Women's History Month, Day One

 Anne Boleyn

(Anne Boleyn by Unknown English artist late 16th century, based on a work of circa 1533-1536, National Portrait Gallery)

I will start off my month of bad-ass and inspirational women with the woman who first started my love of the Tudor period and inspired me to research further into history and that woman is Anne Boleyn.  Anyone who knows me well enough knows that I have been massively in love with Anne; her story, her character, her being, since I was in eighth grade. I still remember the moment in World History when my teacher, Mrs. Butler, talked about how Anne had come to England on a boat from France. How when she came to England, the King had been so determined to have her that he changed the world to get her. I still remember that, and the clear mental image I had in my head in that moment of a girl stepping off a boat into England, unknowingly about to change the world.  I have loved her since that moment and maybe it’s because I saw something of myself in her, a girl who was different than her peers, too smart for her own good, and who was determined that one day “the time would come.”

As I researched I discovered Anne Boleyn, the woman, the human being that has strengths and weaknesses. I loved her all the more for it. I will never say Anne Boleyn was a saint but nor will I ever say she was a she-devil but she was human. 
 For I have rejoiced in her rise, valued education with her, gushed over Henry’s love letters to her, proudly looked at her daughter, stressed over the religious and political issues, yelled in anger when Henry chased other women, despaired with her in the Tower, and stood tall with her as the executioner swung his sword.  

Below is a shortened biography of Anne (as short as I could possibly make it, I could really go on forever):

  Anne Boleyn was the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Boleyn born sometime in the early 1500s. She was born into a family of wealth and title, her mother was a Howard one of the highest families in the land and her father was the King’s Ambassador to France. She had one sister, probably older than her, Mary and a younger brother named George. We can assume Anne must have been a very bright young girl because at a young age she was sent off to have her education furthered at the court of Margret of Austria in Europe. Unlike many of the young girls in England, including her own sister, Anne was educated abroad for most of her young life. She spent a short time in the court of Margaret of Austria, where she writes her first known letter to her father, and then moved on to the court of France to join her sister. Originally there to serve under Henry VIII’s younger sister Mary, the soon to be dowager Queen of France, Anne would stay on afterward to serve the new Queen Claude. It is possible from working under this particular Queen; Anne blossomed and began to take interest in the Arts and Religion. Anne loved poetry, dancing, and she had developed a sympathy for the Evangelical reform in the church. Anne learned many things in France and it greatly shaped who she would become, and as one witness would say “no one would ever have taken her to be English by her manners but a native born Frenchwoman (Mitchell).”

Soon Anne left France to return to England where she had been intended to marry a James Butler to cement the Irish earldom of Ormonde for her family but negotiations for that didn’t work out. We do know that Anne’s first documented appearance in the English court was in 1522 at the pageant known as the Chateau Vert where she, appropriately as the future would show, played the role of the female virtue perseverance. Henry VIII at that point in time was still enjoying a short lived affair with her sister, Mary Boleyn. Not long after she came to court we know that she had a failed romance with another Henry, Henry Percy, the heir to the dukedom of Northumberland. The couple, according to certain sources, intended to marry but was separated by Cardinal Wolsey which according to Cavendish greatly angered Anne who promised “that if it were ever in her power, she would work the cardinal as much displeasure; as she did in deed after (Norton 42).”

Anne took center stage when she became the object of Henry VIII’s desire, but unlike her sister and perhaps because of what she had seen her sister go through, Anne refused to become the King’s mistress even going so far as to leave court for a while. No one knows for sure how or when their relationship started but we know by the late 1520s that Henry VIII was writing her love letters in which he refers to himself as her servant and on one letter even draws a heart and puts her initials inside it. When Henry eventually offered Anne marriage she agreed and sent him a jewel which featured a lady on board a storm tossed ship.  Now Henry was working to have his marriage to his first wife Katherine of Aragon annulled, on the grounds that she had been his brother’s widow and that Leviticus forbade the marriage.  Katherine was also a bit older than Henry and had failed to give him a son.  A divorce case which both Henry and Anne had expected to go quickly dragged on for seven years, with the Pope and the Catholic Church refusing to give Henry a divorce. During this time both Henry and Anne (behind the scenes) worked to remove the Queen. When Anne made a comment about how she would rather see the Queen “hanged than acknowledge her as her mistress,” the Spanish Ambassador Chapuys remarked that Anne “was braver than a lion.” Anne and her people also successfully worked to eliminate Cardinal Wolsey from the playing field as well. 

(King Henry and Anne Boleyn Deer shooting in Windsor Forest by William Powell Frith 1903)

By 1532 Henry and Anne had decided that they were done waiting and famously Anne had given Henry a book, William Tyndale’s The Obedience of a Christian Man, which encouraged the King to break with the Catholic Church. Henry is quoted have said when he read the book that “this is a book for me and all kings to read.”  Then in October of 1532 King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn visited the French King Francis I, to form an alliance and gain another royal’s approval for their marriage. It must have been given, for by January 25^th, 1533 Henry and Anne were married for the second time in England and Anne was pregnant. Only after they were married was Henry’s marriage to Katherine annulled and the break from Rome occurred. Anne was crowned Queen of England on June 1, 1533 and gave birth to the future Elizabeth I on September 7 in that same year.  Though the couple was initially upset at the sex of their child, Henry and Anne had hoped for a boy, it didn’t take long for them to start doting on their daughter.

Anne was not a popular Queen, due to the fact that she had replaced Katherine of Aragon but she was a patron of the arts and religious reformers. Anne chose the white falcon as her heraldic animal and personal badge. The falcon is a bird which is very aggressive and which represents a person who will never rest until their objectives are achieved (Heraldry and Coat of Arms Symbols). This bird can also represent fertility, grace, and charm (Mitchell). Henry and Anne famously fought a lot and made up just as often.  Anne was again pregnant at the beginning of 1536 but right after Katherine of Aragon’s death, the King had a bad jousting accident which Anne blamed for the miscarriage of their child not long after. Unfortunately for Anne, the pregnancy was far enough along for them to tell it the baby would have been a boy and everything seemed to fall apart after that.

There are many theories as to why the events of 1536 happened, one of the most probable is that Anne begun to disagree with Thomas Cromwell, the leading minster of the land, over religious issues and foreign policy. But the downfall began when rumors were being spread around Henry’s court that Anne had lovers. After a musician named Mark Smeaton surprisingly confessed (potentially under torture) people began to be arrested. Smeaton was arrested along with Henry Norris, Francis Weston, William Brereton, and Anne’s own brother George Boleyn.  Thomas Wyatt and Sir Richard Page were also arrested but then later released. When entering the Tower of London after her arrest Anne is said to have asked the Constable of the Tower, William Kingston, if she “would die without justice.” When he responded to her that even the lowliest peasants have justice, she is reported to have laughed quite a lot at that. They were all tried by a jury of their peers that had already decided that they were guilty and with the exception of Smeaton who stayed loyal to the Crown they all pled not guilty but they were found guilty and sentenced to death. 

(Anne Boleyn in the Tower by Edouard Cibot 1799–1877)

In Anne’s time at the Tower her true strength in the face of adversity showed. She is said to have defended herself more than ably at her trial and that they evidence was hardly satisfactory, even Chapuys who was never an Anne fan said the evidence wasn’t enough to make him believe she was guilty. Her brother and the men who had been accused with her were all executed on the 17^th of May 1536. In her final hours Anne even stated before and after the Communion that she was innocent, something she believed would have damned her soul if she was lying. Anne Boleyn was executed on the morning of May 19th, 1536 accused of adultery, incest, and high treason. She delivered a short speech in which she openly admitted she would not speak of that whereof she “was accused and condemned to die” (Ives 358). She asked for anyone who would meddle in her cause to judge the best and that she repeatedly prayed “To Christ I commend my soul, oh Lord God receive my soul” until her head was removed with one swing of the French sword (Ives 358). She was buried in the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula in the Tower of London with no marker (Ives 359). Henry would go on to marry four more times and although he did have a son with his third wife, it was Anne’s daughter Elizabeth that would one day become the great Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen.

Bad-ass Quotes (A few of my personal favorites):

-Written in a Book of Hours that is believed to have been with her in the Tower of London, written opposite the image of what is cited as the Coronation of the Virgin:

“Remember me when you do pray,

That hope doth lead from day to day.

Anne Boleyn”

 (Picture from Hever Castle's Twitter page)

-Book of Hours circa 1450 Bruges in which Anne Boleyn has written directly under an image of the Second Coming of Christ and the Resurrection of the Dead:

“Le temps viendra, Je (an image of an armillary sphere) Anne Boleyn” or in English “the time will come, I, Anne Boleyn”

 -After she had been found guilty and sentenced to death at her trial:

“My Lords, I will not say that your sentence is unjust, nor presume that my reasons can prevail against your convictions. I am willing to believe that you have sufficient reasons for what you have done; but then they must be other than those which have been produced at court, for I am clear of all the offenses which you then laid at my charge. I have ever been a faithful wife to the King, though I do not say I have always shown him that humility which his goodness to me, and the honors to which he raised me, merited.  I confess I have had jealous fancies and suspicions of him, which I had not discretion enough, and wisdom, to conceal at all times. But God knows, and is my witness, that I have not sinned against him in any other way. Think not I say this in the hope to prolong my life, for He who saveth from death hath taught me how to die, and He will strengthen my faith. Think not, however, that I am so bewildered in my mind as not to lay the honor of my chastity to heart now in mine extremity, when I have maintained it all my life long, much as ever queen did. I know these my last words, will avail me nothing but for the justification of my chastity and honor.  As for my brother and those others who are unjustly condemned, I would willingly suffer many deaths to deliver them, but since I see it so pleases the King, I shall willingly accompany them in death, with this assurance, that I shall lead an endless life with them in peace and joy, where I will pray to God for the King and for you, my lords.”

Books to Read:

The Anne Boleyn Papers by Elizabeth Norton

The Creation of Anne Boleyn by Susan Bordo

The life and death of Anne Boleyn: 'the most happy' by Eric Ives

The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir

Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII by David Starkey

Anne Boleyn’s Letter from the Tower by Sandra Vasoli

The Anne Boleyn Files website by Claire Ridgeway

Documentaries to Watch:

Henry and Anne the Lovers Who Made History, Suzannah Lipscomb

The Last Days of Anne Boleyn, a BBC documentary

Henry VIII and His Six Wives, Suzannah Lipscomb and Dan Jones

Secrets of the Six Wives, Lucy Worsley

The Six Wives of Henry VIII, David Starkey

Works Cited:

A Book of Hours. 1450, Bruges. Illuminated Book of Hours with images. Hever Castle, Kent.

"Armillary Sphere." Armillary Sphere. MMS Gardens. Web. 29 May 2015. <http://www.piam.com/mms_garden/extra1.html>.

"Anne Boleyn's Gossip Guide: A Courtly Entertainment: Le Chateau Vert and Anne Boleyn's First Appearance at Court." Anne Boleyn's Gossip Guide: A Courtly Entertainment: Le Chateau Vert and Anne Boleyn's First Appearance at Court. Web. 5 Mar. 2015. <http://www.anneboleynsgossipguide.com/2013/05/a-courtly-entertainment-le-chateau-vert.html>.)

A printed Book of Hours. 1528, Paris. Illuminated Book of Hours with images. Hever Castle, Kent.

Hall. (n.d.). Hall's chronicle : Containing the history of England, during the reign of Henry the Fourth, and the succeeding monarchs, to the end of the reign of Henry the Eighth, in which are particularly described the manners and customs of those periods. Carefully collated with the editions of 1548 and 1550. Web. January 23, 2015. http://www.archive.org/stream/hallschronicleco00halluoft#page/630/mode/2up

"Heraldry and Coat of Arms Symbols." Heraldry and Coat of Arms Symbols. Web. 29 May 2015. http://the-red-thread.net/genealogy/heraldry.html

Ives, Eric. The life and death of Anne Boleyn: 'the most happy'. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub. 2004. Print.

Mitchell, Chris. Henry and Anne: The Lovers Who Changed History (Part One and Two). Perf. Suzannah Lipscomb, Emma Connell, Jack Hawkins. Lion Television, 2014. Film.

Norton, Elizabeth. The Anne Boleyn Papers. Oxfordshire: Amberley Publishing, 2013. Print.

The falcon badge. 1530s. a historical letter T from ‘The Ecclesiaste.’ Alnwick Castle. Ives, Eric. The life and death of Anne Boleyn: 'the most happy'. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub. 2004. Plate 31. Print.

Weir, Alison. The Six Wives of Henry VIII. New York: Grove, 2007. Print.