Anne Boleyn

Queen Anne Boleyn
Queen Consort of England (more...)
Consort	28 May 1533 – 17 May 1536
Coronation	1 June 1533
Consort to	Henry VIII
Issue	Elizabeth I
Detail Titles and styles
HM The Queen The Most Hon. Marquess of Pembroke The Lady Anne Rochford The Hon. Anne Boleyn Mistress Anne Boleyn
Father	Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire
Mother	Lady Elizabeth Howard
Born	1501/1507 Blickling Hall, Norfolk, England[1]
Died	19 May 1536 Tower Green, Tower of London, England
Burial	St Peter ad Vincula

Anne Boleyn (1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was the Queen of England as the second wife of Henry VIII. She was the the daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Howard.

Anne was sent to the Netherlands for her education, and later to France; she returned to England in 1521. She was lady-in-waiting to Queen Catherine. Around 1526, Henry started to pursue her. Anne parried the King's advances, refusing to give way until he received an annulment of his marriage to Catherine. When Pope Clement VII seemed unlikely to grant the annulment, the inexorable rift between King Henry and the Roman Catholic Church began.

In late 1532, Anne gave in to Henry and soon became pregnant. The two were secretly married on 25 January 1533. To make the imminent birth legitimate, Thomas Cranmer declared the marriage of Henry and Anne to be valid. In September 1533 she gave birth to a girl, the future Queen Elizabeth I of England. She failed to produce a surviving male heir. Despite unconvincing evidence against her, she was condemned and beheaded as guilty of adultery, incest, and high treason.

Early years

Anne was the daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn, later 1st Earl of Wiltshire and 1st Earl of Ormond, and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, and sister of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. As a child, Anne was familiarly addressed as Nan.^[2] Sir Thomas was a respected diplomat with a gift for languages; he was also a favourite of King Henry VII, who sent him on many diplomatic missions abroad. A lack of parish records from the period has made it impossible to establish Anne's date of birth. Contemporary evidence is contradictory, with several dates having been put forward by various historians. An Italian, writing in 1600, suggested that she had been born in 1499, while Sir Thomas More's son-in-law, William Roper, suggested a much later date of 1512. As with Anne herself, it is not known for certain when her two siblings were born, but it seems clear that her sister Mary was older than Anne. Mary's grandson claimed the Ormonde title in 1596 on the basis she was the elder daughter, which Elizabeth I accepted.^[3][4][5] Their brother George was born some time around 1504.^[6][7]

Anne's sister Mary Boleyn.

The academic debate of Anne's birthdate revolves around two key dates: 1501 and 1507. Eric Ives, a British historian and legal expert, promotes the 1501 date, while Retha Warnicke, an American scholar who authored a study of Anne Boleyn's downfall, prefers 1507. The key piece of surviving evidence in the argument is a letter^[8] Anne wrote in 1513 or 1514. She composed it in French (her second language) to her father, who was still living in England while Anne was completing her education in the Netherlands. Ives argues that the style of the letter and its mature handwriting prove that Anne must have been about 13 at the time of its composition. This would also be around the minimum age that a girl could be a demoiselle d'honneur maid of honour, to the regent, Archduchess Margaret of Austria. This is supported by claims by a chronicler from the late 16th century, who wrote that Anne was 20 when she returned from France.^[9] These findings are contested by Warnicke in several books and articles, but the evidence does not conclusively support either date.^[10] However compelling Dr. Warnicke's arguments, they suffer from a critical lack of primary source supporting evidence.

Anne's great-grandparents included a Lord Mayor of London, a duke, an earl, two aristocratic ladies and a knight. Tradition held that one of them, Geoffrey Boleyn, may have been a wool merchant prior to becoming Lord Mayor.^[11][12] This is disputed by some historians,^[13] who make the case that the family had held a title for four generations.^[14] The Boleyn family originally came from Norfolk and lived at Salle, near Aylsham, which was, in the fifteenth century, a thriving community grown prosperous as a result of the lucrative wool trade with the Low Countries.^[15] The spelling of the Boleyn name was variable. Sometimes it is written as Bullen, hence the bull's heads that formed part of her family arms.^[2] At the court of Margaret of Austria, Anne is listed as Boullan.^[5] She signed the letter which she composed to her father shortly upon her arrival in France as Anna de Boullan.^[16] What is known is that at the time of Anne's birth, the Boleyn family was considered one of the most respected in the English aristocracy. Among her relatives, she numbered the Howards, one of the pre-eminent families in the land. From her maternal grandmother Elizabeth Tilney, Anne was a direct descendant of Welsh Prince Gruffydd II ap Madog, Lord of Dinas Bran of Powys Fadog and his wife Emma de Audley. From her paternal grandmother Margaret Butler, Anne was a direct descendant of Brian Boru, High King of Ireland.

Time in the Netherlands and France

Anne, painted before her death. A biographer stated this was close to "the real Anne Boleyn".^[17]

Anne's father had continued his diplomatic career under Henry VIII. In Europe, Thomas Boleyn's charm won many admirers, including Archduchess Margaret of Austria, the daughter of Maximilian I, the Holy Roman Emperor. During this period, she ruled the Netherlands on behalf of her father and she was so impressed with Boleyn that she offered his daughter Anne a place in her household. Ordinarily, a girl had to be thirteen years old to have such an honour, but Anne may have been slightly younger. The Archduchess affectionately referred to her as "La petite Boleyn". It is not known if this was in reference to Anne's age or her stature.^[18] She made an excellent impression in the Netherlands with her manners and studiousness, and lived there from the spring of 1513 until her father arranged for her to become a maid-of-honour to Henry VIII's sister, Mary Tudor, Queen of France in the winter of 1514. In France, Anne was a maid-of-honour to Queen Mary and, afterwards, to Queen Claude of France.^[19][20] Anne also spent time in the company of Queen Claude's younger sister Princess Renee of France, who remembered her fondly.

Her education in France later proved to be of value. Anne made a good impression with her style and fashion sense, inspiring some new trends among the ladies of England. 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."^[2] These graces were important, as Anne was not considered to have beauty. One historian compiled a number of descriptions and concluded:

She was said to have been of middling stature,^[22] and was said to have inherited her dark colouring from her Irish grandmother Margaret Butler.^[22]

People seemed primarily attracted by Anne's charisma:

Anne's experience in France also made her a devout Christian in the new tradition of Renaissance humanism, although calling her a Protestant would be an overstatement. While she would later hold the position that the papacy was a corrupting influence on Christianity, her conservative tendencies could be seen in her devotion to the Virgin Mary.^[24] In her youth, Anne was described as "sweet and cheerful"; from her years in the sophisticated continental courts, she understood well the art and practice of chivalry (courtly love). She was gifted in the arts, culturally aware, highly intelligent with a firm grasp of politics and religion, intellectually curious, exceptionally loyal to family and friends, but intense, quick to anger, and temperamental when under stress.

Her French education ended in the winter of 1521-1522, when Anne was summoned back to England by her father. She sailed from Calais, which was then an English possession, in January 1522.^[26]

At the court of Henry VIII

Anne was recalled to marry her Irish cousin, James Butler, who was a young man roughly her own age and living at the English court.^[27] This was in attempt to settle a dispute involving the title and estates of the Earldom of Ormond. The 7th Earl of Ormond had died in 1515, leaving his two daughters, Margaret Boleyn and Anne St. Leger, as co-heiresses. In Ireland, a remote cousin named Sir Piers Butler contested the will and claimed the Earldom for himself. Sir Thomas Boleyn, being the son of the eldest daughter, felt that the title belonged to him and protested to his brother-in-law, the Duke of Norfolk, who spoke to the King about the matter. Fearful that this dispute could very well provide the spark to ignite a civil war in Ireland, the King sought to resolve the problem by arranging an alliance between Piers's son, James, and Anne Boleyn. She would bring her Ormond inheritance as dowry and thus end the dispute. The plan ended in failure, perhaps because Sir Thomas was hoping for a grander marriage for his daughter. Whatever the reason, the marriage negotiations came to a complete halt.^[28]James Butler later married Lady Joan FitzGerald, the daughter of Thomas FitzGerald, 11th Earl of Desmond and Katherine Desmond.

Anne's sister, Mary, was at this time the King's mistress. Mary was the wife of Sir William Carey, a Gentleman of the King's Privy Chamber. It has been rumoured that one or both of Mary's children were fathered by Henry VIII, but the majority of historians dispute this. Dr. Ives categorically rejects the notion, as Mary Boleyn's children were born after the affair ended. Alison Weir questions whether Henry Carey, Mary's son, was fathered by the King.^[29] Anne Boleyn was sent to the court of Henry VIII as a maid-of-honour to Queen Catherine. Anne made her début at the Chateau Vert masque on 4 March 1522 as "Perseverance", where she was described as a woman of "charm, style and wit, and will and savagery which make her a match for Henry".^[30] The music book contains three secular chansons and thirty nine Latin motets. There she performed an elaborate dance accompanying the King's younger sister Mary, several other ladies of the court and her own sister. All wore gowns of white satin embroidered with gold thread.^[31] Anne was known as the most fashionable and accomplished woman at the court and was referred to as a "glass of fashion".^[32]

During this time, Anne was courted by Lord Percy, son of the Earl of Northumberland. They entered into what appears to be a secret betrothal. Cardinal Thomas Wolsey's gentleman usher and biographer, George Cavendish delineated the relationship and ^[33][34] The romance was broken off c. 1523 by Percy's father, Wolsey, and Henry VIII: Henry Percy soon after entered into an arranged marriage with Mary Talbot, the daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury - the couple despised one another. According to George Cavendish, a furious Anne was briefly sent from court to her family’s countryside estates, but it is not known for how long; she eventually returned to court, attending Katherine of Aragon. The great poet Sir Thomas Wyatt wrote about her in the poem, Whoso List to Hunt,^[35] in which he described her as unobtainable and headstrong, despite seeming demure and quiet.^[36]

In 1525 or 1526, Henry VIII became enamoured with her and began his pursuit.^[37] Anne resisted his attempts to seduce her and she refused to become his mistress. Henry was all the more attracted to her because of this refusal and he pursued her relentlessly. Anne continued to reject his advances, often absenting herself from court: approximately one year after meeting, Henry VIII proposed marriage. She accepted; both erroneously assumed Henry could obtain an annulment within a matter of months.

Henry's annulment and second marriage

Henry had entertained doubts as to the legality of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon before his interest in Anne Boleyn: the desire for a legitimate male heir to secure his tenuous claim to the throne had become a primary preoccupation. The issue revolved around papal authority to grant a dispensation allowing Henry VIII to marry Catherine, his brother's widow in 1519: Henry focussed on a passage from Leviticus forbidding a man to lie with his brother's wife. Such a union would be cursed with childlessness.

Before his father King Henry VII ascended the throne, England had been beset by civil warfare over rival claims to the English crown and it is possible that Henry wanted to avoid a similar uncertainty over the succession. The King had no living sons: all of Catherine of Aragon's six children except his daughter Mary had died in infancy.^[38] Anne saw her opportunity in Henry's infatuation and determined that she would only yield as his acknowledged queen.^[39]

Catherine of Aragon, first wife of Henry VIII.

In 1528, sweating sickness broke out with great severity. In London, the mortality rate was great and the court was dispersed. The King left London, frequently changing his residence. It is believed that Anne contracted--but survived--the sickness in June. Henry sent his second physician, Dr. William Butts to Hever Castle to care for her.^[40][41] It soon became the one absorbing object of the King's desires to secure an annulment from Catherine.^[42] Henry set his hopes upon a direct appeal to the Holy See, acting independently of Cardinal Wolsey, to whom he at first communicated nothing of his plans so far as they related to Anne. William Knight, the King's secretary, was sent to Pope Clement VII to sue for the annulment of his marriage with Catherine, on the ground that the dispensing bull of Pope Julius II was obtained by false pretenses. Henry also petitioned, in the event of his becoming free, a dispensation to contract a new marriage with any woman even in the first degree of affinity, whether the affinity was contracted by lawful or unlawful connection. This clearly referred to Anne.^[39]

As the Pope was at that time the prisoner of Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, Knight had some difficulty in obtaining access to him. In the end, the King's envoy had to return without accomplishing much, though the conditional dispensation for a new marriage was granted. Henry had now no choice but to put his great matter into the hands of Wolsey. Wolsey did all he could to secure a decision in the King's favour.^[39] How far the Pope was influenced by Charles V in his resistance, it is difficult to say, but it is clear Henry saw that the Pope was unlikely to give him an annulment from the emperor's aunt.^[43] The Pope forbade Henry to proceed with a new marriage before a decision was rendered in Rome. Convinced that he was treacherous, Anne Boleyn maintained pressure until Wolsey was dismissed from public office in 1529. The Cardinal begged her to help him return to power, but she refused. He then allegedly began a secret plot to have Anne forced into exile and began communicating with the Pope to that end. When this was discovered, Henry ordered Wolsey's arrest and had it not been for his death from an illness in 1530, he might have been executed for treason.^[44] A year later, Queen Catherine was banished from court and her old rooms were given to Anne. Public support, however, remained with Queen Catherine. One evening in the autumn of 1531, Anne was dining at a manor house on the river and was almost seized by a crowd of angry, hostile women. Anne just barely managed to escape by boat.^[45] With Wolsey gone, Anne had considerable power over government appointments and political matters. When Archbishop of Canterbury William Warham died, the Boleyn family's chaplain, Thomas Cranmer, was appointed to the vacant position. Through the intervention of the King of France, this was conceded by Rome, the pallium being granted to him by Clement VII.^[46]

The breaking of the power of Rome in England proceeded little by little. In 1532, a supporter of Anne, Sir Thomas Cromwell, brought before Parliament a number of acts including the Supplication against the Ordinaries and the Submission of the Clergy, which recognised royal supremacy over the church. Following these acts, Sir Thomas More resigned as Chancellor, leaving Cromwell as Henry's chief minister.^[47]

The Six Wives of Henry VIII
Catherine of Aragon
Anne Boleyn
Jane Seymour
Anne of Cleves
Catherine Howard
Catherine Parr

During this period, Anne Boleyn also played a role in England's international position by solidifying an alliance with France. She established an excellent rapport with the French ambassador, Gilles de la Pommeraie. Anne and Henry attended a meeting with King Francis I at Calais in the winter of 1532, in which Henry hoped he could enlist the support of King Francis for his new marriage. Anne's position continued to rise.

On 1 September 1532, she was created suo jure Marquess of Pembroke, and became the most prestigious non-royal woman in the realm. She was the first female commoner to become a Peer by direct creation (as opposed to by marriage or inheritance); and she remains the only woman ever to have been made a marquess in her own right. She is sometimes incorrectly described as "Marchioness of Pembroke", but she was known as Marquess.^[48] The Pembroke title was of emotional value to the Tudor family: Henry's great-uncle, Jasper Tudor, had held the title of Earl of Pembroke. With her later conviction for treason, the title was confiscated.

Anne’s family also profited from the relationship; her father, already Viscount Rochford, was created Earl of Wiltshire and, by means of a deal made by the King with Anne’s Irish cousins, the Butler family, he was made Earl of Ormond. At the magnificent banquet to celebrate her father's elevation to the Earldom of Wiltshire, Anne took precedence over the Duchesses of Suffolk and Norfolk, seated in the place of honour beside the King which was usually occupied by the Queen.^[49] Thanks to Anne's 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 at Calais was a political triumph, since the French government gave its support for Henry's re-marriage.^[50] Soon after returning to Dover in England, Henry and Anne went through a secret wedding service.^[51] She soon became pregnant and, as was the custom with royalty, there was a second wedding service, which took place in London on 25 January 1533. Events now began to move at a quick pace. On 23 May 1533, Cranmer, sitting in judgment at a special court convened at Dunstable Priory to rule on the validity of the King's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, declared the marriage of Henry and Catherine null and void. Five days later, on 28 May 1533, Cranmer declared the marriage of Henry and Anne to be good and valid.^[52]

Queen of England

Queen Catherine was formally stripped of her title as Queen and Anne was consequently crowned Queen Consort on 1 June 1533 in a magnificent ceremony at Westminster Abbey with a sumptuous banquet afterwards.^[53] On the previous day, Anne had taken part in an elaborate procession through the streets of London seated in an open litter of white cloth of gold resting on two palfries caparisoned in white damask, although the crowds did not cheer and few men even bothered to doff their caps. She wore a surcoat and mantle of white tissue trimmed with ermine, and her long, straight black hair hung down from a coif encircled with rich stones.^[54] The public's response to her appearance was lukewarm.^[55] Meanwhile, the House of Commons had forbidden all appeals to Rome and exacted the penalties of præmunire against all who introduced papal bulls into England. It was only then that Pope Clement at last took the step of launching sentences of excommunication against the King and Cranmer, declaring at the same time the Archbishop's decree of annulment to be invalid and the marriage with Anne null and void. The papal nuncio was withdrawn from England and diplomatic relations with Rome were broken off.^[46] In response, the Peter's Pence Act was passed in England and it reiterated that England had "no superior under God, but only your Grace" and that Henry's "imperial crown" had been diminished by "the unreasonable and uncharitable usurpations and exactions" of the Pope.^[56] In defiance of the Pope, the Church of England was now under Henry's control, not Rome's. Anne, Cranmer, and Cromwell were delighted at this development. News of the start of the English Reformation spread through Europe, and Anne was hailed as a heroine by some Protestant figures, although many others did not think as kindly of her: Martin Luther, for instance, backed Catherine of Aragon in "The King's Great Matter" ^[57]

Struggle for a son

After her coronation, Anne settled into a quiet routine at the King's favourite residence, Greenwich Palace, to prepare for the birth of her first baby. The child was born slightly prematurely on 7 September 1533 between three and four o'clock in the afternoon,^[58]. Anne gave birth to a girl, who was christened Elizabeth, probably in honour of Henry's mother, Elizabeth of York and/or Anne's own mother, Lady Elizabeth Howard.^[59]

Greenwich Palace, after a 17th-century drawing

The little princess was given a splendid christening, but Anne feared that Catherine's daughter, Mary, would threaten Elizabeth’s position. Henry soothed her fears by separating Mary from her many servants and sending her to Hatfield House, where Princess Elizabeth would be living with her own staff of servants. The country air was better for the baby's health, and Anne was an affectionate mother who regularly visited her daughter. She often told Elizabeth of the love she had for her.^[60]

The new Queen had a larger staff of servants than Catherine had kept: over 250 servants to tend to her personal needs, everyone from priests to stable-boys. There were also over 60 maids-of-honour who served her and accompanied her to social events. She employed several priests who acted as her confessors, chaplains, and religious advisers. One of these was Matthew Parker, who would become one of the chief architects of Anglican thought during the reign of Anne's daughter Elizabeth I.^[61]

Strife with the king

John Fisher by Hans Holbein the Younger.

The couple was happily married for a short time, but relations between them became strained. Henry disliked Anne’s tendency to stand up for herself, argumentativeness, and sharp tongue, she could also be very cruel and rude. She was once reported to have spoken to her uncle in words that "shouldn't be used to a dog".^[62] After a false pregnancy or miscarriage in 1534, he saw her failure to give him a son as a betrayal. As early as Christmas 1534, Henry was discussing with Cranmer and Cromwell the chances of leaving Anne without having to return to Catherine.^[63]

Anne, unaware of the dangerous position she was in, presided over a magnificent court. She spent lavish and excessive amounts of money on gowns, jewels, head-dresses, ostrich-feather fans, riding equipment, and furniture and upholstery. Numerous palaces were renovated to suit her extravagant tastes.^[64] Anne also began to share in the blame for the tyranny of her husband's government. Public opinion of her dropped, even though it was never good, following her failure to produce a son. It sank even lower following the executions in 1535 of her enemies, the Bishop of Rochester, John Fisher, and Sir Thomas More.^[65]

Downfall and execution

On 8 January 1536, news of Catherine of Aragon's death reached the King and Anne. Hearing of her death, Henry and Anne reportedly decked themselves in bright yellow clothing (the colour of mourning in Spain), and Anne grumbled that such a fuss was being made.^{[66] [67]} After embalming, Catherine's heart was discovered to be blackened; some thought Henry and/or Anne had been poisoning her. Modern medical experts agree that this was not due to poisoning, but rather to cancer of the heart, something which was not understood at the time.^[62]

Jane Seymour was Henry's third wife and Queen.

Anne, pregnant again, was aware of the dangers if she failed to give birth to a son. With Catherine dead, Henry would be free to remarry without any taint of illegality.

Later that month (24 January 1536), the King was unhorsed in a tournament. He was badly injured and remained unconscious for two hours. It seemed for a time that his life was in danger. When news of this accident reached Anne, she was apparently sent into shock. A few days later, on the very day of Catherine's funeral, 29 January 1536, Anne caught Jane Seymour sitting on Henry's knee. She apparently 'flew into a frenzy.' Henry tried to calm her down saying 'Peace be, sweetheart, and all shall go well with thee.' However, later that night Anne aborted a foetus of around fifteen weeks which had 'all the appearance of a male.' ^[68] While this may have been true, if the timings are correct and the foetus was fifteen weeks old, we know now from modern science that it is very hard to accurately predict the sex of the baby at such an early stage. According to most observers, this personal loss was the beginning of the end of the royal marriage, although many others say it was already failing.^[69] Later that night, while Anne lay sobbing on her bed, the King entered Anne's rooms and berated her for 'the loss of his boy' and said that she 'should have no more boys by him.' Anne burst out that it was his fault that she has miscarried, also blaming 'that wench, Jane Seymour.' She told him, 'Because the love I bear you is so much greater than Katherine's, my heart broke when I saw you loved others.' Henry would not be moved and he left the room. After he had gone, Anne told her ladies, 'I shall be the sooner with child again, and the son I bear will not be doubtful like this one, which was conceived during the life of the Princess Dowager (Catherine).' However, she was wrong. The King had decided she had had her last chance. ^[70]

It has been said that Anne 'miscarried of her saviour' for if her child had lived, she would almost certainly have lived herself.

There is uncertainty about how many pregnancies Anne had, although Elizabeth was the only live birth who survived for any time. Mike Ashley speculated that Anne had two stillborn children after Elizabeth's birth and before the birth of the male child she miscarried in 1536.^[71] Williams considers that she had a stillborn male child in the summer of 1534, and a miscarriage (probably another boy) after almost four months pregnancy in January 1536.^[72] It has been suggested that Anne may have been rhesus negative, which means that after her first child none of her subsequent babies could tolerate the type of blood in its system, causing a miscarriage. Nowadays, this is rarely a problem as women are given an injection which counteracts any problems in the latter stages of pregnancy and after the delivery, but in the 1500s the condition was a mystery.

As Anne recovered from what would be her final miscarriage, Henry declared that his marriage had been the product of witchcraft. The King's new mistress, Jane Seymour, was quickly moved into new quarters. This was followed by Anne's brother being refused a prestigious court honour, the Order of the Garter, which was instead given to Sir Nicholas Carew.^[73]

Charges of adultery, incest, and treason

Thomas Cromwell, Anne's one-time ally, arranged the plot that resulted in her death.

In the final days of April, a Flemish musician in Anne's service named Mark Smeaton was arrested and tortured. He initially denied that he was Anne’s lover. No evidence supports his being tortured; he either was, or was promised freedom. Another courtier, Henry Norris was arrested on May Day, but since he was an aristocrat, he could not be tortured. He denied his guilt and swore Anne was also 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. The final accused was Anne's own brother, arrested on charges of incest and treason, accused of having a sexual relationship with his sister over the span of 12 months. Anne's midwife was forced to describe the miscarriages, which was also instrumental in her charges. ^[74] However, no contemporary evidences suggests any abnormalities.

On 2 May 1536, Anne was arrested at luncheon and taken to the Tower of London. In the Tower, she collapsed, demanding to know full details of her family's whereabouts and the charges against her. She protested her innocence, saying 'I hear I shall be accused with four men, and I can say no more but Nay, without I should open my body!' It seems she understood how serious her situation was, for she asked the Constable, 'Master Kingston, shall I die without justice?' Despite being assured that 'the poorest subject of the King hath justice', Anne laughed hysterically, knowing how unlikely it was that she would be acquitted. On Friday 5th May, the last arrests of Sir Thomas Wyatt and Sir Richard Page were made. However, neither of the men were ever charged. Four of the men were tried in Westminster on 12 May 1536. Weston, Brereton and Norris publicly maintained their innocence and only the tortured Smeaton supported the Crown by pleading guilty. Three days later, Anne and George Boleyn were tried separately in the Tower of London. She was accused of adultery, incest and high treason.^[75]

Final hours

Although the evidence against them was unconvincing, the accused were found guilty and condemned to death. At Anne's trial, every single one of her twenty six peers declared her guilty. The Duke of Norfolk (Anne's uncle) pronounced her sentence, weeping as he did so:

Anne received her sentence calmly and made a speech, saying that she was prepared to die, but was extremely sorry that the others, who were as innocent as she, should die through her. She then said she believed she has been condemned for other reasons than those alleged, and swore she had always been faithful to the King. She continued:

George Boleyn and the other accused men were executed on 17 May 1536. Lord Kingston, the keeper of the Tower, reported that 'One hour she (Anne) is determined to die, and the next hour much contrary to that.' The King commuted Anne's sentence from burning to beheading and employed a swordsman from Saint-Omer for the execution, rather than having a queen beheaded with the common axe. William Kingston, the Constable of the Tower, wrote:

They came for Anne on the morning of Friday 19 May to take her to the Tower Green.^[78] She wore a red petticoat under a loose, dark grey gown of damask trimmed in fur and a mantle of ermine. Her dark hair was bound up in a white linen coif and she wore her customary French headdress.^[79]She was accompanied by four young ladies as she made her final walk from the Lieutenant's Lodgings to Tower Green. She looked "as gay as if she was not going to die".^[80] She made a short speech:

Death and burial

Thomas Cranmer

She then knelt upright, in the French style of executions. Her final prayer consisted of her repeating, "To Jesus Christ I commend my soul; Lord Jesus receive my soul." She removed the headdress herself and her weeping ladies tied a blindfold over her eyes. According to Eric W. Ives, on the scaffold she frequently glanced behind her, ostensibly, he writes, fearing he would strike before she was ready. The execution was swift and consisted of a single stroke.^[82] Across the river, Alexander Ales accompanied Thomas Cranmer as he walked in the gardens of Lambeth Palace. When they heard the cannon fire from the Tower, signalling the death of Anne, the archbishop looked up and proclaimed: "She who has been the Queen of England will today become a Queen in Heaven." He then sat down on a bench and wept.^[83] When the charges were first brought against Anne, Cranmer had expressed his astonishment to Henry and his belief that "she should not be culpable." Still, Cranmer felt vulnerable because of his closeness to the queen. On the night before the execution, he had declared Henry's marriage to Anne to have been void, like Catherine's before her. He made no serious attempt to save Anne's life, but in practical terms, could not.^[84]

Henry had failed to provide a proper coffin for Anne, and so her body and head were put into an arrow chest and buried in an unmarked grave in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula. Her body was identified during renovations of the chapel in the reign of Queen Victoria and Anne's final resting place is now marked in the marble floor.

Recognition and legacy

After her death, a number of rumours sprang up about Anne, mostly by Catholic sources hostile to Elizabeth I. Nicholas Sander, the Catholic recusant, in De Origine ad Progressu Schismatis Anglicani (1585) described her as seducing men as a child, having six fingers on one hand, a wen under her chin, and being the natural daughter of Henry VIII.

No contemporary account of Anne Boleyn’s appearance--some of them meticulously detailed--mention any deformities. Moreover, as physical deformities were generally interpreted as a sign of evil, it is difficult to believe that Anne Boleyn would have gained Henry's romantic attention had she possessed any; especially considering that Henry refused to marry Princess Renée of France because he did not consider her to be able to bear healthy children, due to a slight limp she had inherited from her mother. Anne Boleyn was described by contemporaries as "young, good looking and likely enough to bear children", intelligent, forthright, gifted in musical arts and scholarly pursuits. She was, however, not submissive, and often clashed with both her husband and relatives.^[85]

Following the coronation of her daughter as queen, Anne was venerated as a martyr and heroine of the English Reformation, particularly through the works of John Foxe, who argued that Anne had saved England from the evils of Roman Catholicism and that God had provided proof of her innocence and virtue by making sure her daughter, Elizabeth I, later became Queen regnant. Over the centuries, Anne has inspired or been mentioned in numerous artistic and cultural works. As a result, she has remained in the popular memory and Anne has been called "the most influential and important queen consort England has ever had."

• Mistress Anne Boleyn (1501/1507–1525)
• The Hon. Anne Boleyn (1525–1527)
• Lady Anne Rochford (1527–1532)
• The Most. Hon. The Marquess of Pembroke (1532–1533)
• Her Majesty, The Queen (1533–1536)

Ancestry

In popular media

See also Anne Boleyn in popular culture

Film and Television

• In The Other Boleyn Girl (2008), Anne Boleyn is portrayed by Natalie Portman. In the film she is presented as an opinionated and ambitious character. When Anne finally does marry the king, she realises she is not as high as she once was. (The book depicts Anne as less of a tyrant than the film does.)
• Anne Boleyn is portrayed by Natalie Dormer in the TV mini-series The Tudors (2007).
• Anne is portrayed by Helena Bonham Carter in the series of Henry VIII (2003) with Ray Winston as the King.
• Anne is portrayed by Julia Marsen in the TV series The Six Wives of Henry VIII (2001).
• She was portrayed by Charlotte Rampling in the film Henry VIII and his Six Wives (1972).
• She was portrayed by Dorothy Tutin in the British TV mini-series The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970).
• Anne was portrayed by Genevieve Bujold in the film Anne of the Thousand Days (1969) opposite Richard Burton's Henry VIII. Bujold was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award for her portrayal.
• She was portrayed by Vanessa Redgrave in A Man for All Seasons (1966).
• She was portrayed by Merle Oberon in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933).

Books

• She was a character in The King's Rose by Alisa M. Libby (2009) ISBN 978-0-525-47970-3.
• She was the main character in Mademoiselle Boleyn by Robin Maxwell (2007) ISBN 9780451222091.
• She was the main character in A Lady Raised High by Laurien Gardner (2006) ISBN 0515140899.
• She was the main character in The Queen of Subtleties by Suzannah Dunn (2004) ISBN 0060591579.
• She was the main character in Doomed Queen Anne by Caroline Meyer (2002) ISBN 0152165231.
• She was the main character in Dear Heart, How Like You This? by Wendy J. Dunn (2002) ISBN 9780958054355.
• She was a central character in The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory (2001) ISBN 0743227441.
• She was the main character in The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn by Robin Maxwell (1997) ISBN 155970375X.
• She was the main character in Blood Royal by Mollie Hardwick (1988) ISBN 0312025483.
• She was the main character in The Lady in the Tower by Jean Plaidy (1986).
• She was the main character in The Concubine by Norah Lofts (1963) ISBN 075243943X.
• She was a character in The King's Secret Matter by Jean Plaidy (1962).
• She was the main character in Anne Boleyn by Evelyn Anthony (1957).
• Brief Gaudy Hour by Margaret Campbell Barnes (1949) ISBN 9781402211751; ISBN 1402211759.
• Murder Most Royal by Jean Plaidy (1949) ISBN 1400082498.
• She was the main character in Queen Anne Boleyn by Francis Hackett (1939).

See also

• List of English consorts
• Anna Bolena, an opera by Gaetano Donizetti with lyrics by Felice Romani (1830).

Notes

References

• Ashley, Mike. British Kings & Queens (2002) ISBN 0-7867-1104-3.
• Brigden, Susan. New Worlds, Lost Worlds (2000).
• Bruce, Marie Louise. Anne Boleyn (1972).
• Denny, Joanna. Anne Boleyn: A New Life of England's Tragic Queen (2004) ISBN 074995051X.
• Fraser, Antonia. The Wives of Henry VIII (1992) ISBN 067973001X.
• Haigh, Christopher. English Reformations (1993).
• Hibbert, Christopher. Tower Of London: A History of England From the Norman Conquest (1971).
• Ives, Eric. The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn (2004) ISBN 1405134631.
• Lacey, Robert. The Life and Times of Henry VIII (1972).
• Lehmberg, Stanford E. The Reformation Parliament, 1529-1536 (1970).
• Lindsey, Karen. Divorced Beheaded Survived: A Feminist Reinterpretation of the Wives of Henry VIII (1995) ISBN 0201408236.
• Morris, T. A. Europe and England in the Sixteenth Century (1998).
• Scarisbrick, J.J. Henry VIII (1972) ISBN 978-0520011304.
• Schama, Simon. A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World?: 3000 BC–AD 1603 (2000) ISBN 0-563-38497-2.
• Starkey, David. Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII. (2003) ISBN 0060005505.
• Warnicke, Retha M. The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family politics at the court of Henry VIII (1989) ISBN 0521406773.
• Weir, Alison. Henry VIII: The King and His Court (2002) ISBN 034543708X.
• Weir, Alison. The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1991) ISBN 0802136834.
• Williams, Neville. Henry VIII and His Court (1971).

Further reading

• Anne Boleyn, a Music Book, and the Northern Renaissance Courts: Music Manuscript 1070 of the Royal College of Music, London." Ph.D., Musicology, University of Maryland, 1997. ISBN 0-591-46653-8.
• The Challenge of Anne Boleyn by Hester W. Chapman (1974).
• The Politics of Marriage by David Loades (1994).

External links

• http://www.urkevich.com/ABSet.html - Song from Anne Boleyn's Music Book
• http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=1965 - Find A Grave
• A geo-biography tour of the Six Wives of Henry VIII on Google Earth
• Works by or about Anne Boleyn in libraries (WorldCat catalog)