I recently read one of the most interesting things about Anne in one of Robin Maxwell (author of ‘Secret Diary’ and Mademoiselle Boleyn) which stated that Anne had led religious meetings at Durham House:

“An even more closely guarded fact about Anne – one that is made mention of in only one history book (Anthony Martienssen’s Queen Katherine Parr)—is that Henry actually appointed Anne to spearhead a small coterie of the most powerful figures at court who met weekly at Durham House in London, and whose sole purpose was freeing England from Rome’s influence in order to land Henry his divorce. The still publicly Catholic king (“Defender of the Faith) could not allow himself to be seen engaging in such dangerous activities. Clearly, he trusted Anne’s intelligence and judgment enough for the job. The image of this woman, still in her twenties, as the leader of men in what was, without question, the greatest religious and political battle of the sixteenth century—a battle that was won by Henry and Anne against the pope, creating the “schism”—is mindboggling.

Yet hardly a soul knows about the Durham House gatherings. It takes up less than half a page in a scholarly, but rather obscure history book. No mention of it is made in any of the biographies of Anne Boleyn. She simply remains to most one of the “bimbos of history,” the second wife of Henry VIII who had her head whacked off for behaving badly.”

However I don’t own a copy of Martienssen’s biography (which sounds very interesting) and I’m just wondering if anyone knows anything else about this/has some primary sources?

The full interview of Maxwell with Penguin group is here: http://www.us.penguingroup.com…..oleyn.html

Thank you!