Boleyn, Anne

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

bool'in, Anne (1500-1536), a queen of England. She was well born, and resided for a time at the French court. Later she became lady of honor to Queen Catherine. She was celebrated for her beauty and her wit. Henry VIII became infatuated with her and about the same time became convinced that his marriage with Catherine was illegal. At all events, marry Anne he would and did; after which there was nothing for his Archbishop Cranmer to do but to declare the first marriage void and the second legal. In a similar manner Anne was supplanted by her own maid of honor, Lady Jane Seymour, and was herself condemned to the scaffold on a harsh charge--probably trumped up--of infidelity. Henry, it is said, went hunting with a gay party. The boom of a distant gun notified him that his cruel orders had been carried out. Before execution, Anne, it is said, sent for the wife of the lieutenant of the Tower, fell on her knees, and said, "Go to the Princess Mary," meaning the daughter of Catherine, "in my name, and in this position beg her forgiveness for all the sufferings I have drawn upon her and her mother." Elizabeth, the famous Virgin Queen, was the daughter of Henry and Anne Boleyn. See Henry Viii; England 2026 Editor's Note: The marriage the entry describes so briskly broke England from Rome. Anne was beheaded within three years on charges of adultery and treason now generally regarded as fabricated — but the daughter she bore became Elizabeth I, England's greatest monarch. She remains one of the most written-about women in English history, from Wolf Hall to a shelf of films. (Ed: BR 2026-06-16)