The History of Anne Boleyn
- Due to a lack of parish birth records, historians are unable to pinpoint Anne's exact birth date or year, though most historians agree than Anne was born sometime between 1501 and 1507 to Sir Thomas Boleyn, the first Earl of Wiltshire and Ormonde, and Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of the second Duke of Norfolk. Anne had two siblings, an older sister, Mary, and a younger brother, George. In 1513 Anne was sent to the Netherlands to attend Archduchess Margaret of Austria. There she impressed Archduchess Margaret as a pleasant, well-spoken child.
- In 1514, Sir Thomas Boleyn called Anne to France to attend Henry VIII's sister, Mary Tudor, in her wedding to Louis XII of France. Anne served as a Maid-of-Honor to Queen Mary. After Louis XII's death and Mary's subsequent return to England, she stayed on as a Maid-of-Honor in attendance of Queen Claude of France. During her seven years attending Queen Claude, Anne received extensive training in French culture and etiquette. Many biographers believe that it was in France where Anne began to cultivate a love of poetry and literature, as well as develop an interest in the type of religious reform that would shape her future.
- Anne returned to England in 1522, at the request of her father, to serve in attendance of Queen Catherine of Aragon. There Anne established a reputation as a "perfect courtier", graceful, stylish and skilled at singing, dancing and playing the lute. It was not long before Anne had captured the attention of many of the men at court, including the king himself.
- King Henry VIII first became infatuated with Anne in 1526. After a year of refusing his advances, Anne accepted the king's betrothal of marriage. Both Anne and Henry VIII assumed that an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon would be swift and attainable. However, that proved not to be the case.
- After the Pope refused to grant Henry VIII an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII broke from the Catholic church of Rome and began asserting his divine right to rule as he pleased. This included banishing Catherine of Aragon from court in 1531. In 1533 Anne Boleyn married King Henry VIII and was crowned queen consort of England.
- In September 1533, Anne gave birth to the royal couple's first child. Daughter Elizabeth would go on to rule during England's "Golden Age" of flourishing poetry, music and literature. At the time of her birth, King Henry VIII was disappointed that she was not the male heir he'd been promised. Anne would go on to suffer a series of stillbirths and miscarriages trying to produce a male heir for the king. Henry VIII began to claim that his marriage to Anne had been brought about through the use of "magic" and "deception."
- In May of 1536, Anne was arrested and charged with adultery, incest and high treason. She was taken to the Tower of London, along with four others who were accused of aiding Anne in her treason. Anne's supposed fellow conspirators, among them her father and brother George, were executed on May 17, 1536. Anne was put to death two days later, maintaining her innocence with her final breath.