Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn

Eva colagiovanni

Who was Anne Boleyn?

Born around 1501, Anne Boleyn was the daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Howard. After living in France for a time during her youth, Boleyn returned to England in 1522 and soon established a residence at King Henry VIII's court as a maid of honor to Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII's queen consort at the time

By the mid-1520s, Boleyn had become one of the most admired ladies of the court, attracting the attention of many men; the king himself fell in love with the young maid. What is known is that Boleyn's sister, Mary, one of the king's mistresses, had introduced her to Henry VIII and that the king wrote love letters to Boleyn during 1525.

One of King Henry's letters

"If you ... give yourself up, heart, body and soul to me ... I will take you for my only mistress, rejecting from thought and affection all others save yourself, to serve only you." Boleyn replied with rejection, however, explaining that she aimed to be married and not be a mistress: "Your wife I cannot be, both in respect of mine own unworthiness, and also because you have a queen already. Your mistress I will not be."

Henry was desperate to have Anne, he could not get the Pope to agree to an annulment from his wife, Catherine of Aragon – mainly due to political pressures. Catherine was the aunt of the Holy Roman Emperor, one of the most powerful men in Europe: he would not take the insult of an annulment . Catherine, as a devout Catholic, also was sure that their marriage was valid and legitimate: suggestions otherwise were simply wrong in her eyes. As it became increasingly clear the Catholic Church would not grant Henry an annulment, Anne is believed to have encouraged Henry towards supposedly heretical literature.

The Act of Supremacy

Certainly, it seems Anne was exposed to ideas around religious reform during her time in France, and had an interest in Martin Luther’s condemnation of the excesses of the Catholic Church. Anne also told Henry she would not sleep with him until they were married: a powerful combination of lust, desire for living male heirs and Henry’s supposed ‘scruple of conscience’ lead to Henry demanding the clergy and Parliament agree to the 1534 Act of Supremacy . This act helped enstablish the authority of the Church of England, and allowed Anne to finally step into the role of Queen of England. .

The birth of Elizabeth I

Following a six-year debate, during which time Henry and Boleyn had courted discreetly, Anne discovered that she was pregnant in early 1533. Without the blessing of the pope, on January 25, 1533, Henry and Boleyn quickly married in a secret ceremony led by Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury. The following June, a lavish coronation ceremony was held in honor of the new queen. On September 7, 1533, Queen Anne gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth I, who would be Henry VIII's only child with Boleyn to survive infancy.

In 1534, Archbishop Cranmer decreed Henry's marriage to Catherine Aragon invalid because she was the king's sister-in-law. Henry subsequently broke England away from Rome by setting up the Church of England. Catherine would pass away two years later, in 1536.

Anne's downfall and execution

Queen Anne had been charged with having sexual relationships with five courtiers, including her brother, George Boleyn and the king’s good friend Sir Henry Norris. Not only had she slept with these men (as a result of her “frail and carnal appetites”), but she had also conspired with them to kill her husband, the king. These accusations were shocking, but five hundred years later Anne’s innocence is almost universally accepted. In fact, nearly all of the details in the accusations against her have since been proven to be logistically impossible. With the case against her this shaky, it seems Anne’s fate had already been decided, and the trial was just for show.

The foreshadowing of her death

Anne wrote personal inscriptions in her prayer books, called Books of Hours, that turned out to be scarily predictive. In one, she wrote ‘le temps viendra’, meaning ‘the time will come’. In another, the one she supposedly brought with her when imprisoned in the Tower of London, she wrote ‘Remember me, when you do pray, that hope doth lead from day to day’. The original Books of Hours and their inscriptions are now displayed at Hever Castle in Kent.

Anne's last words

''Good Christian people, I am come hither to die, for according to the law, and by the law I am judged to die, and therefore I will speak nothing against it. I am come hither to accuse no man, nor to speak anything of that, whereof I am accused and condemned to die, but I pray God save the king and send him long to reign over you, for a gentler nor a more merciful prince was there never: and to me he was ever a good, a gentle and sovereign lord. And if any person will meddle of my cause, I require them to judge the best. And thus I take my leave of the world and of you all, and I heartily desire you all to pray for me. O Lord have mercy on me, to God I commend my soul.’ After being blindfolded and kneeling at the block, she repeated several times: ‘To Jesus Christ I commend my soul; Lord Jesu receive my soul.''

Elizabeth's love for her mother

Although one of the reasons Henry had Anne executed was for failing to give him a son, it was Anne’s daughter, Elizabeth I, who went on to become one of England’s most famous and well-loved monarchs. Elizabeth was barely three years old when her mother was beheaded, but she always honoured her memory.

Forced to publicly distance herself from her disgraced mother in order to survive in a politically ruthless climate, Elizabeth never forgot Anne. In fact, on Elizabeth’s deathbed nearly 70 years later, a ring was removed from her finger that was found to have a secret locket. When opened, it showed a dual miniature portrait of herself and her mother.

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