Learning Smart

World History AP Creative Presentation – June 2008

She was a charmer. She was educated in France from the age of 7, became maid-of-honor for the Queen of France when she was 13. She was a religious reformer, supporting Martin Luther and his ideas. She was ambitious, taking it upon herself to pull the English queen from her throne. She made the most important man in England fall to his knees in desire. She turned her kingdom upside down, and caused her own demise.

She was Anne Boleyn.

Anne was the Tudor tragic hero. She was of noble stature, a girl from two of the kingdom’s most prominent families, the Howard’s and the Boleyn’s. She was maid-of-honor to Katherine of Aragon by 1526, and Queen of England by 1533.

She chose her fate, making the decision to keep the king, Henry VIII, at arm’s length while he courted her. Her sister, Mary, had been an unsuccessful mistress previously, and Anne wanted to gain from the king’s affections. She would be Queen, or she would be nothing.

Anne was already a religious reformer, reading anti-clerical literature, and she used her knowledge to influence Henry. She gave him books to read, and engaged with him in discussions of religion. Not only with her mind, but with her beauty did she cause religious reform. Her ultimatum to Henry of ‘Queen or nothing’ would cause him to ask the Pope for a divorce from his wife, Katherine, on the basis that she was his brother’s widow. The Pope, influenced by the Emperor of Spain, Katherine’s nephew, refused. In order to have Anne, he then broke with the Catholic church and became ruler of the Church of England (less commonly called the Psychotic %@&#!! Religion). He then proceeded to dissolve the monasteries and take all their money.

So, thanks to Anne, England would be in religious turmoil for the next thirty years. You’ve got to be great to cause that kind of trouble.

She was also dangerously influential without even realizing it. She was so bent on her own ascent to the throne that she did not notice what trouble it would cause to English women everywhere. If even the king and queen could get divorced, than what would stop the rest of England’s men from throwing out their wives as well? Anne and Henry were the unfortunate example to men everywhere that, yes, you can get rid of that dreadful woman your father made you marry and marry that young pretty servant girl you’ve had your eye on instead. No woman in England was safe, thanks to Anne’s determination to assume the throne.

And though it was a devastation at the time, Anne also created one of England’s greatest queens. Not herself, but her daughter, Elizabeth. Anne’s inability to have a son was mostly what caused Henry to seek for a way to be rid of her. He was not pleased that, after all her promises of a son, Elizabeth was born instead, and two stillborn boys after that (one of which was deformed).

However, when Elizabeth became queen in 1558, she changed the face of England. During her 45-year reign, she united the country, reviving it to the formidable power it once was. She brought England an impressive naval force. She continued with the discovery of the New World by supporting explorers, such as Walter Raleigh and Thomas Drake. She also brought the world’s greatest playwright, William Shakespeare, to his fame due to her appreciation of literature.

So even though the birth of her daughter caused Anne’s downfall, Elizabeth herself caused England to flourish once more. And Elizabeth would not have even existed to be so influential if not for Anne. By procreating and giving birth to the greatest queen England had ever seen, Anne herself was the great. It’s greatness by association.

Anne set a precedent for queens yet to come. She showed ladies in waiting everywhere that, with a lot of determination and a little abstinence, they could be queen, too! Unfortunately, this caused her own demise. By doing this, she had shown Henry that he could have whatever bit of stuff he wanted. He made all the rules now, he could do what he wanted with whoever he wanted. And when he wanted Jane Seymour, he knew that he could make up an excuse to remove Anne. He was much more unkind to her than he had been to Katherine, he chose to dispose of Anne by way of beheading.

This caused fear among the aspiring mistresses. Once again, if a queen could be beheaded, than what would stop other men from doing it as well? And worse, what would stop Henry from doing it to another wife or woman?

Anne’s rise and fall was sad, but great. She caused religious reform, the birth of the greatest queen in England, and the total turning of England upside-down. How can you get any greater than that?