Thank you to my husband, Tim, for finding this and making me chuckle.
Just a few minutes ago, Tim interrupted me to ask “How many children did Anne Boleyn have?”. I gave him a rather scathing look, thinking to myself “Where have I gone wrong with this man?”, when he asked me to bear with him. I didn’t think he was ready for me to launch into a long account of Anne’s pregnancies, possible miscarriages etc. so I confirmed that she had one surviving child, Elizabeth I. He then told me to “google” Anne Boleyn and this screenshot is what I found.
Can you spot the mistake? Click on the image to enlarge it.
Yes, according to Google, Anne Boleyn had three children: Elizabeth I, Henry Tudor and Edward Tudor! Hmmm… When I clicked on Henry and Edward, they went to search pages on Henry VII (and VIII) and Edward VI. Oh dear! I’m not sure how exactly Google compiles the information in this box, which was on the right hand side of the search page when I searched for “Anne Boleyn”, but Tim suspects that it brings it in from a number of different sources and obviously one source has got it rather wrong. I clicked on “Feedback/More Info” at the bottom and reported the problem so hopefully it will be corrected at some point.
I wonder how many people it will fool. I can just see bemused history teachers all over the world being confronted with essays about Anne Boleyn and her three children, can’t you? Ah, the Internet is a wondrous thing but this shows the pitfalls of “googling” for information. It makes me want to google other historical characters, who knows what I’ll find!
Thank you, Tim!
P.S. Thank you to everyone who left comments on my Anne Boleyn myths post – you are all stars!
