Because she was not Catherine of Aragon, the woman they saw as their true queen. We have to remember that Catherine had been their queen since 1509 and was, for many, the only queen they knew, and she was well loved and popular. Anne was seen as a usurper and her reformist views would also have made her unpopular with some.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE QUESTIONS
1 thought on “Why didn’t people like Anne?”
Please note: Comment moderation is currently enabled so there will be a delay between when you post your comment and when it shows up.
I think the answer to this depends on who you mean when you say ‘people’.
If you mean the common people, we should remember that almost all of them got the news of the day from their church. There were no newspapers and nobody could read anyway. However, most people went to church every day and listened to their priest, who they believed spoke the truth of God. The church was, on the whole, very antagonistic toward Anne during the Kings great matter, viewing Katherine as Henry’s rightful wife and Anne as a usurper or worse. Anne’s known reformist leanings didn’t endear her to the church and for the common people the disapproval of the church would have been very damning for Anne’s reputation.
If, by ‘people’, you mean the nobility, they would have been wary of anyone who they saw as being able to affect the King’s thinking, wielding influence they viewed as rightly belonging to them. Henry’s was not the first (or last) court to be rife with plot and intrigue and the nobles would have been happy to sway with the wind. While Anne was in favor with the King they would pay her lip service. When the wind blew against Anne she would have had very few friends at court.
If, by ‘people’, you mean the church then Anne’s reformist thinking amounted to heresy, a crime for which, given the chance, they would burn her alive. Anne represented nothing but danger to the previously unquestioned authority of the Pope in England.