History UsefulNotes / AnneBoleyn

Anne was the daughter of an ambitious diplomat named Thomas Boleyn and his wife Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of the Duke of Norfolk. Anne had an older sister named Mary Boleyn, who most historians agree was the eldest. However, it's unclear if she or her brother George Boleyn were the second surviving child, though seeing as most historians now think she was born in 1501, and George was born in 1504, it seems pretty likely George was the youngest. When she was around 12[[note]]a letter from Anne to her father dated c. 1514 was almost certainly written when she was around thirteen[[/note]] her father secured for her a post as maid of honour to Archduchess UsefulNotes/MargaretOfAustria, regent of the Low Countries. From there, she traveled to France to attend Princess Mary of England (her future sister-in-law) as she married the French King, and when Princess Mary returned to France Anne remained behind in the household 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 as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Catherine of Aragon. 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.

** Meyer later wrote a book centered around Anne, ''[[Literature/YoungRoyals Doomed, Queen Anne]]'', which provides her with a SympatheticPOV. She's far from a perfect person and does many questionable things in her quest to become queen, but she eventually comes to realize [[WantingIsBetterThanHaving being queen doesn't actually make her feel happy or content]] and [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor causes her even more problems]], making her comes across as a tragic figure here.

Anne was the daughter of an ambitious diplomat named Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wiltshire, and his wife, Elizabeth Boleyn. Anne had an older sister named Mary Boleyn, who most historians agree was the eldest. However, it’s unclear if she or her brother George Boleyn were the second surviving child, though seeing as most historians now think she was born in 1501, and George was born in 1504, it seems pretty likely George was the youngest. When she was around 12[[note]]a letter from Anne to her father dated c. 1514 was almost certainly written when she was around thirteen[[/note]] her father secured for her a post as maid of honour to Archduchess UsefulNotes/MargaretOfAustria, regent of the Low Countries. From there, she traveled to France to attend Princess Mary of England (her future sister-in-law) as she married the French King. Anne was joined by her older sister, Mary Boleyn. They then became ladies-in-waiting to Queen Claude of France. Mary was said to be the more beautiful sister, while Anne was the more intelligent. Mary had an affair with King Francis I of France, and was nicknamed “the great whore” and by Francis himself “my English mare” because he rode her so often. To save her reputation, their father had Mary return to England. Anne returned to England in 1521, becoming a Lady-in-Waiting to Queen UsefulNotes/CatherineofAragon along with her sister. Heavily influenced by French culture and fashion, she popularised the headdress (a French type of hood which could reveal a shocking amount of hair). Anne was not particularly beautiful, in a time when fair women who were “pleasantly plump” (women with large breasts) Anne was skinny, flat-chested, and olive skinned with dark Brown hair and Brown (almost Black) eyes. She did not immediately attract the King’s attention. Her sister had an affair with King Henry and earned a terrible reputation as a woman of such promiscuity that she was able to sleep with two Kings of foreign countries. Five years after her arrival, she came to the notice of King Henry who was married to Catherine and at that point a devout Catholic.

Anne grew up as the daughter of the ambitious diplomat and courtier Thomas Boleyn and his wife, Elizabeth Boleyn. Anne had an older sister named Mary Boleyn, who most historians agree was the eldest. However, it’s unclear if she or her brother George Boleyn were the second surviving child, though seeing as most historians now think she was born in 1501, and George was born in 1504, it seems pretty likely George was the youngest. When she was around 12[[note]]a letter from Anne to her father dated c. 1514 was almost certainly written when she was around thirteen[[/note]] her father secured for her a post as maid of honour to Archduchess UsefulNotes/MargaretOfAustria, 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.

* DotingParent: Contrary to popular belief, Anne was known to adore Elizabeth, proudly displaying her on a pillow beside her throne. In fact, she went against customs that would mean Elizabeth would live apart from her. Records show that while imprisoned, Anne purchased a gown and kirtle for Elizabeth.

Matters came to a head in the spring of 1536. Nobody now knows who was behind the decision to get rid of Anne, but by the end of April the court was as tense as a bowstring. Loose words by Anne -- asking if courtier Henry Norris was waiting for the King to die so he could marry her -- set the plot in motion. Two days later Anne was arrested along with five men, including Norris and Anne's own brother George, and charged with adultery, incest, and treason. Many writers have had Anne charged with witchcraft as well, but this is incorrect; although Henry did say after her arrest that he thought Anne had bewitched him, the lawyers who drew up the warrants knew that such a charge would never fly with the hard-headed Kentish jurors who would first hear the case. The whole 'charged as a witch' belief came later with 19th century historians.

* Appears in Creator/PhilippaGregory'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; although still retains many of her flaws from the book her nastier traits are toned down in the film and she comes off more sympathetically. Notably in this version, the charges of adultery are based off a misunderstanding rather than being completely trumped up.[[note]]Anne is about to [[BrotherSisterIncest force her brother to sleep with her]] to conceive a baby after Henry's failures to have a son with her, since if they keep it in the family there's no risk of a ChocolateBaby with features that clearly come from someone who's neither Henry nor Anne, but breaks it off at the last minute. His jealous wife witnesses the first part and tells the king. There is no historical basis for this; despite the popular belief, there is actually no evidence that George's wife testified against her husband at the trial.[[/note]]

Henry's expectations that the world would go his way at long last were dashed when instead of the hoped-for son Anne gave birth to a 'worthless' daughter (the future UsefulNotes/ElizabethI). This must naturally have been a blow to the King, but what eventually led to him falling out of love with Anne is debatable; certainly the numerous miscarriages Anne suffered after Elizabeth's birth had something to do with it, but a factor not taken into consideration by Whig historians is that Anne basically organized the early Church of England on her own, taking much of the work off Henry's shoulders and gaining a great deal of political power in the process. Henry, a lazy man who loathed the minutiae of governing, was prone to lifting men up to do the work and then banishing or killing them when that work led them to become too powerful. This trait of his may have influenced Anne Boleyn's fate as much as it did the fates of Cardinal Wolsey, Sir Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell.

As Queen Anne may have thought she had some amount of protection, but in truth she was far more vulnerable than Katherine had ever been. The general population seems to have disliked her and blamed her for the treatment of the former/'true' queen and Henry's break with Rome; she had no powerful foreign relatives willing to declare war if she was deposed or worse; her abrasive, brittle temperament alienated many members of the court not in her clique (including Henry's close friends Charles Brandon and Francis Bryan, and her own uncle the Duke of Norfolk); and, when Henry started getting up to his old tricks and taking mistresses, Anne didn't look the other way as Katherine had done but made her displeasure very evident, which only served to turn Henry even further against her. Katherine's death in January 1536 made her even more vulnerable, as the Catholic world now saw Henry as unmarried; if only the 'concubine', as she was known, could be gotten rid of, Henry could contract a legal marriage and be returned to the fold.

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 paramours on most of the dates given in the warrants. Nevertheless she and her codefendants were still convicted and sentenced to death, because that's what Henry wanted. 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, [[SarcasmMode always the gentleman]].

Given her popularity with writers who fancy themselves historians, there are probably more myths and urban legends surrounding Anne Boleyn and her downfall than about any other figure in English history. No, she did not have six fingers on one hand or a mole on her chest or, as the Book of Lists invented, a third breast -- since we don't have contemporary images, it's not easy to reconstruct what she looked like, but contemporary accounts seem to attest that she was of average appearance. No, she was not accused or convicted of witchcraft. No, her sister-in-law Lady Rochford did not testify against her husband (it was Lady Worcester). No, she did not commit adultery. No, there is no evidence her sister Mary Boleyn had children by Henry VIII during the time that Mary was his mistress, and quite a bit of evidence against it. And on, and on, and on. Suffice to say that the reader who believes pop "historians" like Alison Weir might be better off reading something by a real, trained historian.

Anne grew up as the (probably younger) daughter of the ambitious diplomat and courtier Thomas Boleyn, who when she was around 12[[note]]a letter from Anne to her father dated c. 1514 was almost certainly written when she was around thirteen[[/note]] secured for her a post as maid of honour to Archduchess UsefulNotes/MargaretOfAustria, 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.

One narrative that does link Anne, somewhat interestingly, to Catherine of Aragon, regardless of which story you choose to believe, is this: both Anne and Catherine ''hated Thomas Wolsey's guts'': Catherine because he was trying to annul her marriage, Anne because he'd ruined a marriage she'd planned with Henry Percy. In the end, as you can expect, Wolsey paid the price (though "conveniently" for him, he shuffled off the mortal coil before Henry could take his head).

Was Henry influenced by Anne's reformist ideas? It's a good question. The Whigs, desperate to discover a whiff of Protestantism in the hitherto stridently ultra-Catholic Henry, believed she managed to turn his heart toward the new faith, but the evidence we have suggests that Henry only cherry-picked what he could use from reformist thought to get what he wanted - which was all Henry ever really cared about, stories of heirs and England's future notwithstanding.

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 paramours on most of the dates given in the warrants. Nevertheless she and her codefendants were still convicted and sentenced to death, because that's what Henry wanted. 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, [[SarcasmMode always the gentleman]].

Given her popularity with writers who fancy themselves historians, there are probably more myths and urban legends surrounding Anne Boleyn and her downfall than about any other figure in English history. No, she did not have six fingers on one hand or a mole on her chest or, as the Book of Lists invented, a third breast - since we don't have contemporary images, it's not easy to reconstruct what she looked like, but contemporary accounts seem to attest that she was of average appearance. No, she was not accused or convicted of witchcraft. No, her sister-in-law Lady Rochford did not testify against her husband (it was Lady Worcester). No, she did not commit adultery. No, there is no evidence her sister Mary Boleyn had children by Henry VIII during the time that Mary was his mistress, and quite a bit of evidence against it. And on, and on, and on. Suffice to say that the reader who believes pop "historians" like Alison Weir might be better off reading something by a real, trained historian.

* HistoricalBeautyUpdate: Anne is often depicted as an alluring beauty, despite the fact that she reportedly wasn't anything special in real life. She was reportedly very much the opposite of the standards of beauty at the time - when it was fashionable to be fair, she was sallow. Likewise she had small breasts when voluptuous figures were in. In fact Henry was largely attracted to her for her personality and intellect. It should be noted, however, that only one contemporary image of Anne has survived; a defaced prototype medallion that only shows the rough outlines of her face. The portrait at the top of this page was painted sixty years after her death by an artist who'd never seen her. As a result, in the present we don't really know what she looked like. There are even those who think she had red hair. Contemporary accounts seem to agree on one thing; in looks, she was about average.

* Anne is mostly an offscreen character in Carolyn Meyer's ''Literature/MaryBloodyMary'' - a HistoricalFiction on Mary Tudor's childhood. Anne is only seen from a distance whenever Mary is at court, but Mary's narrative naturally [[WickedStepmother doesn't describe her favourably]]. Most information about her comes from Mary's spies at court, and she only properly appears for the scene of Elizabeth's birth.

* A book concerning Anne appears in the ''My Story'' series - fictional diaries of people who lived alongside historical events. ''Anne Boleyn & Me'' concerns a young girl called Elinor Valjean whose mother is a lady in waiting to Catherine of Aragon, and she becomes a servant to Anne as she rises through the ranks. Anne's character is left vague though Elinor sometimes notes in her diary that Anne seems to be nicer than the gossip about her lets on. There's one very sobering moment shortly before the charges are announced where Anne tells Elinor privately how lucky she is to have a loving family - implying she genuinely loved Henry too.
* A ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' novelisation featured a brief sequence of Sabrina going back in time to Elizabeth I's coronation, where the young queen gives her a locket that belonged to Anne. Elizabeth also whispers the rumour that Anne was a witch - implying it to be true in this universe.

Anne Boleyn (c. 1501[[note]]the long-held assumption that she was born in 1507 has been fairly conclusively disproven[[/note]] – 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.