Anne Boleyn

Henry VIII was married six times and had three living legimitate children. Mary Tudor (Mary I) was the daughter of his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon. She had many miscarriages but only brought one living child to term. Elizabeth I was the daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. She only had one child who was Elizabeth I. Elizabeth's father was Henry VIII. She lost several other babies, including some other male children, which was a great disappointment to Henry, who needed a son as heir in order to entrench the Tudor dynasty. His final child was Edward VI, the daughter of his third wife, Jane Seymour.

It is thought that Henry's inability to successfully have numerous healthy children with his wives, was due to his having contracted syphilis, which endangers the foetus during pregnancy.

Anne Boleyn was the daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn and his wife, Lady Elizabeth. She was the niece of the Duke of Norfolk and part of the great Howard clan on her mother's side (she was the cousin of Henry's fifth wife, Catherine Howard). Anne's elder sister, Mary, was the mistress of Henry VIII and most likely the mother of two of his children. Anne was the reason and motivation of the break with Rome and the establishment of the Church of England. At points in her life she was a lady-in-waiting to Margaret of Austria, Mary Tudor, the Duchess of Suffolk and Katherine of Aragon. Anne was a great lady in her own right being the Marquess of Pembroke. Her ancestors include Thomas Howard, earl of Surrey, the daughter and heiress of Lord Thomas Hoo, Margaret Butler, co-heiress of the Earl of Ormonde. Anne Boleyn was the last of Henry's wives to be coroneted as Queen of England. == Anne Boleyn was the second wife of King Henry VIII, and the mother of Queen Elizabeth I. She was executed on false charges of adultery that the King had put against her so he could remarry Anne was not able to give him a son due to Henry's impotency not to any fault of her own. Anne promised King Henry a son and failed to give him one, so she was disposed of. Out of Henry's six wives, his third wife, Jane Seymour was the only one to give him a son. (One who would die just before his sixteenth birthday) Jane died of puerperal fever, twelve days (just one more than the eleven days that Henry and Jane waited to marry after Anne Boleyn's execution) after the birth of Edward VI. It is rumoured that King Henry said Anne Boleyn's name just before he died; she was probably his only true love. 2nd wife of Henry VIII. Mother of Queen Elizabeth I. Executed in the Tower of London in 1536. Jane Seymour's son became King Edward VI. Anne Boleyn was the second wife of King Henry VIII of England, and was executed on trumped up charges in order to make way for the third wife.
Second wife of Henry VIII and the first one beheaded.
Anne Boleyn was the second wife of King Henry VIII of England. Henry renounced Catholicism and divorced his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, in order to marry Anne. He beheaded her after a couple of years (a thousand days, to be precise).
Anne Boleyn was the second wife of Henry VIII of England. She was born either in 1501 or 1507 (1501 seems the more likely). She was brought up at the courts of Margaret of Austria in the Netherlands and Louis XII of France.

Her father was Thomas Boleyn, and her mother was Elizabeth Howard, the sister of the third Duke of Norfolk, and the daughter of the 2nd Duke. She had one surviving sister, Mary, who was the mistress of both Francis I of France and Henry VIII of England, and one surviving brother, George. George later married Jane Parker, the daughter of Lord Morley. Mary married twice, to William Carey, who died of the sweating sickness in 1528, and William Stafford, whom she married in secret.

On her return to England, she was supposedly involved with Henry Percy, the heir to the Earl of Northumberland, and Thomas Wyatt, the famous poet. Her father was involved in negotiations to marry her to Piers Butler, the heir to the Earl of Ormonde, though these plans came to nothing. She became involved with Henry VIII around 1525 or 1526.

During this time, Henry VIII was petitioning the Pope for a divorce from his first wife, Katherine of Aragon, as he believed he was married to his brother's wife. Henry wanted to marry Anne Boleyn instead, and hopefully get a son by her. Anne was supposedly involved in the fall of Henry's chief advisor, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, and the rise of his replacement, Thomas Cromwell.

Henry VIII broke away from the Roman Catholic Church in order to marry Anne. The French alliance was cemented in October 1532 when Henry and Anne visited Francis I at the French court. This gave their forthcoming marriage the necessary political approval. Before going to France, however, Anne had been made Marquess of Pembroke in her own right. This was to give her status in France to put her on a more equal stage with both Henry and Francis.

Anne became pregnant towards the end of 1532, and she and Henry were married sometime in January 1533 (the exact date is a subject for debate, and some people even believe they were married while in France). Anne's coronation was held on 1st June 1533 at Westminster Abbey, and it was designed to outdo Katherine of Aragon's from 1509. Henry needed his people to know that Anne was the true queen and her future children were the heirs to the English throne. Henry was devastated when Anne gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth, in September 1533. She wouldn't bear another live child.

Anne definitely miscarried at least once in 1534 and 1535, more likely twice, and Henry turned his attention to others. It is said he was unfaithful to her just a few months into their marriage, and that Anne conspired to have the woman sent away from court. The most dangerous relationship to Anne was Henry's with Jane Seymour, who would in fact replace Anne as Queen of England. This relationship is rumoured to have begun towards the end of 1535 when Anne was pregnant for the final time.

The death of Katherine of Aragon in January 1536 meant that Anne should have been no longer contested as Queen. However, she "miscarried of her saviour" (a baby boy, around 3 1/2 months gestation according to Eustace Chapuys, the Imperial Ambassador at the time) on the same day that Katherine of Aragon was buried at Peterborough Cathedral. She blamed it on a fall Henry had from his horse the week before, and also that it pained her so much to see that he loved another (i.e. Jane Seymour).

Just over three months later Anne was arrested on trumped up charges of adultery, incest and treason. Four months later she was dead. Anne was accused of sexual relations with her brother, George, a musician, Mark Smeaton, and several courtiers - William Brereton, Francis Weston and Henry Norris. It was rumoured that Smeaton had been tortured into giving a confession which also implicated the others. Thomas Wyatt, and another courtier, Richard Page, were also arrested but never charged or tried.

Anne, her brother, and the four others were all tried and found guilty and sentenced to death. The men died on 15th May 1536. Anne on the 19th May 1536. She was the first execution to happen within the walls of the Tower of London, and she was buried with her brother in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula within the Tower grounds.

Just seven years later she would be joined by her cousin, Katherine Howard, Henry VIII's fifth queen, also accused of adultery and executed, along with Anne's sister-in-law, Jane Boleyn nee Parker, Lady Rochford.
Anne Boleyn was the second wife of King Henry VIII.

She was the daughter of a minor nobleman, Sir Thomas Boleyn (Grandson of a merchant) and Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of the 2nd duke of Norfolk, and she was therefore the sister of Thomas Howard, 3rd duke of Norfolk, who was one of the most powerful men in the country after the king.

Anne Boleyn served as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Claude of France, and became lady-in-waiting to Henry VIII's first wife Catherine of Aragon. Catherine had suffered many miscarriages and Henry wanted a new wife to give him a son.

Henry soon fell in love with Anne but she refused to be his mistress, and he was determined to marry her, so he broke with the pope in Rome, and started the church of England, with himself as the head. With a new church, he was able to marry Anne. Anne soon gave him a baby girl, the princess Elizabeth, but suffered many miscarriages following that. Anne was short tempered and argued with Henry many times.

Soon, Henry fell in love with Anne's lady in waiting Jane Seymour. Henry called on his chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, to hatch a plot to get rid of Anne. Anne was accused of adultery with 4 different men, incest with her own brother, plotting to kill the king, plotting to poison the princess Mary, and of using witchcraft to enchant the king. Anne and her brother were accused of laughing at the king's clothes, as they were more stylish than Henry, and making fun of Henry's poetry. Her 'lovers' were beheaded on 17th may, and Anne beheaded on the 19th May at the tower of London. All historians now agree that Anne and the men were innocent.
Anne Boleyn was the second wife of King Henry VIII of England, well known for being the first wife of Henry to be executed by beheading in the Tower of London, as well as for being the mother of Queen Elizabeth I. The English Reformation, involving Henry's separating the Church of England from Rome, was a direct result of Henry's marriage to Anne. Songs and stories about her execution and alleged ghostly haunting of both the Tower and other locales are well known in English and American folklore.

Anne Boleyn came from a noble family. She was the daughter of Thomas Boleyn, the 1st Earl of Wiltshire and his wife, Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire. It should be noted that Elizabeth Boleyn was the daughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk. This made Anne the first cousin of Catherine Howard, Henry VIII's 5th wife - who happened to be the only other wife of Henry VIII sentenced to death, also by beheading.

The date of Anne Boleyn's birth, as well as that of her other siblings, has never been determined. Most scholars believe, though, that it probably occurred in either 1501 or 1507. It is generally accepted that her sister, Mary, was the older of the two. Mary Boleyn had been a mistress of Henry VIII prior to his meeting Anne. Mary also married earlier, being the custom of the time to marry elder daughters prior to the younger ones. They also had a brother, George Boleyn, who would have been born around 1504.

Anne's father, Thomas, was a gifted diplomat who had endeared himself to many other heads of state. It is perhaps through his good reputation that he was able to get for her an education in the Netherlands, help her become the regent to Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Savoy and eventually secure for Anne a position as Maid of Honour to Claude of France. It should be mentioned that Margaret of Austria was extremely impressed with Anne and asked Anne to be part of her household. Anne was well liked in the Netherlands, Austria and France.

In 1522 while in France, Anne returned from England in order to marry her Irish cousin, James Butler, 9th Early of Ormond. However, those marriage plans failed and she was able to get a post as Maid of Honour to Henry VIII's Queen consort, Catherine of Aragon.

In 1525, Henry had noticed Anne and started actively courting her. She refused his attempts as she had no intention of becoming his mistress, as her older sister Mary had done. It became apparent to Henry that the only way to get Anne - and a male heir to his throne - would be to annul his marriage to Catherine so he would be able to marry Anne. When Pope Clement VII refused to annul the marriage, Henry and Anne proceeded to marry on January 25th, 1533. On May 23, 1533, the Boleyn's family chaplain declared that Henry's marriage to Catherine was null and void. Five days later he declared Henry's marriage to Anne was good and valid. This resulted in Henry's excommunication from Rome. One September 7th, Anne gave birth to Elizabeth, who would later become Elizabeth I of England.

Elizabeth's birth did not initially create a problem for Henry. He insisted that he loved her like a son and was certain other sons would follow. Unfortunately for Anne, three miscarriages followed and by March of 1536, Henry was courting Jane Seymour, a woman who had been a Maid of Honour to both Catherine and Anne. Jane was also Anne's half second cousin, sharing a great grandmother while additionally being Henry's fifth cousin three times removed.

In order to marry Jane, Henry had Anne investigated for high treason. On May 2nd, 1536, Anne was sent to the Tower of London. On May15th, she was found guilty of high treason with charges including adultery and incest. May 19th saw her executed by beheading. She had been queen less than three years.

Her daughter Elizabeth would later become Elizabeth I of England, ushering in what many would consider to be England's Golden Age. As queen, Elizabeth had her mother venerated as a martyr and a heroine of the English Reformation.

To this day, though, certain slanders still exist about Anne Boleyn, many of which are mistakenly repeated in history books and textbooks. For example, it has often been repeated that Anne had six fingers on one hand, jaundiced complexion and an extended tooth under her upper lip, among other physical deformities. These words, however, were penned by a Catholic propagandist, who was opposed to the English Reformation and a half a century after Anne's death. Her contemporaries felt quite differently. Lancelot de Carles called her "beautiful with an elegant figure." Other contemporaries wrote of her being "young, good-looking, of a rather dark complexion." It is accepted that Anne exerted a rather powerful charm over those who met her. Even those who found her appearance too dark and tall reported the beauty of her black eyes.