*Beverly Diehl's Writing in Flow*: Slut of the Month: Anne Boleyn

Portrait of Anne Boleyn, Henry's second queen;
a later copy of an original painted
in about 1534 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If Anne Boleyn were alive today, she'd be celebrating her 512th birthday around now. Or would it be her 506th?

We don't know exactly when Anne's birthday was, nor even the year, for a certainty. Put together with her mercurial personality, being a Gemini fits her.

We do know she was crowned on June 1, 1533.

People either loved her, or hated her, and of course, in the end her husband the King decided he hated her and had her head chopped off. This probably discouraged friends (those few remaining who had not, also, had their heads chopped off) from sharing any fond reminisces. But from all accounts, even those of her enemies, Anne was acknowledged to be charming, multi-talented, and extremely witty.

Cunning Linguists, A Family Tradition

Anne Boleyn's mother was a Howard - the equivalent today would probably be Princess Anne's children, the Philips, in England. Not near enough the throne to claim it, but closely related. Her father Sir Thomas Boleyn (later Earl of Wiltshire and Ormond) was a well-respected diplomat with a noted gift for languages, though descended from merchants and commoners.

There were three surviving Boleyn children: Mary, George, and Anne. Every courtier wanted a place for his/her children at, well, Court - ideally his/her own; if not, a foreign court. Court gave the kids the best opportunity to marry up (and/or get into trouble). Which in the end, all the Boleyns except patriarch Thomas did.

Mary was born about 1499/1500, and sent "into service" when England's 18 y.o. Princess Mary Tudor was shipped to France to marry King Louis. When the elderly Louis kicked off and Mary secretly married hot 'n sexy Charles Brandon and returned to England, Mary Boleyn stayed in France with Queen Claude's retinue, and was joined by her younger sister Anne.

Anne had been sent into service with the Archduchess Margaret of Austria in 1513, and arguments about her age center around a letter she wrote to her father dated 1514.

Some historians argue that girls were not generally sent into service until age 12-13, and that the writing of the letter is much too mature for that of a 6-7 year old. Others argue that the misspellings and grammar errors show Anne was a very smart but very young child when she wrote it. Then there's the testimony of those at her execution in 1536 that she was "not yet 29 years old." They also point to the fact that all references to Anne by the Archduchess Margaret and others refer to her being "well-spoken and pleasant for her young age," and the references to Anne at the French Court as being very young. If she was the average age for a maid in waiting, why would there be any remarks about her age? Anne returned to England about 1521, at that point very French in her speech, manner, and dress, however old she was.

This was following her sister Mary, who had garnered a reputation of being not only pleasing to King François of France (and others), but would shortly prove also pleasing to King Henry VIII of England. Contrary to the book and movie The Other Boleyn Girl, Mary and Anne were never in direct competition for Henry's affections. (But women talk, especially sisters. Did it create a fascination in Anne's mind about Henry - or a resolve to stay the hell away from him?)

After joining the English Court, Anne would fall in love with Henry Percy, heir to Northumberland. The young couple planned to marry, although both Anne's parents and Percy's had other plans.

Henry's right hand man, Cardinal Wolsey, broke up the match. Was it at Henry's instigation, because he was already lusting after Anne, or because Percy's parents asked him to? In any event, Anne never forgave Wolsey, and legend is she openly vowed to have her revenge upon him, were it ever in her power.

You Wouldn't Like Him When He's Angry

At some point, at least by around 1525, Henry developed a crush on Anne Boleyn. She put him off. Coyness? Distaste for taking her sister's leavings (along with zero incentive for becoming a discarded, humiliated and penniless mistress like her sister)? Playing safe, and hoping that with enough time and space, Henry would lose interest? Did Anne also fall in love with him?

However she felt, pissing off a King, on whom your entire family is financially dependent, is never a smart career move. Somehow, Anne kept Henry at arm's length for nine years as his Great Matter dragged on, protesting she was not good enough to be his wife, but too good to be his mistress. How, we don't know.

We don't even know beyond written descriptions what Anne looked like. Yes, there are portraits, but most are copies of copies of possible portraits of Anne. I even recall a children's cartoon depicting a decapitated Queen Anne as a blonde. Fail.

Via Wikipedia:

The Venetian diarist Marino Sanuto, who saw Anne when Henry VIII met Francis I at Calais in October 1532, described her as "not one of the handsomest women in the world; she is of middling stature, swarthy complexion, long neck, wide mouth, bosom not much raised... eyes, which are black and beautiful.

Simon Grynée wrote to Martin Bucer in September 1531 that Anne was "young, good-looking, of a rather dark complexion". Lancelot de Carles called her "beautiful with an elegant figure", and a Venetian in Paris in 1528 also reported that she was said to be beautiful.

Did she have six fingers, a large wen (mole) on her neck? Probably not. She might have had a "show" of extra nail upon one finger of her left hand, which she may have contrived to disguise by inventing the hanging "Boleyn sleeves." She may have had small moles here and there.

If she was as scary looking as her enemies later claimed, would even the most desperate King really fall for her? It's not like she was the only young woman at court.

Anne was young, she was pretty, a talented musician, a great dancer, quick-witted, and boinggg!, she turned him on. The King was married to a sickly, aging, devout (some would say, boring) woman - whom once he'd dearly loved, true, and had barely cheated on at all. But Catherine of Aragon was now well past her childbearing years, after delivering several stillborn children and one son who lived 52 days. The only survivor was one undersized, puny - if highly intelligent and sensitive - daughter, Mary. A daughter was like having no children at all.

In hindsight, seeing that Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn's daughter Elizabeth became one of the most brilliant monarchs ever, there were a couple of Stuart queens who at least didn't blow up the place, later there was Queen Victoria, and our modern-day Queen Elizabeth II, this fear of a female monarch seems laughable. But in English history up until in Henry's time, the one and only time a Queen had tried to claim and rule England, Empress Matilda, it resulted in a bitter civil war.

Henry amused people mightily as he swore it was all about his conscience, pricking him as to the illegality of his marriage, that he wished with all his heart to keep Catherine as his wife. Henry resolved to sacrifice his personal desires and remarry for the good of England. One suggestion made was that if the Queen would only retire to a nunnery, their daughter Mary could be declared legitimate (since the marriage had been made in good faith), and this would allow the King marry again and beget more children.

Catherine? Catherine of Aragon, there's a call from the convent for you.

Young Catherine of Aragon, first wife of Henry VIII
of England, by Michel Sittow. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
As opposed to how she's often been portrayed,
Catherine was originally a strawberry blonde,
never a "dark Spaniard."

Catherine did not feel "called" by God to be a nun. She felt certain the call she'd gotten was to be Henry's wife and Queen, which was an equally holy calling. Surely his infatuation with the younger Boleyn girl - like his infatuation with Bessie Blount, and the older Boleyn girl - would pass. These passions always did.

So, apparently, felt Pope Clement VII, who was much beholden to Catherine's powerful nephew, Charles of Castile. Or perhaps the Pope, having heard rumors of Catherine's less than stellar health, thought she would die, or that Anne (who came close in 1528 with "the sweating sickness") would die, or that Henry would die, and that way, the situation would not be his problem to worry about any more.

In fact, somebody did die, eventually. The Pope. (In 1534.)

There's an anecdote of Catherine and Anne (who was, officially, Catherine's maid of honor - awkward!) playing cards together. After Anne drew a lucky card, "You will not stop till you have your King, Mistress Anne," Catherine is reported to have said.

The infatuation did not pass. Henry became more obsessed with having Anne as wife and Queen, and to hell with the Pope. After appointing his own replacement as Archbishop of Canterbury with approval from Pope Clement VII, Henry next formed his own Church with himself at the head, blew the Pope off altogether, and married Anne towards the end of 1532/beginning of 1533.

Elizabeth, expected to be a Prince, was born on 7 September 1533. Following her half brother Edward, her cousin Jane Grey (the Nine Days Queen), and her half-sister Mary, Elizabeth would reign for nearly 45 years.

While some think Anne and Henry were sexually involved long prior to Anne's pregnancy with the baby who would become Elizabeth, the fact that Anne regularly became pregnant after Elizabeth's birth would suggest that whatever intimacies Henry and Anne had been enjoying, they weren't the Full Monty.

The English People Weren't Anne Fans, Back in the Day

Good Queen Catherine had been a fixture for decades; the people loved her. They looked on Anne as the archetypical scheming bimbo, seducing a man away from his loyal, aging wife. At Anne's coronation parade in May 1533, the people were reported to be notably unenthusiastic.

She gave generously to the poor, she patronized artists and scholars... still not won over. Plus there was the whole change in religion thing. While Anne was not a Lutheran, per se, she was a reformer and intellectual, and it was with her inspiration/instigation that Henry VIII broke with Rome and set himself up as head of the Church in England, with severe punishment and executions for those who wanted to hold to their old faith.

Anne was also rumored to have an extremely sharp tongue that she fiercely wielded on anyone who ticked her off - and after she became Queen, most people ticked her off. Stress? Post-partum depression and mood swings from the failed pregnancies? Problem was, she also used that vicious tongue on Henry. Smooth move, not.

Why Did Anne Lose Her Babies?

English: Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One theory I've read is that perhaps Anne was Rh negative. Women who are Rh negative, when partnered with an Rh positive spouse (most people are Rh positive), may bear one healthy child, and following this, their body may reject subsequent fetuses, usually early in pregnancy.

Another theory floated in a new book called Blood Will Tell, is that Henry may have had a condition called McLeod syndrome, with Kell positive genes. A Kell-positive father impregnating a Kell-negative mother (the norm) would cause late term stillbirth or miscarriage in any Kell-positive offspring after the first, while the rare Kell-negative offspring would be spared. Late term stillbirth occurred regularly to both Catherine and Anne. McLeod syndrome could also explain Henry's psycho and paranoid personality later in life, and his rapid physical degeneration after age 40.

But as anybody in Henry's court would have agreed, lack of healthy babies was never a King's fault.

Beheading is a Rather Extreme Cure for a Nagging Tongue

When Anne was arrested and tried for adultery and incest with her brother, she began to win some sympathy. Her enemies had gone a bit too far to paint her as an unspeakably evil woman. She received a show of a trial, but most of the evidence brought was so ludicrous, such as that she had engaged in intercourse with this courtier when she'd just given birth, or with that one at that palace when the whole court was miles away at another, that many former enemies began to root for the underdog.

Henry was impatient to marry another woman (Jane Seymour). He'd already tried to go the annulment/have the Queen gracefully retire route with Catherine, and look how that had ended, dragging on for nine years. It was too bad that he had to have some of his favorite courtiers executed as Anne's accused adulterous partners, but they'd probably have made him feel guilty, hanging around and looking at him, anyway.

So... it's good to be King. All parties were found guilty, just as the King expected. He'd even sent for the executioner before Anne's trial began. Off with her head, and on with the next marriage, which lasted 18 months and ended with Jane's death following childbirth with Prince Edward. This was the last child Henry would have (if not the last wife).

The following video samples most of the actresses who've portrayed Anne Boleyn in the last century or so: Merle Oberon -- Private Life of Henry VIII (1933); Elaine Stuart -- Young Bess (1953); Vanessa Redgrave -- A Man for all Seasons (1966); Genevieve Bujold -- Anne of the Thousand Days (1969); Dorothy Tutin -- The Six Wives of Henry VIII (BBCTV) (1971); Charlotte Rampling -- Henry VIII & his Six Wives (1972); Barbara Kellerman -- Henry VIII (1979); Oona Kirsch -- God's Outlaw (1986); Julia Marsden -- The Six Wives of Henry VIII (2001) ; Jodhi May -- The Other Boleyn Girl (BBCTV) (2003); Helena Bonham Carter -- Henry VIII (ITV) (2003); Natalie Portman -- The Other Boleyn Girl (2008); Natalie Dormer -- The Tudors (TV) (2007/ 2008).

My personal favs are Genevieve Bujold and Natalie Dormer, because to me, they seemed best to capture Anne's elusive fire and powers of attraction, but there's no right or wrong way to portray Anne Boleyn (except as a blonde).

There are many wonderful books and movies about Anne and Henry. The story fascinated people at the time, and still haunts us today. How could a man fall so deeply in love with a woman that he would overturn Church and Kingdom for her? Then barely three years after marrying her, have her executed on trumped up charges?

I also recommend, for those fascinated by the tale who've read the "usuals" (Ives, Fraser, Erickson, Barnes, Plaidy, Lofts, Weir), two novels that present very different spins on the story: Threads by Nell Gavin, and Suzannah Dunn's The Queen of Subleties (links are to my GoodReads reviews). Just out by Susan Bordo, a historical and cultural look at how Anne Boleyn has been selectively portrayed as filling whatever role someone has needed: The Other Woman, The Mother of the Reformation, a Seductress, a Martyred Heroine... from The Creation of Anne Boleyn:

Anne the real women may have been silenced by Henry, but her restless spirit refuses to remain quiet, as she uses our shifting fancies, fantasies, and anxieties to write and rewrite her story over the centuries.