History UsefulNotes / AnneBoleyn

* Appears in Philippa Gregory's novel ''Literature/TheOtherBoleynGirl'' and TheFilmOfTheBook [[Film/TheOtherBoleynGirl of the same name]]. Here Anne is portrayed as a cruel, irreligious hypocrite and a coward. She is played in the film by Creator/NataliePortman. Notably in this version, the charges of adultery are based off a misunderstanding rather than being completely trumped up.[[note]]Anne is about to force her brother to sleep with her to conceive a baby but breaks it off at the last minute. His jealous wife witnesses the first part and tells the king. There is ''some'' historical basis for this - as George's wife testified against him at the trial.[[/note]]

* NiceHat: Anne often favoured the French hood, as seen in the portrait above. So any depiction of her is bound to show her wearing it in several scenes.

* RavenHairIvorySkin: As the portrait shows, Anne was known for black hair and pale skin. She was actually rather sallow in real life, but that goes with the beauty update.

* Appears as a character in the ''Literature/WolfHall'' trilogy by Hilary Mantel. In the [[Series/WolfHall 2015 television adaptation]], she was portrayed by Claure Foy, who portrays her as both very irritating but then very sympathetic when Henry turns on her.
* Appears in Philippa Gregory's novel ''Literature/TheOtherBoleynGirl'' and TheFilmOfTheBook [[Film/TheOtherBoleynGirl of the same name]]. Here Anne is portrayed as a cruel, irreligious hypocrite and a coward. She is played in the film by Creator/NataliePortman.

%%!!Tropes associated with Anne Boleyn as portrayed in fiction:

* Howard Brenton's historical play ''Anne Boleyn'' depicts her as a committed Protestant reformer whose downfall comes when the hardline Protestants also decide that her marriage to Henry is illegitimate, and Thomas Cromwell decides to destroy her when she threatens to expose his embezzlement of the proceeds of the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

* Appears as a character in the ''Literature/WolfHall'' trilogy by Hilary Mantel. In the 2015 television adaptation, she was portrayed by Claure Foy.

* Claire Foy plays her in ''Series/WolfHall'', who portrays her as both very irritating but then very sympathetic when Henry turns on her.

* Claire Foy plays her in ''Series/WolfHall'', who portrays her as both very irritating but then very sympathetic when Henry turns on her.

Once Anne was dead Henry had her letters and other writings destroyed, her portraits burned, her jewels reworked, and even her plate melted down. We consequently know less about Anne than we should, especially given her influence on the Church of England. For instance, it was thought until fairly recently that Anne was born in 1507. Modern scholarship has however established that Anne couldn't have been born after early 1502, with 1501 being the most likely year of birth. This is why many older works (such as ''Theatre/AnneOfTheThousandDays'') have Henry falling for a teenage Anne; modern creators should know better, though.

* Is a minor character in ''Theatre/HenryVIII''.

Anne Boleyn (c. 1501 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 as the second wife of King UsefulNotes/HenryVIII, and was mother of UsefulNotes/ElizabethI. There are few people in history who were and are as polarizing as Anne Boleyn. During her lifetime she was both much maligned and much admired. To Protestants she was the equivalent of a Saint, while Catholics detested her. Nowadays lines are drawn again, although now her supporters and detractors look more at her personality and deeds as Queen - or as a fictionalized character.

Anne grew up as the (probably younger) daughter of the ambitious diplomat and courtier Thomas Boleyn, who when she was about 12 secured for her a post as maid of honour to Archduchess Margaret of Austria, regent of the Low Countries. From there, she traveled to France to attend Princess Mary of England as she married the French King. After his death and Mary's departure Anne became a member of the court of Queen Claude of France. Heavily influenced by French culture and fashion, she made a splash at the English court when she returned in 1521. Five years later she came to the notice of the very married (and very Catholic) King Henry VIII - and what happened after that has been hotly debated for centuries.

There are few people in history who were and are as polarizing as Anne Boleyn, second wife of UsefulNotes/{{Henry VIII}} and mother of UsefulNotes/ElizabethI. During her lifetime she was both much maligned and much admired. To Protestants she was the equivalent of a Saint, while Catholics detested her. Nowadays lines are drawn again, although now her supporters and detractors look more at her personality and deeds as Queen - or as a fictionalized character.

* Appears as a character in the ''Literature/WolfHall'' trilogy by Hilary Mantel.
* Appears in Philippa Gregory's novel ''Literature/TheOtherBoleynGirl'' and TheFilmOfTheBook [[Film/TheOtherBoleynGirl of the same name]]. Here Anne is portrayed as a cruel, irreligious hypocrite and a coward. She is played in the film by Natalie Portman.

* Natalie Dormer in ''Series/TheTudors''.

Anne grew up as the (probably younger) daughter of the ambitious diplomat and courtier Thomas Boleyn, who when she was about 12 secured for her a post as maid of honour to Archduchess Margaret of Austria, regent of the Low Countries. From there, she traveled to France to attend Princess Mary of England as she married the French King. After his death and Mary's departure Anne became a member of the court of Queen Claude of France. Heavily influenced by French culture and fashion, she made a splash at the English court when she returned in 1521. Five years later King Henry VIII noticed her, but she refused to become his mistress and held out for marriage - a risky move given that Henry was already married to Katherine of Aragon.

It took almost seven years for Henry to get to the point where he was willing to defy the Pope, break with Rome, have his first marriage annulled in England, and marry Anne. In this he was influenced partly by Anne's reformist ideas and partly by her falling pregnant almost immediately after their relationship was finally consummated. Though his initial disappointment in the birth of a daughter (the future [[UsefulNotes/ElizabethI Elizabeth I]]) was mingled with hope for a boy in the future, Henry's fascination with Anne lessened and then evaporated after repeated miscarriages, and with it went her power. This was especially dangerous because Anne had a knack of making enemies; she was opposed by powerful courtiers such as Henry's close friend Charles Brandon and, eventually, the increasingly powerful Thomas Cromwell, with whom she had once been allied. It also didn't help that unlike Katherine of Aragon, she had no powerful friends overseas who would intervene if she were threatened with death. Also, Katherine's death in January 1536 had left Henry a widower in the eyes of anyone who didn't believe the annulment to be valid (this would be virtually everyone but the couple and Archbishop Cranmer); if Anne could be disposed of, Henry could make a marriage that would be valid in the eyes of not just his Continental rivals but the vast bulk of his subjects as well.

Anne defended herself well in court, as well she should have; modern scholarship has found that most of the charges of adultery were logistically impossible, Anne not even being in the same county as her supposed paramour on most of the dates given in the warrant. Nevertheless she and her codefendants were still convicted and sentenced to death. The men were beheaded on Tower Hill on May 17, but Henry paid the exceptionally talented Executioner of Calais to travel to London and behead Anne two days later on Tower Green with a sword - a seeming gesture of mercy, until you realize that for him to reach England on time Henry must have sent for him before the trial. That Henry, always the gentleman.

Once Anne was dead Henry had her letters and other writings destroyed, her portraits burned (see below), her jewels reworked, and even her plate melted down. We consequently know less about Anne than we should, especially given her influence on the Church of England. For instance, it was thought until fairly recently that Anne was born in 1507. Modern scholarship has however established that Anne couldn't have been born after early 1502, with 1501 being the most likely year of birth. This is why many older works (such as ''Theatre/AnneOfTheThousandDays'') have Henry falling for a teenage Anne; modern creators should know better, though.

-->--'''UsefulNontes/CatherineOfAragon'''

%%!!Tropes associated with Anne Boleyn in fiction:

* Appears in Philippa Gregory's novel ''TheOtherBoleynGirl'' and the movie of the book. Here Anne is portrayed as a cruel, irreligious hypocrite and a coward. She is played in the film by Natalie Portman.

[[quoteright:170:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/170px_anne_boleyn.jpg]]

->''The scandal of Christendom''.

->''I have never had better opinions of woman than I had of her''.

Once Anne was dead Henry had her letters and other writings destroyed, her portraits burned (see below), her jewels reworked, and even her plate melted down. We consequently know less about Anne than we should, especially given her influence on the Church of England. For instance, it was thought until fairly recently that Anne was born in 1507. Modern scholarship has however established that Anne couldn't have been born after early 1502, with 1501 being the most likely year of birth. This is why many older works (such as ''AnneOfTheThousandDays'') have Henry falling for a teenage Anne; modern creators should know better, though.

!!Tropes associated with Anne Boleyn include:

* AlasPoorVillain: Anne was deeply unpopular in London, but at her death the crowd finally felt some sympathy for her.
* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: Averted. People made fun of Henry and Anne's entwined initials by shouting HAHAHA. Also, few cheered for her or doffed their caps.
* BabiesMakeEverythingBetter: Her life would have been much better (and safer) if she had continued to give birth to living children. Whether this would have been possible is a good question.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Anne and Henry fought for seven years to have his first marriage annulled so he could marry her. She lasted as his Queen for only three years and died by his order.
* BrainyBrunette: Many historians believe she was smarter than Henry.
* DancesAndBalls: Anne first attracted attention at the English court when she performed in a masque.
* DecadentCourt: This turned against her in the end.
* EvilTowerOfOminousness: The Tower of London, where she died.
* FaceDeathWithDignity
* FrameUp: The charges of adultery and incest against her and her co-defendants were almost certainly false.[[note]]The charges of treason are debatable. Certainly by modern standards there was no treason, but at the time treason included imagining the King's death, which Anne did do with her comment to Henry Norris.[[/note]]
* TheHeretic: She was certainly not a Protestant by modern standards - she strongly believed in salvation by good works as well as by faith, for instance - but her Reform beliefs were still too far gone for many.
* HotBlooded
* KickTheDog: She gave instructions that her stepdaughter Mary had to be beaten if she did not accept her as Queen.
* LoveRuinsTheRealm: Henry's love for her was blamed for England's troubles in the 1530s.
* MaliciousSlander: About fifty years after her death, a Catholic writer named Nicholas Sander wrote a pamphlet alleging that she had an extra finger on one hand, a large wen on her neck[[note]]which became a third breast in the ''Book of Lists''[[/note]], a goiter, and a projecting tooth. Sander had never met Anne, and there's no evidence that she had any deformities. In fact, numerous descriptions of her appearance have survived; the worst even the most hostile ambassador said of her in her life was that she had acne and droopy breasts. Sander's slander was of course meant as an attack against her daughter, Elizabeth I.
** Since physical deformities were generally interpreted as a sign of evil, it is probably safe to say that the King would have never taken any interest in her if she had any. The extra finger rumour was conclusively proven entirely false long ago by an examination of her skeleton (which also lacked any other abnormalities)
* NouveauRiche: Though the Boleyns had married noblewomen for several generations by the time Anne was born, her male-line great-grandfather started life as a country shearman and ended it as a fabulously wealthy mercer and Lord Mayor of London. The English people preferred their kings to marry foreign princesses who came without potentially grasping relatives. (In fact, some may have remembered the Woodvilles, who rode the coat tails of Edward IV's wife and all but bankrupted the country in the process.)
* TheMistress: What she refused to be.
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Anne worked for her political ideals and was very charitable as Queen.
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: As long as Henry wanted her, she was untouchable.
* UnwantedSpouse: In the end.
* TheTreacheryOfImages: All those famous paintings of Anne Boleyn? Are not actually paintings of Anne Boleyn. Henry had every painting of her destroyed after her execution.[[note]] In fact, every image but one; a defaced prototype medallion was the only image to miss the cull.[[/note]] The best-known paintings of Anne date to about 1590, or 60 years after her death, when it became fashionable for wealthy noblemen to hang portraits of the kings and queens of England in their long galleries. The painters simply copied the face pattern of Queen Elizabeth, her daughter, changing the colouring and the nose.
** A tiny miniature of Anne dating to about 1576 was found inside a locket ring worn by Queen Elizabeth. The ring is now kept at Chequers, the Prime Minister's official residence.
* TheVamp: Widely recognized to be this by men who met her.
* WiseBeyondTheirYears: Margaret of Austria was much pleased with her precociousness when Anne attended her as a teenager.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: When she did not give birth to a son and Henry no longer loved her.
* YourCheatingHeart: Henry.
** Inverted with Anne Boleyn. She died for being accused of this, but was most likely innocent of the charge.

----

-->--'''Catherine of Aragon'''

There are few people in history who were and are as polarizing as Anne Boleyn, second wife of UsefulNotes/{{Henry VIII}}. During her lifetime she was both much maligned and much admired. To Protestants she was the equivalent of a Saint, while Catholics detested her. Nowadays lines are drawn again, although now her supporters and detractors look more at her personality and deeds as Queen - or as a fictionalized character.

* Appears as a minor character in the ''Literature/WolfHall'' trilogy by Hilary Mantel.

* MaliciousSlander: About fifty years after her death, a Catholic writer named Nicholas Sander wrote a pamphlet alleging that she had an extra finger on one hand, a large wen on her neck,[[note]]which became a third breast in the ''Book of Lists''[[/note]] a goiter, and a projecting tooth. Sander had never met Anne, and there's no evidence that she had any deformities. In fact, numerous descriptions of her appearance have survived; the worst even the most hostile ambassador said of her in her life was that she had acne and droopy breasts. Sander's slander was of course meant as an attack against her daughter, Elizabeth I.

* Genevieve Bujold in ''AnneOfTheThousandDays''.
* Merle Oberon in ''The Private Life of Henry VIII''.

It took almost seven years for Henry to get to the point where he was willing to defy the Pope, break with Rome, have his first marriage annulled in England, and marry Anne. In this he was influenced partly by Anne's reformist ideas and partly by her falling pregnant almost immediately after their relationship was finally consummated. Though his initial disappointment in the birth of a daughter (the future Elizabeth I) was mingled with hope for a boy in the future, Henry's fascination with Anne lessened and then evaporated after repeated miscarriages, and with it went her power. This was especially dangerous because Anne had a knack of making enemies; she was opposed by powerful courtiers such as Henry's close friend Charles Brandon and, eventually, the increasingly powerful Thomas Cromwell, with whom she had once been allied. It also didn't help that unlike Katherine of Aragon, she had no powerful friends overseas who would intervene if she were threatened with death. Also, Katherine's death in January 1536 had left Henry a widower in the eyes of anyone who didn't believe the annulment to be valid (this would be virtually everyone but the couple and Archbishop Cranmer); if Anne could be disposed of, Henry could make a marriage that would be valid in the eyes of not just his Continental rivals but the vast bulk of his subjects as well.

* AndThereWasMuchRejoicing: When she became pregnant.
** Averted with the birth of Elizabeth. Big festivities were planned, but scaled down when the long awaited son turned out to be a daughter.

* BabiesMakeEverythingBetter: Her life would have been much better (and safer) if she had continued to give birth to living children. Whether this would have been possible s a good question.

* Is a minor character in ''Theatre/HenryVIII''.

* DeadlyDecadentCourt: This turned against her in the end.

There are few people in history who were and are as polarizing as Anne Boleyn, second wife of {{Henry VIII}}. During her lifetime she was both much maligned and much admired. To Protestants she was the equivalent of a Saint, while Catholics detested her. Nowadays lines are drawn again, although now her supporters and detractors look more at her personality and deeds as Queen - or as a fictionalized character.