrest, author of a contemporary
poem about
Catherine of Aragon, complimented Anne's "passing excellent" skill as a dancer. "Here," he wrote, "was [a] fresh young damsel, that could trip and go."
[ Fraser, p. 115 ] "Anne's charm lay not so much in her physical appearance as in her vivacious personality, her gracefulness, her quick wit and other accomplishments. She was petite in stature, and had an appealing fragility about her… she shone at singing, making music, dancing and conversation… Not surprisingly, the young men of the court swarmed around her."[ Weir, pp. 151 - 153]Her personality was complex and it has been greatly distorted by those opposed to her marriage and religious views. She was a devout
Christian in the new tradition of
Renaissance Humanism (calling her a
Protestant would be too strong). She also gave generously to charity and, contrary to popular myth, was extremely emotional. In her youth she was "sweet and cheerful" and enjoyed
gambling, drinking
wine, and gossiping.
[ Weir, p. 153 ] She was also brave and charismatic. Yet Anne could also be extravagant, neurotic, vindictive and bad-tempered. Since she spent most of her life in the ambitious and treacherous world of the royal court, she inevitably learnt how to succeed in this dangerous environment: -
"To us she appears inconsistent â€" religious yet aggressive, calculating yet emotional, with the light touch of the courtier yet the strong grip of the politician … A woman in her own right â€" taken on her own terms in a man's world; a woman who mobilized her education, her style and her presence to outweigh the disadvantages of her sex; of only moderate good looks, but taking a court and a king by storm. Perhaps, in the end, it is Thomas Cromwell's assessment that comes nearest: intelligence, spirit and courage." [ Ives, p. 359] |
Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII's first wife |
Boleyn became a lady-in-waiting on her return to England. She was in the service of Queen Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII's
Spanish wife. Catherine was popular with the people, although she had been inactive in politics and court life for some time. All her sons by Henry had died young and Henry privately feared that the marriage was cursed because Catherine was also
his brother's widow.
Boleyn made her court début at a masquerade ball in March 1522, where she performed an elaborate dance accompanying the king's younger sister, several other great ladies of the court and his mistress â€" Anne's sister, Mary. Within a few weeks of this performance, Boleyn was known as the most fashionable and accomplished woman at the Court and she has been referred to as a "glass of fashion".
[ Starkey, p. 264]During this time, she was being courted by
Henry Percy the son of the Earl of
Northumberland around 1522. The exact nature of their relationship is unclear. Many novels and cinematic adaptations of Anne's life have romanticised the tale by describing how the young lovers consummated their marriage. However, it is worth noting that it would have been impossible to break their betrothal if it had been consummated and Anne had seen too many reputations ruined to risk hers.
[ Fraser, pp. 126 â€" 7; Ives, p. 67 and p. 80]The romance was broken off in 1523 when Lord Henry's father refused to support the engagement upon hearing of it from Cardinal Wolsey. Legend has it that the liaison was secretly broken up because Henry desired her for himself[
1]. It is impossible to say if this is true and historians are divided on the issue.
Anne was briefly sent from court to
Hever Castle in
Kent, but is not known for how long. When she returned to court, she gathered a clique of female friends and male admirers for herself. She became famous for her ability to keep them at arm's length. Her cousin, the poet
Sir Thomas Wyatt, complained that she was unobtainable, temperamental, and headstrong, despite seeming demure and quiet.
[ Ives, p. 73] In 1525, Henry VIII fell in love with her and began his pursuit.
[ Scarisbrick, p. 154]Anne's sister,
Mary Boleyn, had previously been King Henry's short-term
mistress, during the time that she was married to Sir
William Carey, a gentleman of the king's Privy Chamber. There is a rumour that Mary's two children were Henry's, though they were born after the affair had officially ended and although the idea that the two children were really the king's surfaces in many novels, it is generally discounted by most historians.
[ Weir, p. 134] Henry's affair with Mary had been ended for some time when he became involved with her younger sister.
|
Henry VIII. He bombarded Anne with dozens of love-letters. |
Anne resisted his attempts to seduce her and she refused to become his mistress. She rejected the king's initial advances by saying, "I beseech your highness most earnestly to desist, and to this my answer in good part. I would rather lose my life than my honesty."
[ Weir, p. 160] The King was only more attracted to her because of this refusal and her pursued her relentlessly, even after she left the court to return to
Kent. Historians are divided over Anne's motivations in rejecting Henry â€" some say it was virtue and others say it was ambition. Eventually he proposed and she accepted. However, she decided not to sleep with Henry before their marriage, as pre-marital sex would mean that any children they had would be born out of legitimate wedlock.
It is often thought that Henry's infatuation with her led him to seek a way to
annul his existing marriage. However there is good evidence to suggest that Henry may well have made the decision to end his marriage with Queen Catherine because she hadn't delivered a male heir. He believed this was essential to prevent the collapse of the
Tudor dynasty and chaos in
England and
Ireland. Anne's relatives promoted her cause and they had many supporters at Court.
At first, Boleyn was kept in the background, but by 1528 it was common knowledge that Henry intended to marry her. She kept herself out of politics and she enjoyed a civil relationship with Henry's chief minister, Cardinal Wolsey, despite her father's hatred of him. At court, she revelled in her newfound lifestyle - Henry paid for everything, and she was showered with magnificent gowns and jewels. She was given her own staff of servants, several ladies-in-waiting and new apartments.
In
1529, it seemed as if Pope
Clement VII was no nearer to granting Henry a divorce than he had been in
1527. Anne's
spies reported that part of the problem was her supposed ally, Cardinal Wolsey, who had assured her that the Pope would help make her queen. A group of aristocrats opposed to Wolsey had been at court for over a decade and they saw Anne as the perfect instrument to help topple the Cardinal from power. Henry refused to abandon his minister until one of the Pope's delegates in England refused to find in the King's favour and instead referred the matter back to Rome, which was under the influence of Queen Catherine's family.
Boleyn maintained pressure until Wolsey was dismissed from public office in 1529. The Cardinal begged Boleyn to help him return to power, but she refused to help. Wolsey then began a secret plot to have Anne forced into exile. When this was discovered, Henry ordered Wolsey's arrest and had it not been for his death from a terminal illness in
1530, he might have been executed for
treason. A year later, Queen Catherine was banished from court and her old rooms were given to Anne.
|
Henry's chief minister Cardinal Wolsey. He and Boleyn had once enjoyed a civil working relationship, but she later insisted upon his exile. |
With Wolsey gone, Anne Boleyn became the most powerful person at court. She had considerable power over government appointments and political matters. She clashed with the king's new chief minister, Sir
Thomas More, who was opposed to reform in the Catholic Church - a cause she and her brother supported. More eventually resigned.
Her exasperation with the
Vatican's refusal to make her queen also persuaded her to promote a new alternative to Henry. She suggested that he should follow the advice of religious radicals like
William Tyndale, who denied Papal Authority and believed that the monarch should lead the church of his own nation. When Willaim Warham, the conservative
Archbishop of Canterbury, died, Boleyn had her family's chaplain â€"
Thomas Cranmer â€" appointed to the vacant position. She also supported the rise of the radical
Thomas Cromwell, who became the king's favourite new adviser.
During this period, Boleyn also played an enormous role in England's international position by solidifying an alliance with France. She established an excellent rapport with the French
ambassador, Giles de la Pommeraye, who was captivated by her. With his help, she arranged an international conference at
Calais in the winter of
1532, in which Henry hoped he could enlist the support of
Francis I of France for his new marriage.
Before going to Calais, Henry created Boleyn Marchioness of Pembroke â€" making her the first English woman ever to be a peer in her own right. Anne's family also profited from this; her father, already Viscount Rochford, was created Earl of Ormonde and then Earl of Wiltshire. Thanks to her intervention, her widowed sister Mary received an annual
pension of £100, and Mary's son,
Henry Carey, received his education in a prestigious
Cistercian monastery.
The conference was a political triumph, since the French government gave their support for Henry's re-marriage. Immediately upon returning to
Dover in England, Henry and Boleyn went through a secret wedding service, finally enjoying a sexual relationship after seven years.
[ Starkey, pp. 462 - 464] She became pregnant within a few months.
Catherine was formally stripped of her title as queen in time for Boleyn's coronation in June 1533. In defiance of the Pope, Cranmer now declared that the English Church was under Henry's control, not Rome's. This was the famous "Break with Rome", which signalled the end of England's history as a Roman Catholic country. Few people were aware of the significance at the time, and even fewer were prepared to defend the Pope's authority. Queen Anne was delighted at this development â€" although she remained a Catholic, she believed the Papacy was a corrupting influence on
Christianity.
After her coronation, she settled into a quiet routine to prepare for the birth of her child. She was deeply distressed when Henry was infatuated with a lady of the court, which provoked their first serious fight. The girl was just a passing fancy, as Henry wanted nothing to jeopardise his wife's pregnancy.
Henry and Boleyn's child was born slightly prematurely on
September 7,
1533, at the king's favourite palace of
Greenwich. The child was a girl who was christened
Elizabeth, in honour of Henry's mother,
Elizabeth of York. She was given a splendid christening, but Boleyn feared that Catherine's daughter,
Mary, would still have enough popular support to threaten Elizabeth's position. Henry soothed his wife's fears by separating Mary from her many servants and sending her to
Hatfield House, where Princess Elizabeth was living with her own magnificent staff of servants. The country air was better for the baby's health, and Boleyn was an affectionate mother who regularly visited her daughter.
[ Weir, p. 259 - 260] Her visits were also scenes of friction between her and Princess Mary, who referred to her as "my father's mistress," while Boleyn called Mary "that cursed bastard."
Boleyn had a larger staff of servants than Catherine; there were over 250 servants to tend to her personal needs, everything from priests to stable-boys. There were also over 60 maids-of-honour who served her and accompanied her to social events. In return, their parents hoped the queen would act as a good mistress and arrange a suitable marriage for them. She maintained a strict control over her maids' morals and spiritual well-being, chastising Margaret Shelton when she was caught writing poetry in her prayer book. She also employed several priests who acted as her
confessors,
chaplains, and religious advisers. Her favourite was the religious moderate
Matthew Parker, who would become one of the chief architects of the modern
Church of England under her daughter Elizabeth I.
|
Matthew Parker was Anne's personal chaplain who was later her daughter's Archbishop of Canterbury. |
Her reputation as a religious reformer spread through Europe, and she was hailed as a heroine by Protestant figures; even
Martin Luther viewed her rise to the throne as a good sign. She also saved the life of the French radical
Nicolas Bourbon, who was
sentenced to death by the
French Inquisition. She appealed to the French Royal Family, who spared Bourbon's life as a favour to the English queen. Bourbon would later refer to her as "the Queen whom God loves". Although she championed religious reform, especially translating the
Bible into
English, she dared not challenge the sacred Catholic doctrine of
Transubstantiation. She was also a generous patron of charity, distributing alms to poor relief and funds to educational foundations. She and her ladies would often sew shirts for the poor.
She presided over a magnificent court. In the
16th century, royals were expected to be extravagant in order to convey to their people the strength of the monarchy. Anne spent huge sums on gowns, jewels, head-dresses, ostrich-feather fans, riding equipment, and the finest furniture and upholstery from across the world. Numerous palaces were renovated to suit her elaborate tastes.
[ Ives, pp. 231 - 260] A group of young gentlemen continued to visit the queen's apartments, where they flirted with her ladies-in-waiting and, with permission, danced with the queen. She never stepped beyond propriety, however - even going so far as to reprimand them if they became too jovial with either her or her maids. There was nothing new in this, for a group of young men had also served as Catherine of Aragon's adherents in the 1510s; it was only later that this behaviour would harm Anne's reputation.
Boleyn's married life was stormy; the royal couple enjoyed periods of calm and affection, but Henry's frequent infidelities greatly wounded his new wife, who reacted with tears and rage to each new mistress. For his part, Henry found Boleyn's strident opinions about religion and politics irritating, and he saw her failure to give him a son as a betrayal. Her second pregnancy resulted in a
miscarriage in the summer of 1534.
The French Ambassador watched with amazement at the frosty atmosphere between the royal couple at a banquet in 1535. When he asked Boleyn about it later in the evening, she laughed sadly and told him that she felt utterly lonely and that she could feel the eyes of the entire court spying on her. This pressure inflamed her temper, and she clashed with her ambitious uncle,
Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, when she discovered his loyalty to her was suspect. When her sister
Mary had secretly married a commoner, she exiled from her court. Both sisters refused to apologise to one another and Mary wrote a letter proclaiming her steadfast love for her new husband. Anne later relented by sending the newlyweds a magnificent wedding present, but she still refused to receive them back to court.
Boleyn was also blamed for the tyranny of her husband's government. She was said to have pushed Henry to sign his old adviser Sir
Thomas More's death warrant when he was beheaded in
1535 for refusing to break his oath of loyalty to
Pope Paul III. While it's true that Anne did not like More, there is no evidence that she advocated for his death. It is unlikely she defended him, but he had acknowledged her as queen instead of Catherine so there was no reason for her to demand his death.
In January 1536, Catherine of Aragon died of
cancer. Anne attempted to repair relations with Catherine's daughter, Mary, but she was once again rebuffed. At the time, none of this bothered Anne because she was pregnant once more. However, she was concerned about the king's latest mistress,
Jane Seymour, who was one of Anne's maids. Once she found Jane wearing a jewel the King had given her, and Anne ripped it from Jane's neck, and slapped her. On another occasion, she walked into a room to find Henry and Jane in an embrace. A few days later, Henry was almost killed in a jousting accident. He was unconscious for two hours and Anne was initially told that he was dead. The stress of this may have contributed to the miscarriage of a son on
29 January 1536.
|
Thomas Cromwell: Anne's one-time ally who later arranged the plot to murder her. |
This was the beginning of the end of the royal marriage. What happened next is one of the most controversial periods of English history. As Anne recovered from her miscarriage, Henry declared his marriage was accursed by God. Jane Seymour was moved into new apartments and Anne's brother was refused a prestigious court honour, the
Order of the Garter, which was instead given to Jane Seymour's brother. Anne was irritable and depressed throughout the early months of 1536, fearing that she was about to be divorced.
A
Flemish musician in Anne's service named
Mark Smeaton had been arrested and
tortured by Thomas Cromwell. He had initially denied that he was the queen's lover, but under torture he confessed. He also provided the names of another courtier â€"
Sir Henry Norreys (or Norris) â€" who was an old friend of Anne's. Norris was arrested on
May Day, but since he was an aristocrat he could not be tortured. He denied his guilt and swore that Boleyn was absolutely innocent. Sir
Francis Weston was arrested two days later on the same charge. William Brereton, a groom of the king's privy chamber, was also apprehended on grounds of adultery, but it seems likely he was really the victim of an old grudge against him, held by
Thomas Cromwell. Queen Anne's own brother was also arrested on charges of
incest and
treason, accused of having a sexual relationship with his sister.
On
2 May 1536, Boleyn was arrested at luncheon and taken up the
River Thames to the
Tower of London. In the Tower, she suffered a minor
nervous breakdown, demanding to know full details of her family's whereabouts and the charges against her.
The four gentlemen were tried on
May 15,
1536. Weston, Brereton and Norris publicly maintained their innocence and only the tortured Smeaton supported the government by pleading guilty. Two days later, Anne and George Boleyn were tried separately. Popular suspicion against Henry and his mistress, Jane Seymour, was widespread. Several pamphlets circulated in
London mocking the trials and supporting the queen. She was accused of adultery, incest, and high treason. Although she was not popular by any means, her trial was so unfair that many protested against it. Henry VIII clearly wished her to be found guilty and the judges condemned to death.
Theories
Historians still debate over why these extraordinary events took place. There are four main theories about Anne Boleyn's demise, which the Oxford historian Steven J. Gunn described as historical "trench warfare".
*Guilty as charged: The English historian George W. Bernard is the only modern historian to argue that Anne was guilty of adultery and treason. In
1991 he wrote, "Perhaps the safest guess for a modern historian is that Anne had indeed committed adultery with Norris and briefly with
Mark Smeaton and that there was enough circumstantial evidence to cast reasonable doubt on the denials of the others."
*A romantic victim: The traditional theory is that Anne was the victim of her husband's cruelty and that her failure to produce a son meant that Henry would stop at nothing to get rid of her. The famous Tudor historian, Sir
Geoffrey Elton believed that "Anne and five men were put to death by due process of law because the king wished to marry again...Henry had now so far discarded scruple that to get his way he was prepared to appear as a cuckold and a victim of witchcraft."
*A political attack: The most popular theory is that Anne was removed by a palace plot created by her enemies. An alliance with Spain was becoming desirable for various reasons, and Anne was so unpopular with the Spanish royal family, that her presence was a serious obstacle to progress. Thomas Cromwell, her one-time supporter and the King's chancellor, therefore realized Anne would have to go. He was more than prepared to sacrifice five innocent men to do it (who were also Anne's friends and might, therefore, object to her destruction if they were left alive.) Henry went along with this plot, although it is impossible to say how much he was really involved in its details. Anne's most respected biographer,
Eric Ives, is the champion of this view: - "The plot against Anne Boleyn was most carefully calculated. Jane Seymour deliberately tantalised the king, at the same time poisoning his mind against Anne. The rest of the queen's enemies joined in the chorus when and how they could." The architect of the plot was Thomas Cromwell, the king's favourite adviser, who had angered the queen over his destruction of the monasteries and friendliness to the Seymours. He therefore wanted to get rid of Anne before she did to him what she had done to Thomas Wolsey in 1529. In this scenario, Anne Boleyn's potential power made her so dangerous that her political enemies had to destroy her and her faction at any cost.
*Sexual heresy: This theory, which comes from American historian
Retha Warnicke is that the
foetus Anne miscarried in early 1536 was deformed, provoking terror and disgust in the King. It was widely believed at the time that deformities resulted from God's anger â€" and obviously Henry could not be seen to be responsible. By accusing Anne of incest and adultery, his paternity of the deformed stillborn child could largely be disproved. "For many historians Anne remains the lady with an extra fingernail who was too flirtatious, even in a harmless courtly way, for her own safety and well-being. The result of these interpretations is that the responsibility for her tragic death lies with her, the victim, rather than with the king and his ministers who orchestrated her execution...she miscarried a defective fetus in 1536. It was because Henry viewed this mishap both as an evil omen, both for his lineage and his kingdom, that he had her accused of engaging in illicit sexual acts with five men."
Most historians are now divided between Ives's political theory and Warnicke's deformed foetus concept. However both have serious drawbacks. The 'deformed foetus' theory's principal failing is a near total absence of prima facie evidence. It is simply an idea, built on very little solid fact. The drawback of the political theory is principally that neither Cromwell nor anyone else would have dared attack Anne without the King's consent. The idea of Cromwell hatching the plot himself is therefore unrealistic in the context of the time.
Perhaps the most plausible explanation would indeed be some form of blend of all of the above. Almost certainly Anne was innocent of adultery; nevertheless her flamboyant behaviour certainly helped her accusers. Also, it was probably becoming politically convenient to get rid of Anne, but this would not have progressed if the king himself had not also wished to be rid of her for his own personal reasons. If all these political and personal reasons collided at this time, no doubt Anne's fate was sealed.
On
May 17,
1536 â€" the day Boleyn's alleged "lovers" were publicly beheaded â€" she was stripped of her title as queen and her daughter Elizabeth was declared illegitimate. The following day, Boleyn heard
Mass for the last time, and publicly swore on the
Blessed Sacrament that she was innocent. When her jailer, William Kingston, told her that she was to be given the privilege of being executed by a French sword expert, she laughed. "I heard say that the executioner was very good, and I have a little neck." Kingston was amazed at the composure she now demonstrated, writing, "She hath much joy in death."
She dressed in an elegant grey
dress and styled her famous dark hair on the morning of
May 19,
1536. A crowd of officials had gathered on
Tower Green to watch her
execution. On the scaffold, she gave a short, dignified speech. She did not admit to any guilt, but diplomatically avoided attacking the
king in case he sought
revenge on her surviving relatives. She then knelt down and was blindfolded with a linen handkerchief. The executioner took off her head with a quick, clean sweep of his blade. She was buried later that day in the nearby
Chapel of
St Peter ad Vincula.
On the day of her execution, a student of
Thomas Cranmer recently returned from
Italy and unaware of the situation found the Archbishop in his garden in the early hours of the morning. On approaching him and asking what distressed him, Cranmer broke down sobbing, saying "She who was a Queen on earth, today becomes a queen in heaven". He had taken Anne's last confession and therefore clearly believed she was innocent.
In
1542, when her brother's widow,
Jane Boleyn, Viscountess Rochford, was executed for her part in
Catherine Howard's extra-marital indiscretions, she confessed that she had falsely accused her husband of incest with Anne.
Henry VIII's conduct immediately following Boleyn's death was so openly joyful that it shocked even the Spanish Ambassador, Chapuys, who commented that the king seemed to wear his "horns very readily."
Opinions on Anne Boleyn's character were published as fact beginning shortly after her death, and continuing after her daughter's death. The
Catholic portrayal of Anne as an evil and manipulative witch is the most penetrating and well-known legend of her existence. The
Protestant legend of Anne is that of a
saint. These two sides directly contradict one another. Modern historians must draw their conclusions about her true personality from the heavily biased opinions of these two groups of writers.
Nicholas Sanders, an
English Catholic priest who was opposed to the
Church of England and advocated the deposing of Elizabeth, made a number of claims about Boleyn, which were reworked and published after his death in
De origine et progressu schismatis Anglicani (The origin and progress of the
English Schism), 1585. It must be noted that Sanders never knew or saw Anne at any point during her life. Sanders was the first to claim in print that Boleyn was deformed, giving her the features of a
witch. His allegations included the claims that she was a
nymphomaniac with an excess of lovers; and that she had a projecting tooth; and that she had
six fingers (
hexadactyly) on one hand. All these features were traditionally associated with witches. There is no contemporary evidence to support such allegations, despite their popularity and inclusion in many modern
textbooks.Meanwhile, the
Protestant writer
John Foxe proclaimed that she had been a
saint. He repeatedly stated that the
Church of England owed its existence to Queen Anne, who was "the most beautiful of all in character, learning and piety."
[ Ives, p. 52] William Shakespeare began the tradition of presenting her as a romantic lady in his 1613 play
Henry VIII. The play focuses on the king's divorce from Catherine of Aragon and, although Boleyn's part is small, she still speaks some of the most memorable lines in the play. She is also
eulogised in her coronation scene, when one of the spectators refers to her as being a woman of exceptional beauty and piety. In order to avoid demonising Henry VIII at her expense, the play ended with the christening of their daughter, thus avoiding the controversial issue of Boleyn's execution.
 |
Maria Callas in the title role of Donizetti's opera Anna Bolena, performed in La Scala, Milan (1957) |
Boleyn's life has been the subject of numerous biographies, novels, motion pictures, plays and operas.
Donizetti's opera
Anna Bolena was first performed in
Milan in 1830 to popular acclaim. It was revived in the 20th century, when the legendary opera singer
Maria Callas took the title role and achieved some of her greatest operatic success. The story of Anne Boleyn's untimely demise inspired the British music hall classic "With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm." Written by Bert Lee and R.P. Weston in 1934, the song comically depicts the exploits of Anne Boleyn's ghost and various attempts to spoil
King Henry's revels.
Boleyn was first portrayed on the silver screen in
1911 by Laura Cowie in a silent movie adaptation of
William Shakespeare's
Henry VIII. Nine years later, in
1920, a German company produced
Anna Boleyn with Henny Porten in the title role. The movie portrayed Anne as a frumpy, frightened creature pursued by a lecherous Henry VIII. In
1933, the
British cinematic classic
The Private Life of Henry VIII had the day of Anne Boleyn's execution as its starting point. The beautiful Anglo-Indian actress,
Merle Oberon, played the doomed queen preparing for her death. The film was hugely successful and helped launch Oberon's career.
Vanessa Redgrave had a cameo role as Anne Boleyn in
A Man for All Seasons - a sympathetic look at the rise and fall of Sir
Thomas More. Three years later, in 1969,
Hal B. Wallis produced
Anne of the Thousand Days which explored the life of Anne Boleyn from her engagement to Harry Percy until her death in 1536. French-Canadian actress,
Genevieve Bujold, was nominated for an Oscar for her role as the fiery and feisty Anne Boleyn, as was her co-star,
Richard Burton, who played Henry VIII. Sir Anthony Quayle co-starred as Cardinal Wolsey, with Greek actress, Irene Papas, as Catherine of Aragon.
In
1970, as part of the
BBC six-part dramatic television series
The Six Wives of Henry VIII, the episode
Anne Boleyn was aired with Dame
Dorothy Tutin as the Queen, and Australian actor
Keith Michell as her husband.
Patrick Troughton co-starred as the
Duke of Norfolk. The drama focused on the fall of Anne Boleyn. In
1972,
Barbara Kellerman appeared as Anne Boleyn in a television adaptation of Shakespeare's
Henry VIII. A year later,
Charlotte Rampling appeared as Anne Boleyn in the movie
Henry VIII and his Six Wives. Keith Michell reprised his 1970 role as Henry VIII. Although all six queens appeared, most time was spent on the story of Anne's cousin,
Catherine Howard played by young
actress Lynne Frederick.
Julia Marsen appeared as Anne Boleyn in Dr.
David Starkey's documentary series
The Six Wives of Henry VIII in
2001.
In January
2003,
Jodhi May played Anne in a BBC drama
The Other Boleyn Girl, based on a novel by
Philippa Gregory. This was a wildly inaccurate production which portrayed Anne as a manipulative, promiscuous liar.
Natascha McElhone starred as
Mary Boleyn, Steven MacIntosh as
George Boleyn and
Jared Harris, son of
Richard Harris, played
Henry VIII. There are plans to adapt the same story for an American movie in
2007, with
Natalie Portman playing Anne.
 |
Video release for Anne of the Thousand Days |
In
October of that year, the two-part
ITV television drama
Henry VIII aired in Britain.
Helena Bonham Carter starred in Part 1 as Anne Boleyn, opposite
Ray Winstone as Henry VIII and
David Suchet. She will be played by
Natalie Dormer in the
2007 Irish television series "The Tudors," written by
Michael Hirst.
Anne's story appears
fictionally in many novels including:
The Lady in the Tower and
Murder Most Royal by
Jean Plaidy,
The Dark Rose, by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles,
The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn by Robin Maxwell,
Brief, Gaudy Hour by Margaret Campbell-Barnes,
The Queen of Subtleties by Susannah Dunn and the controversial
The Other Boleyn Girl by
Philippa Gregory.
Modern historians like Dr.
David Starkey (author of
Six Wives) and Lady
Antonia Fraser (author of many royal biographies, including those of
Marie Antoinette and
Mary, Queen of Scots) both offer relatively positive interpretations of Anne. Starkey is adamant that Anne was the most politically important of Henry's queens, and calls her "the most interesting, if not the most attractive" of the bunch.
The most favourable accounts come from
Professor Eric W. Ives, author of several political studies of the era, including two biographies of Anne and Professor R.M. Warnicke, author of
The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn and several studies on the era's sexual morals. They focus on her charisma, intelligence, energy and vitality.
Feminist historian, writer and activist Karen Lindsey, in
Divorced, Beheaded, Survived believes Boleyn's story is one of the great feminist
parables of all time, and says that the traditional image of Boleyn as an amoral, homewrecking social climber "makes for great
melodrama, all it lacks is accuracy."
[ Lindsay, p. 47] Recently, English writer Joanna Denny, author of
Anne Boleyn: A Life of England's Tragic Queen, has positively interpreted the enormous role Anne played in England's religious development.
There is still some disagreement over which portrait authentically represents Anne Boleyn's true appearance. An original full-length portrait was painted when she was queen, but it disappeared over the following centuries. In the lifetime of her daughter, Queen Elizabeth I, several copies were made â€" all of them depicting the same black dress and pearl necklace, but with some variations on skin and hair colouring. One of Queen Elizabeth's locket rings contains a portrait of her mother.
|
Painting of Anne Boleyn based on one of the disputed Holbein sketches. |
Two images made by the
German artist
Hans Holbein also survive. The first was drawn sometime around 1530, but it was not labeled as "Anne Boleyn" until 1649 â€" over a century after her death â€" and so it is now generally regarded as inaccurate by most historians. Another Holbein sketch was labelled as Anne Boleyn in the reign of
Edward VI, but mistakes were made in this labeling process. Furthermore, the woman's physical appearance does not match accounts of Boleyn's. Evidence suggests that it might actually be a sketch of a lady of the Wyatt family. The sitter is a fair-featured woman wearing a furred dressing gown and linen cap.
A miniature by the Flemish artist Lucas Horenbout was identified as of Boleyn in the 1980s because the broach the lady wears supposedly shows a white falcon, which became her symbol in 1533. However, the white falcon was also the symbol of Anne's
Irish family, and so it could be a portrait of any of her female relatives. Furthermore, the wings of the falcon on the broach sweep downwards, while the wings on Boleyn's falcon went upward.
Another portrait, which now hangs at Nidd Hall in England, is supposedly painted of Boleyn later in her life. However, recent research has suggested that it was not painted until the 1560s and that the owners used it as a tool to express their loyalty to her daughter, Elizabeth.
In later centuries, hundreds of portraits were made to satisfy the public's fascination with her. These later portraits often showed her in inaccurate costumes, or drew inspiration from the scene of her demise[
2].
On
April 1,
2005,
Wing Commander George Melville-Jackson approached British
Home Secretary Charles Clarke in a bid to formally
pardon Boleyn. Although she was long-dead, he asserted that she never deserved to be branded as a criminal; in the event that a declaration that she was
not guilty of her alleged crimes was not possible, he would have settled for a pardon. He also sought the removal of her remains from her resting place at the Tower of London to
Westminster Abbey, where Elizabeth I was buried. [
3]The request was later rejected, since the
antiquity of the case meant that so much of the original evidence had been destroyed, and so the British government was incapable of proving her innocence.
*
Anne Boleyn by Marie-Louise Bruce (1972)
*
The Challenge of Anne Boleyn by Hester W. Chapman (1974)
*
Anne Boleyn by Professor E.W. Ives (1986)
*
The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family politics at the court of Henry VIII by Professor R.M. Warnicke (1989)
*
The Six Wives of Henry VIII by
Alison Weir (1991)
*
The Wives of Henry VIII by Lady
Antonia Fraser [published in Britain as "The Six Wives of Henry VIII"] (1992)
*
The Politics of Marriage by David Loades (1994)
*
Divorced Beheaded Survived: A Feminist Reinterpretation of the Wives of Henry VIII by Karen Lindsey (1995)
*
Doomed Queen Anne by Caroline Meyer (2002)
*
Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII by Dr. David Starkey (2003)
*
Anne Boleyn: A new life of England's tragic queen by Joanna Denny (2004)
*
The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn by Professor E.W. Ives (2004)
*
Mistress Anne by Carolly Erickson (1984)
*
Me and Mine: Anne Boleyn 1507?-1536. Excellent for beginners and those with wider knowledge.
*
Anne Boleyn's handwriting in 1514, used as speculative evidence of her year of birth.
*
Rise and Fall of the Boleyn family. It's particularly good for understanding Anne's political career, and her family background.
*
MSN web-group devoted to the study of Anne Boleyn's life and career.
*
Essay of art expert, Roland Hui, who examines all of Anne's portraits and decides which is the most accurate
*
Interview with Anne's most respected modern biographer, E.W. Ives, from a
Birmingham magazine in 1996.
Tales from the Tudor Rose Bar for a bit of light-hearted fun at the Tudor family's expense. Anne appears here as a Hollywood-style diva.
*
Site of author Wendy J. Dunn, author of "Dear Heart, How Like You This?" a novel about Anne Boleyn and Sir Thomas Wyatt, the elder.
*
Article by author Wendy J. Dunn concerning Anne Boleyn's birth year. *
An examination of the evidence supporting both sides of the birth year debate, by Nell Gavin, author of "Threads: The Reincarnation of Anne Boleyn".*
Hever Castle, childhood home of Anne Boleyn.
*
A Coronation Book for Anne Boleyn, 1533.{{Persondata
NAME=Boleyn, Anne | ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Bolin, Ann; Bullen, Anne | SHORT DESCRIPTION=Queen Consort of Henry VIII | DATE OF BIRTH=ca. 1501â€"1507 | PLACE OF BIRTH=Norfolk, England or Kent, England | DATE OF DEATH=May 19, 1536 | PLACE OF DEATH=London, England
|
