Anne Boleyn Biography Update, Age, Death, Recognition and legacy

Anne Boleyn (born around 1501 or 1507, died 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 as King Henry VIII’s second wife. Her marriage and later execution for treason made her central to the political and religious changes that began the English Reformation.

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Anne was the daughter of Thomas Boleyn, who later became Earl of Wiltshire, and Elizabeth Howard. She was educated in the Netherlands and France. In early 1522, Anne returned to England to marry her cousin James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond, but the marriage did not happen.

Profile Summary

Age

Anne Boleyn was born around 1501 or 1507 at Blickling Hall in Norfolk, England.

Biography

Anne was the daughter of Thomas Boleyn, who later became Earl of Wiltshire and Earl of Ormond, and Elizabeth Howard, the eldest daughter of Thomas Howard, then Earl of Surrey and later the 2nd Duke of Norfolk, and his first wife, Elizabeth Tilney. Anne’s exact date of birth is unknown.

A contemporary source, William Camden, supports the 1507 date. Camden wrote a history of Elizabeth I’s reign and had access to Lord Burghley’s private papers and state archives. In his account of Elizabeth’s early life, he states that Anne was born in 1507.

Like Anne, the birth dates of her siblings are uncertain, but evidence suggests her sister Mary was older. Mary’s children believed she was the eldest, and her grandson claimed the Ormond title in 1596 for that reason, which Elizabeth I accepted. Anne’s brother George was born around 1504. Thomas Boleyn wrote in the 1530s that his children were born before his father, William Boleyn, died in 1505. Anne’s ancestor Geoffrey Boleyn was a mercer and wool merchant before becoming Lord Mayor. The Boleyn family came from Blickling in Norfolk, about 15 miles north of Norwich. Anne’s relatives included the powerful Howard family, and her ancestors included King Edward I. Eric Ives notes that Anne was of higher birth than Jane Seymour and Catherine Parr, Henry VIII’s other English wives. The spelling of the Boleyn name varied, sometimes written as Bullen, which is why bull’s heads appeared in the family arms.

Death

The ermine mantle was taken off, and Anne removed her headdress, tucking her hair under a coif. She said a brief goodbye to her weeping ladies and asked them to pray for her. Then she knelt, and one of the ladies tied a blindfold over her eyes. Anne knelt upright, following the French custom for beheadings. Her final prayer was to repeat, “Jesu receive my soul; O Lord God have pity on my soul.”

Anne’s execution was carried out with a single stroke and witnessed by Thomas Cromwell, Charles Brandon (the 1st Duke of Suffolk), the King’s illegitimate son Henry FitzRoy, and Sir Ralph Warren, the Lord Mayor of London, along with aldermen, sheriffs, and representatives from various craft guilds. Most of the King’s Council was also there. Cranmer, who was at Lambeth Palace, reportedly cried after telling Alexander Ales, “She who has been the Queen of England on earth will today become a Queen in heaven.” When Anne was first accused, Cranmer told Henry he was surprised and believed “she should not be culpable”.

Cranmer felt at risk because of his close relationship with the Queen. The night before Anne’s execution, he declared Henry’s marriage to Anne invalid, just as he had with Catherine before her. He did not try to save Anne’s life, though some sources say he prepared her for death by hearing her last confession, in which she claimed her innocence before God.

Anne was buried in an unmarked grave in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula at the Tower of London. During renovations in 1876, her skeleton was identified and reburied there in 1877, during Queen Victoria’s reign. Her grave is now clearly marked on the marble floor, though historian Alison Weir believes the bones found may actually belong to Catherine Howard.

Recognition and legacy

Nicholas Sanders, a Catholic recusant born around 1530, wanted to remove Elizabeth I and restore Catholicism in England. In his 1585 book De Origine ac Progressu schismatis Anglicani (The Rise and Growth of the Anglican Schism), he was the first to claim that Anne had six fingers on her right hand. At the time, physical deformities were seen as signs of evil, so it is unlikely Anne would have attracted Henry if she had any. When her body was exhumed in 1876, no abnormalities were found. Her frame was described as delicate, about 5 feet 3 inches (1.60 m) tall, and “the hand and feet bones indicated delicate and well-shaped hands and feet, with tapering fingers and a narrow foot”.

People who knew Anne Boleyn described her as intelligent and talented in music and learning. She was also strong-willed and proud, and she often argued with Henry.