ANNE BOLEYN

BORN: 1501?

MARRIED: 1533

EXECUTED: 1536

Anne Boleyn, of all of Henry's wives, has attracted the most attention. It was this woman over whom "the King's Great Matter" arose -- Henry's fascination with Anne Boleyn was one of the factors that led to his breaking with the Catholic Church, making England a Protestant country.

Little is known about Anne's early life, and in fact, there is a great deal of argument over the date and place of her birth. She was of common birth, as were four of Henry's other wives (only Catharine of Aragon and Anna of Cleves were of royal blood). When Henry's younger sister, Mary, left England to marry Louis XII of France, Anne and her older sister, Mary Boleyn were part of her household. Louis died soon after the marriage, and Mary Tudor immediately married Charles Brandon, to prevent her royal brother from using her as a political pawn in another arranged marriage. Mary Boleyn returned to England with Mary Tudor's household, while Anne remained behind in the service of Queen Claude, the wife of Francis I of France.

Anne became largely "Frenchified" in the next six to seven years while part of the French Royal Household. She spoke French fluently, and preferred French clothing styles, music and manners. As she grew to adulthood, she developed into a striking woman -- not pretty according to the standards of the time, where plump, blonde, blue eyed, pale women were considered great beauties. She was slender to the point of thinness, and small busted, in comparison to the buxom beauties of the French and English courts. Anne was dark, with raven black hair, black eyes and olive skin. Her eyes were her most attractive feature -- an ambassador was to say of her later, when she had become a favorite of Henry, "she has nothing but the King's appetite, and her eyes, which are black and beautiful".

Stories of physical anomalies have always been associated with Anne Boleyn as well. She was supposed to have a sixth finger on one hand -- descriptions of it have ranged from it being a split fingernail or tiny budding at the base of the finger to a full fledged working digit. Additional rumors were that she had a large mole or growth at the base of her long neck -- later referred to as a "witch mark" (an unnatural "nipple" where a familiar could suckle) when charges of witchcraft were considered against her. Contemporary descriptions do mention that her sleeves were always long and flowing, draping her hands, so it is very possible that there was some abnormality of the fingers, though it is doubtful that she had a full working sixth digit on her left hand, as that is an extremely rare form of polydactyly. As for the large mole, though she was frequently painted with a necklace around her throat, it is unlikely that it could have been extremely large or unattractive, or Henry, a man known for his taste in beautiful women, would likely have been repulsed by it, as he was later to be repulsed by Anna of Cleves' long nose and pockmarked skin.

from a miniature of Anne Boleyn

Anne was brought back to England from France in 1521, as a marriage was being arranged between her and the Earl of Ormonde. That betrothal did not take place, and Anne became attracted to a young peer, Henry Percy, the heir to one of the greatest families of England. He was in the service of Cardinal Wolsey, and was a shy and rather awkward and unassuming young man. Anne was at court as a maid of honour to Queen Catharine, who knew of the young people's affair and approved. At that time, there was no animosity between the two women, and Catharine was known to take a lively and motherly interest in the young women under her charge.

Unfortunately, the affair came to the attention of Cardinal Wolsey, and possibly to the attention of the king as well. Henry Percy had been betrothed from childhood to a Mary Talbot, and his father, Duke of Northumberland, was notified of his liaison with Anne Boleyn. Betrothals were considered as binding as marriages, and a noble Percy would never be permitted to marry a commoner, so Northumberland descended on his son and took him away to marry his fiancee with no further delay, while Anne Boleyn was sent home to her family estate in Hever, in disgrace. Legend has it that she was infuriated by the failure of her plans to marry a peer, having tantrums and threatening Cardinal Wolsey. While in Hever, it is likely that she also formed a liaison of sorts with her cousin, the poet Thomas Wyatt. Like the tales about her extra finger and her birthmarked neck, the intensity of this affair is debated -- some historians feel that Anne literally became Wyatt's mistress, while others consider it a case of "courtly love", where gestures and courtship are all, with no physical manifestation of passion.

During this time, Henry himself had formed a liaison with Mary Boleyn, Anne's older sister. Mary was the antithesis of Anne -- fair haired and skinned, she was the epitome of beauty at the time. That affair was well known, and eventually, as Henry either tired of Mary or she became pregnant, she was hurriedly married to an impoverished nobleman and sent away from court.

It is thought that Henry first became aware of Anne in 1526, and made advances toward her romantically. As King, he was accustomed to easy romantic conquests, but in Anne he met his match. She refused to become his mistress -- first simply refusing him a sexual relationship, then as time went on and the King's interest did not fade, adopting the motto, "Your mistress I will not be. Your wife would I be were you not wed to another". Anne would be Henry's Queen or nothing at all.

Initially, the Court assumed that Mistress Anne would eventually be discarded or would give in to the King's wishes to make her his mistress, but in 1527, Henry began to seek a way to end his marriage to Catharine of Aragon. He continued to court her assiduously, making many presents to her and writing her passionate love letters. Anne continued to hold him at bay sexually, and her position at Court continued to rise. By Christmas of 1528, she was virtually in waiting to the Queen in name only, but spent most of her time with the King.

The tedious debates about "The King's Great Matter" continued throughout 1529. Anne's patience began to wear thin, as it was assumed that if there was no way for Henry to set Catharine aside, he would return to Catharine, and Mistress Anne's unofficial "reign" would be over. The resulting stress led to a number of well documented arguments between the two of them. Anne had a passionate temper and a somewhat hysterical tendency, and she had little discretion about when and where she would confront him. The Court waited, sure that each bitter tantrum would be the one that sent Anne packing for Hever once again, the King having been insulted one time too many, but Henry continued to make her a favorite. At Christmas, 1529, she was given precendence over the Duchesses of Norfolk and Suffolk, the two highest ladies in the land after Queen Catharine and Princess Mary. Additionally, Henry was spending a great deal of money on Anne, showering her with gifts of clothing, jewelry and anything else that he thought might take her fancy. This profligate and blatant spending led to her being nicknamed "the Concubine" by Ambassador Chapuys, and this name was used in the Vatican documents regarding the annullment of Henry's marriage.

Anne surrounded herself with the flower of the English court -- young people who were intent on artistic and literary pursuits. They spent their days entertaining each other with music and pageantry. These favorites of hers included her brother, George Boleyn, her cousin and former lover, Thomas Wyatt, William Brereton, Henry Norris and Francis Weston as well as her cousin, Margaret Shelton. She was also interested in the religious reform that was beginning to be apparent in Europe, and several of her favorites were similarly engaged. Anne's favorites soon became the clique to belong to at Court, and many of the older established courtiers were left out and even insulted by the group -- making Anne no friends among the truly powerful members of the Court.

The waiting game continued, with Anne's power and position continuing to increase. She was made Marchionness (female equivalent of Marquess) of Pembroke, making her a peer in her own right, in 1532. Though the legal debates were still dragging on between the Vatican and King Henry, Anne finally gave in to the King and became pregnant at the end of that year. Henry worked swiftly, and at some time in January of 1533 they were married secretly, though the legal issues surrounding Henry's marriage to Catharine were not resolved, or near to it. But on May 23, 1532, Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury officially proclaimed that Henry's first marriage was invalid, without clearance from Rome, but upon the orders of the King, who had declared himself the head of the Church in England. The break with Rome had been made, and Henry was immediately excommunicated.

Anne Boleyn, around 1533

Anne's coronation was lavish in the extreme. Contemporary descriptions have her dressed all in cloth of gold. She was brought to the Tower of London, where to-be-crowned monarchs traditionally spent the night prior to their coronations by barge, followed by a procession of barges that stretched four miles down the Thames. There were innumerable pageants and entertainments arranged along the way -- and soldiers were posted at points to cheer for the soon to be Queen, in hopes that the common people would take up the cry.

They didn't. Anne had never been popular with the people of England, who had always loved Queen Catharine and Princess Mary. Anne was furious with the obvious lack of support, but was crowned the next day in a great ceremony at Westminster Abbey.

Anne delivered her first child on September 7, 1533, after having been sequestered from all male company since August 26, as was the custom. The birth announcements had already been prepared. So sure was Henry that he was going to be granted the son he had sought for so long that the documents were already written to proclaim the birth of a prince.

But the baby was a princess. The King had courted Anne Boleyn for seven years, and set aside his first wife, sure that this liaison would result in the birth of a son -- but their child was another girl. Still, though disappointed, Henry rallied, claiming that she was "as fair a princess as England had seen, and her good health is proof that healthy boys will follow". She was christened Elizabeth, for Henry's mother, and the birth announcements were swiftly altered to read "princess".

Anne was now on shaky ground. She was in her thirties, considered middle age in the sixteenth century. The birth of Elizabeth had been difficult, and for some time afterward she suffered from depression and a condition known as "milk leg", a blood clot in the leg which caused enormous swelling and pain, so called because it was common in nursing mothers as a result of childbirth. It was paramount that she produce a son for Henry, who was already and obviously beginning to tire of her. By January 1534, she was again pregnant, but miscarried early.

Henry's eye was roving, and there were rumors of affairs -- with a maid of honor said to be planted by Ambassador Chapuys, then with Jane Seymour, a maid of honor in service to Queen Anne. The stress of her failure to produce a male heir, as well as her waning power and position in Henry's affections made Anne shrewish and hysterical, and it was reported that she was frequently heard railing at Henry like a fishwife. Additionally, her treatment of Princess Mary grew cruel. At Elizabeth's birth, Mary had been assigned to be her attendant at Hatfield, having her own household and legitimacy stripped from her. Mary had been away from Court for some time, but now she was to do the most menial tasks for her infant sister, and to give precedence to the baby girl in all things. Mary had borne her fall from grace stoically, but Anne, wanting to humble the girl and make her own child's position abundantly clear, wrote to Lady Shelton, the head of Elizabeth's household, instructing her to "beat the Lady Mary for the accursed bastard she is" should Mary fail in any of her duties or her respect to Princess Elizabeth.

Henry had become well aware of Anne's less than attractive character traits by this time, and no longer tolerated the temper tantrums and harangues. Once, when Anne had upbraided him over one of his mistresses he told her "you would best close your eyes, as your betters did before you". This allusion to Queen Catharine's own forbearance when confronted with her husband's infidelities made Anne's position clear -- like Catharine, she was in danger of losing her position, unless she supplied the King with the all important male heir he sought.

In 1534, Anne's third pregnancy was confirmed, but it was terminated by a late miscarriage in January of 1535. The baby had been a boy. Anne claimed that the miscarriage was brought about by the shock of hearing that Henry had been injured after a fall he took while jousting, but other stories went around to the effect that she had lost the baby due to a violent temper tantrum after seeing Henry cuddling Jane Seymour. Either way, Anne's salvation was lost -- Henry, out of love with her, confronted her with the chilling remark "you will get no more boys by me, Madam".

Jane Seymour was the perfect pawn for Anne's enemies to use to remove her from Henry's life. Her brothers, Thomas and Edward Seymour, were both politically ambitious, and the precedent had been set for unsuitable/unwanted Queens to be removed. Jane's brothers saw to it that she was kept at Court and brought to Henry's attention. She was the antithesis of Anne, quiet and fair haired. She seemed to be a calming effect on Henry and was chaste and modest in the extreme.

The death of Catharine of Aragon in January of 1536 further eroded Anne's security. Now that Henry was no longer haunted by the spectre of being forced to reconcile with Catharine should he end his liaison with Anne, it would be much easier to set Anne aside. Anne did not seem to grasp this, however, and ordered an entertainment in her quarters upon hearing of Catharine's death, to which all invited were to wear yellow, flaunting the prescribed mourning that etiquette required. Henry, who ordered mourning for Catharine, not as a Queen, but as the Dowager Princess of Wales, was not happy with Anne's frivolous gesture, and his anger and displeasure toward her intensified.

Thomas Cromwell persuaded Henry that there was evidence against Anne that could result in charges of treason, and Henry signed a document calling for an investigation into these accusations: adultery, witchcraft and conspiring to murder the King. The charge of witchcraft was not actually brought against Anne, as it was considered archaic (though Henry protested this, insisting that she had bewitched him into being so attracted to her), so the charge of incest was added to the battery of accusations against the Queen.

Mark Smeaton, Anne's musician, was invited to Cromwell's house on April 30, 1536, where he "made revelations" about the Queen, probably after being tortured. He named several men as the Queen's lovers, including Sir Henry Norris, Sir William Brereton, Sir Thomas Wyatt, Sir Francis Weston, and her own brother, George Boleyn, Lord Rochford. These men were arrested and taken to the Tower of London.

Anne was informed that she was charged with adultery, incest and plotting to murder the King on May 2, and was also taken to the Tower, where she was lodged in the same rooms that she had used prior to her coronation. Confused and frightened, she was told nothing of the proceedings against the men, and repeatedly asked what had become of her brother, George. She frequently became hysterical, and often laughed shrilly and then wept.

Weston, Brereton, Smeaton and Norris were tried on May 12, 1536. They were not allowed to defend themselves, as they were charged with treason. They were found guilty of committing adultery with the Queen and conspiring to murder the King, and sentenced to be hanged and then cut down while still alive and drawn and quartered. Thomas Wyatt had been released earlier, as the charges against him were too tenuous to entertain.

Anne and her brother George were put on trial on May 15, 1536 in the Great Hall of the Tower of London, before an enormous crowd. Anne remained calm and refuted all the charges against her. George also denied the charges, which were shaky. Anne had been accused of committing adultery with a number of men on certain dates -- some of which were during the time she was ill after Princess Elizabeth's birth, some of which were when she wasn't even in the vicinity of the men in question. But George's wife, Jane Rochford, from whom he had long been estranged, testified that she had seen George and Anne commit incest, and it was her testimony that seemed to sway the trial, though the outcome was inevitable. Both were found guilty, and sentenced to be burnt at the stake or beheaded, at the King's pleasure.

Between her sentencing and execution, Anne's marriage to Henry was declared invalid, making the Princess Elizabeth illegitimate, so that there would be no prior claims to the throne in the event that Henry had more children with a third wife. This of course, made the adultery she supposedly committed nonexistant, but Anne's fate was sealed. She was to be removed, permanently. Henry would not endanger his future son's claim to kingship by having yet another unwanted wife living in obscurity, drawing sympathizers to her side and possibly fomenting rebellion against the throne.

George Boleyn and the other accused men were executed on May 17, on the Tower Green. Anne had been able to hear the scaffold being built during the days prior, and had continued to be subject to prolonged periods of hysteria, laughing and then crying for hours. Lord and Lady Kingston, the keepers of the Tower, reported that she seemed very happy, and ready to be done with life. She was reported to say, when Lord Kingston brought her the news that the King had commuted her sentence from burning to beheading, and had employed a swordsman from Calais for the execution, rather than having a Queen beheaded with the common axe: "He shall not have much trouble, for I have a little neck. I shall be known as La Reine sans tete -- Queen Lack-Head!"

Anne's execution on May 19, 1536 was private. She was taken to Tower Green, before a small group of official witnesses. As with every other occasion of her life, she had dressed carefully, selecting a red petticoat under a dark grey gown. Her hair was bound out of the way with a white linen scarf. She made a short speech before kneeling at the block.

Anne was blindfolded and then the swordsman cut off her head with a single stroke.

Anne was not to be accorded any sort of official burial, so her ladies begged an arrow chest from guards at the tower and somehow got her headless body into it. The chest was buried in the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula adjoining the Tower Green. Legends began to abound that her body had been stolen and taken home to Hever to be buried properly, but when the chapel was renovated during the reign of Queen Victoria, Anne's body was identified and a marker placed in the marble floor.

Anne left an England that was irrevocably changed. It was now considered a Protestant country by the Catholic Church, but the English or Anglican Church did not ascribe to the austere Protestantism that was growing in Europe in the wake of Martin Luther's break with Rome. Outwardly, Anglican services and rituals were Catholic in nature, though the Head of the Church was the King, rather than the Pope.

Henry, as Head of the Church of England, was dissolving the monasteries and convents that had been the body of the Church for hundreds of years, taking their wealth and lands for the Crown. As the groups of religeuses were disbanded, the support structure they provided for the common people, particularly in rural areas, collapsed. People had been dependent on the monasteries for medical care, education and charitable as well as spiritual support. Unmarried daughters and sons could turn to the Church and become nuns and priests. Widows who were unprovided for also found sanctuary within the Church, frequently becoming lay sisters, or even taking vows. With the support services and safety net afforded by the convents and monasteries gone, the number of beggars in England increased markedly.

Farmers, who had been permitted to cultivate Church lands for centuries in exchange for a portion of their produce, were now forced to pay rent to landlords, who had been given tracts of Church land by the King, or were dispossessed entirely in lieu of farming sheep, which required only a tenth of the manpower that crop cultivation did. As a result, wool production became and increasingly strong part of the English economy.

Prudent Catholics and people who had been converted to the more austere forms of Protestantism openly swore allegiance to Henry's Act of Supremacy, the law that made him the official Head of the Church in England. Many of the Catholics, among them the Princess Mary, received secret absolution from Rome on the grounds that they swore to the Act under duress, and continued to practice their religion in private. Many of the Protestants did likewise. But other people would not swear to the Act, or participated in uprisings against Henry, and they were dealt with summarily. Thousands of people were executed during the rest of his reign, and those of his son, Edward VI and his daughter, Mary I, for adhering to their religious beliefs.

Additionally, the two opposite religious factions continually vied for favor and power within the political structure of England. Secret Catholics and Protestants formed factions and alliances in a private substructure that infiltrated all levels of government, and contributed to much of the social and political turmoil that marked the reigns of Henry, his children, and later the Stuart line.

Lastly, Anne left one surviving child, Elizabeth. She had inherited character traits of both parents -- Anne's ambition, vivacity and drive, Henry's bonhomie, intellect and enormous ego. Anne's ability to adhere to a hard line. Henry's intense love for and devotion to England. Her father's red-gold hair and her mother's sparkling black eyes.

She became one of the most influential monarchs of England -- so much so that an entire era of English history was named for her.

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