Hello Red Rose Chain. You guys are putting on a play about Anne? I wish I lived in England to go see it. Wish you the best.

If you read Retha Warnicke's biography on Anne or Philippa Gregory's The Other Boley Girl, then there is definetly a suggestion of incest and other sexual perversions by George and Anne.

I for one do not believe it. Anne and George were close, probably best friends. They loved each other as siblings. It was only under a microscope of hysteria and fear that their relationship became incestuous. It was a mechanism to completely destroy Anne's reputation so that no one would ever advocate for her. It took over 200 years before attempts to reconcile her reputation were tried.

For instance, George visiting Anne in her room alone became perverse and sexual. A peck on the lips (which was a common occurance in the Tudor court, regardless of kinship) was a sexualized.

The whole incest story line is used for dramatic purposes (especially in fiction etc.), rather than in its true context. Henry wanted rid of Anne, which meant riding the court of her most fervent allies, namely George. A Queen who had affairs with fellow courtiers is one thing, but sex with her own brother sent it into the stratesphere. It was not a matter of killing Anne for treason, but to turn her into the Messalina everyone believed her to be. Henry was willing to play the cuckhold husband.

There is some many interesting and touching ways to write Anne and George's relationship. He was her advocate, probably the one person who loved her for her. Yes, his position rose as she became Henry's favourite. But, he always protected his sister and loved her to the end.

I totally agree, Claire. It's a load of trash.

Given that Anne refused H8, I just can't see her jumping into bed with any man let alone her own brother. You just need to look at today's tabloids to see how far people will twist something to make the most innocent thing into a gossip-worthy accusation against some one famous.

Red Rose Chain said:

Hi,

Does anyone know anything about the suggestion that Anne had an incestuous relationship with her brother George?

Many theories, but interested to hear what people think.

Thanks,

 

Red Rose Chain

According to Bishop Gilbert Burnet, writing a century after events took place, Jane Boleyn had told the authorities that there existed a ‘familiarity between the Queen and her Brother, beyond what so near a relation could justify’. Burnet insisted on Jane being complicit in the downfall of her husband and sister-in-law, arguing she was a woman ‘of no sort of vertue’.

I do not find Burnet’s account of events convincing. I think George was targeted for several reasons –the charge of incest was useful for its impact on Anne’s reputation encouraging the case for her destruction; George was ‘expendable’ (horrible to say, but I suspect the case), and, importantly, George and Anne may have acted inappropriately in another manner. By that I mean they may have been guilty of idle and salacious talk, by discussing the King’s impotency so brazenly. According to Chapuys, during the trial George was asked (through writing, for the court dared not speak this aloud), whether he had talked with his sister about the King’s ‘problems’ in the bedroom. The couple were also accused of joking about this (George absurdly joking that the King lacked the prowess to father a child). This of course does not mean Anne and George were lovers purely because Anne told him of her marital woes. But it was absolutely dangerous to talk about such matters and made it seem that there existed a perverse intimacy between the pair. It should be remembered that only two years after their deaths, Sir Nicholas Carew was charged with having told the marchioness of Exeter private details about the King that had taken place in the Privy Chamber (a very intimate area which only trusted servants were allowed entry into). From Henry’s perspective, if Carew was guilty of such a breach of trust, he was guilty of any other despicable deed as well. He was subsequently found guilty of other traitorous acts, condemned and beheaded.