Ana bolena

“The Most Happy”

Anne Boleyn

The Fall of

By Claire Ridgway

I

nt o d u ct o n r i

Anne Boleyn, queen consort to the Tudor monarch Henry VIII, was executed at the Tower of London on the 19th of May 1536, after being found guilty of treason, adultery and incest, charges that the majority of historians believe she was entirely innocent of and actually had alibis for. Anne Boleyn'sstory is an amazing one. Anne was no foreign princess, she was a commoner who had come to court because her father was a diplomat to Henry VIII. This woman caught the eye of Henry VIII, who was well-known for taking mistresses, but there was something different about her that made Henry become infatuated and obsessed with her and that led to her becoming Henry's wife, not his mistress. Henry VIIImarried Anne Boleyn for love, not diplomacy, the only English monarch to marry for this reason. He had to move heaven and earth to marry her – breaking with Rome, risking his popularity, establishing the Acts of Supremacy and Succession, executing people he loved, like Thomas More etc. - but marry her he did.

All Rights Reserved Copyright © 2009 – Claire Ridgway. All rights are reserved. Youmay not distribute this report in any way. You may not sell it, or reprint any part of it without written consent from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review. FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT www.TheAnneBoleynFiles.com From the website, anyone may obtain their own copy!

Pag 2 e
© www.TheAnneBoleynfiles.com 2009 All rights Reserved

Many have made out that Annewas a witch, who bewitched Henry and seduced him; others have concluded that she was playing a game, not yielding to Henry or giving away her virtue until she had a promise of marriage; and still others believe that she was simply an instrument, like her sister Mary, used by her father, Thomas Boleyn, and her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, to seek favour at court. I can't say that I agree with any ofthose opinions, I believe that Henry's passion for Anne bowled her over and that she fell in love with him. Far from using her virtue as bait, she was a religious woman, a passionate evangelical, who wanted to protect her virtue and her soul, and not end up like Henry's other mistresses, including her sister Mary. Henry VIII finally married Anne Boleyn in January 1533, after having pursued her forat least seven years, yet just over three years later she was executed and he married Jane Seymour.

A

Co n sp i r a cy t To p p l e a Q u e e n o

It is widely acknowledged that Thomas Cromwell, the King's secretary, was responsible for the downfall of Anne Boleyn, her brother and followers, not Henry VIII himself. There is no evidence that Henry VIII ordered Cromwell to conspire againsthis wife; on the contrary, Henry was calling Anne “our most dear and most entirely beloved wife, the queen” in a letter written as late as the 24th April, 1536, to his ambassador at Rome, Richard Pate. Henry had also worked hard to get Chapuys, the Imperial Ambassador, and the rest of Europe to recognise Anne as his legitimate wife and had openly reinforced his commitment to Anne over the Easterweekend of 1536 and spoken of them going on to have a male heir. But, under a month later Anne was dead, executed as a traitor to her king. So, how did Cromwell, a man who we know was close to Anne and a sympathiser to her evangelical views, come to betray her and form plans to get Pag 3 e
© www.TheAnneBoleynfiles.com 2009 All rights Reserved

rid of her, not just by annulling the marriage andsending her off to a convent, but by executing her? The answer is fear. Cromwell was already beginning to worry about Anne's influence over Henry and her pro-French views, while he was being pressurised by Eustace Chapuys (Emperor Charles V's ambassador) to form an alliance with Charles and to legitimise Mary (Henry's daughter by Catherine of Aragon) and her claim to the throne. If this wasn't...