While it’s gracefully pouring a plethora of cats and dogs outside, I thought I would brush everyone up on some interesting facts about a historical drama queen – this is course if inspired by my recently having read the book The Other Boleyn Girl.
Anne Boyeln came from a family that prized a good social standing seemingly above all else. Anne’s own sister Mary because King Henry VII’s lover at a young age. Anne has other visions in sight as she entertained a romace with Henry Percy, a rich heir. Their engagement was not recognized by his family and it was finally stopped by Colonel Wolsey (leaving him hated by Anne). It is supposed that after this she was sent away from court to her family’s home for an undefined period of time.
When Anne returned to court, she became well know for being able to seduce men at arm’s length. She was described by Sir Thomas Wyatt as being unobtainable and headstrong though she seemed demure and quiet. It was around this time that Anne stole the King’s affections from her sister. Henry fell in love passionately and was driven mad by Anne as she would not succomb to being his mistress, but only his wife. Henry pursued her relentlessly, and soon it became “Queen or nothing” for Anne.
This was a complicated issue, as Henry was still married to his first wife, Queen Catherine. Anne is believed to be a main source of what influenced Henry to create a new church (the church of England) so to allow his first marriage to Queen Catherine to be annulled so that he and Anne could be married “in good conscience”. As Henry was pursuing the annullment, Anne began to see a rise in her courtly status. She was moved to apartments near the King, and give lavish clothes and jewelery. In 1532 Henry bestowed upon her the title of Marquess of Pembroke, making her the only woman to ever hold that title in her own right. This did not make her popular with the people of England. They were upset that she was given precendence over the King’s own family.
As the legal debates surrounding the marriage of Henry and Catherine, Anne often became frustrated at the lack of progress. She would often throw loud tempestous fits in front of the court. She could also have a very sharp tongue. Anne was afraid that Henry would return to Cathering, leaving her without an adventageous marriage.
Sometime at the end of 1532, Anne gave in to Henry’s lustful desires and by December she was pregnant. Henry was forced in to action to secure the legitimacy of his child, and he secretly married Anne sometime in January of 1533. On May 23, Thomas Cranmer, the former chaplain of the Boleyn family and appointed Archbishop, declared the marriage of Henry and Catherine null and void. On May 28, Cranmer declared the marriage between Anne and Henry was valid. Anne’s attention was then placed on her upcoming child. All home were placed on it being a son, and the unborn child was already being referred to as “prince”. However, as the fates would have it, Anne bore a daughter she named Elizabeth.
Marriage for Anne and Henry was not pleasent. Although there were periods of calm and affection, Anne would often feel enraged by her husbands infidelities, especially when his attentions were placed on Jane Seymour by her enemies. Henry disliked Anne’s constant irritability and her violent temper. Anne also did not bear Henry any other children, having more than one pregnancy but each resulting in a stillborn or miscarriage. Anne’s ability to produce and heir was imperative, and her failure to do was considered a betrayal by Henry.
Soon Henry was discussing how to leave Anne without having to return to Catherine. Anne was unaware and continued to enjoy a lavish lifestyle, during which opinion of her continued to decline. After Henry was injured in a joust, a event that was blamed for Anne’s miscarriage of 15 week old son, the marriage began to go sour. Desperate to bear Henry a son, Anne had a quick succession of preganancies which attracted much interest. After what would be her final miscarriage, Henry declared his marriage had been the product of witchcraft (a terrible sin and explanation for Anne’s barreness). Anne’s favour was securely transferred to Jane Seymour.
On April 30, 1536, the first step in a plot to rid Anne from the throne was taken. It involved the arrest of Anne’s musician and friend Mark Smeaton, who was tortured to make “revelations” about the Queen. He confessed to being the Queen’s lover. Next were more arrests of men in Anne’s entourage: Sir Henry Norris, Sir Francis Weston, and William Brereton. The grounds were all adultery. Finally, Queen Anne’s own brother, George Boleyn was arrested and charged with incest and treason, and accused of having had a sexual relationship with his sister over the last 12 months.
Anne herself was arrested on May 2, 1536, and accused of incest, adultery and plotting to kill the King. Henry had also made the midwife confess about the fates of Anne’s unborn children. Anne was charged on these grounds also. Anne was taken to the Tower of London, suffering a minor breakdown. This was the same Tower in which she had stayed during her coronation just three years prior.
On May 12, 1536 Weston, Brereton, Norris and Smeaton were all put on trial. The men were not allowed to defend themselves as the charge was treason. The were found guilty, and were set to be hanged, cut down while still alive and then disemboweld and quartered. On May 15, the Queen and her brother went to trial. Although the evidence was flimsy, they were found guilty and codemned to death by beheading or by burnt at the stake (punishment for incest) by their peers. On May 17, George was beheaded along with the other charged men who were spared from the above grisly fate. Soon it was Anne’s turn. She was to be beheaded by a swordsman from Saint-Omer because the King did not believe it fit for a queen to be beheaded by a common axe.
On May 19, Anne was brought to the Tower Green for her private execution. Anne 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. 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”. She then knelt upright, in the French style of executions and said a final prayer. Her ladies removed the headdress and tied a blindfold over her eyes. The execution was swift and consisted of a single stroke.
Henry did not provide a proper coffin for Anne. Her head and body were placed in a arrow chest and buried in an unmarked grave in the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula that ajoined the Tower Green. Her body was later identified during renovations of the chapel during the reign of Queen Victoria. Her resting place is now marked in the marble floor.
Interesting additonal facts: -
- Shortly before was executed on charges of adultery, Thomas Cramer declared the marriage of Anne and Henry was dissolved and invalid. How then could she have committed adultery if she had never been married to the King?
- After her death, a number of myths sprung up about Anne. The most popular is that Anne had six fingers on her left hand but there is no contemporary evidence to support it. None of the many eyewitness accounts of Anne Boleyn’s appearance mention any deformities, let alone a sixth finger. 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.
References:
http://tudorhistory.org/boleyn/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Boleyn
Now all I’ve got to do it wait for the dress patterns I won on ebay so Mum can start on the dress.
1. Details by Frou Frou -
4. The Moldy Peaches -
