Posted on 05/19/2021 9:03:59 AM PDT by CheshireTheCat
On this date in 1536, Anne Boleyn lost her head.
Any queen decapitated by her king would of course rate an entry in these grim pages. But this does not quite explain Anne Boleyn‘s enduring appeal, relevance and recognizability for the most casual of modern observers, and her concomitant footprint in popular culture, even with the “Greek tragedy” quality of her life.
Anne stands at the fulcrum of England’s epochal leap into modernity. Whether she was that fulcrum might depend on the reader’s sympathy for the Great Man theory of history, but little more do we injure our headless queen to regard her as the woman for her time and place — the accidental hero (or villain) raised up and thrown down by the tectonic forces of her milieu.
Through Anne was born — for reasons of momentary political arrangements of long-forgotten dynasts, which seems a shockingly parochial proximate cause — the English Reformation, and through the Reformation was born the crown’s decisive triumph over the nobility, the broad middle class nurtured on the spoils of Catholic monasteries, the rising Britannia fit to rule. Most would take as an epitaph historical accidents of such magnitude.....
(Excerpt) Read more at executedtoday.com ...
I’m glad you put this up. I have been reading about Boleyn for years, and although feel sorry for her also think she was a conniver who had no feelings for the poor queen, Kathryn, who was the true queen of England then and a good and pious wife. Unfortunately she did fulfill the mission, provide England with a male heir for the throne.
Henry viii was unbelievably cruel to Ann and somewhere on the net I read the night of her execution he spent it in some royal owned house full of likely related to the court beautiful women doting on him, in order to put her execution out of his mind.
What a story it all is/was. But what a horror in history.
Sounds like it was written by Dickens................
Well at least she wasn’t Thomas Cromwell. Executioner was drunk,after the fifth stroke a Yeoman finished him off.
That is, Catherine and she did NOT fulfill her mission.
See, the white racists were killing poor black women* even back then!
*as per that new TV series...
England claimed they were civilized.
Not by a long shot.
I remember the rhyme from history class for the fate of Henry’s wives: Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.
.
Henry positioned himself as a sort of God-Emperor who could do whatever he wanted. Anyone who got too close to him was subject to his casual wrath. Anne was no saint, but she didn’t deserve to be killed.
Anne did get the last word, however. Her daughter survived many plots and tribulations and became Queen Elizabeth I.
Anne Boleyn didn’t provide England with a male heir. Her daughter, Elizabeth I, was probably the greatest English monarch to live, though.
I don’t know that Anne Boleyn was a conniver. I believe she truly thought that Catherine of Aragon was not legally married to Henry VIII (pre-dating psychology, people could very easily believe the things that were convenient to them) because the Pope was not authorized to provide dispensation for the marriage. She was instrumental in bringing about the Reformation by introducing Henry to banned books, like Tyndale’s Obedience of the Christian Man. She was educated, multi-lingual, and deeply religious.
I think the night Henry spent with the ladies of the court happened while Katherine Howard was awaiting execution. Henry was already set on Jane Seymour the night before Anne’s execution.
Really, the whole mess can be laid at the feet of Henry VII.
He wanted an international marriage as that would bring in the biggest dowry.
When Kathryn of Aragon married Arthur, she was all ready long in the tooth and about beyond the age of child bearing. Also, only half the dowry was paid by Spain, with the other half to be delivered after a child was issued that would be acknowledged as the rightful English heir.
When Arthur died, without a child, Henry the VII was not only in danger of losing the 2nd half of the dowry, but according to the agreement, the first half would have to be returned to Spain.
He connived to have ‘Lil Henry’ step up to the plate for him. Henry VIII was not brought up to be king but was trained to be a cleric.
As he grew older, he began to shy away from the marriage bargain with Spain but in the end, decided after intense advisement, to go with his father’s plan. All the trouble ensued after that.
My wife is a big time genealogy buff and she can trace her roots to Anne Boleyn.
Yes, but the Reformation was rather nationalist. The main argument, aside from theology, was that the marriage of an English monarch was an English concern. By not allowing the annulment of Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon, the Catholic Church essentially had control over the succession, since Catherine was not able to have any more children except Mary.
Henry believed that a woman could not rule England, so he needed to remarry to have a son. Of course, both his daughters ruled, but he was going on English history at the time.
ML/NJ
Catherine of Aragon was only 16 when she married Arthur Tudor
She was not past child bearing age.....
When she married Henry she was older, having to wait for political reasons
She had Princess Mary almost immediately, but the remainder of her children were either stillborn or died shortly after....
It worked for me.
Fwiw....Anne brought or helped bring about the downfall and subsequent beheading of Cardinal Wolsey and Sir Thomas More......
....so yes I would say she was a conniver
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