a portrait of anne boleyn
Growing up Anne
Very little is known to historians about Anne’s early years. Even her birthdate isn’t clear. Historians place it in May or June at around 1500 while others say it’s around 1507 or even as late as 1509.
Anne was born to a family of means and she spent her childhood among the rich and royal. Her life was soon to cross with Henry VIII when she was brought to live with Henry’s sister, Mary Tudor. Mary was married to France’s Louis XII. This is the court where Anne became a lady-in-waiting. With Anne was her sister, also named Mary.
When Mary Tudor became a widow, she went back to England. Anne stayed in France for the next six years to serve Queen Claude. She became a fan of all things French, including food, music and clothing and she also spoke the language well.
Anne became betrothed to the heir of Ormonde but the engagement failed. She then turned her attentions to a rich young man named Henry Percy. During this time, Anne had also begun serving as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Catherine, wife of King Henry VIII. It was also during this time that the royal couple’s marriage was falling apart and Anne had caught Henry’s fancy.
Because she had her affections on Percy, Anne wasn’t an easy catch. One version is that in an attempt to perhaps tip the scales to the King’s favor, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, one of the most powerful statesmen in the court of Henry VIII, intervened in Anne’s affair. Percy was soon forgotten.
Although Henry was having an affair with Anne’s sister Mary, it didn’t take long for him to notice the blossoming Anne. Her initial refusal (a come-hither tactic perhaps?) only served to strengthen his resolve to win her.
The King and Anne
Anne had an initially exciting relationship with the King. Henry was still young and relatively robust then. He was so enamored of Anne that he wrote her numerous love letters, 17 of which survives today. The love-smitten King of England was a gone man, as evidenced by the letters.
Although it is said that Henry VIII disliked writing, the existence of the love letters could mean two things: one is that he used a scribe to write the letters for him and probably dictated the words and another is that he was probably driven to perform something he didn’t like to win the lady.
Anne caved in, eventually and became Henry VIII’s mistress. During this time, Henry was working out the annulment of his marriage to Catherine, something that surprised many in court who thought that Anne would be just one of the King’s dalliances.
As Henry’s mistress, Anne never wanted for materials things such as jewelry, clothes and her favorite toys. The only disadvantage to Henry’s affection was that it backfired on Anne. At one point, during celebrations at Christmas in 1529, she was even treated with more honor than Henry’s royal sister, Mary Tudor. Anne was later given the title of Marquess of Pembroke.
The birth of a Queen
Anne became pregnant in 1532. The child was illegitimate, which meant that Henry had to work fast. Before his first marriage’s annulment was approved, Henry married Anne in a secret ceremony in January 1533. The official dissolution of his marriage would not occur until four months later.
Her coronation was well prepared for and quite extravagant. She became Queen Consort of England on June 1.
Since the Queen was with child, the court was abuzz with excitement over the impending birth of an heir. There were high expectations that the child would be male. On the afternoon of September 7, a baby girl was born prematurely, later named Elizabeth. The disappointment of the King was evident – Elizabeth’s christening was not the ceremonious affair it could have been had she been born a boy. Nevertheless, there was still hope.
Henry wanted a male heir, one that will succeed him to the throne, so Anne set to work. She knew that if she didn’t produce a son, her position in court will be diminished… or worse.
Her reproductive attempts were disastrous. She became pregnant just four months after Elizabeth was born but without success. The child either died in her womb or was miscarried. A year later, she miscarried again. This time, it was even heartbreaking because the child was a boy, the one heir that Henry sought. In that boy would have been Anne’s last chance to save her being a queen and her own life.
The looming darkness
Unfortunately for Anne, two things were going against her plan to become pregnant again. By this time, Henry had taken a liking to, interesting enough, one of Anne’s ladies-in-waiting, Jane Seymour. Anne also had plenty of enemies at Henry’s court, many of whom plotted her downfall and were powerful enough to do so. She was also unpopular with the people of England.
To expedite the case against Anne, Thomas Cromwell was called in to do the job. In April of 1536, Mark Smeaton, a close friend of Anne’s, was arrested. He supposedly confessed to wrongdoings performed by the Queen. It is believed he did so under torture.
Subsequently, other people were arrested, including George, Anne’s own brother, who was accused of committing incest with her. Other men were accused of being her lovers and arrested. Because the charge was of treason, no one was allowed to come to their defense, including the accused themselves.
For her trial, Anne was brought by boat to the Tower of London, ironically traveling the same barge that took her on her way to becoming a Queen. Anne was tried at the Tower’s Great Hall in front of about 2,000 people. She denied all charges. Her brother George was tried also. His own wife testified against him.
In spite of the lack of evidence against the siblings, they were declared guilty. The sadder part was that the sentence was not read by a stranger or acquaintance but by a relative, their uncle the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Howard.
The end
George was executed on May 17, 1536. Anne followed two days later. Because she was once a Queen, she was afforded a private beheading. For the job, the court had especially ordered a swordsman from the Calais region in France to ensure a swift and accurate job. There was nothing more cruel, ghastly and downright embarrassing (at least to the King) than a botched execution, so the court made sure nothing of that sort would occur.
Wearing a fur-trimmed gray gown, her hair tied back with a white cloth, Anne was allowed to give her last speech. Her ladies-in-waiting (sans Jane Seymour), took Anne’s headdress and covered her eyes with a blindfold so she couldn’t see. True to his skill, the swordsman ended Anne’s life quickly with a single stroke.
In death, Anne wasn’t afforded the same opulence she enjoyed while alive. Her body and severed head were placed in a chest used to keep arrows, one of her favorite toys. She was buried in a grave that remained unmarked for many years in the St. Peter ad Vincula Chapel, next to Tower Green where she was executed. It was later exhumed, identified and reburied in Queen Victoria’s time. This time, the grave is acknowledged as Anne Boleyn’s with a mark.
Not a beauty
There are many portraits of Anne Boleyn and although some allow one to think that she is a ‘passable’ enough of a beauty, descriptions of her by eyewitnesses are not so flattering. Polite, maybe but not exactly the kind that would put the real Anne Boleyn in the league of beauties of the actresses who have since played her on TV and on movies.
Anne, according to a description by an ambassador from Venice, was not what you would call a handsome woman. Her beauty was average but she had something going for her. Her neck, for which she would later be quoted famously for, is elegant and slender.
Unlike the blonde, blue-eyed goddesses often considered as the epitome of attractiveness, Anne was by contrast, a dark-haired, dark-eyed charmer. Her large, dark brown eyes were only accentuated by her olive skin. Her beauty, it turns out, is in those eyes and she was more than capable of wielding them as a weapon at will to entice, fascinate and maneuver.
It is also said that Anne sported a lot of moles (or warts, depending on who you’re asking). Apparently, the many moles (and/or warts) were not bothersome to King Henry VIII.
Anne of the 11 fingers
One of the most hotly debated physical characteristics of Anne Boleyn is the number of fingers she had. In some paintings that show her hand, she sports six fingers on one hand. It isn’t clear whether this is a fact or not. If it were true, the extra finger could have contributed indirectly to her demise.
One of the charges put up against Anne was that she practiced witchcraft. Hundreds of years ago when the unreasoning fear of witches got the better of even educated men and women, the extra digit was considered as the mark of the devil.
Witches, once they have become in league with the evil one, are supposedly given a mark, usually hidden from view. The mark appears as a strange spot on the body. In some cases, such as Anne’s it can sometimes appear as an additional appendage. In short, it was a dead giveaway.
If the legend of the extra finger was nothing but nonsense, it must appear on the paintings because Anne was accused of witchcraft, sort of like an artful graffiti on the part of the artist trying to suck up to the King or some powerful official in the dangerous court of Henry VIII.
Incidentally, this mark makes an appearance on Anne Rice’s novel, Lasher. In the story, the Queen (unnamed here but clearly alluded to), gives birth to an unnatural child, her son with her witch lover. Born knowing and fully grown, the child/man is spirited away. The Queen, accused of witchcraft, is subsequently arrested, tried and executed.
