Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn (c.1500-1536) is one of the most intriguing figures in British history. Her love-match with Henry VIII and her subsequent execution at the Tower of London after only three years of marriage have inspired dozens of books and films. 

Was she a ruthless schemer or was her death simply a tragic consequence of court politics?

Where is Anne Boleyn Buried?

The closest we can get to Anne today is by visiting her final resting place; she is buried in the Chapel Royal of St Peter ad Vincula at the Tower of London.

Anne Boleyn's Childhood

Anne was born in about 1501 (we don’t know exactly when). Her father, Sir Thomas Boleyn, was a respected courtier. Her mother, Elizabeth Howard, was the daughter of Sir Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, one of the most powerful men in the country. She spent her childhood at Hever Castle in Kent.

Early Years in France

In 1513, Thomas Boleyn sent Anne to the court of Margaret of Austria, and then to the French court, originally as a companion to Henry VIII’s sister, Mary, who was married to Louis XII. After Louis’ death in 1515, Anne stayed in France for seven years in the household of Queen Claude, wife of the new king, Francis I.

For an ambitious family like the Boleyns, this was a wonderful opportunity for their daughter to learn all the skills and manners expected of a lady at court, and to form a close connection with the French and English royal families. Her French education made Anne stand out on her return to England: she could sing, play musical instruments and dance, and introduced new French fashions at court.

Anne and Mary Boleyn

By 1522, Anne had returned to England. Anne’s married sister Mary had become Henry’s mistress, and possibly remained so until 1525.

Both Mary and Anne became ladies-in-waiting to Henry’s first wife, Katherine of Aragon.

Henry and Anne's Courtship

In 1526, the King’s interest in Anne significantly upped the stakes. 

Henry VIII’s long marriage to Katherine of Aragon had produced only one surviving child, Princess Mary. Henry was becoming increasingly desperate for a legitimate son and heir to secure the future of the Tudor dynasty. 

Either driven by her own virtue or ambition, or by her scheming relatives, and aware of the King’s dynastic dilemma, Anne refused to become a royal mistress and held out for the possibility of marriage.

Anne Receives Love letters from Henry VIII

In the Vatican Library, a series of 17 letters survives which detail Henry’s growing infatuation with Anne over the next couple of years.  

One, awkwardly and explicitly, declared that the King’s heart belonged to Anne alone, and that he hoped his body would soon also. It was signed with a loveheart around Anne’s initials. Anne’s responses do not survive. 

In 1528 Anne was struck with the ‘sweating sickness’, a mysterious and often fatal virus. Henry sent his doctor to tend to her at Hever Castle. 

Divorce in Tudor England

In the Tudor period, not even a king could simply decide to get a divorce.  

If Katherine of Aragon had meekly accepted her fate, then English history may well have turned out rather differently. But Katherine was a proud and pious queen who believed that her marriage to Henry VIII was a sacred institution. 

In 1527, the King began looking for a political and legal solution, petitioning Pope Clement VII and claiming that his marriage had never been legitimate because he had sinned in taking his brother’s widow, which some scholars believed to be prohibited by the Bible.  

Thomas Wolsey was charged with procuring the divorce. He failed, and his own career was destroyed in the process as the Pope refused to give into Henry’s demands. 

Anne's downfall

After the birth of Princess Elizabeth, Anne and Henry had no more children. Miscarriages in 1534 and 1536 may have led Henry, always spiritually superstitious, to question whether he had made the right choice in marrying Anne.

Henry and Anne’s relationship, built on passion and expectation, seems to have become more tempestuous and Henry, again, began to look outside his marriage for solutions.

Anne's enemies

A promising new foreign alliance with the Holy Roman Empire floundered because the Emperor, Charles V, refused to ratify Henry's marriage to Anne.

Hostile factions gathered in the wings, led by all those courtiers who had lost their influence during the Boleyn change of regime. 

Anne also fell out with her ally Thomas Cromwell, who had arranged for the proceeds from the sale of monastic property to end up in the royal (i.e. Henry’s) coffers, rather than be made available for charitable purposes, as Anne had hoped. 

Anne Boleyn's Arrest and Trial

In 1536, Cromwell made a decisive move against Anne. Accusations of adultery and even of plotting against the King’s life were levelled against the Queen, her brother and a small group of courtiers. 

Anne was arrested on 2 May 1536 and taken by barge to the Tower of London, arriving at the private postern gate (now the Byward Tower).

Henry VIII, notoriously prone to suspicion, and now besotted with one of Anne’s own ladies-in-waiting, Jane Seymour, ignored the Queen’s protestations of innocence.

A sham trial filled with Anne’s enemies found her guilty, and she found herself a prisoner at the Tower of London, in the same royal apartment where, just three years before, she had awaited her coronation.