Her Wordly Attraction...

by Roberta Philbrick

People have been attracted to the story of Anne Boleyn and her life with King Henry VIII for centuries…I believe the draw is because she was an “empowering” woman in a time where women had no “legitimate” power in the world and because she was once the “underdog” we can all relate to.

In the 1500’s the people of England and most other lands were ruled by fear. The church governed the masses with the fear of an afterlife in damnation. The Roman Catholic Church held their “virtual” power by keeping the public ignorant and not permitting the Bible to be translated into other languages. The Church itself feared, and rightly so, that if the general masses could read and actually interpret the bible for themselves, then in turn they would be capable of governing their daily lives and “afterlives”.

The English Monarchy ruled with fear by determining your place or “station” in daily life. In order to rise above your borne station or “class” in life you had to be in the favor of the “court” and the ruling monarchy. Anyone in the “court” fiercely protected themselves and any “favor” they may have gained from King Henry VIII at the time. Our fascination with Anne Boleyn begins here, I believe, because she was able to move herself up through the court and into the favorable eye of Henry. As she is moving up, the “Court” supports her, for everyone loves an “underdog” and wants to come along for the ride and any favorable “scraps” they can grab. Yet, once the “underdog” achieves its higher ground, everyone can’t wait to “knock” them back down to their “rightful” place amongst us.

With education and technology our society has truly evolved, yet, even today you see the same “human” behavior. Daily, we all “tune-in” to all forms of media to catch any hype on individuals whom achieve greatness in all avenues of life; sports, music, business, etc. We love and encourage them all on the way “up”, admiring their glorious achievements. Then along with the paparazzi, aka the “court”, we crouch in the bushes and wait to capture their “fall” so that we no longer feel “inferior”.

Anne Boleyn’s second attraction was as basic as they come…her sex. Anne was keen to the ways of the world in the “court” and in the “bedroom” after living in the French court with her sister, Mary. Unlike her sister and, the many other prior mistresses of Henry, Anne knew her only “leverage” was her “virginity”. Anne’s existence in the French court taught her that her virtue was priceless…so long as she kept it intact. I believe that she learned that men in power need to be “stimulated” or, they loose interest very fast. Anne “titillated” Henry all the way to the alter and secured the future of her daughter, Elizabeth, as a legitimate heir to the thrown.

Some say that Anne helped to reform the Church of England…I’m not sure if she “knowingly” did this or if she did what ever she had to do at the time, with the only “tools” she had to use to survive at this time when it was truly a man’s world. Which to me is why I’m so fascinated with her story, she was a survivor!



Read more: http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/resources/addicted-to-anne-boleyn/#ixzz1CXHwvv3E

Anne Boleyn, Henry 8 and Elizabeth I.

The Best of Anne Boleyn

An Interview with Elizabeth Norton

Elizabeth Norton is an historian and author whose books include “Anne Boleyn: Henry VIII’s Obsession”, “Jane Seymour: Henry VIII’s True Love”, “Anne of Cleves: Henry VIII’s Discarded Bride” and “She Wolves: The Notorious Queens of England”. She is presently working on a book about Catherine Parr.

Elizabeth gained her first degree from the University of Cambridge and her Masters degree from the University of Oxford. She is one of our guest speakers at The Anne Boleyn Experience 2010 at Hever Castle in May.

Here is an exclusive Anne Boleyn Files interview with Elizabeth:-

The Tudor series portrays Thomas Boleyn as a manipulator who used his daughters to gain favour and titles yet to Joanna Denny he is some kind of Reformation hero and caring father who strove to protect his daughters, what do you think?

From what is known about them both, I would say that Thomas Boleyn and Anne were very similar characters and Anne was very influenced by her father in her youth. It was Thomas Boleyn who first recognised Anne’s potential and secured a place for her with Margaret of Austria and, as the best French speaker at the English court, it is also likely that he instilled in Anne an early interest in the French language and French culture. Anne’s earliest extant letter (written in school girl French) is addressed to her father.

Thomas was ambitious for his family as a whole and benefited from the rise of first Mary and then Anne. It is difficult to see his influence as a manipulator behind either Mary or Anne’s relationships with the king and, the evidence for Anne at least is that she won and held the king by herself.

Thomas, like Anne, was influential in the early religious reform movement and so, to a certain extent, can be seen as a Reformation hero. However, his court career and ambition were certainly the driving forces in his life and he was prepared to make use of his daughters’ positions in order to further his ambition, and distance himself from them when they fell into disfavour.

Mary Boleyn has been called Henry VIII’s ‘favourite mistress’ and Henry VIII himself called Jane Seymour his true love, but who do you think was really Henry VIII’s true love?

Looking back over his life with the benefit of hindsight, it is likely that Henry himself would have said Jane Seymour. From a dynastic point of view, she was his only successful wife and the wife with whom he requested to be buried. It is clear however that she was not so cherished during her marriage and Henry is known to have mentioned soon after his marriage to Jane that, after seeing two new beauties at court, he wished he had not been so hasty in making his choice. Jane was also very aware that, like her two predecessors, her position was vulnerable until she bore a son.

Henry VIII believed himself to be in love with Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard at the time of his marriages to them. His relationship with Catherine Parr was also a fond one. The length of his relationships with Bessie Blount and Mary Boleyn also suggest that he may have been in love with them. I think it is difficult to see Henry VIII as having one true love and various women filled that post at different points of his life. Henry’s relationship with Anne Boleyn was the greatest love affair of his life and she may well merit the title of his true love but, given that he eventually had her executed, it is clear that he would not himself have considered her to have that honour.

Henry VIII was unusual for a king of his time and he chose to marry women who, for most kings, would have been merely mistresses. There is no doubt that he was a romantic at heart and he built up romantic ideals of most of the women with whom he was involved, including Anne of Cleves before he actually met her. It is Jane Seymour with whom he had the most enduring affection, albeit mostly posthumously.

Anne Boleyn is known to have had a number of admirers in her early years. Who do you think Anne really loved and was she in love with Henry VIII at any point?

Anne was ambitious and, whilst she was happy to flirt with Thomas Wyatt, she was aware that, as a married man, he could offer her nothing. It is therefore unlikely that she was in love with him. James Butler, the man she returned from France to marry, is also unlikely to have meant anything to her and neither Anne nor her father appear to have been particularly interested in the match.

If Anne had an early love, it was Henry Percy. Marriage to the heir to the Earl of Northumberland would have been an extremely advantageous match for Anne and so it is difficult to identify what Anne’s true feelings were. Henry Percy was in love with Anne and Anne’s later enmity towards Cardinal Wolsey, who was responsible for breaking off the match, also suggests that she felt strongly about Henry Percy. If Anne consummated her relationship with anyone before Henry VIII, it is most likely to have been with Henry Percy. She certainly consummated her relationship with Henry VIII once it was clear that her marriage was inevitable and she may have felt in a similarly secure position with Henry Percy following their betrothal.

It is likely that Anne was also in love with Henry VIII. Again, this was obviously an advantageous marriage and Anne’s personal feelings are difficult to separate from her own ambition. However, Henry VIII in the late 1520s and early 1530s was still the most handsome and cultured prince in Europe and, unlike the ailing and bloated king of his later years, he would have been an easy man to fall in love with. Anne’s jealousy over Henry’s infidelities and, also his relationship with Catherine of Aragon, were partially motivated by a fear that her position was insecure, but her reaction is also likely to have been the result of genuine emotional hurt at his betrayals of her.

Alison Weir, in her latest book, talks of how Anne and Henry’s marriage was unhappy from the start, do you agree with this?

Anne and Henry’s marriage was certainly controversial and the actual ceremony was secret and kept deliberately vague. However, I cannot agree that it was unhappy. Anne and Henry were blissfully happy for the first few months of their marriage: they had finally been able to consummate their relationship and they were expecting a longed-for ‘prince’. Within months of her marriage Anne was able to appear publicly as queen and was also crowned as queen. Henry was also finally able to disentangle himself from Catherine of Aragon and marry the woman he loved. Their marriage was dogged from the start by political problems, but, on a personal level, they are likely to have been among the happiest few months of Anne and Henry’s lives.

There are different opinions about Henry VIII’s involvement in Anne Boleyn’s fall, do you think he was involved in the conspiracy or was he also an innocent victim of Cromwell’s plot?

Henry VIII remained, until the end of his life, in full control of his kingdom. The plot against Catherine Parr, in which she was very nearly sent to the Tower for heresy in 1546 shows that it was not possible for Henry’s wives to fall without his express agreement. Henry’s seeming compliance in agreeing to Catherine’s arrest was part of a test of his wife and an attempt to push her back into a more domestic sphere.

In contrast, Anne Boleyn was allowed to fall and there is evidence that Henry had tired of her. Whilst he did still seek Imperial recognition of his marriage to Anne as late as April 1536, it is clear that he was already by then becoming more committed to Jane Seymour – he perhaps simply had not found the mechanism by which to engineer Anne’s fall. Cromwell and the other factions working against Anne provided the means by which she could be brought down, with the rumours of infidelity and the precontract with Henry Percy. It was Henry VIII himself who had to agree to the final attack on Anne and, his conduct at the May Day jousts shows that he did indeed agree to this.

Which of Anne’s early loves do you think she should have married?

Anne did not really have the opportunity to marry any of her early loves. Her proposed betrothal to James Butler came to nothing, perhaps because of Thomas Boleyn’s hopes of securing the Earldom of Ormond for himself. Anne’s betrothal to Henry Percy was broken by Cardinal Wolsey. Thomas Wyatt, the third man with whom Anne was definitely linked, was married. The match with which she would have been happiest is, however, likely to have been that with Henry Percy. The couple were similar in age and apparently in love and Anne’s ambition is likely to have been satisfied with being Countess of Northumberland. Of course, this was not to be, and she secured a much greater match for herself…

Do you agree with Joanna Denny and Karen Lindsay, who say that Anne was a victim of sexual harassment and that she was ‘stalked’ by Henry? Could she have turned Henry down, or was to keep her virtue and have the relationship on her terms her only course of action?

Henry VIII certainly ardently pursued Anne, bombarding her with letters when she retreated to Hever. Anne had seen how Henry VIII had treated her sister, simply discarding her once his interest had waned. It is clear from her involvement with Henry Percy that Anne was seeking an advantageous marriage. She therefore had no intention of becoming Henry VIII’s mistress and made this clear to him throughout their courtship. She could, perhaps, be seen as a victim of sexual harassment and stalking by Henry VIII. However, Anne was well able to hold her own in a flirtation with a married man as she had shown with Thomas Wyatt. She is also likely to have been flattered by Henry VIII’s interest although, until he finally made the proposal of marriage, she is unlikely to have known just what to do with him.

I think that Anne could have turned Henry down. It would have been difficult for her to do and she would have been under considerable pressure from her family. However, the fact is, she did turn Henry down, even refusing his offer to make her his official mistress. For all his dubious record with women, there is no evidence that Henry would have actually forced Anne to become his mistress and he was therefore forced to either abandon his pursuit of Anne or offer her marriage. It was the offer of marriage that finally persuaded Anne that Henry was serious about her and changed the course of their relationship, allowing her to deal with Henry on her own terms.

What do you think Jane Seymour was like? Was she an innocent, demure, meek and mild woman or was she scheming and ambitious?

Jane Seymour was as politically ambitious as Anne Boleyn. She is likely to have come to court with the purpose of becoming the king’s mistress but, following Anne’s final miscarriage, she changed course, seeking marriage with the king. This can be seen in her willingness to accept Henry’s advances before Anne’s miscarriage (for example, that Anne herself was said to have blamed her miscarriage on the sight of Jane on Henry’s knee). Following the miscarriage, she made a great show of her virtue and her image as Anne’s opposite.

Jane’s political interests can also be seen after she became queen, in particular, her support of Princess Mary and the Imperial party. Even after becoming queen, she was forced to maintain her meek image and Henry had set a dangerous precedent for his subsequent queens in his treatment of Anne Boleyn.

How did the fate of Anne Boleyn affect Henry VIII’s relationships with his subsequent wives and mistresses?

By marrying Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII demonstrated to other women that, by insisting on remaining virtuous, it was possible for them to aspire to becoming queen. Jane Seymour obviously followed this course, as did Catherine Howard when she ousted Anne of Cleves. The danger of this approach was obviously that each of Henry’s later queens risked bringing their own successor to Henry’s attention and this may be why Jane Seymour was so strict in her requirements for her maids’ dress. One notably pretty maid of Jane’s, Anne Basset, was required to wear an English Gable Hood rather than the more flattering French Hood on Jane’s express orders.

For Henry, the fate of Anne Boleyn also made it more difficult for him to actually obtain a bride. Following Jane Seymour’s death there were rumours that Christina of Milan said that she would only risk marriage to Henry if she had two heads. It is unlikely that she actually said this but, certainly, she was concerned by Henry’s dangerous reputation as a husband. Catherine Parr is also reported to have said she would prefer to become Henry’s mistress than his wife.
Finally, Anne’s execution provided a terrifying precedent for all Henry’s future wives. Henry reminded Jane Seymour of Anne’s fate when she attempted to involve herself in politics during the Pilgrimage of Grace and this was her last recorded overtly political action. Anne of Cleves is also likely to have feared that she would be imprisoned and, perhaps, beheaded, if she did not comply with Henry’s wishes in her divorce and Catherine Parr was terrified when she found herself at the centre of a plot to send her to the Tower.

No king of England either before or after Henry went so far as to actually execute their wives and Anne’s execution, even to those of her contemporaries who did not recognise her marriage or saw her fall as her just desserts, were shocked by what happened.

Elizabeth Norton’s Books

All of Elizabeth’s books can be found in the Elizabeth Norton sections of our special Anne Boleyn Files Amazon UK Store and our Anne Boleyn Files Amazon US Store.

Read more: http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/interview-with-elizabeth-norton/3694/#ixzz1CQPztB1w

The Miscarriage of Anne Boleyn

On the same day that her predecessor, Catherine of Aragon, was laid to rest, Anne Boleyn miscarried. The Imperial ambassador reported the miscarriage to his master, Charles V:-

“On the day of the interment [Catherine of Aragon's funeral] the Concubine had an abortion which seemed to be a male child which she had not borne 3½ months, at which the King has shown great distress. The said concubine wished to lay the blame on the duke of Norfolk, whom she hates, saying he frightened her by bringing the news of the fall the King had six days before. But it is well known that is not the cause, for it was told her in a way that she should not be alarmed or attach much importance to it. Some think it was owing to her own incapacity to bear children, others to a fear that the King would treat her like the late Queen, especially considering the treatment shown to a lady of the Court, named Mistress Semel, to whom, as many say, he has lately made great presents.”¹

On the 25th February, Chapuys mentioned the miscarriage again:-

“I learn from several persons of this Court that for more than three months this King has not spoken ten times to the Concubine, and that when she miscarried he scarcely said anything to her, except that he saw clearly that God did not wish to give him male children; and in leaving her he told her, as if for spite, that he would speak to her after she was “releuize.” The said Concubine attributed the misfortune to two causes: first, the King’s fall; and, secondly, that the love she bore him was far greater than that of the late Queen, so that her heart broke when she saw that he loved others. At which remark the King was much grieved, and has shown his feeling by the fact that during these festive days he is here, and has left the other at Greenwich, when formerly he could not leave her for an hour.”²

It is clear from Chapuys’ reports that both Anne and Henry were devastated by the loss of their son adn with hindsight we can see that this miscarriage made a huge impact on Anne’s future, that she had “miscarried of her saviour”³. However, Chapuys is prone to exaggeration and Eric Ives points out that his reference to Henry VIII pretty much ignoring Anne for three months just is not true for “Chapuys had forgotten his own report of the king’s behaviour after Katherine’s death”⁴. Also Chapuys reads far too much into the King leaving Anne at Greenwich to celebrate Shrovetide at Whitehall – Anne had just had a miscarriage, surely she needed to recover!

Catholic recusant, Nicholas Sander, who was in exile during Elizabeth I’s reign, wrote of how Anne Boleyn had blamed her miscarriage on catching the King with Jane Seymour on his lap, and Jane Dormer (Duchess of Feria and lady-in-waiting to Mary I) also wrote of this and reported that “there was often much scratching and bye-blows between the queen and her maid.”⁵ Eric Ives calls such reports “late embroidery”⁶ because there is plenty of evidence of Henry making “determined efforts to persuade Europe to accept Anne as his legitimate wife” and concludes:-

“The miscarriage of 29 January was neither Anne’s last chance nor the point at which Jane Seymour replaced Anne in Henry’s priorities. It did nevertheless make her vulnerable yet again.”⁷

But what about the deformed foetus story?

The Deformed Foetus

“The Other Boleyn Girl” book has Anne miscarrying a “monster”:-
“In the midwife’s bloody hands was a baby hardly malformed, with a spine flayed open and a huge head, twice as large as the spindly little body.”⁸
This idea comes from Nicholas Sander’s report that Anne miscarried “a shapeless mass of flesh”⁹, but Nicholas Sander was only around 6 years of age in 1536 and he was purposely trying to blacken Anne Boleyn’s name when he was in exile during her daughter’s reign. His report of this deformed foetus is not backed up by any other source and don’t you think that Chapuys would have gleefully reported it to Charles V if this had happened? Both Chapuys and the chronicler Charles Wriothesley simply state that she miscarried a male child of around 15 weeks in gestation.

Was Anne Boleyn’s miscarriage responsible for her fall?

You can read my article on this at “Was Anne Boleyn’s Miscarriage Responsible for her Fall?” but I agree with Eric Ives – it made her vulnerable but it did not cause her downfall. A successful pregnancy resulting in a boy would obviously have saved Anne Boleyn but we cannot pin her downfall and execution on the events of the 29th January 1536.

The Death of Henry VIII

By late December 1546, it was clear that Henry VIII was gravely ill. In these last days, the King’s Council met and the decision was made to arrest Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, and his father, Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. Surrey had unwisely boasted about his Plantagenet blood and said that when the King died, his father would be “meetest to rule the prince”3. Allegedly, Surrey had plotted “to kill the Council, depose the king and seize the young prince”4 and also persuade his sister, Mary Howard to become the new king’s mistress. If that wasn’t enough, he had also had the audacity “to quarter his own arms with those of Edward the Confessor”5. Surrey was tried, found guilty of high treason and sentenced to death. He was beheaded on the 19th January 1547.

Surrey’s father, the Duke of Norfolk, had apparently been making secret visits to the lodgings of Marillac, the French ambassador, under cover of darkness, and when he was arrested in December 1546 he was questioned about his use of a secret cipher and whether he was loyal to the Royal Supremacy. In his biography of Henry VIII, J. J. Scarisbrick6, writes of how it is hard to know whether it was Surrey who dragged his father down, or the other way round, and also whether the attack on the Howards came from a faction in the Council or from a “suspicious, ruthless and fearful old man who was determined to be master of his own kingdom even unto the grave.”7 Fortunately for Norfolk, although he had been found guilty of treason and sentenced to death, the King died the day before he was due to be executed and his sentence was commuted to imprisonment. He was released in 1553.

But let’s get back to Henry VIII…

When an ill Henry VIII returned to Whitehall from Oatlands, via Nonsuch, it was to an empty court. His wife, Catherine Parr, had been sent away to Greenwich for Christmas and the court had been closed. Only the King’s Privy Council and trusted attendants were present. Although his council were spreading the news that the King had been suffering with a fever caused by his leg and was on the mend, the truth was that the King was dying and that his last will and testament were being drawn up. Scarisbrick writes of how, on the night of the 26th December 1546, Dudley, Hertford, Paget, Denny and two other men were called to see the King. Henry ordered Denny to fetch his will but got mixed up and brought him the wrong one, an earlier one. Denny then found the correct will, one drawn up by Wriothesley, and read it out to the King. The King was surprised at its contents, saying that he was not happy with the list of executors and councillors, so Paget made the corrections ordered by the King, one of which was removing the name of Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester – “a wilful man”8, according to the King. Four days later, on the 30th December, Hertford, Paget and Sir William Herbert visited Henry and the will was signed, witnessed and sealed with the King’s signet ring.

On the 3rd January 1547, the French Ambassadors, De Selve and La Garde, wrote to Francis I telling him that they had been told by the King’s Council that the King was now well, after they had not been allowed to see the King on the 1st January due to his illness9. On the 16th January, Henry had improved enough to receive the French and Imperial ambassadors and De Selve and La Garde reported that the King “seems now fairly well”10. It is unclear when the King suffered a relapse but on the 27th January the King was too ill to be present at the commission which agreed on the Duke of Norfolk’s attainder.

By the evening of the 27th, it was clear to Henry VIII’s doctors that he did not have long to live, although they refrained from doing so in case they were accused of treason for foretelling the King’s death. Sir Anthony Denny was the one who advised Henry that he must prepare himself. Scarisbrick writes of how the King “began to think on his past life and its shortcomings, saying, ‘yet is the mercy of Christ able to pardon me all my sins, though they were greater than they be.’ “11 When Denny asked the King if he wanted a church man to minister to him, the King replied that he would like Cranmer there but “I will first take a little sleep and then, as I feel myself, I will advise upon the matter.”12 The King slept for a couple of hours and then asked for Cranmer who had to travel from Croydon. By the time Cranmer got to Whitehall, Henry was unable to speak, and was slipping in and out of consciousness. Cranmer asked Henry to give him some sign that he trusted in God and Henry “holding him with his hand, did wring his hand in his as hard as he could.”13 Henry VIII died in the early hours of the 28th January 1548, although his death was kept secret until the 31st January, giving his Council time to discuss what was going to happen.

The King’s embalmed body was taken by chariot to Windsor Castle on the 14th February. On the 16th February, the “wilful man”, Stephen Gardiner, presided over Henry’s funeral mass in the Castle’s St George’s Chapel. Henry’s body was laid to rest in a vault between the stalls and altar, the grave where his third wife, Jane Seymour, had been buried. Although Henry had planned for he and Jane to be laid to rest in a magnificent tomb in the Lady Chapel, a tomb which Cardinal Wolsey had actually had designed for himself, the tomb was not finished. In 1646 Parliament ordered that the ornaments of the tomb should be sold and the sarcophagus ended up being the tomb of Lord Nelson (1758-1805) and standing in St Paul’s Cathedral. Not what Henry wanted at all and it seems that he did not get his way regarding the reign of his son, Edward, either. Henry VIII had appointed executors and councillors to help his son rule, yet one man, Edward Seymour, became the Lord Protector. Henry could not do anything about it except roll in his grave.

“The King is dead. Long live the King”. Henry VIII was dead and gone and his young son was now King Edward VI.

Read more: http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/a-tale-of-two-henrys-the-birth-of-henry-vii-and-the-death-of-henry-viii/8224/#ixzz1CMxot1iG

Facts about Lady Margaret Beaufort

Facts About Lady Margaret Beaufort
Here are some facts about Lady Margaret Beaufort:-

•Margaret was born on the 31st May 1443 at Bletsoe Castle in Bedfordshire.
•Her parents were Margaret Beauchamp of Bletsoe and John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, grandson of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, and his mistress (and eventual wife) Katherine Swynford, and Margaret was their only child.
•Although a 1397 act of Parliament legitimized the children of John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford, but in 1407 Henry IV, while recognising the legitimacy of his Beaufort half-brothers and sisters, declared that they could never inherit the throne.
•Margaret was married four times: c 1450 to John de la Pole, a marriage which was dissolved in 1453 (some say that the marriage never happened and was just a betrothal); 1453 to Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond, eldest son of Owen Tudor and Catherine of Valois and half-brother of Henry VI; 1462 to Henry Stafford, son of the 1st Duke of Buckingham; and finally in 1472 to Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby and the Lord High Constable and King of Mann.
•Margaret had just one child, Henry VII. She gave birth to him at the age of 13 and his father was Edmund Tudor.
•Margaret was a powerful lady and was a key figure in the Wars of the Roses between the Houses of York and Lancaster. She actively supported her son Henry Tudor’s claim to the throne and was able to persuade her then husband, Thomas Stanley, and his brother to swap sides and support Henry at the Battle of Bosworth Field. Henry defeated Richard III and became Henry VII of England.
•Margaret and Elizabeth Woodville co-plotted the marriage of Henry, Margaret’s son, and Elizabeth of York, Elizabeth Woodville’s daughter by Edward IV.
•Margaret was the Countess of Richmond and Derby but, after her son’s victory at Bosworth, was referred to as “My Lady the King’s Mother” and refused to accept a lower status than the queen consort, Elizabeth of York.
•David Starkey writes of how Henry VIII inherited his grandmother’s Beaufort looks: hooked nose, hooded eyes, bags under the eyes and a slim build.
•She took an active interest in education and she established the Lady Margaret’s Professorship of Divinity at Cambridge University, refounded and added to God’s House, Cambridge, turning it into Christ’s College, and her estate founded St John’s College, Cambridge. The Queen Elizabeth’s School, formally Wimborne Grammar School, came about as a result of her intention to build a free school in Wimborne, Dorset.
•John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, was Margaret’s friend, political and spiritual adviser, and executor of her estate. He was eventually executed for treason by her grandson, Henry VIII.
•The Beaufort motto was “Souvent me souviens”, “I remember often”.
•Lady Margaret Beaufort’s resting place is at Westminster Abbey in London, in the south aisle of Henry VII’s Chapel. Her tomb was sculpted by Pietro Torrigiano and features a portrait effigy of Margaret dressed in traditional widow’s dress, her head resting on two pillows decorated with the Tudor badge, her hands raised in prayer and the Beaufort family crest at her feet. The Latin inscription, written by Erasmus, translates as “Margaret of Richmond, mother of Henry VII, grandmother of Henry VIII, who gave a salary to three monks of this convent and founded a grammar school at Wimborne, and to a preacher throughout England, and to two interpreters of Scripture, one at Oxford, the other at Cambridge, where she likewise founded two colleges, one to Christ, and the other to St John, his disciple. Died A.D.1509, III Kalends of July [29 June]“.


Read more: http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/lady-margaret-beaufort/5849/#ixzz1CMwejKIG

St. Erkenwald's Day

Although we know that Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn officially tied the knot at a secret wedding ceremony on the 25th January 1533, the Tudor chronicler, Edward Hall, records that the couple actually got married on Thursday 14th November 1532, St Erkenwald’s Day:-

“The kyng, after his returne [from Calais] maried priuily[privily] the lady Anne Bulleyn on sainet Erkenwaldes daie, whiche mariage was kept so secrete, that very fewe knewe it, til she was greate with child, at Easter after.”¹

Eric Ives, in his book, “The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn”, points out that St Erkenwald’s Day was the day after Anne and Henry returned to England after their successful visit to France.

Nicholas Sander, the Catholic recusant who wrote of Anne Boleyn during the reign of her daughter, Elizabeth I, also recorded the marriage date as the 14th November and Protestants latched onto this date, rather than the January date, because it meant that Elizabeth, who was born on the 7th September 1533, was conceived within wedlock. It may be that the couple got married in January 1533 but that they made some kind of formal commitment on St Erkenwald’s Day, so much so that Anne Boleyn finally allowed Henry to consummate their relationship and Elizabeth was conceived.

Happy St Erkenwald’s Day and perhaps also a Happy Wedding Anniversary to Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII.

Notes and Sources

1. Hall’s Chronicle, Edward Hall, p794

Read more: http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/st-erkenwalds-day-1532-the-marriage-of-henry-viii-and-anne-boleyn/7387/#ixzz1C9OEZpJj

Henry VIII marries Anne Boleyn

On this day in history, 25th January 1533, Henry VIII married Anne Boleyn. Alison Weir writes of their marriage in her book “The Six Wives of Henry VIII”:-

“Just before dawn, on the morning of the 25 January 1533, a small group of people gathered in the King’s private chapel in Whitehall Palace for the secret wedding of the King to Anne Boleyn. The officiating priest was either Dr Rowland Lee*, one of the royal chaplains, or – according to Chapuys – Dr George Brown, Prior of the Austin Friars in London and later Archbishop of Dublin… There were four, possibly five, witnesses, all sworn to secrecy: Henry Norris and Thomas Heneage of the King’s privy chamber, and Anne Savage** and Lady Berkeley, who attended Anne. William Brereton, a groom of the chamber, may also have been present.”

According to Eric Ives, the marriage was kept so secret that even the gossipy Imperial ambassador, Eustace Chapuys, did not hear about it until months after. Chapuys wrote to his master, Charles V, on the 31st March 1533, saying, “It is expected that the new marriage will be solemnised before Easter or immediately after, for all the necessary preparations are already in order, the royal estate of the lady is already made, and nothing remains but to publish it.” Little did he know that the couple were already married, that their union had already been consummated (probably on their trip to France or on their arrival home in November 1532) and that Anne was pregnant. What gossip he was missing!

St Erkenwald’s Day 1532

As I have written before, the 25th January 1533 is not the only date out forward as a wedding date for Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, the Tudor chronicler, Edward Hall, wrote that the couple actually got married on Thursday 14th November 1532, St Erkenwald’s Day:-

“The kyng, after his returne [from Calais] maried priuily[privily] the lady Anne Bulleyn on sainet Erkenwaldes daie, whiche mariage was kept so secrete, that very fewe knewe it, til she was greate with child, at Easter after.”

St Erkenwald’s Day was the day after Anne and Henry returned from their trip to Calais to see Francis I, a visit where Anne had been treated as Henry’s consort and the couple had been given Francis I’s blessing, and, as David Starkey points out, “To have gone back to England and chastity must have seemed intolerable – both to her and to Henry” after they had been living as King and Queen in France.

Edward Hall is not the only person to give this date for their secret marriage; the Catholic recusant, Nicholas Sander, also wrote, during the reign of Elizabeth I, that Henry VIII had married Anne Boleyn on the 14th November. Protestants during Elizabeth’s reign latched on to this date because it meant that their queen had been conceived within wedlock, after all, a birthdate of 7th September 1533 suggests a conception date of between 11th and 19th December 1532, although it does depend on whether Elizabeth was premature, which she probably was when you consider that Anne entered her confinement on the 26th August.

A Tale of Two Weddings

But both dates could be valid, as David Starkey points out in his book. He writes of how Anne Boleyn “wanted to make sure that her own title as Queen would be unimpeachable” and that she wanted to make sure that everything was done following the format laid out in “the bible of ceremony known as ‘The Royal Book’.” Starkey wonders if Anne saw herself as a foreign princess “sailing to English soil [from her visit to her former home, France] where soon she would be crowned”:-

“It was just as ‘The Royal Book’ prescribed. What more natural therefore than to marry Henry as soon as they landed? And ‘privily’ – as The Royal Book permitted and the fact that Henry was still married to Catherine required?”

So, the couple married in Kent on St Erkenwald’s Day, shortly after landing on English soil and Starkey points out that it must have been a proper marriage “with a priest, a ring and the exchange of vows” for Anne to surrender her virtue to Henry. Of course, the marriage made Henry a bigamist, but Anne had what she wanted and needed, a sacred vow and promise, and now Henry could get what he wanted too!

But why the extra January wedding?

Although the couple had been co-habiting since their arrival back in England, nothing was official, their wedding had been kept secret. The problem, in January 1533, was that Anne Boleyn was pregnant. Something had to be done!

But Henry had no papal licence to allow him to take another wife. David Starkey writes of how Dr Rowland Lee demanded the licence from Henry, who replied that it was somewhere safe and he could not go and get it that early in the morning. When Lee pressed him further, Henry said, “Go forth in God’s name and do that which appertaineth to you and I will take upon me all other danger.” David Starkey feels that this altercation between the two men and, in fact, the whole wedding ceremony “was a carefully contrived performance”:-

“The first marriage in November had been designed to reassure Anne. The second, with its half-invocation of Papal authority was intended to reassure Henry’s subjects. When news of it leaked, which it quickly did, it would suggest that Henry had received the nod from Rome.”

As I have said already, the second wedding was also a secret affair, rather than the sumptuous state occasion that Anne may have been looking forward to, but David Starkey believes that news of this ceremony was purposely leaked so that the marriage was accepted by the people and Anne was accepted as queen.

David Starkey concludes that:-

“The marriage thus forms part of the great game of 1533 in which Henry decided to get his Divorce by deceiving everybody: Rome, his English subjects and even his French allies. The game was for the highest stakes and he played it well.”

Henry wanted a legitimate male heir and he wanted Anne Boleyn, nothing would stand in his way and he had waited too long already. He truly believed that his first marriage was not valid so his marriage to Anne, whatever the Pope thought, was valid and when Anne became pregnant so quickly, he must have thought that God was smiling down on them and blessing their union. However, just over three years later, Anne Boleyn was executed as a traitor and Henry was marrying for a third time.

Notes and Sources

• The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Alison Weir, Chapter 10 “Happiest of Women”.
• Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII, David Starkey, Chapter 59 “Anne’s Marriage” and 60 “Archbishop”.
• The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, Eric Ives, p162-164
• Hall’s Chronicle, Edward Hall (d.1547), p794
• LP vi.296, March 1533
• Rise and Growth of the Anglican Schism, Nicholas Sander

*Historians like Alison Weir and David Starkey agree on Dr Rowland Lee being the most likely celebrant as he became Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield in 1534 and he is named in Nicholas Harpsfield’s “Treatise on the Pretended Divorce Between Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon”, which was written during the reign of Mary I.

** David Starkey points out that Anne Savage later became Lady Berkeley, so Anne Boleyn, had only one attendant.

Read more: http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/henry-viii-marries-anne-boleyn-25th-january-1533/8155/#ixzz1C9MYSu8T

Gravity of Love

The Pscyhology of Henry VIII

According to Dr. David Starkey in the Sunday Times, Henry VIII was a real mama’s boy. Looking at handwriting comparisons (that of Henry, his mother, Elizabeth of York, and his younger sister Mary), Starkey draws the conclusion that he was emotionally dependent on women because of the close similarity of the samples. An exhibition opening in April at the British Museum will display the samples.

The Times quoted Starkey as saying “Henry was brought up very, very unusually, in a female household.” As we all know, Henry was merely the second son and during his formative years he was of little interest to the dynastically-minded father, Henry VII, who was consumed with establishing the questionable legitimacy of Tudor rule. Prince Arthur died at age 15, when Henry was only 11. Elizabeth died the following year, after attempting to give her husband another son.

During those early years Starkey says that Henry was tutored by his mother “both to read and, as we now see from the handwriting, to write, too”. The handwriting is described as bold, square and rather labored forms, unlike the writing of most men in the royal court. Starkey claims that his tutors and early role models, like Thomas More, have different handwriting styles. (Personally, I have to wonder if some unrecorded person, less prestigious than the tutors, taught both Elizabeth and her children. For example, my mother and I both had the same first grade teacher, thus accounting for some similarity in our handwriting.) Only a few exemplars of Elizabeth of York’s handwriting have been preserved.

It is known that Henry was very close to his sister Mary and they remained close, except for the brief times when she was Queen of France and then after she eloped with his best friend, Charles Brandon, later Duke of Suffolk (both in the portrait below). And he possibly named his first daughter after her, as well as naming his second daughter after his much-beloved mother.

Starkey says that “He could never be without women in his life and was always falling in love. He also married, at least when it comes to most of his six wives, for love. It is just that he would also fall out of love.”
Was Henry in love with being in love? We do know that, aside from the periods between his mother’s death and his accession and the death of Jane Seymour until the arrival of the maligned Anne of Cleves, Henry was never without a love interest. And nothing could upset him more than perceived betrayal or abandonment by those he loved.
And was the premature death of Elizabeth of York the cause of Henry’s unruly behavior?
It’s interesting to draw a parallel between Henry Tudor and modern princes saddened by the early death of an adored mother. Perhaps it’s a good thing William and Harry Wales don’t have ready access to the scaffold.

(the royal forum)

Passion/ Henry and Anne

Good Enough/ Henry and Anne

Henry Falls In Love with Anne Boleyn

Posted By Claire
As I stated in my article “The Early Life of Anne Boleyn Part Six – The Château Vert Pageant“, contrary to the scene in “The Tudors”, Anne and Henry’s eyes did not meet across a crowded room at the 1522 Shrovetide Pageant because Henry was, at this point, embarking on an affair with Anne’s sister, Mary Boleyn. It is possible that he did not even notice the other Boleyn girl, Anne, who was playing Perseverance, because he only had eyes for his new mistress, Mary. Anne obviously would have noticed her King, but she had just returned to England to marry James Butler and catching the eye of the King would have been the last thing on her mind.

So when did Henry fall for Anne?



Christmas 1524-5
David Starkey1 dates the start of Henry’s feelings for Anne to Christmas and New Year 1524/1525, shortly after he had stopped sleeping with his wife, Catherine of Aragon.

It was at that time that the Court staged the “Castle of Loyalty” or the Château Blanc pageant in the tiltyard at Greenwich Palace. Starkey writes of how, on the 21st December 1524, St Thomas’s Day, a herald proclaimed in the Queen’s Great Chamber “that the King had given the keeping of the castle… to four ‘Maidens’ of the Court” and that these four maiden had “deputed the protection of the castle to fifteen defenders”.

Although the names of the maidens are not recorded, Starkey believes that one may have been Anne because Thomas Wyatt was listed as a defender, Henry Percy as an attacker and a disguised Henry VIII took part. Starkey writes of how the King “proceeded to thrash his opponents” and “launched such a furious assault” on Anthony Browne, a man who had been resident at the French Court during Anne’s time there, that he “almost cut his poudron [a piece of defensive armour for the neck]“. Was Henry trying to impress one of the maidens? Was he showing that he was more worthy than Percy and Wyatt? We just don’t know.

Whatever the truth about the Château Blanc pageant, Starkey believes that Anne Boleyn first caught the King’s eye during the winter of 1524/1525 because this fits in with George Cavendish’s account of his master, Cardinal Wolsey’s fall and how it was the King’s love for Anne which was the beginning of the end for Wolsey. Although, as Starkey points out, Cavendish is not good at giving dates in his account of what happened, it appears that the King took Wolsey into his confidence in early 1525 and asked the Cardinal to break up the relationship between Anne and Percy. The proposed marriage between Anne and James Butler was used as an excuse, but the truth may have been that Henry VIII wanted Anne for himself. This is what George Cavendish believed because when he writes of “the secret love” which grew between Percy and Anne, he writes that “The which thing [their love] came to the King’s knowledge, who was then much offended. Wherefore he could hide no longer his secret affection, but revealed his secret intendment unto my Lord Cardinal in that behalf; and consulted with him to infringe the precontract between them”2. The King was forced to declare his interest in Anne to prevent her marriage to Percy.

As a result of Wolsey’s intervention in the relationship between Henry Percy and Anne Boleyn, Percy was married off to Mary Talbot, the daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury, and Anne was sent to Hever Castle, the Boleyn family home where, according to Alison Weir, she “was left to simmer and sorrow… for a year or more”3 before she returned to court to continue her duties as one of Catherine of Aragon’s ladies.

Both Alison Weir and David Starkey write of how the King’s interest in Anne was re-awakened when she returned to court in 1525. Seeing as Mary Boleyn’s son, Henry Carey was born in March 1526, we can assume that Henry VIII was looking for a mistress to replace the pregnant Mary in Autumn 1525. Anne Boleyn was witty, intelligent, sexy, sophisticated and available, and Henry VIII could not help but be drawn to her.

1526
Anne Boleyn’s main biographer, Eric Ives, dates the start of Henry and Anne’s courtship to Shrovetide 1526 and Alison Weir writes of how Henry VIII wrote out to the Shrove Tuesday joust with the motto “Declare je nos” (Declare I dare not) embroidered on his costume below a picture of a man’s heart engulfed in flames. Henry was declaring that he was in love and it is thought that the object of his affections was Anne Boleyn. Weir also writes of how, in Spring 1526, Henry ordered four gold brooches from his goldsmith: one representing Venus and Cupid, the second of a lady holding a heart in her hand, the third depicting a man lying in a lady’s lap and the fourth of a lady holding a crown. Weir states that “the symbolism was unmistakable”4.

1527
In her book, “The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn”, Retha Warnicke writes of how Anne Boleyn turns up in the records in 1527, during the visit of the French ambassadors to Greenwich. According to Warnicke, a French manuscript records how the ambassadors were impressed by her knowledge of France and their language and how, on the 5th May during a visit to see Princess Mary in the Queen’s Chamber, Henry chose to dance with Anne Boleyn while his daughter danced with Viscount Turènne.5

Eric Ives writes of how, in August 1527, Henry VIII applied to the Pope for a dispensation to marry again and although there is no mention of Anne Boleyn the draft dispensation covered a woman who was related to the King in the “first degree of affinity… from… forbidden wedlock”6, i.e. a woman who was the sister of a previous mistress, someone just like Anne.

So, although we don’t know exactly when Henry VIII fell in love with Anne, his feelings were strong enough in August 1527 for him to ask the Pope for a dispensation to marry her. By that time, he was not only besotted with her, he wanted her as his wife and Queen.

In his book, “The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn”, Eric Ives has made a chronology of Anne and Henry’s courtship based on mentions of Anne in the primary sources, events, Henry’s behaviour and the disintegrating marriage of Henry and Catherine of Aragon:-

•1524 – Henry stops sleeping with Catherine
•1525, Summer – Henry attempts to build up Henry Fitzroy, the Duke of Richmond and his illegitimate son, as an alternative heir
•1526, Shrovetide – Henry begins to court Anne
•1526, Autumn – Henry writes his first love letter to Anne
•1526, sometime after October – Henry warns Thomas Wyatt off Anne
•1526, December – Catherine is isolated a court
•1527, January – Wyatt sent on an embassy to Rome
•1527, April – Henry consults about annulling his marriage to Catherine
•1527, Easter – Henry urges Anne to become his “maîtresse-en-titre”, his official mistress
•1527, May – Secret preliminary hearing of the annulment
•1527, June – Henry informs Catherine of his plans to annul their marriage
•1527, Summer – Henry and Anne agree that they will marry
•1527, August – The decision is made to ask the Pope for a dispensation so that Henry can marry Anne7
Of course, as Ives points out, this chronology is “speculative” because we do not have all of the information, but “it does fit the context as we understand it, and it is psychologically credible”8. We also know that Henry showered Anne with jewel after jewel after jewel in the summer of 1527 and “such a torrent can mean only one thing: Henry and Anne had an understanding – they were betrothed.”9

In my next post on Anne and Henry’s relationship I will be looking at Henry VIII’s love letters to Anne Boleyn.



Read more: http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/henry-viii-falls-in-love-with-anne-boleyn/7416/#ixzz1BECSDt60

Natalie Dormer Talks

The facts about Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn ( AKA Nan Bullen )
Mother of Queen Elizabeth I

The Tudor Dynasty of Queen Elizabeth I - Major Figures & People in the family of Queen Elizabeth I

Short Biography and facts about the life of Anne Boleyn - Mother of Queen Elizabeth I
The following biography information provides basic facts and information about the life Anne Boleyn:

• Nationality: English

• Mother of Queen Elizabeth I and second wife of King Henry VIII of England

• Lifespan: 1502 - 1536

• Born: 1502

• Married: January 1533

• Executed: 19 May 1536

• Family connections: Second wife of King Henry VIII and mother of Queen Elizabeth I

• Religion: Protestant

• Character of Anne Boleyn : Witty, intelligent, proud, brave, quick-tempered, stubborn, ambitious and haughty

• Appearance of Anne Boleyn : Anne Boleyn was dark skinned, dark eyed and dark haired - the total opposite to the Tudor pale, fair skinned vision of beauty. She had a sixth finger growing from her small finger and a large mole on her neck. She disguise these imperfections by creating new fashions - long sleeves to hide her six finger and a black velvet ribbon around her neck hiding the unsightly mole. These 'deformities' were said to be the sure sign of a witch

Information, Facts & History about the life of Anne Boleyn - Mother of Queen Elizabeth I
The following are additional facts about the life and history of Anne Boleyn - Mother of Queen Elizabeth I:

• Anne Boleyn was born at Blickling Hall, Norfolk, England

• Anne Boleyn was the daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn and Lady Elizabeth Howard. Anne was the maternal niece of the Duke of Norfolk

• Her younger sister was Mary Boleyn and her brother was George Boleyn

• The family home was at Hever Castle in Kent

• During the early years of Anne Boleyn she was taught by a French governess and was well tutored at home

• As was the tradition in many noble Tudor families Anne Boleyn and her sister Mary were both sent to France in their early teens to finish their education as ladies-in-waiting at the French court

• Anne Boleyn was lady-in-waiting to Queen Claude of France, who was married to King Louis XII of France

• During her early years in France Anne Boleyn acquired the sophistication and elegance of the French court. She also acquired her taste for beautiful and elegant clothes

• Anne Boleyn almost certainly would have attended 'The Field of Cloth of Gold' where King Francois I of France met King Henry VIII of England. This was probably where Anne Boleyn first saw King Henry VIII

• Anne Boleyn returned to England after 7 years in France where she was also taught music, dance and poetry

• Anne Boleyn took up a position and joined her sister Mary Boleyn at the English royal court as lady-in-waiting to Queen Katharine of Aragon

• In 1525 King Henry VIII had an affair with her married sister, Mary Boleyn. It was a short lived affair during which time Henry's attention was drawn towards Anne Boleyn

• On March 4 1526 Mary Boleyn gave birth to a son, called Henry - he was widely assumed to be the son of King Henry VIII although was not acknowledged as such. The reason for this was that Henry had already fallen in love with her sister Anne...

• Anne Boleyn was not in love with Henry VIII. She had seen how her sister Mary had given into the King and been quickly discarded. Anne had no intention of making this mistake. She was adamant that she would only give herself to the King if they were married - and how was this possible as he already had Katharine of Aragon as a wife?

• King Henry VIII was a spoilt, powerful and pampered man, used to getting whatever he wanted. Anne Boleyn with her sharp and witty tongue presented him with an unexpected challenge

• King Henry VIII courted Anne for six years. "The King's Secret Matter" was no longer a secret. It became publicly known that Henry was seeking a divorce from Queen Katherine of Aragon

• Lord Chancellor Thomas Wolsey fails to obtain the Pope's consent to Henry's divorce from Katherine of Aragon and is dismissed by the King

• In 1532 the situation came to a head and Anne Boleyn became pregnant

• Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury granted the annulment of the marriage between Katharine of Aragon and Henry VIII

• On January 25th 1533 King Henry VIII married Anne Boleyn and is excommunicated by Pope Clement VII

• Hatred and jealousy of the Boleyn family and Queen Anne Boleyn in particular increased - the English people hated Anne and she was called "Witch" and the "Whore" - their loyalty was still with the discarded Katharine of Aragon

• The long awaited heir is born. Court Astrologers had all predicted a boy and the King expected a male heir. But Elizabeth , a daughter for King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, was born on 7 September 1533

• Henry VIII broke with the Church in Rome with the Act of Supremacy, which made the king the head of the Church of England as well as the King of England - he had become all-powerful

• His relationship with Anne Boleyn deteriorated - his passionate love for her was turning to hate. But she once again became pregnant

• The pregnancy was short-lived - Anne miscarried a baby boy. The miscarriage was believed to have been prompted by the shock from the news that the King had met with a terrible accident - it was not clear whether he was alive or dead. He had in fact badly injured his leg when he fell from his horse when jousting

• The miscarriage was a terrible blow. The King blamed Anne Boleyn, he began to believe that his second marriage was cursed

• And another lady-in waiting had caught his eye - her name was Jane Seymour. She came from a noble family and was supported by her two ambitious brothers Thomas Seymour and Edward Seymour. Jane was also supported by the many enemies that Anne Boleyn had made

• Sir Thomas Moore and Bishop Fisher of Rochester were executed for refusing to acknowledge Henry VIII as head of the English Church - the anti-Boleyn faction increased still further

• On 1536 January 7 - Katharine of Aragon died at Kimbolton Castle

• Instead of making the marriage of Anne Boleyn feel completely secure as Queen the death of Katharine the opposite effect. Henry could hardly have divorced his second wife whilst his first wife still lived

• King Henry VIII started courting the meek and mild Jane Seymour - a woman who's personality was the complete opposite to Anne Boleyn

• Rumours about Anne circulated and men who were part of her faction disappeared one by one. No one knew where Mark Smeaton the Queen's musician had gone. Then others followed including Sir Thomas Wyatt, Sir Francis Weston and William Brereton. The King's close friend Sir Henry Norris was arrested at a jousting tournament. Then the Queen's own brother, George Boleyn, Lord Rochford was arrested. Only Sir Thomas Wyatt was released the rest of the men were executed

• On 1536 May 2nd 1536 Queen Anne Boleyn arrested and taken to the Tower of London

• On May 15th 1536 Anne Boleyn was tried for treason, adultery and incest in the Great Hall of the Tower of London with her brother George Boleyn

• Her father, Thomas Boleyn the Earl of Wiltshire, was no help. He denounced the crimes of all of those accused accused and tried Mark Smeaton, Sir Francis Weston, William Brereton and Sir Henry Norris who were condemned to death. King Henry excused Thomas Boleyn from the task of condemning his own children, Queen Anne and George Boleyn to death

• 1536 May 19th 1536 Anne Boleyn was executed on Tower Hill. Anne's body and head were buried in an unmarked grave in the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula

• 1536 May 20th: Within 24 hours of Anne Boleyn's execution, Jane Seymour and Henry VIII were formally betrothed

Anne Boleyn and "The Other Boleyn Girl"

Anne Boleyn and The Other Boleyn Girl

Posted By Claire

My inspiration for this article comes from a discussion we’ve been having on The Anne Boleyn Files Facebook page, regarding the inaccuracies of the movie and novel “The Other Boleyn Girl”, and from the many emails I receive asking me my thoughts on Philippa Gregory’s portrayal of Anne Boleyn.

What concerns me about the emails I receive is that people take “The Other Boleyn Girl” as fact, even though it is marketed as a work of fiction, and I have even heard of people using it for reference when studying Anne Boleyn and the Tudor period!

I realise how tempting it is to take short-cuts when you’re studying a topic, e.g. read the study-notes rather than the actual book, but it is extremely dangerous to base your knowledge on something that is a novel and not the true story. I know that Philippa Gregory is seen by many as an historian BUT The Other Boleyn Girl is not a factual retelling of Anne Boleyn’s life or even that of Mary Boleyn. Although, in the author’s notes at the back of the book, Philippa Gregory talks about how her novel is based on theories outlined in Retha Warnicke’s book “The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn”, and various other secondary sources, there are many, many inaccuracies in the book, along with fallacies and story-lines that have no factual basis.

Let’s examine some of them…

Mary Boleyn the Virgin

In “The Other Boleyn Girl”, Mary Boleyn is the heroine, the “other Boleyn girl” who is telling her story. The book begins with Mary catching Henry VIII’s eye and her family plotting to make Mary his mistress, and the mother of his bastard, to gain status at court. Mary is worried about sleeping with the King and says to George and Anne, “I don’t know how to do it… You know, William did it once a week or so, and that in the dark, and quickly done, and I never much liked it. I don’t know what it is I am supposed to do.” Mary appears innocent and sexually inexperienced and it is Anne who later promises her father and uncle that she will “coach her well enough to get her into his bed”. “The Other Boleyn Girl” movie opens with Mary just about to marry William Carey and worrying about her wedding night because she is a virgin – not true!

Fact: Mary had been the mistress of King Francis I of France and gained a reputation for being promiscuous. The reputation may have been unfair and down to gossip, but she was the French King’s mistress and so was not sexually inexperienced when she arrived back at the English court.

Anne Boleyn Entraps Henry Percy

In the novel, Anne plots to attract Henry Percy so that she can be Duchess of Northumberland and be wealthy. She tells Mary, “I’m going to make him marry me” and Mary watches Anne with Percy and comments “I saw how she played him”. Anne does indeed attract Henry Percy and the couple are betrothed and then consummate the betrothal to make it legal. Cardinal Wolsey steps in and puts an end to the relationship and Elizabeth Boleyn, Anne’s mother, makes Mary forge a letter from Anne to Percy, saying that she has to give him up.

Fact: There is no evidence that Anne set out to trap Percy and it is likely to have been a love match – the two of them meeting at court and falling in love.

Fact: Mary Talbot, Percy’s wife claimed in 1532 that her marriage to Percy was invalid because he was already pre-contracted to marry Anne Boleyn. Henry Percy denied this by swearing an oath on the Blessed Sacrament, in front of the Duke of Norfolk, the archbishops and the King’s canon lawyers. There is no evidence that Anne and Henry Percy slept together.

The Boleyn Family Schemers

In “The Other Boleyn Girl” we see Thomas Boleyn, his wife, Elizabeth Boleyn, and her brother, the Duke of Norfolk, having family conferences and scheming, using Mary and Anne as pawns to raise the family’s status, what my good friend Rachel Fitzpatrick refers to as “Pimp Daddy Boleyn Syndrome”!

We also see them abandoning Anne to her fate at the end of the novel, with Thomas saying to Mary “Don’t you bring me into it… She went her own way, and him and you with her.”

Fact: There is no evidence that the Boleyns/Howards schemed and used the girls as pawns, or that the girls were “coached”. It is likely that Mary caught the King’s eye with her pretty looks and Anne attracted him with her style and confidence, and that the families made the most of their favour. Women were seen as second-class citizens and daughters as chattels, but there is nothing to support the view that Thomas Boleyn set out to win favour through Mary and Anne.

Anne Boleyn and Her Sexual Stranglehold Over Henry

In the novel, when Mary is pregnant, Anne is ordered by her family to flirt with the King and keep him happy so that he does not take another mistress, a woman outside of the family. Elizabeth Boleyn comments to Mary, “Thank God Anne has him in her toils. She plays with him like you might tease the queen’s dog. She has him on a thread” and Anne tells Mary that she is going to “hold out till he sees that he has to make me an offer, a very great offer”. This suggests that Anne set out to trap and manipulate Henry VIII on her family’s orders and thatshe held out on him sexually as part of the plan to become queen.

Fact: There is no evidence to support this theory. I personally believe that Henry was attracted to Anne and that she wanted to keep her virtue and not end up like her sister, an abandoned mistress with a bit of a reputation. There is no way that Anne Boleyn could have guessed that Henry would ever offer to make her his wife and queen when she refused to be his mistress, how could she? Henry could have had any woman that he wanted, I’m sure Anne thought he would just move on to the next.

George Boleyn and Incest

The George Boleyn of “The Other Boleyn Girl” has an unnatural relationship with his sisters. He kisses Mary and then says “Kiss me again, kiss me like you kiss Henry” and he kisses Anne like a lover, not a brother:-

“He leaned forward and kissed her again. Her eyes closed and her lips smiled and then parted… his finger went to her bare shoulder and stroked her neck… his finger went into her smooth dark hair and pulled her head back for his kiss.”

Anne later taunts him:-

“Don’t you want to touch me… Wouldn’t you rather take me to your chamber?”

And although we do not have a scene with them actually committing incest, it is clear that we are meant to think that Anne’s third pregnancy is a result of incest. Anne says to Mary:-

“No one knows what went into the making of this baby, Mary. No one will ever know.”

and

“For I went on a journey to the very gates of hell to get him. You will never know.”

Mary then sees a guilty look on George’s face and concludes that “Anne had taken him as her companion on her journey to the gates of hell to conceive this child for England.”

Fact: Anne and George were found guilty of incest at their trial but there is absolutely NO evidence that they committed incest. The majority of historians believe that they were framed and Philippa Gregory is pretty much alone in believing that either of them would have contemplated it. George was a keen reformer, he would not have contemplated such an abominable sin, and neither would his sister.

Anne Boleyn and Incest

In the Q&A section of “The Other Boleyn Girl” is the following question:-

“How about Mary and Anne’s brother, George? Did he really sleep with his sister so that she could give Henry a son?”

and here is Philippa Gregory’s answer:-

“Nobody can know the answer to this one. Anne was accused of adultery with George at their trials and his wife gave evidence against them both. Most people think the trial was a show trial, but it is an interesting accusation. Anne had three miscarriages by the time of her trial, and she was not a woman to let something like sin or crime stand in her way—she was clearly guilty of one murder. I think if she had thought that Henry could not bear a son she was quite capable of finding someone to father a child on her. If she thought that, then George would have been the obvious choice.”

Fact: The above answer is wrong in so many ways and on so many levels!! 1) There is no evidence that Jane Boleyn (Jane Parker) gave evidence against George and Anne. It does not appear that any witnesses were called at their trials and Jane is not named as the woman who provided the prosecution with evidence against them, it may well have been the Countess of Worcester. 2) “Not a woman to let something like sin or crime stand in her way”! Anne was a very religious person who risked her life and position by having “heretical” books in her possession, there is no way that she would have contemplated incest, it would not even have crossed her mind! 3) What murder? 4) Why would George be the obvious choice? How many women out there having difficulty conceiving consider sleeping with their brother? Aaaaggghhh!

George Boleyn the Homosexual or Bisexual

It was historian Retha Warnicke who put forward the idea that the men who were executed for adultery with Anne Boleyn were libertines who committed sodomy, and in “The Other Boleyn Girl” George not only acts inappropriately with his sisters but he also has a sexual relationship with Sir Francis Weston. He tells his sisters that ” a boy is so clean and so clear” and then announces “I’m in love with a man”. Later in the novel, Mary knocks on George’s locked door and when George opens it, Sir Francis Weston is “straightening his doublet”, suggesting that the two men have been enjoying a sexual liaison.

Fact: There is NO evidence that George, or any of the other four men, were homosexual or bisexual. All of the men confessed to being sinners in their execution speeches and Sir Francis Weston mentioned living in “abomination”, but I think it is reading too much into their words to accuse them of what were illicit sexual acts.

The Deformed Foetus

In “The Other Boleyn Girl”, Anne Boleyn miscarries a “monster”, “a baby horridly malformed, with a spine flayed open and a huge head, twice as large as the spindly little body.”

Fact: There is no mention of a deformed foetus in the contemporary primary sources and the only historical mention of it is in the writings of Nicholas Sander, a man who was a Catholic exile in Elizabeth I’s reign and who set out to blacken Anne Boleyn’s name. He was also the one who described Anne as having a “projecting tooth”, “a large wen” and six fingers. The Imperial ambassador, Eustace Chapuys, who hated Anne and called her “the concubine”, simply reported that “the child had the appearance of a male about 3 months and a half old” and Charles Wriothesley said the same. The deformed foetus story is therefore nothing but a myth to make Anne Boleyn appear to be a witch or to back up the story that she had committed adultery or incest.

Anne Boleyn the B**ch

There is no other way to describe the Anne Boleyn of “The Other Boleyn Girl”, she is a complete b**ch and it’s no wonder I get emails asking why I “defend” such a b**ch! Anne steals Henry VIII from Mary and then taunts her, she takes Mary’s son away from her without her permission, she treats her siblings like her slaves, she quite likely poisons Bishop Fisher and his dinner guests and perhaps Cardinal Wolsey, Princess Mary and Catherine of Aragon too, she is vindictive when Mary announces her marriage to Will Stafford and her pregnancy, saying that she will tell Mary’s son that his mother is dead, and she curses Jane Seymour, saying: “If she gets her hand on my crown and her arse on my throme I hope it is the death of her. I hope she dies young. I hope she dies in childbed in the very act of giving him a boy. And I hope the boy dies too.” Nice!

Also, in the Q&A section at the back of the book, Philippa Gregory says that Anne was “not a woman to let something like sin or crime stand in her way – she was guilty of one murder… ”

Fact: We do know that Anne had a hot temper and she could be pretty nasty at times, e.g. instructing her aunt to box the ears of the “cursed bastard” (Mary) and starve her if she didn’t behave, swearing that “she would bring down the pride of this unbridled Spanish blood” and even put Mary to death while her father was in France, BUT this is a far cry from actually killing someone. Anne was careless with words, she had a quick temper and often said things without thinking. In my opinion, her words were simply bluster, spiteful but no actual truth to them. We’ve all said things that we regret, and don’t really mean, in the heat of the moment! Anne was no angel but she was no murderess either.

Religion

Anne’s faith and her reformist views are completely missing from this novel.

Fact: Anne was of reformist views. Her father and brother smuggled heretical books into England from the Continent, her brother translated reformist works for her, Anne helped reformist bishops get positions and she encouraged her ladies to read the Bible, which she left open in her apartments. She may not have been the Protestant martyr or revolutionary that some people think that she was, but there is much evidence to show that she had a real faith.

Anne Boleyn the Witch

In the novel, William Stafford says to Mary, “she [Anne] is certainly guilty of dabbling in witchcraft”, and we see Anne taking a potion to bring on the miscarriage of her baby which has died in the womb and later in the novel miscarrying a monstrously deformed baby. The midwife who is present when Anne miscarries the “monster” admits to Mary that she has actually been employed by Henry to watch Anne and that she is a “witch taker”. However, we never actually see Anne dabbling in witchcraft.

Fact: Giving birth to a deformed baby would have been seen as evidence of sexual sin or witchcraft, but there is no evidence that Anne did give birth to a deformed foetus.

Anne and Henry Carey

In Philippa Gregory’s novel, after the death of Mary’s husband, William Carey, Anne Boleyn suggests to her sister that she should adopt little Henry Carey and when Mary protests Anne tells her that it is already done. Mary says to Anne: “So that you have a son, Henry’s son. You have a son who is a Tudor by birth. If he marries you then in the same ceremony he gets a son” and this scene suggests that Anne has taken Mary’s son without her permission, and stolen him as part of her plan to marry Henry VIII.

Fact: Henry VIII appointed Anne Boleyn as Henry Carey’s ward in 1528, after the death of his father, William Carey. There was nothing unusual about this. Mary was a widow and Anne was in a position to provide for Henry and she could ensure that her nephew had a good education. He received education at a Cistercian monastery and also under the tutelage of the French poet, Nicholas Bourbon. She did not adopt him. We have discussed it on Facebook and Rachel Fitzpatrick pointed out that it was standard practice for the monarch to grant wardships to wealthy and influential courtiers, e.g. Lady Jane Grey was Thomas Seymour’s ward and Catherine Willoughby was Charles Brandon’s.

Jane Boleyn

The Jane Boleyn of “The Other Boleyn Girl” is a nasty busybody who is jealous of her husband’s relationship with his sisters. In the novel, George is not exactly keen on marrying her and he later describes her as “viley jealous” and “light-fingered”. Here is part of a scene where George is discussing Jane with his sisters:-

“It’s not like lust,” he said uneasily. “I can deal with lust. And it’s not variety—I like a little taste of the wild myself. But it’s as if she wanted some kind of power over me. The other night she asked me if I would like a maid brought in. She offered to bring me in a girl and worse: she wanted to watch.”
“She likes to watch?” Anne demanded.
He shook his head. “No, I think she likes to arrange. I think she likes to listen at doors, to spy through keyholes. I think she likes to be the one that makes things happen and watches others at the business. And when I said ‘no’…” He stopped abruptly.
“What did she offer you then?”
George flushed. “She offered to get me a boy.”

Now, you can see where “The Tudors” got their inspiration for Jane from!

Later in the novel, at Anne Boleyn’s fall, Madge Shelton tells Mary Boleyn of how Jane was interrogated the longest and that she wrote and signed a statement. Madge goes on to say, “It was after she had spoken to them that we all had to go in again and they were asking about George. Mary Boleyn, who is telling the story, tells the reader that at George’s trial, “the strongest evidence against him was a statement written by Jane Parker, the wife he had always despised.”

Fact: There is no evidence to support this characterization of Jane Boleyn and Jane did not confess to lying about George and Anne in her execution speech, that is a myth. Jane did tell Cromwell of Anne’s indiscretion about Henry’s sexual inadequacies, but we don’t know what else Jane told Cromwell and it is time to stop using her as a scapegoat. You can read more about Jane in my post Jane Boleyn and the Fall of Anne Boleyn.

Lack of Maternal Love

In “The Other Boleyn Girl”, Anne Boleyn is horrified when she gives birth to a daughter, ” “A girl,” Anne said in horror. “A girl. What good is a girl to us?” “, which is understandable when she knew how important it was to give Henry a son and heir, but there is no relationship between Anne and Elizabeth in the novel. Anne seems to lack maternal love and there is an awful scene where Anne strips little Elizabeth half naked to prove to everyone that she is perfect and beautiful, Elizabeth’s lip is trembling as Anne rages at Henry.

Fact: It was Henry VIII who paraded his naked baby daughter in front of ambassadors to show how perfect she was. Also, Anne loved her daughter dearly and was a keen and good mother in the short time she had with her. Historians David Starkey and Tracy Borman refer to a story of how Anne Boleyn wanted to defy convention by breastfeeding her baby herself, but was prevented from doing so by her husband. Tracy Borman also writes of how courtiers were often embarrassed by Anne’s displays of affection for her baby and that she loved to have Elizabeth next to her on a cushion, rather than shut away, out of sight and mind, in a nursery, and when Elizabeth was given her own household at Hatfield, Anne spent time carefully choosing fabrics for her daughter’s clothes and visited her whenever possible.

The Movie

“The Other Boleyn Girl” movie, starring Eric Bana, Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson is even worse for historical inaccuracies:-

• Henry VIII rapes Anne Boleyn
• Anne making Henry promise that he’d never speak to Mary again after she’s given birth to his son
• Mary Boleyn intercedes on Anne’s behalf and tries to get her pardoned
• Mary Boleyn walks into court and takes Elizabeth at the end

It makes me cringe and shout at the TV!

Don’t Knock Historical Fiction!

I know I’m going to get people saying that there’s nothing wrong with historical fiction and that I shouldn’t criticise it because people should be able to distinguish fact from fiction and I’m really not having a go at historical fiction. My bookcase is full of historical fiction: Jean Plaidy, C J Sansom, Robin Maxwell, Jeane Westin etc. BUT those authors are not saying that their novels are true and they carefully explain where they have deviated from the truth in their notes. Reading Philippa Gregory’s notes and interviews, she is suggesting that she is an historian and that “The Other Boleyn Girl” is not a distortion of the facts, but is a retelling of Anne and Mary’s story, and that is why I have such a big problem with this particular novel.

So, if you know someone who thinks they know Anne Boleyn’s story from reading “The Other Boleyn Girl” or you know a student who is doing a project on Anne Boleyn, please tell them about the Eric Ives book, “The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn”, or point them to this website. I don’t like to blow my own trumpet, but I am committed to telling Anne Boleyn’s true story by researching primary sources and the works of Tudor historians like Eric Ives, David Starkey, Alison Weir and David Loades.

Read more: http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/anne-boleyn-and-the-other-boleyn-girl/6685/#ixzz1B7MdM4A0