Anne and her sister, Mary, spent part of their childhood in the France court. Mary returned to England sometime around and had a brief affair with Henry. She had no interest in being a mistress. When Henry sought an annulment from his first wife to marry Anne, Rome refused.
Henry and Anne wed in January of , and Anne gave birth to their first child, Elizabeth , in September the same year. Henry remained hopeful Anne would give him a son, but after a series of stillborn births, Henry lost interest in his wife. When he took a mistress, Anne became enraged. Desperate to end the relationship, Henry accused her of adultery and treason and had the marriage annulled.
On May 19, , Anne was beheaded for her alleged crimes. She is by far the most studied of Henry VIII's wives, but much of her life remains a mystery, including the terms of her execution. Boleyn's response surprised Henry VIII, who is believed to have had several mistresses at that time, reportedly entering into these adulterous relationships because he badly wanted a son, and Catherine of Aragon had not borne a male child. Queen Catherine would not bear a son that survived infancy throughout the duration of their marriage, from to ; the couple's first child to survive infancy, Princess Mary, was born in But Henry was desperate to have Boleyn, so he quickly configured a way to officially abandon his marriage with Catherine.
In his petition for annulment to the pope, he cited an excerpt from the Book of Leviticus stating that a man who takes his brother's wife shall remain childless, and claimed that he and Catherine who was his brother's widow would never have a son who survived infancy because their marriage was a condemnation in the eyes of God.
Following a six-year debate, during which time Henry and Boleyn had courted discreetly, Anne discovered that she was pregnant in early Without the blessing of the pope, on January 25, , Henry and Boleyn quickly married in a secret ceremony led by Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury.
The following June, a lavish coronation ceremony was held in honor of the new queen. Anne would conceive twice more, in and , with each delivery producing a stillborn baby. In , Archbishop Cranmer decreed Henry's marriage to Catherine Aragon invalid because she was the king's sister-in-law. Henry subsequently broke England away from Rome by setting up the Church of England. Catherine would pass away two years later, in While Queen Anne's public persona was that of a sexually promiscuous status seeker—due in no small part to the public's long-held allegiance to Catherine of Aragon—her efforts to play the traditional role of queen during her reign were both valid and sincere, focusing on improvements for the poor.
Boleyn was also renowned at court for her stylish wardrobe, much of which followed French fashion trends of the time. England would never warm up to Queen Anne, however. She would remain disliked, by and large, for the rest of her short life.
But if Boleyn was less than prepared for her new role as queen, she was extremely unprepared for her new role as the king's wife. Unlike Queen Catherine before her, who knew of her husband's infidelity but was able to turn the other cheek, Boleyn was enraged by Henry's promiscuity and became increasingly jealous.
As he had with Catherine, Henry blamed his adulterous behavior on his mission to have a son and heir to the throne and became increasingly frustrated by his wife's questions about his whereabouts and subsequent reactions.
Permeated by resentment and hostility, the marriage quickly fell apart. Remembered for: being arrested for adultery and incest, taken to the Tower of London and later executed. Anne originally returned from France early in to marry her cousin, James Butler.
The Boleyns were unenthusiastic, however, and the proposal was eventually dropped. The sweating sickness, which may have been a type of influenza, plagued Tudor England, and was notable for the speed in which it could kill an otherwise young and healthy victim.
Both she and her father became ill at Hever, with Henry sending his second-best doctor since his first was unavailable to treat her. Given the dangerous nature of the disease, Anne and her father were both lucky to survive — her brother-in-law, William Carey, died in the outbreak, as did many other members of the court.
Anne was a popular name in the Boleyn family, with her great-grandmother, Anne Hoo, being one of the first Anne Boleyns. She was close to her niece and with her sister Alice Boleyn, Lady Clere, was appointed to the household of Princess Elizabeth. Lady Shelton lived in terror that people would think she had poisoned the elder princess if she fell ill, and she gradually began to befriend her charge.
There is little evidence for a relationship between Anne and Jane, although both were close to their mutual cousin, Sir Francis Bryan, who was responsible for first securing a court post for Jane.
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