Secrets of the Six Wives - Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour - Beheaded, Died

Good morning, we are continuing with our exploration of the Secrets of the Six Wives with episode two and wife number two and wife number three:  Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour.  In the previous episode about Catherine of Aragon, we learn about Anne, her childhood, her sister Mary, and her time in the court of Queen Claude of France.  Lucy discussed the letters Henry VIII wrote to Anne and how they ended up in the Vatican Archive.  This Queen was highly intelligent and driven.  In the end, she badly miscalculates her hand.  The run time for this episode is 57:35 on the DVD version of this series.

It is 1530 and England has two Queens.  It is one of the strangest times in England.  Anne has moved into Greenwich Palace and is living side by side with Catherine of Aragon.  Henry VIII is increasingly impatient with the divorce proceedings.  Catherine and Henry were heard arguing over the divorce.  Catherine refused to accept the divorce and demotion.  Henry meets up with Anne after he meets with Catherine. 

Mythologies surround Anne Boleyn.  She was a homewrecker.  She was a goggled-eyed whore.  She was an adulteress.  She was the pretty young thing who stole a woman’s husband.  Anne has had a hard time with historians.  She was clever and ambitious; however, she was a woman who had little choice.  This was one thing that Claire Ridgeway explored in her blog about Anne Boleyn.  There was one blog post that explored the possibility that she demanded to be Queen because it was the one thing that Henry could not give her.  Anne hoped that by demanding to be Queen, Henry would be put off the scent so to speak, and leave her alone.  Henry on the other hand saw her demand as a challenge and continued to pursue her.  The theory is an interesting one to put on the table.

Now that that sidebar has been addressed, let us get back to the saga of Anne and Catherine.  Henry believed that Anne could give him the son that he so desperately craved.  Catherine could not do that and was becoming increasingly bitter.  After this argument, Henry sent Catherine away to Windsor Castle.  Henry and Anne traveled to England, acting like a married couple.  Henry’s subjects hated Anne and preferred Catherine.  Catherine was popular with the people and after she was sent to Windsor, Henry ordered her moved to the Monastery of St. Albans.  She would be separated from her daughter Mary and she would never see Mary again.

With Catherine out of the way, Anne finally agreed to consummate their relationship.  Soon after Anne discovered that she was pregnant.  Events moved swiftly; Henry decided to declare his divorce after the Pope refused.  When Henry declared that he was divorced from Catherine, he could marry Anne.  By cutting out the Pope, Henry opened the door for people themselves to decide how to approach God.  Henry married Anne in secret and then four months later, Anne was crowned Queen in public.  By crowning her in public, Henry was declaring that Anne was his wife and that she was Queen.

However, the happiness was not to last.  The power Anne had over Henry was starting to slip away.  Before Anne went into confinement, she expressed the wish for Henry to remain faithful to her.  A king had his needs and Anne could not meet them while they were pregnant.  Henry told Anne that he would continue to seek the other company of women and told Anne to look the other way.  Anne did not want to tolerate Henry’s affairs as Catherine did.  

Anne gave birth to a baby and this would prove a disappointment to Henry.  She gave birth to Princess Elizabeth, and her parents would not know that she would be England’s Greatest Queen.  Princess Elizabeth’s birth did not solve the King’s problem: he needed a male heir.  The pressure was on Anne.  Would Anne crack under the pressure?  Would Henry continue his affairs?  Would Henry ever get his male heir?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out.

This would be an excellent episode to show in the classroom, this particular episode is better than David Starkey’s episode on Anne Boleyn. 

David Starkey, if I recall, did not mention the episode where Anne mentioned to a courtier that he would love to marry her.  The TV Series Wolf Hall was the first time I heard of that episode and then Lucy mentioned it too.  Even period dramas do not mention this, at least until Wolf Hall.