On this day in Tudor history, on the same day that her predecessor, Catherine of Aragon, was buried, Anne Boleyn suffered a tragic miscarriage.
She was about fifteen weeks into her pregnancy, when she lost the baby, which was said to have been a boy. It was a huge blow for Anne and her husband, Henry VIII, but it would also have devastating consequences. Had this pregnancy continued, Anne would never have fallen in May 1536, and had she given birth to a healthy baby boy, she would have been safe.
Find out more about this miscarriage with the following resources:
If you prefer to read, you can read an article here.
The Duke I feel was to blame for his nieces miscarriage, one would have though he would have been more tactful, knowing she carried the kings child, and really due to her agitated and miserable state of mind due to Henry’s infidelity and avoidance of her person, it must have been the final nail in the coffin, the deep shock she felt on thinking the king was dead must have caused the death of her infant, really it would have been more sensible for the king to have sent her to one of his many country residences whilst she was pregnant, to get some peace and rest, away from the toxic atmosphere of the court she could have just concentrated on her baby and forget about her selfish husband and simpering maid, the altercation her and Henry had must have been pitiful to hear, they were both grief stricken, Henry by now was getting rather too heavy for the sports he loved and the heavier you are the harder the impact when you hit the ground, he was also in armour and his horse rolled on him, opening the wound he already had on his leg and of course, the impact to the central lobe contributed to the darkening of his character, i between anguished tears Anne told him his preference for others upset her so much for the love she bore him, which we are told hurt him dreadfully, he must have felt some guilt over that for she was aware of his affection for Jane, Jane Dormer who we have to thank for her account of Anne finding Jane on the kings lap earlier does not quite ring true, I believe she must have heard court gossip, she was also in error of Anne’s date of birth, and Alison Weir believes that Jane who always made herself out to be so virtuous would never have allowed herself to be alone with the king anyway, also we can believe that Anne using her prerogative as mistress would have slapped Jane and nipped her a few times but I can’t believe Jane would have struck back, surely this butter wouldn’t melt missy have even dared? And what would the punishment have been, for daring to strike your queen, or maybe she was very secure with the kings favour so on occasion she did retaliate, we know that Jane was more steely than her meek and mild demeanour let on, it was said that Anne could not carry children but she had given birth to Elizabeth a healthy baby girl, then she was secure in the kings love, it was when she became queen her problems started the stress of the kings infidelity, Katherine’s supporters and the onus on her to produce a male heir, all these factors gnawed away at her as she knew her very position all rested on that precious gift, did she also feel guilt for Katherine whose own position had toppled because of her inability to give the king a son, ? Now she could understand her predecessors position and knew that one cannot expect children to appear like a new dress or costly jewel, also being pious she must have feared that god was not pleased with her as Henry feared also, this pregnancy she must have known was the last chance she had and she must have felt raw with terror and uncertainty.
The deformed foetus tale was just that – a tale to bring into disrepute the character of Elizabeth 1st by Nicholas Sander a Catholic recusant, he had been persecuted and thus began his slandering of the queen, and the demonisation of the Protestant religion, he fled to Ireland a Catholic country and skulked there in the wilds, it was said he had contact with some of the family of Anne Boleyn’s household and from there gleaned snippets about her physical appearance and character, and sadly the loss of her baby, we can see these he embellished and twisted so the dead queen was painted darkly and the dead infant deformed, a deformed baby was seen as a sign that the mother had indulged in ungodly lusts and since one of the charges against Anne was incest, Sander must have relished the glee the defamation of Queen Elizabeth’s mother, contemporary sources portrayed Anne as very beautiful, elegant cultured and graceful, her legendary eyes and long dark hair her most bewitching features, she was not fair and had several moles on her body, so do many people and yet Sander described her as having a huge mole on her neck which she chose to hide by wearing high necked gowns, in the portraits of Anne she is depicted with her neck bare, he also spoke about her tooth which projected out from her top lip, again no such reference was made about such a tooth and that she was sallow of skin and rather tall, with a sixth finger, not exactly flattering, big moles and a protruding tooth and physical deformities like an extra toe or finger were said to be the hallmark of witches but the finger was really only a tiny nail, and it was said it added to the beauty of her long tapering fingers, the study of her presumed skeleton in Victoria’s rein concluded that she had been about five foot three, so middling height, that was not considered tall for a woman, about five foot six would have been considered tall in Tudor times, Sander really went to work did he not, and of course in doing so it was a direct hit at Queen Elizabeth the heretic queen of a heretic country, I must add that Professor Rita Warnicke actually believes his tales about the deformed foetus which we have debated before, and is very surprising her being a scholar to come to the conclusion she had, that that was why Anne fell and her alleged lovers as they to had indulged in sodomy and other bestial practices, because of that said conclusion I have resolved never to read her biography on Anne, I agree with you Claire that the best biography on our favourite queen was written by Professor Eric Ives.