Hello Everyone!
This time last year,
I wrote about Anne Boleyn and introduced readers here to my strong admiration
of her, on the anniversary of her murder. I received quite a bit of
praise from people on Tumblr in my ask box which made me extremely happy. Many
people in my daily life really don't understand why I love her so much and why
my respect for her is second only to my mother. But I think that is because, in
many ways, Anne’s story is still very misunderstood. The fact that there are
still idiots out there who believe she had six fingers (even my own history
professor!) is proof of this.
But I think the most misunderstood thing about her is that
she, somehow, deserved her fate and that she was, at least, somewhat guilty; if
not for anything else, destroying the marriage between King Henry VIII and
Catherine of Argon. I think for this year’s post about her, I will write more
about who she was as a person, and more importantly what I personally think
about her downfall. This is just going to be a quick summary more or less and
honestly does not do justice to the story of Anne’s life. The pictures included
are various screencaps from my favorite Anne Boleyn film “Anne of the A
Thousand Days” with Genevieve Bujold playing the title role.
Anne was a young woman when she joined the court of King
Henry VIII and Catherine of Argon as a lady in waiting. Before she served in
the French court and from there learned many things about fashion, philosophy,
and love. She was elegant, intelligent and stylish. Many accounts say that she
was not considered beautiful; but then again the standard of beauty at the time
was pale skin, blonde hair and blue eyes, Anne was olive-skinned with dark hair
and eyes. I think she was probably very beautiful, in her own way, she
certainly did NOT have six fingers on one hand!
In any case, Henry had stopped visiting Catherine’s bed long
before Anne came around, the poor queen had suffered many miscarriages and her
only living child was a girl, Mary (the future Mary I). It was foolishly
thought at the time that a woman had neither the wit nor strength to rule on
her own and Henry wanted a son to inherit the crown when he died. Henry had
asked Anne to be his mistress, just like Anne’s sister had done before her. But
Anne refused, many times she would leave court to avoid the king’s
advances and would send him letters with mixed messages. To straight out refuse
the king was unthinkable at the time, which is why some people, myself
included, think that Henry’s advances were a form of royal sexual harassment. The fact that Anne's courtship with another young nobleman was broken up by one of the king's advisors soon before the king began pursuing her gives further evidence to this theory.
Finally, Henry proposed marriage to Anne and she accepted but still refused to
sleep with him and would continue to do so until very shortly before their
marriage.
But he would need the pope to grant him the okay for an
annulment of his first marriage first, something that the pope refused to do.
Henry was furious and refused to let the pope dictate what he would and would
not do. He broke from Rome
and the Catholic Church and had the marriage annulled anyway and married Anne
in secret when she was carrying his child, presumably a boy.
Alas though, it was a girl! A sweet little redhead that we
know now as Elizabeth I! Anne adored her daughter but at the time the gender of
the child was a great blow to her father and that, in my opinion, was the start
of her ruin, among other things.
As I mentioned in last year's post, what ultimately brought
about Anne’s downfall was the fact that she did not give birth to a son. I
honestly do believe that if she did then she would have lived. Henry probably
would have found love with another woman because, well he was just a whore like
that, lol, but he would not have discarded Anne like he did to Catherine. But
there was a lot more going into her downfall than just her misfortune of not
having a son.
The fact is that Henry had been contemplating with his
advisor, Thomas Cromwell, about getting rid of Anne as early as October 1534.
Anne was very outspoken, argumentative at times, and highly opinionated,
something that was considered unthinkable for the wife of a man who expected
total submission from all those around him. But Anne was not submissive, one of
the things I really admire about her. It is ironic because it was Anne’s
outspoken nature that was one of the many things that attracted Henry to Anne
in the beginning.
By 1536, Henry had turned his eye to Jane Seymour, the
complete polar opposite of Anne. Meek, sweet and obedient. Jane, like Anne,
refused to be Henry’s mistress and by this point, Catherine was dead so Henry
began to think of the possibility of getting rid of Anne and getting a son off of
Jane as Anne had suffered two miscarriages after the birth of Elizabeth and
with the most recent one, the fetus was said to have all appearances of being a
boy.
To add to it, Anne and Thomas Cromwell, although originally
allies, were beginning to butt heads as well. In Henry’s desire to marry Anne, he brought down the power of the Catholic Church in England and began getting rid
of the monasteries and taking away the vast wealth and riches of the clergy. Anne
wanted these riches distributed to educational and charitable causes but
Cromwell wanted to fill up the king’s treasury with these riches and take a cut
for himself. Recent evidence strongly suggests that Cromwell orchestrated
Anne’s downfall and I do believe it to be true.
Either way on May 15th, 1536, Anne was put on
trial for adultery, incest, and plotting to kill the king; and was found
guilty. In the beginning of this post I said that her execution was also a
murder, that’s because it’s true. Anne was 100% innocent of the charges against
her and basically was killed for no reason at all save for the fact that Henry
had tired of her and wanted someone new to put his dick in.
This video here describes much better my thoughts. Her
thesis is so dead-on and very impressive.
Take note between 13:39 to 14:14. Preparations for Anne’s
downfall had begun BEFORE she was condemned! But what really angers me the most
is how some people still view Anne as a harlot. She was not! Was she scheming?
Yes. Was she intemperate? Yes. Was she ambitious? Yes. But that is what made
her such an amazing woman in my eyes and I believe that the fact that her
daughter Elizabeth lived on to become one of England’s greatest monarchs is karma.
Henry did eventually marry Jane Seymour a few weeks after Anne’s death and they
did have a son, but she died soon after and their son (named Edward) died after
only about 5-6 years of being king at the age of 15.
Little Elizabeth looks on as she hears the cannons signifying the death of her mother, probably not understanding that the direction of her life is now about to change completely.
I feel as though I am rambling now. Before I end this, let
me share this beautiful Tudor styled gown from the taobao lolita brand Surface
Spell based on gowns from the 2008 film “The Other Boleyn Girl”.
I honestly don’t think much of that particular film more
than the fact that it is sensationalist tripe based on one of Gregory’s books.
But it is an extremely rare thing to find a good quality accurate historical
costume under $200. I plan to order it very soon for an Anne Boleyn cosplay
that I hope to debut this year at Anime USA. In the meantime if you are
interested in learning more about Anne, I suggest this site above all others:
This website is run by a woman who is as devoted to Anne as
I am if not more. There are a lot of different articles on this website, not
just about Anne but about Tudor history in general and the people in her life.
Yours Jasmine
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