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Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn is the most controversial woman ever to wear the crown of England. Like Elizabeth Woodville, she rose from humble origins to marry the king but her king was already married. By deciding to marry, Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII set in motion a divorce which dragged on for over six years and dramatically changed the course of English history. Anne Boleyn had a huge impact on religion in England and helped to shape the course England would take into the early modern period. In spite of this, however, she was never popular and Anne’s security was ultimately based on maintaining the king’s love. One of the most studied of her generation, Anne Boleyn’s life held moments of great triumph and calamity. She is also one of the most vilified, though Henry should bear most of the blame, as he held the power in their relationship. Anne ended up an unfortunate victim, just like Henry’s first wife, Catherine of Aragon.

Anne Boleyn was probably born in 1500 at Blickling Hall in Norfolk.¹ Anne’s father was Sir Thomas Boleyn whose family had married well, over a number of generations. Thomas had continued his family’s policy of good marriages, marrying Elizabeth Howard, sister of the Duke of Norfolk. The Howards were one of the premier families in England and Anne would have been aware of the advantages of her connection to the family from an early age. Both of Anne’s parents also had strong connections with the court and her mother had been one of Catherine of Aragon’s ladies.² In 1512 Sir Thomas Boleyn was sent as ambassador to Margaret of Austria in Brussels and the two got on well.³ It is likely that Margaret offered to take one of his daughters into her household during his stay in Brussels and Thomas, perhaps viewing his younger daughter as more promising than his elder Mary, sent Anne.

Margaret of Austria’s court was renowned throughout Europe as a centre of learning and Anne appears to have quickly absorbed its culture. Anne was famous throughout her life for her intelligence and she learnt French easily, as a language in which she was noted for being fluent. Anne probably enjoyed the status of being one of Margaret’s maids of honour but she did not stay there long. In August 1514, England switched its allegiance from the Empire to France and Thomas was obliged to write to Margaret for the release of his daughter.⁴ Anne’s French skills were probably required and at some point in late 1514 she travelled to Paris to join the household of Mary Tudor, Henry VIII’s sister and the new Queen of France. Anne was probably sorry to leave Margaret of Austria but she flourished in France where her sister was also one of the queen’s ladies. Mary Tudor returned to England in April 1515 and was accompanied by Mary Boleyn, who had already disgraced herself by becoming the mistress of the French king. Anne, however, passed into the household of the new Queen of France, Claude.

Anne Boleyn’s life in France is not recorded in any sources but she was young and probably quickly became French in all but birth. It is likely that she took part in Claude’s coronation at St Denis in 1516 and other ceremonial events at the French court. Anne clearly received an excellent education in France and she is known to have been able to play the lute and sing and dance well. She would probably have been happy to remain in France. In 1515, however, Anne’s great-grandfather, the Earl of Ormonde, died. The earl had expressed a wish that he be succeeded by his grandson, Sir Thomas Boleyn, but, soon after his death, the earldom was seized by his cousin, Piers Butler. Thomas appealed for the title to the king and the dispute dragged on for several years. In 1522, Cardinal Wolsey brokered a solution, that Piers Butler would keep the title and his eldest son, James Butler, would marry Thomas’s only unmarried daughter, Anne Boleyn.

The solution suited the king and Anne was duly sent for, arriving at the English court in 1522. Anne quickly made a stir. According to George Wyatt, ‘in beauty she was to manie inferior, but for behaviour manners, attire and tonge she excelled them all. For she had bene brought up in France’.⁵ Anne Boleyn was never called a beauty and did not conform to contemporary ideals of beauty. She had a dark complexion with dark eyes and dark hair. It is also possible that she had a rudimentary sixth finger on one hand which she disguised with hanging sleeves, something which might have been taken as a sign of witchcraft.⁶ Her French upbringing had taught Anne grace and an ability to make the most of herself. She stood out as exotic amongst the Englishwomen of the court. In March 1522, she was one of the seven ladies chosen to take part in a masque before the court.⁷ The seven ladies stood in a wooden castle and were each given a virtue to represent, the king’s sister taking ‘Beauty’ and Anne, appropriately as it turned out, playing ‘Perseverance’. The seven ladies wore white satin and bonnets of gold and jewels and defended their castle with rose petals against a company of knights, led by the king. Anne must have greatly enjoyed herself and her place in the masque demonstrates just how highly she was held amongst the ladies of the court.

Anne is little documented between 1522 and 1526 but she appears to have quickly established herself as one of Catherine of Aragon’s ladies. Negotiations for her marriage to James Butler dragged on but it soon became clear that they would come to nothing, perhaps due to her father’s unwillingness to abandon his hopes of a title. Anne enjoyed court life and it is likely that she would also have been unwilling to marry her Irish cousin and leave court for his estates. Some time after her arrival at court she also became involved with another, more eligible, suitor. According to Cavendish’s Life of Wolsey, Henry Percy, who was heir to the earldom of Northumberland, often spent time in the queen’s chambers and would flirt with her ladies there.⁸ It quickly became apparent that he preferred Anne Boleyn to all the other ladies:

There grew such a secret love between them that at length they were engaged together, intending to marry. This came to the king’s knowledge, who was then much offended. Wherefore he could no longer hide his secret affection, but revealed his secret intention unto my lord Cardinal in that behalf; and consulted with him to break the engagement.⁹

It is unlikely that the king had any romantic feelings for Anne at that time but he probably still hoped that the Butler marriage would occur and was angry that Anne and Percy should have gone against his wishes. Henry may well have felt that Anne was too far beneath Percy socially to ever be a credible wife for him.

Following the king’s intervention, Henry Percy was summoned to Wolsey and rebuked by the Cardinal for attaching himself to a woman who was beneath him.¹⁰ Percy wept and tried to defend Anne, saying that she was the woman he loved most and pointing out her noble descent. This was fruitless and Wolsey sent for Percy’s father who took him back to Northumberland and married him swiftly to the Earl of Shrewsbury’s daughter. It is unclear whether Anne returned Henry Percy’s affection, but she may have done. Certainly, she blamed Cardinal Wolsey for the loss of such a grand marriage and later became his greatest enemy. There was certainly a secret engagement between Anne and Henry Percy, although both attempted to suppress the knowledge of this once she became queen. Anne’s affair with Henry Percy clearly shows her appeal and ability to breach convention and arrange a marriage for herself. It also shows clearly, for the first time, the great ambition which the daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn could harbour.

Henry Percy was not the only person with whom Anne became romantically involved during her first years at court. She also attracted the attentions of the married poet, Sir Thomas Wyatt. The exact nature of Anne and Wyatt’s relationship is unclear and Anne, who was trying to arrange an advantageous marriage, may have seen the relationship as merely harmless flirtation. Wyatt was clearly interested in Anne and in one poem refers to his love for ‘Brunet’.¹¹ This Brunet is obviously Anne Boleyn and Wyatt’s original final line for this poem refers to ‘Her that did set our country in a rore’. There is no doubt that this refers to Anne. The exact nature of Anne and Wyatt’s relationship is perhaps summed up in another poem by Wyatt:

Whose list to hunt: I know where is an hind

But as for me, alas I may no more

The vain trevail hath wearied me so sore,

I am of them that farthest come behind

Yet may I by no means be wearied mind

Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore

Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore,

Sithens in a net I seek to hold the wind

Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt,

As well as I may spend his time in vain,

And graven with diamonds in letters plain

There is written her fair neck round about

‘Noli me tangere, for Caesar’s I am,

And wild for to hold, though I seem tame’.¹²

From the evidence of this poem it seems likely that Wyatt pursued Anne, hoping that she would become his mistress but that this affair was never consummated and Anne considered him the least of her suitors. Anne knew the value of marriage and would not have thrown away her propects for a mere flirtation. Nevertheless the liaison did prove useful to her since Wyatt’s interest in Anne seems to have triggered the king’s own interest in her.

The exact date of the king’s interest in Anne Boleyn is unclear but there is no doubt that she was present at court for some time before she came to his attention. Her sister, Mary Boleyn, had been the king’s mistress during the early 1520s and it is likely that initially Henry expected Anne to fulfil a similar role to that of her sister. A number of love letters written by Henry to Anne survive and it seems that he first sought to offer her the position of his official mistress. Anne, perhaps remembering how her own sister had been cast aside by the king once he had tired of her, refused Henry’s offer and instead retreated to her family home of Hever. Henry did not, however, forget about Anne and wrote to her begging her to return to court.¹³

By around 1526, Henry was apparently completely confused about Anne’s conduct towards him. In his fourth surviving letter to Anne he begged to know her feelings towards him:

I beseech you now with all my heart definitely to let me know your whole mind as to the love between us; for necessity compels me to plague you for a reply, having been for more than a year now struck by the dart of love, and being uncertain either of failure or of finding a place in your heart and affection.¹⁴

The fact that Anne was unavailable caused what had begun as a flirtation to become an obsession. By the time of this letter, Henry was desperate to win Anne and undertones in the letter suggest that he would even be prepared to offer her marriage. On receiving the letter, Anne must have realised that she was now being offered something more than merely being Henry’s mistress. Although her reply does not survive, Henry’s next letter refers to her submission to him and a present that she commissioned representing a maiden in a storm-tossed ship.¹⁵ Henry signed this letter with a drawing of a heart and it is clear that this was the moment that their relationship became a serious commitment for them both.

Anne made it clear to Henry from the start that only marriage would suffice. She may well have based her stance on that taken by Elizabeth Woodville and from this would have known the heights a woman who stood out against the king could reach. Henry had been married to Catherine of Aragon for almost twenty years by the time he began his relationship with Anne but his passion for Anne meant that he was eager to be rid of Catherine. Although Henry always claimed that it was his conscience that compelled him to leave an ungodly marriage with Catherine, who had been the wife of his elder brother, there is no doubt that in 1527 his instigation of divorce proceedings was due to his desire to marry Anne. Anne Boleyn was at first kept separate from the divorce but as time went by she was given more prominence at Henry’s court.

In December 1527, she moved to court permanently and kept a queenly state, despite the presence of her rival, Catherine.¹⁶ In 1527, Anne must have felt triumphant and she and Henry probably believed that their marriage was imminent. However, as the divorce dragged on, both became increasingly frustrated and Anne was able to direct Henry’s frustration towards her long-term enemy, Cardinal Wolsey. Anne appears to have been willing to work with Wolsey whilst she thought that he could procure the divorce for her. When it became apparent that he could not achieve this, she became hostile towards him, perhaps believing that he was deliberately procrastinating.

Wolsey knew of Anne’s attitude towards him and attempted to gain her favour through providing feasts and entertainments for her and the king.¹⁷ This did not help him however, and she built up an anti-Wolsey faction at court whilst he was absent on a diplomatic mission to France. She also spoke against Wolsey to Henry and took great pains to keep the two apart. One day when Wolsey had an appointment with Henry in the early morning, he arrived to find Henry ready to ride on a hunting expedition arranged by Anne.¹⁸Anne provided a picnic so that Henry would not need to return all day and Wolsey spent a fruitless day waiting for Henry to return before returning home without seeing him. Wolsey was unable to compete with the influence of Anne Boleyn and he was arrested for treason, primarily due to his inability to obtain Henry’s divorce. Wolsey died on 29 November 1530 on his way to prison.¹⁹

In spite of the delay in Henry’s divorce, Anne had gradually taken on more of a queenly role. On 8 December 1529, Sir Thomas Boleyn was made Earl of Wiltshire and Ormonde. Anne took the place of the queen at the celebrations the next day.²⁰ On 1 September 1532, Anne was also created Marquis of Pembroke in her own right and given £1,000 worth of land.²¹ On 11 October 1532, Henry and the new Lady Marquis sailed to Calais for a meeting with the French king.²² Anne must have been glad to return to France for a visit and she may have speculated just how much her status had changed in the decade since her return to England. Francis I of France certainly remembered Anne. On one occasion Anne and Francis dined together and then sat and talked privately. The recognition of Anne’s position by the King of France gave Anne and Henry confidence in French support for their marriage. They slept together for the first time in Calais and Anne must finally have been certain that her marriage would occur soon. Events were, in any event, forced to move quickly after the French visit and Anne became pregnant early in 1533.

By early 1533 it was clear to everyone that the Pope would never grant Henry his divorce. Catherine of Aragon was the aunt of the Emperor Charles V who was currently holding the Pope as a virtual prisoner and would never allow his aunt to be disgraced. After years of fruitless waiting, by 1533 both Henry and Anne had begun to look around for alternative solutions but it was Anne that took the initiative. At some point in the early 1530s, Anne acquired a copy of The Obedience of a Christian Man and How Christian Rulers Ought to Govern, which had been published by the religious reformer, William Tyndale.²³ This book suggested an answer to Henry’s problem and Anne marked out passages for Henry to read, including arguments that the king’s law was God’s law and not the law of the Pope. Henry was very taken with the idea and with the death of the elderly Archbishop of Canterbury, was able to put these ideas into reality. Henry appointed Anne’s chaplain, Thomas Cranmer, to the vacancy and with his archbishop’s compliance, declared himself Head of the Church of England, denying the Pope’s authority in England.

Anne was very interested in religious reform and must have approved of Henry’s actions towards the Church. According to her chaplain, William Latymer, Anne believed that her elevation to the queenship was the work of God.²⁴ Whilst Latymer wished to provide a flattering picture of Anne in his biography of her it is possible that Anne saw herself as appointed by God to spread reform. During her time as queen, she was certainly very interested in Protestantism. She is known to have patronised Protestants who had been persecuted on the continent, welcoming a Nicholas Borbonius who had been imprisoned in France for speaking against the Pope.²⁵ Anne also used her influence with Henry to have reforming churchmen appointed to prominent Church positions and tried actively to turn people away from the Pope. Whilst Anne was visiting Winchcombe during her marriage, she sent commissioners to investigate the relic of the blood of Christ that was housed at nearby Hailes Abbey.²⁶ The blood was found to be either that of a duck or red wax and Anne had Henry remove it from the abbey. Anne was clearly committed to reform in England and she is known to have kept a copy of the English Bible in her chamber so that anyone who wished to read it could do so. It certainly must have pleased Anne that her marriage led to the break with Rome and the English Reformation.

The date of Anne and Henry’s marriage was not recorded and it was deliberately kept secret whilst Henry’s divorce was finalised. They were probably married around 25 January 1533, around the time that Anne would have begun to suspect that she was pregnant.²⁷ Although the marriage remained secret for several months, Anne was jubilant and dropped hints to members of the court, claiming that her craving for apples meant that she was pregnant.²⁸ Anne finally appeared publicly as queen at Easter 1533.²⁹Henry wanted his second marriage to appear completely legitimate and arranged a grand coronation for Anne, intending to demonstrate the finality of what he had done for her. On 20 May 1533, Anne made a ceremonial entry into London and was given a gun salute from the Tower and the guns on the ships in the Thames.³⁰ She spent the night before her coronation in the royal apartments at the Tower and then, on 31 May set out for Westminster Abbey in a rich chariot, covered in cloth of silver and followed by an escort of ladies in gowns of crimson velvet. Anne must have been exhausted by her coronation, but also triumphant. Only the hostility of the crowds that flocked to see her procession must have marred the day for her and they reportedly taunted her with cries of ‘Ha! Ha!’ in a mocking salute to the entwined initials of Henry and Anne that appeared on banners around the city.

Anne Boleyn made many enemies during her rise to the queenship. She is known to have become estranged from her aunt, the Duchess of Norfolk, early in Henry’s courtship of her. The duchess was one of Catherine of Aragon’s most enthusiastic supporters.³¹Several reports state how, secure in the hold she had over the king, Anne became proud and haughty and she alienated many of her supporters. She also quarrelled with both her father and her uncle the Duke of Norfolk so her relations with Norfolk during her reign were always uneasy.³² It is likely that, in an apparently unassailable position after her marriage, Anne no longer needed the support of her family as she had once done, believing that Henry would protect her. Anne was also disliked by the majority of people of England. Catherine of Aragon and her daughter Mary were very popular in England and Anne Boleyn was seen as beligerent and Henry’s concubine. Anne must have known of the hostility towards her but it is likely that she did not believe it posed her any threat. Anne adopted as her motto, ‘the most happy’, and must have felt secure in her new position as queen in 1533.

Both Henry and Anne eagerly anticipated the birth of their child and Anne entered her confinement at Greenwich in early autumn. On 7 September 1533, she gave birth to a daughter, who was named Elizabeth, in honour of Henry’s mother.³³ The sex of their child must have been a huge blow to both parents and it is clear that both were confidently expecting a son. The child was perfect, however, resembling her father, and the couple appear to have tried to make the best of the situation.³⁴ After her initial disappointment evaporated, Anne probably believed that she would quickly bear another child. She was an attentive mother to Elizabeth. The child was fostered out at Hertford when she was just three months old, but she was brought to visit court often and Anne visited her regularly.³⁵ Anne took a great interest in her upbringing and welfare, regularly ordering clothes and presents for her daughter. She was also ambitious for Elizabeth and wished her to have the opportunity to learn Latin, a language of which Anne herself was ignorant.³⁶ She also wished Elizabeth to be taught Hebrew, Greek, Italian, Spanish and French. Despite her fondness for Elizabeth, Anne cannot have believed that she would remain Henry’s heir for long. She became pregnant within four months of Elizabeth’s birth and must have hoped that this would produce the son Henry required.³⁷ It would have been a blow to both her and Henry when she miscarried in July 1534. There is no evidence that she conceived again before late 1535.

Henry had been attracted by Anne’s confidence and her willingness to stand up to him and argue with him.³⁸ Whilst these were qualities that he admired in a mistress, he expected submission from his wife. In summer 1534, Anne discovered that Henry was having an affair with one of her ladies.³⁹ She remonstrated with him as she had many times before during their relationship but Anne must have been horrified by Henry’s reaction this time. Henry told her bluntly that it was not her place to criticise him and that she should remember where she came from. He also told her that he would not raise her again if he had the chance to. This exchange must have shocked Anne, concerned that she was losing her hold over Henry. However they appear to have been reconciled and in December 1534 it was Henry himself who informed her gently of the death of her pet dog.⁴⁰ In the summer and autumn of 1535, Anne and Henry went on progress together. This was a success and Anne became pregnant in October 1535, soon after their return.⁴¹Nonetheless by late 1535 Anne must have been aware that she had lost much of her influence over Henry and that she needed a son to safeguard her position as queen.

Anne must have been jubilant and hopeful of a happy future in January 1536 when she heard of Catherine of Aragon’s death that month. The event meant that Anne was the sole Queen of England and she must have felt as though a burden had been lifted from her. She is recorded as having celebrated the death with Henry by wearing yellow.⁴² She must have eagerly anticipated the birth of the child that she believed would ensure her own safety. On 24 January, however, Henry suffered a bad fall from his horse and was unconscious for several hours.⁴³ Anne was informed of the accident and was terrified. On 29 January 1536, the day of Catherine of Aragon’s funeral, Anne miscarried a male child.⁴⁴ Anne blamed her terror at Henry’s fall but the miscarriage caused a rift between Henry and Anne and at that point Henry may have begun to believe that Anne, like Catherine of Aragon before her, would not be able to bear him a living male child.

Despite her miscarriage, Anne’s position was still fairly strong in early 1536 and Henry does not seem to have been contemplating removing her. However in the spring of 1536 Anne’s fiery temper once again got the better of her and she fell out with Thomas Cromwell, the king’s first minister and her greatest supporter.⁴⁵ This quarrel ultimately proved fatal to Anne. Cromwell, probably fearing that she would attempt to bring him down, transferred his allegiance to her rival for Henry’s affections, her own lady-in-waiting, Jane Seymour. Anne probably did not realise just how dangerous her rift with Cromwell was and her fall was unexpected.

On 1 May 1536, Henry and Anne sat together to watch jousting at Greenwich.⁴⁶ Anne must have been perturbed when Henry rose suddenly during the jousting and left without saying a word. The next day Anne’s brother Viscount Rochford and a courtier, Henry Norris, both of whom had taken part in the tournament, were arrested and taken to the Tower.⁴⁷ It is unclear whether Anne heard of this before her own arrest that evening. She must have been surprised and frightened by her arrest and before entering the Tower she fell to her knees and begged God to help her, saying she was guilty of no crime.⁴⁸ She was taken inside the Tower and lodged in the same apartments in which she had stayed the night before her coronation, an irony that did not fail to escape Anne. She must have been horrified when she heard that she was accused of incest with her brother and adultery with the noblemen Henry Norris, Francis Weston and William Brerton and her musician, Mark Smeaton.⁴⁹ A woman as intelligent as Anne Boleyn would never have acted in such a foolhardy way and it is clear that these charges were a pretext to allow the king to be rid of his wife. Anne was tried within the Tower on 15 May and the result was a foregone conclusion. Anne’s uncle, Norfolk, presided over a court that sentenced her to be either burnt or beheaded, according to the king’s pleasure.

Anne and her brother defended themselves eloquently at their trials but for Anne her trial may have been the moment when she realised that Henry meant to kill her. She may previously have hoped that Henry would merely divorce her, but his problems with Catherine of Aragon meant that Henry did not want another ex-wife. Anne spent her final few days preparing herself for death. On 17 May 1536, Anne’s supposed lovers were taken out to Tower Hill and executed.⁵⁰ Anne must have known of these deaths and would have then considered her death a virtual certainty. She was probably also informed that on that same afternoon, Archbishop Cranmer held a church court at Lambeth and annulled her marriage due to her precontract with Henry Percy.⁵¹ Anne is known to have had a wry sense of humour and it may have touched her that she was being executed for adultery against a man to whom she had now officially never actually been married.

Anne Boleyn was led out onto Tower Green early the next day. As a concession to her, Henry had sent to France for a swordsman to cut off her head and it is possible that Anne herself requested this.⁵² She was probably consoled somewhat by the knowledge that she was to be dispatched by an expert and that it would be quicker than death by axe. Anne was dressed entirely in black and carried a book of psalms on her way to the scaffold.⁵³ It was customary for a condemned person to make a final speech on the scaffold. Anne’s speech appears remarkably conciliatory towards a husband who had condemned her to death and she may have feared for Elizabeth’s safety. Her speech went as follows:

Good Christian people, I am come hether to dye, for according to the lawe and by the lawe I am iudged to dye, and therefore I wyll speake nothing against it. I am come hether to accuse no man, nor to speake any thyng of that wherof I am accused and condemned to dye, but I pray God save the king and send him long to reign over you, for a gentler nor a more mercyfull prince was there neuer: and to me he was ever a good, a gentle, and sovereign lorde. And if any persone will medle of my cause, I require them to iudge the best. And thus I take my leave of the worlde and of you all, and I heartely desire you all to pray for me.⁵⁴

With these words, Anne, former Queen of England, knelt down and prayed, before being decapitated with one stroke of the sword.

The life and death of Anne Boleyn shocked Europe. She had been a controversial figure even in her own lifetime. She was an intelligent, ambitious woman and her life was one of great extremes. Anne was innocent of the charges of adultery and incest laid against her; most people in England would have seen them as a pretext to allow Henry to remarry. However as an Englishwoman Anne was as vulnerable as her predecessor, Elizabeth Woodville, had been when the protection of the king was withdrawn. Henry was free to execute her to rid himself of her, something that had not been possible in the case of his foreign-born wives. Anne Boleyn was a proud and aspiring woman and these facets of her character, so important in securing the throne for her, ultimately also led her to her death, as she quickly proved not to be the kind of wife that Henry wanted. This was not Anne’s fault and she never appears to have understood that what Henry admired in a mistress was not what he required in a wife. Although she could not have known it at the time, Anne Boleyn was the second wife of England’s most married monarch and her story was unnervingly echoed in that of her first cousin, Catherine Howard, who was destined to become Henry’s fifth queen.