Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn
Queen Consort of England
Tenure	28 May 1533 – 19 May 1536
Coronation	1 June 1533
Spouse	Henry VIII
Issue	Elizabeth I
Father	Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire
Mother	Lady Elizabeth Howard

Anne Boleyn (1501/1507–19 May 1536) was the second of the six wives of King Henry VIII of England, and so was Queen of England from 1533 until shortly before her death. She was also the mother of Queen Elizabeth I of England (there are rumors that Elizabeth was the mother of Edward Vere) and Marquess of Pembroke in her own right.

Henry's marriage to Anne, and her subsequent execution, made her a key player in the political and religious upheaval that was the start of the English Reformation. The daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Boleyn (born Lady Elizabeth Howard), Anne was of more noble birth than either Jane Seymour or Catherine Parr, two of Henry VIII's later wives. She was educated in Europe, largely as a maid-of-honour to Queen Claude of France. She returned to England in 1522.

Around 1525 or 1526, Henry VIII became enamoured of Anne and began his pursuit of her. Anne resisted the King's attempts to seduce her and refused to become his mistress, as her sister, Mary Boleyn, had done. It soon became the one absorbing object of the King's desires to secure an annulment from his wife, Catherine of Aragon so he could marry Anne. When it became clear that Pope Clement VII was unlikely to give Henry an annulment, the breaking of the power of the Roman Catholic Church in England began.

Cardinal Wolsey was dismissed from public office, allegedly at Anne Boleyn's instigation, and later the Boleyn family's chaplain, Thomas Cranmer, was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. The wedding between Henry and Anne finally took place on 25 January 1533. On 23 May 1533, Cranmer declared the marriage of Henry and Catherine null and void. Five days later, Cranmer declared the marriage of Henry and Anne to be good and valid. Soon after, the Pope launched sentences of excommunication against Henry and the Archbishop. As a result of this marriage, the Church of England broke with Rome and was brought under the King's control.

Anne was crowned Queen Consort of England on 1 June 1533. Later that year, on 7 September, Anne gave birth to a baby girl, who later reigned as Queen Elizabeth I of England. Anne failed to quickly produce a surviving male heir; the only male baby she had was a miscarriage. Two and a half years after their wedding, a plot was led by Sir Thomas Cromwell to replace her.

Although the evidence against her was unconvincing, Anne was beheaded on charges of adultery, incest, and high treason in 1536. Following the coronation of her daughter Elizabeth as Queen, Anne was venerated as a martyr and heroine of the English Reformation, particularly through the works of John Foxe. Over the centuries, Anne has inspired or been mentioned in numerous artistic and cultural works. As a result, she has remained strong in the popular memory and Anne has been called "the most influential and important queen consort England has ever had".

Final Speech -

Good Christian people, I am come hither to die, according to law, and therefore I will speak nothing against it. I come here only to die, and thus to yield myself humbly to the will of the King, my lord. And if, in life, I did ever offend the King's Grace, surely with my death, I do now atone. I come hither to accuse no man, nor to speak anything of that whereof I am accused, as I know full well that aught I say in my defense doth not appertain to you. I pray and beseech you all, good friends, to pray for the life of the King, my sovereign lord and yours, who is one of the best princes on the face of the earth, who has always treated me so well that better could not be, wherefore I submit to death with good will, humbly asking pardon of the world. If any person will meddle with my cause, I require them to judge the best. Thus, I take my leave of the world, and of you, and I heartily desire you all to pray for me.

-Anne Boeyn, May 19, 1536, Tower Green

Early years (1501-1522)

Anne was the daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn, later 1st Earl of Wiltshire and 1st Earl of Ormonde, and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Boleyn (born Lady Elizabeth Howard), daughter of the 2nd Duke of Norfolk. Sir Thomas was a respected diplomat with a gift for languages; he was also a favourite of King Henry VII, who sent him on many diplomatic missions abroad. A lack of parish records from the period has made it impossible to establish Anne's date of birth. Contemporary evidence is contradictory, with several dates having been put forward by various historians. An Italian, writing in 1600, suggested that she had been born in 1499, while Sir Thomas More's son-in-law, William Roper, suggested a much later date of 1512. As with Anne herself, it is not known for certain when her two siblings were born, but it seems clear that her sister Mary was older than Anne. Mary's children clearly believed their mother had been the elder sister. Their brother George was born some time around 1504.

Anne's sister Mary Boleyn.

The academic debate of Anne's birthdate centres around two key dates: 1501 and 1507. Eric Ives, a British historian and legal expert, promotes the 1501 date, while Retha Warnicke, an American scholar who has also written a biography of Anne, prefers 1507. The key piece of surviving written evidence in the argument is a letter Anne wrote sometime in 1514. She composed it in French (her second language) to her father, who was still living in England while Anne was completing her education in the Netherlands. Ives argues that the style of the letter and its mature handwriting prove that Anne must have been about 13 at the time of its composition. This would also be around the minimum age that a girl could be a maid of honour, as Anne was to the regent, Archduchess Margaret of Austria. This is supported by claims by a chronicler from the late 16th century, who wrote that Anne was twenty when she returned from France. These findings are contested by Warnicke in several books and articles, but the evidence does not conclusively support either date.

Anne's great grandparents included a Lord Mayor of London, a duke, an earl, two aristocratic ladies and a knight. Tradition held that one of them, Geoffrey Boleyn, may have been a wool merchant prior to becoming Lord Mayor.This is disputed by some historians, who make the case that the family had held a title for four generations. What is known is that at the time of Anne's birth, the Boleyn family was considered one of the most respected in the English aristocracy. Among her relatives, she numbered the Howards, one of the pre-eminent families in the land. She was certainly of more noble birth than either Jane Seymour or Catherine Parr, two of Henry VIII's later wives.

Time in the Netherlands

Anne, painted after her death. A biographer stated this was close to "the real Anne Boleyn."

Anne's father had continued his diplomatic career under Henry VIII. In Europe, Thomas Boleyn's charm won many admirers, including Archduchess Margaret of Austria, the daughter of Maximilian I, the Holy Roman Emperor. During this period, she ruled the Netherlands on behalf of her father and she was so impressed with Boleyn that she offered his daughter Anne a place in her household. Ordinarily, a girl had to be 12 years old to have such an honour, but Anne may have been somewhat younger, as the Archduchess affectionately referred to her as "La petite Boleyn". It is not known if this was in reference to Anne's age or her stature. She made a good impression in the Netherlands with her manners and studiousness and lived there from the spring of 1513 until her father arranged for her to become a maid-of-honour to Henry VIII's sister, Mary Tudor, Queen of France in the winter of 1514.

Time in France

In France, Anne was a maid-of-honour to Queen Mary, and afterward Queen Claude of France. In Queen Claude's household, she completed her study of French and developed an interest in fashion and religious philosophy. She also acquired a thorough knowledge of French culture and etiquette. She made the acquaintance of the King's sister Marguerite d'Angouleme, a patron of humanists and an author in her own right who encouraged Anne's interest in poetry and literature.

Her education in France would later prove to be of great value. Anne would make a good impression with her style and fashion sense, inspiring many new trends among the ladies of England. William Forrest, author of a contemporary poem about Catherine of Aragon, complimented Anne's "passing excellent" skill as a dancer. "Here," he wrote, "was [a] fresh young damsel, that could trip and go." These graces were important, as Anne was not considered to have conventional beauty. One historian compiled a number of descriptions and concluded:

She was never described as a great beauty, but even those who loathed her admitted that she had a dramatic allure. Her olive complexion and straight black hair gave her an exotic aura in a culture that saw milk-white paleness as essential to beauty. Her eyes were especially striking: 'black and beautiful' wrote one contemporary, while another averred they were 'always most attractive,' and that she 'well knew how to use them with effect.'

People seemed primarily attracted by Anne's charisma:

Anne’s charm lay not so much in her physical appearance as in her vivacious personality, her gracefulness, her quick wit and other accomplishments. She was petite in stature, and had an appealing fragility about her...she shone at singing, making music, dancing and conversation...Not surprisingly, the young men of the court swarmed around her.

Anne's experience in France also made her a devout Christian in the new tradition of Renaissance humanism, although calling her a Protestant would be an overstatement. While she would later hold the position that the papacy was a corrupting influence on Christianity, her conservative tendencies could be seen in her devotion to the Virgin Mary. At this stage of her life, Anne was described as "sweet and cheerful". She enjoyed gambling, drinking wine, and gossiping. She was brave and emotional, however Anne could also be extravagant, neurotic, vindictive, and bad-tempered:

To us she appears inconsistent—religious yet aggressive, calculating yet emotional, with the light touch of the courtier yet the strong grip of the politician...A woman in her own right—taken on her own terms in a man’s world; a woman who mobilized her education, her style and her presence to outweigh the disadvantages of her sex; of only moderate good looks, but taking a court and a king by storm. Perhaps, in the end, it is Thomas Cromwell’s assessment that comes nearest: intelligence, spirit and courage.

Her French education ended in the winter of 1521, when Anne was summoned back to England by her father. She sailed from Calais, which was then still an English possession, in January 1522.

At the court of Henry VIII (1522-1533)

Anne was recalled to marry her Irish cousin, James Butler. This was in attempt to settle a dispute involving the title and estates of the Earldom of Ormonde. The 7th Earl of Ormonde had died in 1515, leaving his two daughters, Margaret Boleyn and Anne St. Leger, as co-heiresses. In Ireland, a remote cousin named Sir Piers Butler contested the will and claimed the Earldom for himself. Sir Thomas Boleyn, being the son of the eldest daughter, felt that the title belonged to him and protested to his brother-in-law, the Duke of Norfolk, who spoke to the King about the matter. Fearful that this dispute could very well provide the spark to ignite a civil war in Ireland, the King sought to resolve the problem by arranging an alliance between Piers's son, James, and Anne Boleyn. She would bring her Ormonde inheritance as dowry and thus end the dispute. The plan ended in failure, perhaps because Sir Thomas was hoping for a grander marriage for his daughter. Whatever the reason, the marriage negotiations came to a complete halt.

Anne's sister, Mary, was at this time the King's mistress. Mary was the wife of Sir William Carey, a Gentleman of the King's Privy Chamber. It has long been suspected that one or both of Mary's children were fathered by Henry VIII, although some writers, such as Alison Weir, now question whether Henry Carey, Mary's son, was fathered by the King. Anne Boleyn was sent to the court of Henry VIII as a maid-of-honour to Queen Catherine. Anne made her début at a masquerade ball on 4 March 1522, where she was described as a woman of "charm, style and wit, and will and savagery which make her a match for Henry". There she performed an elaborate dance accompanying the King's younger sister Mary, several other great ladies of the court and her own sister. All wore gowns of white satin embroidered with gold thread. Within a few weeks of this performance, Anne was known as the most fashionable and accomplished woman at the court and she has been referred to as a "glass of fashion".

King Henry VIII of England formed a violent passion for Anne.

During this time, Anne was courted by Lord Percy, son of the Earl of Northumberland. The exact nature of their relationship is unclear. A priest, George Cavendish, who disliked Anne but was friendly with Lord Percy, later stated categorically that the two had not been lovers. It thus seems unlikely that their relationship was sexual. The romance was broken off in 1523 when Percy's father refused to support their engagement. According to George Cavendish, Anne was briefly sent from court to her family’s countryside estates, but it is not known for how long. When she returned to court, she gathered a group of female friends and male admirers around herself, but became famous for her ability to keep men at arm's length. Her cousin, the poet Sir Thomas Wyatt wrote about her in the poem, Whoso List to Hunt, in which he described her as unobtainable and headstrong, despite seeming demure and quiet. In 1525, Henry VIII became enamoured with her and began his pursuit.

Anne resisted his attempts to seduce her and she refused to become his mistress, as her sister had. Henry was all the more attracted to her because of this refusal and he pursued her relentlessly. Anne continued to reject his advances by saying, "I beseech your highness most earnestly to desist, and to this my answer in good part. I would rather lose my life than my honesty."

Henry's annulment

It is possible that the idea of annulment had suggested itself to the King much earlier than this, and it is highly probable that it was motivated by his desire for a male heir. Before his father King Henry VII ascended the throne, England had been beset by civil warfare over rival claims to the English crown and Henry wanted to avoid a similar uncertainty over the succession. The King had no living sons: all Catherine of Aragon's children except his daughter Mary had died in infancy. Anne saw her opportunity in Henry's infatuation and determined that she would only yield as his acknowledged queen.

Catherine of Aragon, first wife of Henry VIII.

In 1528, sweating sickness broke out with great severity. In London, the mortality rate was great and the court was dispersed. The King left London, frequently changing his residence. It is believed that Anne contracted and survived the sickness in June. Henry sent his second physician, Dr. William Butts to Hever Castle to care for her. It soon became the one absorbing object of the King's desires to secure an annulment from Catherine. Henry set his hopes upon a direct appeal to the Holy See, acting in this independently of Cardinal Wolsey, to whom he at first communicated nothing of his plans so far as they related to Anne. William Knight, the King's secretary, was sent to Pope Clement VII to sue for the annulment of his marriage with Catherine, on the ground that the dispensing bull of Pope Julius II was obtained by false pretences. Henry also petitioned, in the event of his becoming free, a dispensation to contract a new marriage with any woman even in the first degree of affinity, whether the affinity was contracted by lawful or unlawful connection. This clearly referred to Anne.

As the Pope was at that time the prisoner of Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, Knight had some difficulty in obtaining access to him. In the end, the King's envoy had to return without accomplishing much, though the conditional dispensation for a new marriage was granted. Henry had now no choice but to put his great matter into the hands of Wolsey. Wolsey did all he could to secure a decision in the King's favour. How far the Pope was influenced by Charles V in his resistance, it is difficult to say, but it is clear Henry saw that the Pope was unlikely to give him an annulment from the emperor's aunt. The Pope forbade Henry to proceed with a new marriage before a decision was rendered in Rome. Convinced that he was treacherous, Anne Boleyn maintained pressure until Wolsey was dismissed from public office in 1529. The Cardinal begged her to help him return to power, but she refused. He then allegedly began a secret plot to have Anne forced into exile and began communicating with the Pope to that end. When this was discovered, Henry ordered Wolsey's arrest and had it not been for his death from an illness in 1530, he might have been executed for treason. A year later, Queen Catherine was banished from court and her old rooms were given to Anne. Public support, however, remained with Queen Catherine. One evening in the autumn of 1531, Anne was dining at a manor house on the river and was almost seized by a crowd of angry, hostile women. Anne just barely managed to escape by boat. With Wolsey gone, Anne had considerable power over government appointments and political matters. When Archbishop of Canterbury William Warham died, the Boleyn family's chaplain, Thomas Cranmer, was appointed to the vacant position. Through the intervention of the King of France, this was conceded by Rome, the pallium being granted to him by Clement VII.

The breaking of the power of Rome in England proceeded little by little. In 1532, a supporter of Anne, Sir Thomas Cromwell, brought before Parliament a number of acts including the Supplication against the Ordinaries and the Submission of the Clergy, which recognised royal supremacy over the church. Following these acts, Sir Thomas More resigned as Chancellor, leaving Cromwell as Henry's chief minister.

Marriage

Six wives of Henry VIII
and years of marriage

Catherine of Aragon
m. 1509–1533

Anne Boleyn
m. 1533–1536

Jane Seymour
m. 1536–1537

Anne of Cleves
m. 1540

Catherine Howard
m. 1540–1542

Catherine Parr
m. 1543–1547

During this period, Anne Boleyn also played a role in England's international position by solidifying an alliance with France. She established an excellent rapport with the French ambassador, Gilles de la Pommeraie. Anne and Henry attended a meeting with King Francis I at Calais in the winter of 1532, in which Henry hoped he could enlist the support of King Francis for his new marriage. Anne's position continued to rise.

On 1 September 1532, she was created suo jure Marquess of Pembroke, and became the most prestigious non-royal woman in the realm. She was the first female commoner to become a Peer by direct creation (as opposed to by marriage or inheritance); and she remains the only woman ever to have been made a marquess in her own right. She is sometimes incorrectly described as "Marchioness of Pembroke", but she was known as the Marquess. The Pembroke title was of emotional value to the Tudor family: Henry's great-uncle, Jasper Tudor, had held the title of Earl of Pembroke. With her later conviction for treason, the title was confiscated.

Anne’s family also profited from the relationship; her father, already Viscount Rochford, was created Earl of Wiltshire and, by means of a deal made by the King with Anne’s Irish cousins, the Butler family, he was also made Earl of Ormonde. At the magnificent banquet to celebrate her father's elevation to the Earldom of Wiltshire, Anne took precedence over the Duchesses of Suffolk and Norfolk, seated in the place of honour beside the King which was usually occupied by the Queen. Thanks to Anne's intervention, her widowed sister Mary received an annual pension of £100, and Mary's son, Henry Carey, received his education in a prestigious Cistercian monastery. The conference at Calais was a political triumph, since the French government gave its support for Henry's re-marriage. Soon after returning to Dover in England, Henry and Anne went through a secret wedding service. She soon became pregnant and, as was the custom with royalty, there was a second wedding service, which took place in London on 25 January 1533. Events now began to move at a quick pace. On 23 May 1533, Cranmer, sitting in judgment at a special court convened at Dunstable Priory to rule on the validity of the King's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, declared the marriage of Henry and Catherine null and void. Five days later, on 28 May 1533, Cranmer declared the marriage of Henry and Anne to be good and valid.

Queen of England (1533-1536)

Catherine was formally stripped of her title as Queen and Anne was consequently crowned Queen Consort on 1 June 1533 in a magnificent ceremony at Westminster Abbey with a sumptuous banquet afterward. On the previous day, Anne had taken part in an elaborate procession through the streets of London seated in an open litter of white cloth of gold resting on two palfries caparisoned in white damask. She wore a surcoat and mantle of white tissue trimmed with ermine, and her long, straight black hair hung down from a coif encircled with rich stones. The public's response to her appearance had been lukewarm. Meanwhile, the House of Commons had forbidden all appeals to Rome and exacted the penalties of præmunire against all who introduced papal bulls into England. It was only then that Pope Clement at last took the step of launching sentences of excommunication against the King and Cranmer, declaring at the same time the Archbishop's decree of annulment to be invalid and the marriage with Anne null and void. The papal nuncio was withdrawn from England and diplomatic relations with Rome were broken off. In response, the Peter's Pence Act was passed in England and it reiterated that England had "no superior under God, but only your Grace" and that Henry's "imperial crown" had been diminished by "the unreasonable and uncharitable usurpations and exactions" of the Pope. In defiance of the Pope, the Church of England was now under Henry's control, not Rome's. Anne, Cranmer, and Cromwell were delighted at this development. News of the start of the English Reformation spread through Europe, and Anne was hailed as a heroine by some Protestant figures. It is said that even Martin Luther viewed her rise to the throne as a good sign.

Birth of Elizabeth

After her coronation, Anne settled into a quiet routine at the King's favourite residence, Greenwich Palace, to prepare for the birth of her first baby. The child was born slightly prematurely on 7 September 1533. Between three and four o'clock in the afternoon, Anne gave birth to a girl, who was christened Elizabeth, probably in honour of Henry's mother, Elizabeth of York.

Greenwich Palace, after a 17th-century drawing

The little princess was given a splendid christening, but Anne feared that Catherine's daughter, Mary, would threaten Elizabeth’s position. Henry soothed his wife's fears by separating Mary from her many servants and sending her to Hatfield House, where Princess Elizabeth would be living with her own magnificent staff of servants. The country air was better for the baby's health, and Anne was an affectionate mother who regularly visited her daughter. She often told Elizabeth the love she had for her.

The new Queen had a larger staff of servants than Catherine had kept. There were over 250 servants to tend to her personal needs, everyone from priests to stable-boys. There were also over 60 maids-of-honour who served her and accompanied her to social events. She also employed several priests who acted as her confessors, chaplains, and religious advisers. One of these was Matthew Parker, who would become one of the chief architects of Anglican thought during the reign of Anne's daughter Elizabeth I.

Strife with the king

John Fisher by Hans Holbein the Younger.

The King and Queen were not pleased with married life. The royal couple enjoyed periods of calm and affection, but Henry's frequent infidelities greatly upset his new wife, who reacted with tears and rage to each new mistress. For his part, Henry disliked Anne’s constant irritability and violent temper. After a false pregnancy or miscarriage in 1534, he saw her failure to give him a son as a betrayal. As early as Christmas 1534, Henry was discussing with Cranmer and Cromwell the chances of leaving Anne without having to return to Catherine.

Anne, unaware of the dangerous position she was in, presided over a magnificent court. She spent huge sums on gowns, jewels, head-dresses, ostrich-feather fans, riding equipment, and the finest furniture and upholstery from across the world. Numerous palaces were renovated to suit her extravagant tastes. Anne also began to share in the blame for the tyranny of her husband's government. Public opinion of her dropped following her failure to produce a son. It sank even lower following the executions in 1535 of her enemies, the Bishop of Rochester, John Fisher, and Sir Thomas More. Scenes of friction also took place between the Queen and her stepdaughter, Princess Mary, whom Anne called "the cursed bastard". She confiscated Mary's jewels and even spoke of having her poisoned.

Downfall and execution (1536)

On 8 January 1536, news reached the King and Queen that Catherine of Aragon had died. Upon hearing the news of her death, Henry and Anne reportedly decked themselves in bright yellow clothing; some have concluded this was to celebrate, others have pointed out that it was the Spanish colour for mourning. Anne, for her part, attempted to make peace with Princess Mary as a line of defence. Mary rebuffed these overtures, perhaps because rumours circulated that Catherine had been poisoned by Anne and/or Henry. The rumours were born after the discovery during her embalming that her heart was blackened. Modern medical experts are in agreement that this was not due to poisoning, but rather to cancer of the heart, something which was not understood at the time.

Jane Seymour was Henry's third wife.

The Queen, pregnant again, was aware of the dangers if she failed to give birth to a son. With Catherine dead, Henry would be free to remarry without any taint of illegality.

Later that month, the King was unhorsed in a tournament and was badly injured. It seemed for a time that his life was in danger. When news of this accident reached the Queen, she was apparently sent into shock and miscarried a male foetus that was about 15 weeks old. This happened on the very day of Catherine’s funeral, 29 January 1536. According to most observers, this personal loss was the beginning of the end of the royal marriage.

Given Henry's desperate desire for a son, the sequence of Anne's pregnancies has attracted much interest. Author Mike Ashley speculated that Anne had two stillborn children after Elizabeth's birth and before the birth of the male child she miscarried in 1536. Most sources attest only to the birth of Elizabeth in September 1533, a possible miscarriage in the summer of 1534, and the miscarriage of a male child, of almost four months gestation, in January 1536. As Anne recovered from what would be her final miscarriage, Henry declared that his marriage had been the product of witchcraft. The King's new mistress, Jane Seymour, was quickly moved into new quarters. This was followed by Anne's brother being refused a prestigious court honour, the Order of the Garter, which was instead given to Sir Nicholas Carew.

Charges of adultery, incest, and treason

Thomas Cromwell, Anne's one-time ally, arranged the plot that caused her death.

In the final days of April, a Flemish musician in Anne's service named Mark Smeaton was arrested and tortured. He initially denied that he was the Queen’s lover, but under torture he confessed. Another courtier, Henry Norris was arrested on May Day, but since he was an aristocrat, he could not be tortured. He denied his guilt and swore that Queen Anne was also innocent. Sir Francis Weston was arrested two days later on the same charge. William Brereton, a groom of the King's privy chamber, was also apprehended on grounds of adultery. The final accused was Queen Anne's own brother, arrested on charges of incest and treason, accused of having a sexual relationship with his sister over the last twelve months.

On 2 May 1536, Anne was arrested at luncheon and taken to the Tower of London. In the Tower, she suffered a minor nervous breakdown, demanding to know full details of her family's whereabouts and the charges against her. Four of the men were tried in Westminster on 12 May 1536. Weston, Brereton and Norris publicly maintained their innocence and only the tortured Smeaton supported the Crown by pleading guilty. Three days later, Anne and George Boleyn were tried separately in the Tower of London. She was accused of adultery, incest and high treason.

Final hours

Although the evidence against them was unconvincing, the accused were found guilty and condemned to death by their peers. George Boleyn and the other accused men were executed on May 17 1536. Lord Kingston, the keeper of the Tower, reported that Anne seemed very happy and ready to be done with life. The King commuted Anne's sentence from burning to beheading and employed a swordsman from Saint-Omer for the execution, rather than having a queen beheaded with the common axe. They came for Anne on the morning of May 19 to take her to the Tower Green. Anthony Kingston, the Constable of the Tower, wrote:

This morning she sent for me, that I might be with her at such time as she received the good Lord, to the intent I should hear her speak as touching her innocency always to be clear. And in the writing of this she sent for me, and at my coming she said, 'Mr. Kingston, I hear I shall not die afore noon, and I am very sorry therefore, for I thought to be dead by this time and past my pain.' I told her it should be no pain, it was so little. And then she said, 'I heard say the executioner was very good, and I have a little neck,' and then put her hands about it, laughing heartily. I have seen many men and also women executed, and that they have been in great sorrow, and to my knowledge this lady has much joy in death. Sir, her almoner is continually with her, and had been since two o'clock after midnight.

She wore a red petticoat under a loose, dark grey gown of damask trimmed in fur. Her dark hair was bound up and she wore her customary French headdress. She made a short speech:

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.

Death and burial

Thomas Cranmer, who made no attempt to save Anne.

She then knelt upright, in the French style of executions. Her final prayer consisted of her repeating, "To Jesus Christ I commend my soul; Lord Jesus receive my soul." Her ladies removed the headdress and tied a blindfold over her eyes. The swordsman shouted, "Where is my sword?" and then beheaded her so she would not know that the sword was coming. The execution was swift and consisted of a single stroke. Across the river, Alexander Ales accompanied Thomas Cranmer as he walked in the gardens of Lambeth Palace. When they heard the cannon fire from the Tower, signalling the death of Anne, the archbishop looked up and proclaimed: "She who has been the English queen on earth will today become a Heaven's queen." He then sat down on a bench and wept. When the charges were first brought against Anne, Cranmer had expressed his astonishment to Henry and his belief that "she should not be culpable." Still, Cranmer felt vulnerable because of his closeness to the queen. On the night before the execution, he had declared Henry's marriage to Anne to have been void, like Catherine's before her. He made no serious attempt to save Anne's life.

Henry had failed to provide a proper coffin for Anne, and so her body and head were put into an arrow chest and buried in an unmarked grave in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula. Her body was identified during renovations of the chapel in the reign of Queen Victoria and Anne's final resting place is now marked in the marble floor.

Recognition and legacy

After her death, a number of myths sprung up about Anne. Many of these stories had their roots in anti-Anglican works written by Roman Catholics. It was reported by some that Anne suffered from polydactyly, having six fingers on her left hand. Others claimed she had a birthmark or mole on her neck that was at all times hidden by a jewel. Although the first legend is popular, there is no contemporary evidence to support it. None of the many eyewitness accounts of Anne Boleyn’s appearance—some of them meticulously detailed—mention any deformities, let alone a sixth finger. Moreover, as physical deformities were generally interpreted as a sign of evil, it is difficult to believe that Anne Boleyn would have gained Henry's romantic attention had she possessed any.

Following the coronation of her daughter as queen, Anne was venerated as a martyr and heroine of the English Reformation, particularly through the works of John Foxe, who argued that Anne had saved England from the evils of Roman Catholicism and that God had provided proof of her innocence and virtue by making sure her daughter, Elizabeth I, later became Queen regnant. Over the centuries, Anne has inspired or been mentioned in numerous artistic and cultural works. As a result, she has remained in the popular memory and Anne has been called "the most influential and important queen consort England has ever had."

Styles

• Mistress Anne Boleyn (1501/1507-1525)
• The Hon. Anne Boleyn (1525-1527)
• Lady Anne Boleyn (1527-1532)
• The Most. Hon. The Marquess of Pembroke (1532-1533)
• HM The Queen (1533-1536)

Ancestry

Ancestors of Anne Boleyn

16. Thomas Boleyn (1421–?)

8. Sir Geoffrey Boleyn (1437–c. 1463)

17. Anne Bracton

4. Sir William Boleyn (?–1505)

18. Thomas Hoo, 1st Lord Hoo (?–c. 1455)

9. Ann Hoo (c. 1425–c. 1484)

19. Elizabeth Wychingham

2. Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire (1477–1538/9)

20. James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormonde (1392–1452)

10. Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormonde (1450–?)

21. Elizabeth Beauchamp (1410–?)

5. Margaret Butler (c. 1465–1539/1540)

22. Sir Richard Hankford (1397–1431)

11. Anne Hankford (c. 1431–1485)

23. Lady Anne de Montagu ((1400–1457)

1. Anne Boleyn (1501/1507–1536)

24. Sir Robert Howard (?1385–1436)

12. John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk (1385?–1436)

25. Lady Margaret Mowbray

6. Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk (1443–1524)

26. Sir William de Moleyns (1378–1425)

13. Catherine Moleyns

27. Marjery Whalesborough (?–1438)

3. Lady Elizabeth Howard (1480–1538)

28. Sir Philip Tilney (1437–c. 1453)

14. Sir Frederick Tylney

29. Isabel Thorp (?–1436)

7. Elizabeth Tilney (before 1462–1497)

30. Sir Lawrence Cheney (c. 1396–1461)

15. Elizabeth Cheney

31. Elizabeth Cokayn

See also

• List of English consorts

References

• The Reformation Parliament, 1529-1536 by Stanford E. Lehmberg (1970).
• Tower Of London: A History of England From the Norman Conquest by Christopher Hibbert (1971).
• Henry VIII and his Court by Neville Williams (1971).
• The Life and Times of Henry VIII by Robert Lacey (1972).
• Henry VIII by J. J. Scarisbrick (1972) ISBN 978-0520011304.
• Anne Boleyn by Professor Eric Ives (1986).
• The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family politics at the court of Henry VIII by R.M. Warnicke (1989) ISBN 0521406773.
• The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir (1991) ISBN 0802136834.
• The Wives of Henry VIII by Lady Antonia Fraser (1992) ISBN 067973001X.
• English Reformations by Christopher Haigh (1993).
• Divorced Beheaded Survived: A Feminist Reinterpretation of the Wives of Henry VIII by Karen Lindsey (1995) ISBN 0201408236.
• Europe and England in the Sixteenth Century by T. A. Morris (1998).
• New Worlds, Lost Worlds by Susan Brigden (2000).
• A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World?: 3000 BC–AD 1603 by Simon Schama (19 October 2000) ISBN 0-563-38497-2.
• British Kings & Queens by Mike Ashley (2002) ISBN 0-7867-1104-3.
• Henry VIII: The King and His Court by Alison Weir (2002) ISBN 034543708X.
• Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII by David Starkey (2003) ISBN 0060005505.
• Anne Boleyn: A New Life of England's Tragic Queen by Joanna Denny (2004) ISBN 074995051X.
• The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn by Eric Ives (2004) ISBN 1405134631.
• Starkey, David. Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII. New York: HarperCollins, 2003.

Further reading

• Anne Boleyn by Marie-Louise Bruce (1972).
• The Challenge of Anne Boleyn by Hester W. Chapman (1974).
• The Politics of Marriage by David Loades (1994).
• Doomed Queen Anne by Caroline Meyer (2002).

External links

• A geo-biography tour of the Six Wives of Henry VIII on Google Earth

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