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 ...
People married a bit younger, at that time.
The link on this post works fine. Did you get out of this thread, open a new window and go to executedtoday.com?
That was the wife of King George and she died of old age.
My wife is a big time genealogy buff and she can trace her roots to Anne Boleyn.
I guess we’re almost kin.
My father’s mother, Sarah Parr, was born in England, and was a direct descendent of Sir Thomas Parr, Catherine, or Katherine, Parr’s father. Which means that I am descended from King Edward III though Thomas Parr.
Neat.
I used the link on this site from the top of the page.
Alison Weir, author covers Ann Bolyn extensively
If you get the Smithsonian Channel, they have been showing the first season of "Inside the Tower of London," which originally aired in Britain. There are 8 episodes in the first season. 7 of the 8 episodes are available On Demand. The last episode is set to air on Monday, May 24thth. There is also a second and third season, which may, or may not be picked up by the Smithsonian Channel in the future. I believe some of the episodes are on YouTube.
Tracy Borman is the Joint Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces, and she is featured in all three seasons. She also did an excellent three-part series on the last days of Anne Boleyn earlier this year. It's titled: "The Fall of Anne Boleyn," and can be located on YouTube as well.
I was lucky enough to get to The Tower of London twice, once in 2006, and again in 2007. Always wish I'd made arrangements ahead of time to observe the Ceremony of the Keys at night.
She's supposed to be my 1st cousin 14x removed through her mother Elizabeth Howard. Thomas Fiennes, 9th Baron Dacre, is allegedly my 11th Great-Grandfather. He was hung at Tyburn for the killing of a gameskeeper on the land of an MP, where he and his friends had gone to poach. He sat on the jury that convicted Anne Boleyn.
Edward III is shown as my 18th Great-Grandfather. John of Gaunt is supposed to be my 17th Great-Grandfather through his daughter Joan Beaufort, whom he had with his third, and last wife, Katherine Roet Swynford. Their kids were actually illegitimate, but John had them legalized when his nephew was on the throne. Joan married Ralph de Neville. I take it all with a grain of salt, since I don't know if any of this is factual, because these connections are all based on hints provided via Ancestry.com. I don't know how trustworthy they are.
I do not get the Smithsonian Channel but I will look up that on Yuotube I see it is on there.
I watch all the videos I can on Anne Boleyn, and even liked the show the Tudors, even though it was not accurate it was entertaining.
Want to cook like the Tudors? There are a lot of interesting videos on that on Youtube. Real minced pie or stuffed carrots with pate anyone?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PfiHIDWW_M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n20ATNiAiE0
Catherine of Aragon was 16 when she married Arthur and 24 when she married Henry. And there’s every indication that Henry married Catherine against his father’s wishes after he became king himself.
She also sent Wolsey gifts and affectionate letters when it seemed he could help Henry get the annulment. But, yes, she turned on him when he failed, as did Henry.
Thomas More would have survived if he had been able to sign the Act of Succession.
Anne Boleyn was a savvy political player, but I think “conniver” doesn’t really give the right flavor.
I love Kathryn Parr. She’s really my favorite Tudor lady.
people married a lot younger until the 1950’s. It is only recently that marriage has been put off to later ages. WE are paying for it now.
She definitely had a problem with her choice of men. Her fourth and last husband, Thomas Seymour, brother of Jane Seymour, was a scoundrel. He was executed the year after Catherine died. Their only daughter lived to the age of 2.
History as defined as the doings of the elite is much like Chicago gangsters. Roll the dice take your chance. Ann was c**t just like the predetor types in corporate and politics, waving their assets I’m front of the executive letchers.
I just realized you WENT to the Tower of London. Boy, twice. That is really wonderful. I would love to go there, or to Hampton Court.
Off the subject a bit, but through your link to Ruth Goodman. I looked down at her videos, and this one: “What Life Was Like In The Tudor Era | Tudor Monastery | Absolute History” is the one I watched on April 22nd.
That day, as I watched from across the hall from my mother, who I was caretaker to, she had dementia, is the exact one I watched, pausing the video to wander back and forth to her room, checking on her, speaking to her on that day. Her last day. I began the next video in that series but paused it to check one more time on her. When I last went to her room where I discovered her trying to cough while lying down, with difficulty clearing her throat. She could not sit herself up and so I held her up, she died in my arms.
I’m not trying to be dramatic, or make you feel bad, but it was a surprise to see you reference the very route to the list with that very video.
Forgive me, I’m not over it yet. I am even early enough on to wonder if mom prompted you to show me that. Of course, this is grief talking I guess. But if so, “mom, I miss you so”.
The rest of my family is gone. I'm the last one left. I have my two sons, and my niece and her family. She is my brother's daughter. He died in 1995 when she was 16. I wasn't with my mother or father when they passed, nor my oldest sister who passed in 2014. I was with my brother and his family when he passed, and my 2nd oldest sister when she passed in 2011 in hospice care. She waited until her birthday to die. She turned 69 that day, and I firmly believe that she held off dying until she turned 69, so she would be the same age as our mother was when she passed.
I truly believe that our loved ones communicate with us when needed. Back in 2010, what I thought was just a bad reaction to an antibiotic, turned out to be a perforated bowel that I could have died from. Two days after the initial symptoms I'd experienced had gone away, I was lying in bed at 2 a.m. and, somebody put the following thought into my head: "What if it isn't just a bad reaction?" I got up, got dressed and headed to the emergency room at my local hospital. I figured if it was just a bad reaction, I'd be home in a couple of hours. Instead, I had to have emergency surgery, and I truly believe that one or more of my family members coaxed me to go.
I like her non-fiction books, and have read several of them. Still have some on my bookshelf to get to, hopefully before I die.
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