Everything about Anne Boleyn totally explained
Anne Boleyn, 1st Marchioness of Pembroke (1501/1507–
19 May 1536) was a
Queen Consort of
England, the
second wife of
King Henry VIII and the mother of
Queen Elizabeth I. Henry's marriage to Anne, and her subsequent execution, made her a key player in the political and religious upheaval that was the start of the
English Reformation. The daughter of
Sir Thomas Boleyn and his wife,
Lady Elizabeth Boleyn (born Lady Elizabeth Howard), Anne was of more noble birth than either
Jane Seymour or
Catherine Parr, two of Henry VIII's later wives. She was educated in Europe, largely as a
maid-of-honour to
Queen Claude of France. She returned to
England in 1522.
Around 1525 or 1526, Henry VIII became enamoured of Anne and began his pursuit of her. Anne resisted the King's attempts to seduce her and refused to become his mistress, as her sister,
Mary Boleyn, had done. It soon became the one absorbing object of the King's desires to secure an annulment from his wife,
Catherine of Aragon so he could marry Anne. When it became clear that
Pope Clement VII was unlikely to give Henry an annulment, the breaking of the power of the
Roman Catholic Church in England began.
Cardinal Wolsey was dismissed from public office, allegedly at Anne Boleyn's instigation, and later the Boleyn family's chaplain,
Thomas Cranmer, was appointed
Archbishop of Canterbury. The wedding between Henry and Anne finally took place on
25 January 1533. On
23 May 1533, Cranmer declared the marriage of Henry and Catherine null and void. Five days later, Cranmer declared the marriage of Henry and Anne to be good and valid. Soon after, the Pope launched sentences of
excommunication against Henry and the Archbishop. As a result of this marriage, the
Church of England broke with
Rome and was brought under the King's control.
Anne was crowned
Queen Consort of England on
1 June 1533. Later that year, on
7 September, Anne gave birth to a baby girl, who later reigned as Queen
Elizabeth I of England. Anne failed to quickly produce a surviving male heir; the only male baby she'd was a miscarriage. Two and a half years after their wedding, a plot was led by
Sir Thomas Cromwell to replace her.
Although the evidence against her was unconvincing, Anne was beheaded on charges of
adultery,
incest, and
high treason in 1536. Following the coronation of her daughter Elizabeth as Queen, Anne was venerated as a martyr and heroine of the English Reformation, particularly through the works of
John Foxe. Over the centuries, Anne has inspired or been mentioned in numerous
artistic and cultural works. As a result, she's remained strong in the popular memory and Anne has been called "the most influential and important queen consort England has ever had".
Early years (1501-1522)
Anne was the daughter of
Sir Thomas Boleyn, later
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. 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'd 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 isn't known for certain when her two siblings were born, but it seems clear that her sister Mary was older than Anne. Mary's children clearly believed their mother had been the elder sister. Their brother
George was born some time around 1504.
The academic debate of Anne's birthdate centres 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 has also written a biography of Anne, prefers 1507. The key piece of surviving written evidence in the argument is a letter Anne wrote sometime in 1514. She wrote 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 thirteen at the time of its composition. This would also be around the minimum age that a girl could be a
maid of honour, as Anne was 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 twenty when she returned from
France. These findings are contested by Warnicke in several books and articles, but the evidence doesn't conclusively support either date.
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. This is disputed by some historians, who make the case that the family had held a title for four generations. 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. She was certainly of more noble birth than either
Jane Seymour or
Catherine Parr, two of
Henry VIII's later wives.
Time in the Netherlands
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 twelve years old to have such an honour, but Anne may have been somewhat younger, as the Archduchess affectionately referred to her as
"La petite Boleyn". It isn't known if this was in reference to Anne's age or her stature. She made a good 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.
Time in France
In France, Anne was a
maid-of-honour to Queen Mary, then
Queen Claude of France. In the Queen's household, she completed her study of
French and developed an interest in fashion and religious philosophy. She also acquired a thorough knowledge of
French culture and
etiquette. She made the acquaintance of the King's sister
Marguerite d'Angouleme, a patron of humanists and an author in her own right who encouraged Anne's interest in poetry and literature.
Her education in France would later prove to be of great value. Anne would make a good impression with her fashion sense, inspiring many 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." These graces were important, as Anne wasn't considered to have conventional beauty. One historian compiled a number of descriptions and concluded:
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'd 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. At this stage of her life, Anne was described as "sweet and cheerful". She enjoyed gambling, drinking wine, and gossiping. She was brave and emotional however, and Anne could also be extravagant, neurotic, vindictive, and bad-tempered:
Calais, which was then still an English possession, in January 1522.
At the court of Henry VIII (1522-1533)
Anne was recalled to marry her Irish cousin,
James Butler. This was in attempt to settle a dispute involving the title and estates of the
Earldom of Ormonde. The
7th Earl of Ormonde 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 Ormonde 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.
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 long been suspected that one or both of Mary's children were fathered by Henry VIII, although some writers, such as
Alison Weir, now question whether
Henry Carey, Mary's son, was fathered by the King. Anne Boleyn was sent to the court of Henry VIII as a maid-of-honour to
Queen Catherine. Anne made her début at a masquerade ball in March 1522, where she was described as a woman of "charm, style and wit, and will and savagery which make her a match for Henry". There she performed an elaborate dance accompanying the King's younger sister, several other great ladies of the court and her own sister. Within a few weeks of this performance, Anne was known as the most fashionable and accomplished woman at the court and she's been referred to as a "glass of fashion".
During this time, Anne was courted by
Lord Percy, son of the
Earl of Northumberland. The exact nature of their relationship is unclear. A priest,
George Cavendish, who disliked Anne but was friendly with Lord Percy, later stated categorically that the two hadn't been lovers. It thus seems unlikely that their relationship was sexual. The romance was broken off in 1523 when Percy's father refused to support their engagement. According to George Cavendish, Anne was briefly sent from court to her family’s countryside estates, but it isn't known for how long. When she returned to court, she gathered a group of female friends and male admirers around herself, but became famous for her ability to keep men at arm's length. Her cousin, the poet
Sir Thomas Wyatt wrote about her in the poem,
Whoso List to Hunt, in which he described her as unobtainable and headstrong, despite seeming demure and quiet. In 1525, Henry VIII became enamoured with her and began his pursuit.
Anne resisted his attempts to seduce her and she refused to become his mistress, as her sister had. Henry was all the more attracted to her because of this refusal and he pursued her relentlessly. Anne continued to reject his advances by saying, "I beseech your highness most earnestly to desist, and to this my answer in good part. I'd rather lose my life than my honesty."
Henry's annulment
It is possible that the idea of annulment had suggested itself to the King much earlier than this, and it's highly probable that it was motivated by his desire for a male heir. Before his father
King Henry VII ascended the throne, England had been beset by
civil warfare over rival claims to the English crown and Henry wanted to avoid a similar uncertainty over the succession. The King had no living sons: all Catherine of Aragon's children except his daughter
Mary had died in infancy. Anne saw her opportunity in Henry's infatuation and determined that she'd only yield as his acknowledged queen.
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 and survived the sickness in June. Henry sent his own physician to
Hever Castle to care for her. It soon became the one absorbing object of the King's desires to secure an annulment from Catherine. Henry set his hopes upon a direct appeal to the
Holy See, acting in this 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 pretences. 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. 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. A year later, Queen Catherine was banished from court and her old rooms were given to Anne. 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.
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.
Marriage
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
Marchioness of Pembroke in her own right. 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 also made
Earl of Ormonde. 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. Soon after returning to
Dover in England, Henry and Anne went through a secret wedding service. 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.
Queen of England (1533-1536)
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 afterward. On the previous day, Anne had taken part in an elaborate procession through the streets of London; the public's response to her appearance had been lukewarm. 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. 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. It is said that even
Martin Luther viewed her rise to the throne as a good sign.
Birth of Elizabeth
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. Anne gave birth to a girl, who was christened
Elizabeth, probably in honour of Henry's mother,
Elizabeth of York.
The little princess was given a splendid christening, but Anne feared that Catherine's daughter,
Mary, would 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 would be living with her own magnificent 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 the love she'd for her.
The new Queen had a larger staff of servants than Catherine had kept. There were over two hundred and fifty 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 also 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.
Strife with the king
The King and Queen were not pleased with married life. The royal couple enjoyed periods of calm and affection, but Henry's frequent infidelities greatly upset his new wife, who reacted with tears and rage to each new mistress. For his part, Henry disliked Anne’s constant irritability and violent temper. 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.
Anne, unaware of the dangerous position she was in, presided over a magnificent court. She 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 extravagant tastes. Anne also began to share in the blame for the tyranny of her husband's government. Public opinion of her dropped 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. Scenes of friction also took place between the Queen and her stepdaughter, Princess Mary, whom Anne called "the cursed bastard". She confiscated Mary's jewels and even spoke of having her poisoned. some have concluded this was to celebrate, others have pointed out that it was the Spanish colour for mourning. Anne, for her part, attempted to make peace with Princess Mary as a line of defence. Mary rebuffed these overtures, perhaps because rumours circulated that Catherine had been poisoned by Anne and/or Henry. The rumours were born after the discovery during her embalming that her heart was blackened. Modern medical experts are in agreement that this wasn't due to poisoning, but rather to cancer of the heart, something which wasn't understood at the time.
The Queen, 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, the King was unhorsed in a tournament and was badly injured. It seemed for a time that his life was in danger. When news of this accident reached the Queen, she was apparently sent into shock and miscarried a male child that was about fifteen weeks old. This happened on the very day of Catherine’s funeral,
29 January 1536. According to most observers, this personal loss was the beginning of the end of the royal marriage.
Given Henry's desperate desire for a son, the sequence of Anne's pregnancies has attracted much interest. Author 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. Most sources attest only to the birth of Elizabeth in September 1533, a possible miscarriage in the summer of 1534, and the miscarriage of a male child, of almost four months gestation, in January 1536. 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.
Charges of adultery, incest, and treason
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 the Queen’s lover, but under torture he confessed. Another courtier, Henry Norris was arrested on
May Day, but since he was an aristocrat, he couldn't be tortured. He denied his guilt and swore that Queen 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 Queen Anne's own brother, arrested on charges of
incest and
treason, accused of having a sexual relationship with his sister over the last twelve months.
On
2 May 1536, Anne was arrested at luncheon and taken 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. 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.
Final hours
Although the evidence against them was unconvincing, the accused were found guilty and condemned to death by their peers. George Boleyn and the other accused men were executed on
May 17 1536. Lord Kingston, the keeper of the Tower, reported that Anne seemed very happy and ready to be done with life. The King commuted Anne's sentence from burning to beheading and employed a swordsman from
St Omer for the execution, rather than having a queen beheaded with the common axe. They came for Anne on the morning of May 19 to take her to the
Tower Green.
Anthony Kingston, the
Constable of the Tower, wrote:
