Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn
Marchioness of Pembroke
Late Elizabethan portrait, possibly derived from a lost original of 1533–36[1]
Queen consort of England
Tenure	28 May 1533 – 17 May 1536
Coronation	1 June 1533
Predecessor	Catherine of Aragon (23 May 1533)
Successor	Jane Seymour (30 May 1536)
Born	19 November 1501 Blickling Hall, Norfolk
Died	19 May 1536(1536-05-19) (aged 34) Tower of London, London
Burial	19 May 1536 Church of St Peter ad Vincula, Tower of London, London
Spouse	Henry VIII of England ​ ​ (m. 1533)​
Issue	Elizabeth I of England
Family	Boleyn
Father	Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire
Mother	Lady Elizabeth Howard
Religion	Protestantism
Signature

Anne Boleyn (19 November 1501 – 19 May 1536) (birth unknown and unrecorded anywhere) was the second wife of King Henry VIII of England and queen consort from 1533 until 1536. She was the mother of Elizabeth I of England. Anne has been called "the most influential and important queen consort England has ever had."^[2] It was because of Anne Boleyn that Henry VIII divorced Catherine of Aragon, and became independent from the Roman Catholic Church. After she was accused of adultery, incest and high treason, she was beheaded.

There were many different opinions of Anne Boleyn's beauty. The Venetian diarist Marino Sanuto described Anne as "not one of the handsomest women in the world; she is of middling stature, swarthy complexion, long neck, wide mouth, bosom not much raised ... eyes, which are black and beautiful".^[3] Simon Grynée wrote to Martin Bucer in September 1531 that Anne was "young, good-looking, of a rather dark complexion". Lancelot de Carles called her "beautiful" with a good figure. A Venetian in Paris in 1528 also said that she was beautiful.^[4] The most well-known description of Anne^[5] was written by the Catholic Nicholas Sanders in 1586. He wrote it several years after Anne died. Even though this is the most famous, it is also probably the least correct description. "Anne Boleyn," he said, "was rather tall ... with black hair, and an oval face of a sallow complexion, as if troubled with jaundice. She had a projecting tooth under the upper lip, and on her right hand six fingers (which historians now say is not true). There was a large wen under her chin, and therefore to hide its ugliness she wore a high dress covering her throat ... She was handsome to look at, with a pretty mouth."^[6] Sanders said that it was because of Anne that Henry went away from the Catholic Church. Sanders' words about Anne made what Eric Ives called the "monster legend" of Anne Boleyn.^[7] Anne was also a good dancer. William Forrest, who wrote a modern poem about Catherine of Aragon, praised Anne's dancing. He said she had "passing excellent" skill as a dancer. "Here", he wrote, "was [a] fresh young damsel, that could trip and go."^[8]

1. ↑ Ives, pp. 42–43; Strong, pp. 6–7.
2. ↑ Ives, p. xv.
3. ↑ Strong, p. 6.
4. ↑ Ives, p. 20.
5. ↑ Warnicke, p. 243.
6. ↑ Strong, 6; Ives, 39.
7. ↑ Ives, p. 39.
8. ↑ Fraser, p. 115.