Queen Anne Boleyn has been equally demonized and romanticized throughout history. The sordid temptress who broke England from the church. A witch with six fingers. A cold, calculated opportunist. A determined defender of the protestant faith. The victim beheaded for having a daughter instead of a son. The woman who could make even a tyrant like Henry VIII fall in love. Rumors and exaggerated truths about her life abounded during her lifetime and have only been expanded on through fiction and propaganda since her unprecedented execution.
But what is it about Anne Boleyn that truly makes her any more villainous or glamourous than Henry VIII’s other five wives?
Anne was born to Thomas and Elizabeth Boleyn in the early sixteenth century. Her and her sister Mary were both sent to the French court to serve Queen Claude. In Tudor times a courtier’s duties were to charm, entertain and ultimately influence the rulers at court. They had official tasks such as managing the royal wardrobe but their true purpose was to be decorative and represent their families at court. .
Mary Bolyen was moved from the French court to her home court in England to serve Queen Catherine of Aragon where she began an affair with King Henry VIII, her mistress’s husband. Henry VIII seemed very much to treat his wife’s ladies like his own personal harem. Both his known mistresses and three of his wives were selected from the ladies serving at court. Considering the power dynamic these women were hardly in a position to refuse him.
Anne Boleyn soon joined her sister at Henry VIII’s court. By all accounts she was a very skilled courtier, well known for her dancing and wit more than her beauty. She was briefly betrothed to Sir Henry Percy but the king would not approve of the marriage. Poet Sir Thomas Wyatt was also infatuated with her despite being married and soon he himself. He wrote in a poem that he could not catch her.
There is written, her fair neck round about:
Noli me tangere, for Caesar’s I am,
This meaning that Henry VIII had already made claim of her
It is interesting that while Anne is called a harlot for eventually accepting Henry’s advances, she is also called a vixen for initially refusing him. She is simultaneously shamed for saying “yes” and for saying “no”. Her first reaction at being pursued by the king was to leave court. Henry had by this time been speaking to Cardinal Walsey about replacing Queen Catherine with a younger woman who could produce heirs but there is no historical evidence to suggest that Anne had any knowledge of this. If her initial response was to leave court it is more than likely that she was not, initially, interested in the king.
Anne had numerous reasons to be wary of
Henry’s advances. Loyalty to her sister. Perhaps she had observed how Mary had been treated. She might even have been concerned that being the king’s mistress would make her untouchable to other suitors.
Henry VIII wrote Anne letters while she was away from court but there is no record of her responses. The assumption that her cryptic replies and hasty removal from court were a game of chase meant to entice him even more is rooted in the misogynistic myth that “no” is a challenge. We do not know how often she replied or how encouraging she was but her refusal does not imply that she was planning to become queen or even saw that as a possibility. Presumably she would need to be careful not to offend the king to protect her family. She could not be forceful in her replies. She would need to flatter him regardless of her feelings or intentions. Her “virtue” may very well have been the only excuse she thought he might accept.
Perhaps Henry VIII did eventually wear her down with his attention and she developed an affection for him. Perhaps she saw an opportunity to enact the religious reform she believed in similar to Catherine Par, Henry’s last wife who never wanted to be Queen but believed God called her to be. Perhaps she realized that no one else would risk upsetting the king by marrying her. Perhaps she always meant to refuse him and was simply out of excuses when he said he would divorce Catherine. Whatever the reason, Anne eventually agreed to marry the king.
Once she had accepted the King’s proposal, Anne She moved back to his court and accepted special rooms and gifts but refused to be his mistress until the annulment was certain. Their engagement lasted six years. The pope continually denied Henry an annulment. Anne is said to have gifted Henry a book that outlined radical protestant beliefs including a King’s sovereignty over the pope. Henry, who had previously written works defending the Catholic church, founded the church of England and granted his own annulment.
Once she was queen, Anne Boleyn used her authority to further the protestant movement. She was a direct and assertive politician despite still being called “the King’s whore” by most of the court. Anne’s unapologetic assertiveness as queen may very well be what sets her apart from Henry’s wives who came after her. Henry is reported to have told his next wife, Jane Seymour, when she dared to assert her opinion on a subject “Remember Anne”. Catherine Par, his final wife, also angered him by contradicting his decision but escaped trial by begging for his forgiveness.
Anne began to find herself in conflict with Arch Chanceler Thomas Cromwell more and more frequently and Henry, now bored with her, ceased indulging her authority.
In 1536 Anne was arrested for adultery, witchcraft, and treason. She was tried on May 15 and executed four days later. Henry VIII hired an executioner from France who could behead her with a single blow of a sword rather than the several chops of an ax Henry’s third wife ,Catherine Howard, later endured. He already had a new queen lined up. Jane Seymour who had served both Anne and Catherine of Aragon as a lady in waiting.
There is no historical evidence to suggest that any of the accusations Anne was executed for were true Almost every man she had a friendship with was arrested for having “carnal knowledge” of her but only one confessed; the only commoner who could thus legally be tortured. In contrast when Catherine Howard was later accused of the same crimes there were detailed accounts of secret communication with the men she was accused of having affairs with.
Perhaps Henry VIII believed the accusations. Perhaps they were merely an excuse to get rid of a wife who asserted herself without another lengthy ordeal to obtain an annulment. It is odd that Jane Seymour is painted by history as the saintly wife when she followed so closely in Anne Boleyn’s footsteps. Jane too said “no” when Henry first pursued her as a mistress. She too agreed to have sexual relations with him only if she were queen. She too took another woman’s place. The woman Jane usurped, however, was not merely divorced and sent away as Catherine of Aragon was. She was beheaded.
So much of what we associate with Anne was told through the eyes of a lover who had grown tired of her and her political and religious enemies. There is very little information written in her own lifetime and even less, apart from her execution speech, of her own words.
Because she was a woman who, for a brief moment, wielded power and wealth there is no end of criticism heaped on her despite her many similarities to Henry’s other wives. Even her political ruthlessness is barely commented on in her male contemporaries such as Thomas Cromwell who are by contrast admired for their cleverness and efficiency.
Anne Boleyn was not much different than Henry VII’s other five wives. She was chosen by him and ultimately had little choice in whether or not she would marry him. She made the best of the situation and was an assertive politician but fell out of the King’s favor and was executed on false charges. The sensationalized, demonized, and romanticization of her story is based on rumor, exaggeration, and in many cases novels and films created many years after her death.
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