Aim High Magazine #71: The Beheaded – Anne Boleyn

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Wracamy z ciekawymi artykułami naszych uczniów, które piszą w języku angielskim na wybrane przez siebie tematy. Powoli przygotowujemy jesienny numer anglojęzycznej gazetki AimHigh, a dzisiaj publikujemy bardzo ciekawy materiał od naszej drugoklasistki, Nidy, która kontynuuje fascynującą podróż w świat angielskiej dynastii Tudorów. Dzisiaj przeczytamy o drugiej żonie Henryka VIII – Annie Boleyn. Zapraszamy do lektury!

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The Beheaded – Anne Boleyn

The second wife, the one who was beheaded. “My sleeves may be green, but my lipstick’s red.” Elizabeth’s mother. The woman is sometimes used as a symbol of how patriarchy has hurt women. “Anne, she stands without a stitch.” But is that the right way to see her? Or is there even a “right” way to see her?

Anne Boleyn was born either in 1501 or 1507 to Thomas Boleyn and Elizabeth Howard. She was the middle or last of their parents’ three children, having an older sister, Mary (*1499) and an older or younger brother, George (*1504). The exact opinion of when Anne was born is a question for historians. The fact that her father had once mentioned in a letter that all of his children were born before his father’s death (1505) can be used as an argument for her birth in 1501, but on the other hand, a letter she wrote in 1514, which has numerous grammatical errors, suggesting it was written by a child rather than a teenager. Anne’s last name is commonly spelled as Boleyn, although it is also sometimes spelt Bullan. Anne had also once signed her letter as Anna de Boullan. The Latin form of her name, Anna Bolina, is commonly used in portraits.

Anne’s early education was what women’s education in her class typically was. Anne had a place at the court of Margaret of Austria (Regent of the Netherlands) from 1513 to 1514, where she was sometimes called La petite Boulin by Margaret. She left to attend the wedding of Henry VIII’s sister Mary Tudor who was marrying Louis XII of France (to avoid problems later on, I will call this Mary Queen Mary for the rest of the text). Anne stayed in France, first being Queen Mary’s maid of honour, and then the latter’s stepdaughter, Queen Claude. A maid of honour in this context is the junior version of a lady-in-waiting, with the difference that a maid of honour wasn’t married. At Queen Claude’s court, Anne developed an interest in art and fashion, which would show later on when she came to England, as well as literature, music and art. She started to get interested in Religious Philosophy, and as later stated, she “owed her evangelicalism to France”. During her time in France, Anne also gained knowledge of French culture, as well as how life on a court works, including courtly love. Anne had also most likely met the French King’s sister, Marguerite de Navarre, who was a patron of humanists and reformers and could’ve encouraged Anne to start thinking about religion and its reforms, which could explain why Anne, later on, encouraged Henry VIII to leave the catholic church.

Anne returned to England in 1522 to marry her cousin, James Butler, but those plans were broken off. The marriage itself was supposed to take care of some disputes about a title and land, but in the end, Anne’s father probably decided that there was a better way to marry his younger daughter off. Anne became one of Catherine of Aragon’s (the English Queen consort, wife of Henry VIII) ladies-in-waiting. Anne quickly turned out to be one of the most established and stylish women at court, which resulted in many young men being interested in her (although she wasn’t a great beauty). Anne had a secret betrothal with Henry Percy, which was broken off because Percy’s father refused to support the engagement. In 1526, Henry VIII got interested in Anne and wanted to make her his mistress. Anne didn’t agree to that. Interestingly, Anne’s sister Mary Boleyn had been Henry’s mistress for some time, as well as the mistress of the French King earlier on. Although nobody knows for sure, I like Philippa Gregory’s way of showing this history in “The Other Boleyn Girl”. Mary was kind of forced into these affairs, not only by those kings themselves (women didn’t really have a choice back then, to be honest) but also by her family, for example, her father and Anne, and later pushed aside when the king got bored of her, which I find quite sad, but not unlikely. When Henry suggested marrying Anne, she accepted, believing that getting an annulment of Henry’s marriage with Catherine wouldn’t take long. It did.

Despite common beliefs, Henry didn’t want to divorce Catherine, but annul the marriage (there’s a difference). He used the argument that Catherine had been his brother’s wife before (referring to the bible), which means she couldn’t give him children, or in this case, living heirs. So, Henry contacted the pope. Long story short, it didn’t work. Partially because the pope was at that time the prisoner of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, who was Catherine’s nephew, during this whole thing, Catherine was being pushed more and more aside, while Anne was slowly taking over her role. Finally, Henry’s patience was used up. In 1532, he and Anne married in secret. In 1533, they did another “private” wedding (if royal weddings even can be private)  because the first one was deemed unlawful. During that second wedding ceremony, Anne was pregnant already. Anne was crowned Queen a few months later. The public didn’t exactly like her, since they sympathised with Catherine of Aragon and her daughter, Mary. The pope declared Henry’s marriage to Catherine valid and told him to return to her. As an answer, Henry made his subject swear an oath that rejected papal authority and accepted Anne as Queen consort. The ones who didn’t, for example, Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher, were locked in the Tower. In 1534, the Parliament declared Henry the head of the church of England. Everyone believed that Anne would give birth to a son, except for one of the royal physicians. When a girl was born, it was a shock. She was named Elizabeth, after Henry’s and Anne’s mothers, and had a wonderful christening. Elizabeth’s half-sister, Mary, was forced to join her household as “Lady Mary”. Anne received a far larger staff than Catherine had. Meanwhile, Anne’s sister Mary (who was widowed at the time) married the man she loved in secret, which resulted in her family (including her sister) pushing her away from them. At the end of the same year, Anne had a miscarriage. Henry considered annulling the marriage, but in the end, decided against it after he and Anne got closer again. She was called “the King’s whore” or “naughty paike (prostitute)” by some.

In January 1536, Catherine of Aragon died. Anne and Henry wore yellow, historians aren’t sure if they wore it because it was a colour of joy in England or one of mourning in Spain. They celebrated the death with festivities. Anne was pregnant again when Henry started to court one of her Ladies-in-waiting, Jane Seymour. Anne suffered another miscarriage. After that, Henry stated that he had been manipulated into the marriage with spells. Henry now needed a reason to get rid of Anne. He accused her of adultery, including incest with her brother George, as well as treason. Anne was beheaded on the 19. May 1536 and was buried in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula near the Tower in an unnamed grave.

Anne is certainly a very interesting and complicated character. History isn’t black and white, and I won’t deny that she was hurt greatly by Henry when he took her life. I personally don’t like her, I don’t like the way she treated her sister (pushing her away after the secret wedding), and I don’t like how she took Catherine’s place when the rightful Queen was nothing but good towards her (at the beginning, at least). Anne is mostly recognised because she was Elizabeth I’s mother. In my opinion, just because someone was killed without a good reason doesn’t mean they should be made to seem as innocent as she is made to be. The Quotes from songs I use are from the musical Six, except for the second Quote, which is from the song “Please don’t cry for your daughters, Eve”. I hope that after reading this, Anne’s history will be a bit clearer to some.

“I’m sorry, not sorry ‘bout what I said, don’t lose your head!”

Nida Tasarz (2a)