The other woman. I don’t know of another woman who fits that bill as well as Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII, that psychopath (oops, sorry.)
Anne Boleyn was born between 1499 and 1509; no trustworthy documentation exists to pinpoint the year. Daughter of ambitious nobleman Thomas Boleyn and his wife, the Lady Elisabeth Howard, Anne received an unusual upbringing, in that she was educated by her father, who was noted for his learning. Anne spent her teens in the French court, returning to England as a stylish, witty young woman, and joining the court of Queen Katherine of Aragon, Henry’s first, and once beloved, wife.
Henry, disillusioned at the failure of Katherine to “give” him a male heir, began thinking of ways to rectify his problem. When his eye fell upon the newly arrived Anne, he unceremoniously dumped her sister Mary, with whom he had been entangled, and pursued Anne with a vengeance. She had fallen in love with courtier Harry Percy, and when, on the advice of Cardinal Wolsey, the king banished him, Anne refused to become the king’s mistress. Wolsey had won her eternal enmity, and in due course of time, she saw to his downfall. Coached by her family, Anne held out for seven years, refusing to settle for anything but marriage, and the die was cast. Henry VIII broke from the Catholic church and divorced Katherine. Anne granted him her favors, became pregnant, and in 1533, Henry married her in secret. On May 29th of that year, she was crowned queen of England, against the wishes of the majority of Englishmen and women. One can only imagine the feelings of King Henry when the baby turned out to be another girl.
In 1536, Anne gave birth to a second child, a son this time, but he was stillborn, and even worse, deformed, a sure sign of God’s displeasure with this union. By this time, Henry was angry and disillusioned with this wife who had once so beguiled him, and his eye had fallen upon one of Anne’s ladies in waiting (see a pattern here?), Jane Seymour. Anne had committed the unpardonable sins of objecting to her husband’s numerous mistresses, and of trying to influence him with respect to religion. So Henry had to find a way out of this marriage, and another divorce was out of the question. But never fear. Henry claimed that he was not the father of the monster, and accused Anne of committing treason, in the form of adultery, with five men, including her own brother. Furthermore, she must have bewitched him; did not the “sixth finger” (a slight deformity on her hand) and the large mole on her neck prove she was a witch?
They were all found guilty. Ironically, this marriage was annulled, which meant that Anne, now not considered Henry’s legitimate wife, could no longer be considered a traitor. Not to worry. The men were executed, and, on May 19, 1536, Anne herself was “mercifully” beheaded by a skilled French executioner. How kind. She was buried beneath the floor of the chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula at the Tower of London, where she had been imprisoned to await her fate. Eleven days later, Henry married Jane Seymour.
Though she did not survive to relish it, Anne did have a form of revenge. The attitude of the English people toward her changed from hatred to pity, and Henry and Anne’s daughter, Elisabeth, grew up to become one of Henry’s heirs, and arguably, the greatest monarch in English history.
Anne Boleyn was an ambitious opportunist. Did she deserve that fate that Henry handed her? There were four more wives to follow…….
This is awesome! I just finished writing about Anne too.