Anne Boleyn was executed on the 19th
May 1536 charged with treason, witchcraft, incest and adultery. In 1527 she had
king and country in the palm of her hand, attained the title of Marquis of
Pembroke and prepared the fundamental building blocks in achieving her status
as queen, which was finally reached six years later in 1533. She had superceded
any mistress without the need for provocativeness, eliminating any possible
opposition including her own sister, Mary Boleyn.
Even though Anne refused to
sleep with the king until he offered a proposal of marriage, some argue that
Anne was sexually perverse which led to her unpopularity later in her reign,
and ultimately to her death. Her total dominance in the king’s court gave her
power unmatched by any other queen of the time – she was, of course, the woman
that single-handedly changed the religion of England for her own personal gain,
this put her on a pedestal high above anyone in court despite her unpopularity with
the Spaniards due to the previously annulled marriage of King Henry and the
Spanish princess, Catherine of Aragon.
When one looks at the way that Anne rose
to power, one can see very strong evidence of such sexual traits. The way that
Anne approached King Henry was unlike any other, and the challenging way in
which she courted his majesty was carefully crafted through her family, which
begs the question of whether Anne’s entry into the monarchy was for hers or her
family’s gratification? Finding the answer to this could unlock the secrets to
Anne Boleyn’s execution and whether or not she was a temptress as some
historical evidence exposes her to possess, historical evidence such as the
secret marriage to Henry Percy in 1522.
Henry Percy was the son and heir to the
Earl of Northumberland and secretary to Cardinal Wolsey. Percy would pass the
time in Queen Catherine’s chambers, where he met Anne as a lady-in-waiting. He
took a special fancy to her and they wed in secret. Historians argue whether
the king was the one to end the marriage through Wolsey as there is speculation
over not only the actual date, but whether or not there was a romance between
Henry Percy and Anne Boleyn. Some historians argue that this marriage forced
King Henry VIII to declare his love for Anne, and force the marriage to be
reversed. However, this would suggest the scandal happened at a later date due
to proof that the king did not start to notice Anne until four years later in
1526. However some argue that the marriage wasn’t approved by either the Boleyn
or the Percy family, and its relevance is to the effect it had on Anne which
could potentially have altered the way she viewed the court and her family.
Anne has been portrayed as a rancorous,
seductive and selfish young woman with a very sophisticated cultural capital,
due to the time she spent in the French court as a child. She spent her
childhood in the court of Archduchess Margaret then attended the French queen
for six to seven years. Anne would have been in France during the Renaissance
period and would have been subject to new literature, fashion and way of life,
different to that experienced in England, making her appear elegant and refined
– obviously an attractive quality and one in a plethora of reasons that she caught
King Henry’s special affections.
A
question that is often asked by historians, and due to scanty evidence on
Anne’s life, there is no way of knowing – why did King Henry spend years
chasing after the abstinent Boleyn girl with the temperamental attitudes, just
to have her executed only three years after their secret wedding on 25th
January 1533? Some historians debate whether Anne was a victim to her husband’s
cruelty, and the fact that she could not bear children meant that King Henry
became tiresome of her repeated pregnancies, so tried by any means to get rid
of the woman he had wasted almost ten years in pursuing.
Anne’s first child was born August 26th 1933, only eight months
after they were wed (proving that Anne had succumbed to the Kings sexual
desires before they were married) and would grow up to be arguably one of the
greatest queens England has ever seen, and one of the longest reigns of
forty-five years; a queen that was fluent in several languages, fought off the
Spanish Armada on multiple occasions and did it without need for ruler. This
child was Elizabeth I. After that, Anne failed to give birth to another
healthy, living child. In January 1934 Anne was with child again, this time it
ended in a horrific miscarriage, and in 1935 she gave birth to a stillborn
child, the sex of course being male. However the latter child had been born
with several deformities and was surprisingly premature. This incident was used
as evidence to accuse Anne of committing an act of incest with her brother,
George Boleyn. It is understandable if Anne Boleyn had had an affair with
multiple men to try and impregnate herself, these men include: William
Brereton, Francis Weston, Lord Rochford and Mark Smeaton.
To win the heart of
the king was hard enough, keeping him however, was a completely different
ordeal. The king would have been surrounded by women younger and more
attractive than Anne who were more than willing to bed the king in return for
small favours. Not long after Anne and King Henry were married, Jane Seymore
was spending many a night with the king. It would be
non-surprising if Anne had courted the aforementioned men in order to keep the
king at her side via a male heir. Little was she aware that it would result in
her marriage being annulled on the 14th May 1936, and being executed
at the Tower of London only five days later by a French swordsman. The story of
Anne Boleyn is an erratic one, she changed the face of the regional religion
and started a catalyst of change.
