“O Lord have mercy on her”
Veronica Corvalan, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Anne Boleyn, daughter of Thomas Boleyn and Elizabeth Howard, was the second wife of Henry VIII. She was Queen of England from 1533 to 1535, but what happened to her? Why she was executed? I think it was a combination of factors.
I read that Anne Boleyn was called “The most influential and important Queen consort England has ever had” and i believe that is true and that power she had over the King and over the people scared some men in court, and when i say some men, actually i say Thomas Cromwell. I believe that the fall of Anne and her excecution were engineered by him. At fist it seems that Thomas Cromwell was Anne ally but when she became Queen, she differed with him over the redistribution of church revenues and over foreing policy. She advocated that revenues be distributed to charitable and educational causes and she favoured a French alliance. Cromwell disagreed with her and she became a major threat to Cromwell.
But there are other things that had influenced in her fall. He’s father greed. I don’t know if Anne was in love with Henry VIII but the hunger of power of her father almost forced her to accept him. She didn’t want to became his mistress like her sister Mary Boleyn and that increase his obsession for her. He asked Tomas Cromwell to find a way to annul his marriage with Catherine of Aragon. When finally Henry could marry Anne, they had a “happy marriage” for a while. They have a daughter, Elizabeth the future Queen of England, but Anne failed to give birth a male heir and that made Henry VIII to look for new wife. He fell in love with Jane Seymour, Anne’s maid of honour, who may have learnt from Anne’s actions and refused to be the King’s mistress and Henry VIII could not offered marriage if Anne was still around. Once again he asked help to Thomas Cromwell. That was his opportunity to manipulated the King against Anne.
Then she was accused of adultery, incest and high treason, and was inocent executed with five other men including her brother George Boleyn. Nobody helped her, not even her father who wanted to save his life.
So, who was responsible for the fall of Anne Boleyn?
First, Thomas Cromwell, because he was afraid to end like Cardinal Wosley and Thomas More. Second, her father, for his obsession for power and third Henry VIII for his obsession for a male heir. Should i say Anne herself? I won’t, i think she wanted to be happy, she worked hard for that and sacrificed things and maybe she found a lot of enemies in her path to happiness.
I would like to finish with what Cranmer said to Alexander Ales when Anne was executed :
”She who has been the Queen of England on earth will today become a Queen in Heaven”
God save the Queen!!!
Sources
Wikipedia & The Anne Boleyn Files