Divorced, Beheaded, Survived, Anne Boleyn is King Henry (king of England) the 8th’s 2nd wife out of his six wives. She was also queen of England but, for a very short time.
Birth
Anne Boleyn was born on November 19th, 1501 (not confirmed). She was born in Blickling Hall, Norfolk. Her parents are Sir Thomas Boleyn and her mother is Elizabeth Howard. She was born into a wealthy and powerful family. Although it is very unknown, Anne Boleyn is cousin with Catherine Howard (Henry the 8th’s 5th wife) who was also beheaded.
Childhood
Although we don’t know much about Anne Boleyn’s childhood, we do know that she spent a lot of time in her room at Hever castle in Kent. She had 2 siblings Mary Boleyn (her sister) and George Boleyn (her brother).
Meeting Henry
Anne Boleyn met King Henry the 8th when she went back to England to serve Catherine of Aragon as a lady and caught the attention of Henry. She was about 21 years old during that time period
Marrying Henry
Anne Boleyn got engaged and married Henry in secret since Henry was still with Catherine of Aragon.
Anne Boleyn’s Children
In 1533, Anne Boleyn gave birth to Elizabeth the 1st that would one day become the queen of England. In 1536, Anne Boleyn gave birth to a son that died soon after. Henry cried out “I see god will not give me male children”. King Henry really wanted a baby boy and grieved from the death of his baby boy.
Anne Boleyn’s Execution
King Henry charged Anne Boleyn with cheating on him and beheaded her. Poor Elizabeth had to grow up without a mother now. Anne Boleyn didn’t beg Henry and instead accepted it. She was executed by an Italian swordsman by a slash of a sword on the 19th of May. In her speech, she was extremely respectful to King Henry. King Henry didn’t actually think that Anne was cheating on him but wanted her dead after she couldn’t deliver him a baby boy. People think she did this because she wanted her daughter Elizabeth to be treated well after she passed. After Anne’s execution, they held up her head and rumor has it that her lips were still moving. People say that god had pity on her and let her say her final prayers before sending her to the afterlife. Also, since her execution wasn’t planned out well enough, they left her body on the scaffold for a few hours because they didn’t have a coffin or a proper burial place for her. They ended up finding a spare arrow box and put her head on her chest because there wasn’t enough room. She was buried right next to her sister, Mary Boleyn. Anne made sure to order Elizabeth plenty of clothes before he execution, worrying that they would treat her badly.
Henry’s Life Afterwards
On the same day of Anne’s execution, Henry had a date with Jane Seymore. Most of the time that Henry and Anne were married, Henry was cheating on her for Jane. Henry took no pity for Anne and married Jane 7 days after and moved on with his life. He had a healthy son but soon after, Jane sadly died. No one knew why. People say that Jane had a black heart and that was the cause of her death. Jane was the only wife that Henry loved. Next, we married Anne of Cleves that he later divorced because she didn’t look as good as she did in her portrait. Then, he got married to Catherine Howard who got beheaded. Henry spent the remainder of his life with his next and last wife, Catherine Parr.
Fun Facts
Nobody actually knows how Anne Boleyn looks like because after her execution, Henry destroyed every portrait of her
Anne Boleyn played the lute
She received love letters from king Henry while she was in courtship
She watched tennis (it was different from the tennis that we know)
King Henry was actually cheating on Anne the whole time and got her executed for her doing the same
King Henry didn't love Anne Boleyn after a little bit in their marriage