I am currently reading *The Other Boleyn Girl * by Philippa Gregory, and watching *The Tudors * on Showtime, which has gotten me thinking about Anne Boleyn. She seems to be a pretty amazing character: wooed the King of England away from his wife, Catherine of Aragon, daughter of the monarchs of Spain. Was the other woman in Henry VIII’s break with the Catholic Church. Mother of Elizabeth I.
This woman kept Henry on the hook for what, about 9 years? Never had sex with him, allegedly, during this time, but kept him chasing after her. He divorced his wife of 24 years to marry her despite massive consequences for an entire continent. But as queen, only lasted 1000 days, then got beheaded for all her troubles. So what the hell happened? Crudely, my thought was, waiting for a piece for a decade, once you get it, you’re bound to be disappointed. Was it simply that once Henry had her, it was over? Was he really that callous and fickle? Because even if she was a total bitch, there is no way he comes out of any telling of the story looking like anything but a monster.
I don’t know a ton about Boleyn, but I know there must be some scholars on the Dope who know a lot. Was Anne the cold conniver she is depicted as by Gregory? Did she love Henry or was she just social climbing? Why did he sour on her so fast? Was she a victim or did she get her just desserts in the end? Any good sources I should read up on to get a better picture of her?
She failed to bear a son, that’s what happened. Henry desperately wanted a male heir and Anne didn’t produce one. Had she given birth to a son, I very much doubt she’d have been tossed aside.
To put this in perspective, Catherine had produced a daughter but miscarried several other times, and Henry became convinced she would never produce a son.
He did have an illegitimate son, Henry FitzRoy, but this wasn’t good enough. He became obsessed with divorcing Catherine so he could marry someone else and finally have a proper male heir.
Kinda makes me wonder why he didn’t just poison her. Probably would have been simpler.
He only gave her 3 years, though. She had 2 pregnancies, one with Elizabeth, and one a miscarriage. Could have given her a couple more years, right? In contrast, he gave Catherine 24 years, and allegedly he was really in love with Anne. Also, decapitation is a pretty extreme way to deal with not having a son. My feeling is that something must have happened to alienate him beyond her not having a son in 3 short years of marriage. Am I wrong? Did she piss him off some other way, or was it politics, or was Henry really that much of an asshole?
ETA: LavenderBlue, I wonder if H8 had known what an historically great monarch Elizabeth would be, if he would have conducted himself differently WRT the son obsession, or towards her mother.
He fell in love with Jane Seymour, and Anne had enemies at court, especially Cromwell. Also, her relationship with Henry was stormy…he was fairly often unfaithful to him, and she would argue with him when she discovered his liasons.
Did she have an affair with Smeaton? Most historians doubt it, but there is no doubt she was friendly with him, and lavished favors on him, so it looked really bad.
My take on Henry is that he was massively spoiled. He couldn’t handle not getting his own way. For most of the beginning of his life, he did get his own way most of the time. Except for having a legitimate son. Then, as he grew older, he started to worry about the succession and wondering why his wife never had a living boy. It couldn’t be his fault, of course, so he went looking for a solution – the obvious one being that he had offended God by marrying his brother’s widow. He thought, in my opinion, that there had to be an easy solution to his problem. He’d just get a new wife and – presto! – he’d have a son. Now, getting the divorce and new wife was somewhat harder than he’d anticipated. But, whatever: he finally got the divorce and the girl – now he’d have to have a son.
But no. Anne had a daughter… then a couple of miscarriages. And Henry is getting older every day. AND his illegitamate son was also dying at right about this time. Clearly somebody was keeping him from having living sons. And who better to blame but Anne, whom he’d moved Heaven and Earth to elevate and who, stubbornly, was clearly refusing to give him the sons he deserved.
The fact that Anne could be a tad bitchy wouldn’t have mattered a bit if she had managed to give birth to a boy. As it was, she had enemies at court and she was hated by most of the common people. And Henry had his eye on Jane Seymour, who had taken a page from Anne’s book and was holding out for marriage. Henry didn’t want to devote years more to a second divorce and his advisors knew that. And he was tired of Anne anyway, which his advisors also knew. So it was a fairly easy and quick thing to trump up some charges against her – she was so hated anyway that most people believed her capable of anything. Off with her head!
Keep in mind that Henry spent a lot of political capital divorcing Catherine - and that took FAR longer than he anticipated. A lot of historians believe that Henry would have tossed Anne aside long before if he hadn’t made such a fuss about the whole thing. She may have gotten pregnant with Elizabeth in order to force his hand - and while she was expecting the promised son he felt he HAD to marry her. Then Elizabeth was born and things fell apart quickly for Anne.
Some historians believe that Anne was Rh negative - so after Elizabeth she would have been incapable of carrying a child to term. Her subsequent miscarriage patterns seem to indicate that is a possibility.
Catherine didn’t only have miscarriages, she had several live births, including a few princes - but only Mary survived infancy. By the time Henry divorced her she had probably reach menopause (or at least subfertility) - to have a male heir he would have had to find a new wife.
Many historians believe Henry was truly fond of Catherine for a very long time.
And “The Other Boleyn Girl” is historical crap. Its an interesting novel, but historically accurate - not in anything than outline. Most historians do not believe Henry’s affair with Mary lasted very long at all - certainly not the years portrayed in the books. Anne however, was accused of witchcraft - but so were a lot of woment during the time who made enemies.
Ah, but keep in mind, Elizabeth was the daughter of his second wife, Anne. The first woman to ascend the throne was his daughter by Catherine-Mary I. Aka, “Bloody Mary Tudor”.
Although it is amusing that the long-awaited male heir turned out quite sickly and only reigned for a very short time, never even reaching the age of maturity.
(Well, amusing that Henry’s precious heir wasn’t what he hoped for-NOT amusing for poor Edward dying, of course!)
Da’hell?
Edited again-technically, the first woman was Lady Jane Grey, but I don’t think she counts, since she was only queen for what-six days or so?
There was also the Empress Matilda, briefly. (Daughter of Henry I, who was his designated heir at his death; the nobles had pledged to support her, but changed their minds and named Stephen of Blois the king. A civil war ensued, and Matilda captured London at one point).
BTW, Edward VI was not really a sickly child; he was healthy in childhood, and the only real major illness was the one that killed him. He was probably worn out by what his advisors put him through as king.
I’ve been watching The Tudors, and I’m guessing it’s not the most historically accurate thing ever? I Googled Henry Fitzroy, Henry the VIII’s illegitimate son, and discovered he actually died in young adulthood, not as a young boy.
When did people figure out it’s the man that determines the sex of the baby, not the woman? I wonder how many queens across the continents and ages lost their lives because their men’s X-sperm was more wiggly than the Y-sperm?
Still, his apprehension is understandable. England had never before been ruled by a queen. And Henry’s father had come to the throne after thirty years of succession wars. A legitimate son must have seemed the only sure way to guarantee an orderly succession and a peaceful realm.
