Anne Boleyn is a tragic figure in the life of Henry VIII. Scheming and manipulative she was made the Queen of all England, only to lose her head six months after her rival, Catherine of Aragon died. Her sister Mary had been Henry’s mistress and had born his children and raised her family fortunes to great heights.

Anne was different, born around the date 1507; she refused to become Henry’s mistress. She is famous for uttering the immortal words ‘Your wife I cannot be, as you have one already and your mistress I will not be.’ This decision was to change the face of English history. Henry infatuated, divorced his wife of nearly 20 years and cut off England from the Catholic faith to do so. The English people were furious, their loyalty lay with Catherine. Anne was hated and nicknamed Nan Bullen and The goggle eyed whore by the English people. At her coronation the streets were silent and people had to be paid to cheer at all.

Their father Thomas Boleyn was not born high. He began as a lowly knight. To give his child a chance to climb the ambitious ladder and because it was the fashion of the day, knights sent their children away. This often led the way to an advantageous marriage. This was crucial for the rise to wealth and honour for the Boleyn family. Anne was sent to France to be lady-in waiting to the French Queen Claude.

Brought up mostly in France, Anne’s taste was mostly French; when she returned home she was given a post in Queen Catherine’s service as a lady-in-waiting. Her sister was already one of Henry’s mistresses. Anne set her sights high when she fell for Henry Percy; elder son of the powerful family of Northumberland. Henry was furious, he wanted Anne for himself, so he had Percy banished and married off. Percy was a broken man and Anne was heartbroken. She herself did not know it was Henry who had done this, and blamed Wolsey, Henry’s right hand man. She also helped in his downfall. She refused to become Henry's mistress insisting that her virtue was most precious and worthy of marriage.

Henry broke with Rome for her and they were married in secret in 1533.
Anne bore Henry a daughter, Elizabeth in the same year; she was devastated because it was not a son, but Henry was still enamoured of her. However her temper and lack of royal breeding were already beginning to grate on Henry’s nerves. Things began to go rapidly down hill, and in January 1536, when her second pregnancy was not only lost; but was a dead son; her doom was sealed.

Henry was already enamoured of Jane Seymour and ordered his advisers to get rid of Anne somehow; and release him to remarry. Anne was accused of adultery, incest and witchcraft, and was sentenced to death. Also sentenced to death were the most popular courtiers of the court; her brother George and several friends, Weston, Brereton, Norris and her musician Mark Smeaton among them.

She was given the magnanimous justice and mercy of Henry by being beheaded; not by the English axe, which was barbaric and often took many stokes; but by a swordsman from Calais, paid for by the King’s generous purse. As there was no preparation made for her burial she was put in a arrow chest, that her body fitted only because she had lost her head. She left a daughter of two who was to become the greatest Queen England would ever have.

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