She returned to England in 1519, where she was appointed a maid-of-honour to Catherine of Aragon, the queen consort of HenryVIII. [12] Mary was reportedly considered to be a great beauty at both the French and English courts. While Mary was pregnant and on bed rest with her second child, the king became bored with her. Unable to continue their relationship while she was ill, he cast her aside. He began gaining interest in other ladies of the court, a chance which Anne jumped at.

To us she appears inconsistent—religious yet aggressive, calculating yet emotional, with the light touch of the courtier yet the strong grip of the politician—but is this what she was, or merely what we strain to see through the opacity of the evidence? As for her inner life, short of a miraculous cache of new material, we shall never really know. Yet what does come to us across the centuries is the impression of a person who is strangely appealing to the early 21st century: A woman in her own right—taken on her own terms in a man's world; a woman who mobilised her education, her style and her presence to outweigh the disadvantages of her sex; of only moderate good looks, but taking a court and a king by storm. Perhaps, in the end, it is Thomas Cromwell's assessment that comes nearest: intelligence, spirit and courage. [185] The Other Boleyn Girl, a book by Philippa Gregory later adapted into a 2008 film which has Mary's sister Anne as one of the main characters. An earlier television adaptation of the book was made by the BBC in 2003. Morris, T. A. (1998). Europe and England in the Sixteenth Century. London: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780203014639. ISBN 978-0203014639. Weir, Alison (2009). The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn. Jonathan Cape. ISBN 978-0-224-06319-7. Henry and Anne formally married on 25 January 1533, after a secret wedding on 14 November 1532. On 23 May 1533, the newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer declared Henry and Catherine's marriage null and void; five days later, he declared Henry and Anne's marriage valid. Shortly afterwards, Clement excommunicated Henry and Cranmer. As a result of this marriage and these excommunications, the first break between the Church of England and the Catholic Church took place, and the king took control of the Church of England. Anne was crowned Queen of England on 1 June 1533. On 7 September, she gave birth to the future Queen Elizabeth I. Henry was disappointed to have a daughter rather than a son, but hoped a son would follow and professed to love Elizabeth. Anne subsequently had three miscarriages and by March 1536, Henry was courting Jane Seymour.Strong, Roy (2005). Coronation: a history of kingship and the British monarchy. London: HarperCollinsPublishers. p.xxix. ISBN 978-0-00-716054-9. John Guy contends that Crispin de Milherve, who was an eyewitness to Anne Boleyn's trial and execution, and Lancelot de Carle have been shown by French scholars to be the same person. [ citation needed] Nicholas, A. H., ed. (1835). The Republic of Letters: A Republication of Standard Literature. Vol.III. New York: George Dearborn. p.70. And I am in such a perplexity, that my mind is clean amazed: for I never had better opinion in woman than I had in her; which maketh me to the that she should not be culpable. Henry VIII cap. 12: An Act that the appeals in such cases as have been used to be pursued to the see of Rome shall not be from henceforth had nor used but within this realm. El misterioso rostro de Ana Bolena"[The Mysterious Face Of Anne Boleyn]. El Mundo (in Spanish). 20 February 2015 . Retrieved 10 October 2022.

Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference

Henry Gardiner Adams, ed. (1857). " Anne Boleyn". A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography: 46–47. Wikidata Q115749742. Schmid, Susan Walters (March 2011). "Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII". History Review. 69: 7–11. Archived from the original on 14 August 2014 . Retrieved 23 March 2014. And that's on top of a hectic family British Archaeological Association (1877). The Archaeological Journal (Vol. 34ed.). Longman, Rrown [sic] Green, and Longman. p.508 . Retrieved 3 August 2020.

Catherine Carey (1524 – 15 January 1569). Maid-of-honour to both Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard, she married a Puritan, Sir Francis Knollys, Knight of the Garter, by whom she had issue. She later became chief lady of the bedchamber to her cousin, Queen ElizabethI. One of her daughters, Lettice Knollys, became the second wife of Robert Dudley, 1stEarl of Leicester, the favourite of ElizabethI. In 1526, Henry VIII became enamoured of Anne and began his pursuit. [52] Anne was a skilful player at the game of courtly love, which was often played in the antechambers. This may have been how she caught the eye of Henry, who was also an experienced player. [53] Anne resisted Henry's attempts to seduce her, refusing to become his mistress, and often leaving court for the seclusion of Hever Castle. But within a year, he proposed marriage to her, and she accepted. [54] Both assumed an annulment could be obtained within months. There is no evidence to suggest that they engaged in a sexual relationship until very shortly before their marriage; Henry's love letters to Anne suggest that their love affair remained unconsummated for much of their seven-year courtship. [55] Henry's annulmentWilson, Derek Hans Holbein: Portrait of an Unknown Man London: Pimlico, Revised Edition (2006) ISBN 978-1-84413-918-7 In France, Anne was a maid of honour to Queen Mary, and then to Mary's 15-year-old stepdaughter Queen Claude, with whom she stayed nearly seven years. [36] [37] In the Queen's household, she completed her study of French and developed interests in art, fashion, illuminated manuscripts, literature, music, poetry and religious philosophy. Ives asserts that she "owed her evangelicalism to France", studying "reformist books", and Jacques Lefevre's translations into French of the bible and the Pauline epistles. [38] She also acquired knowledge of French culture, dance, etiquette, literature, music and poetry; and gained experience in flirtation and courtly love. [39] Though all knowledge of Anne's experiences in the French court is conjecture, even Ives suggests that she was likely to have made the acquaintance of King Francis I's sister, Marguerite de Navarre, a patron of humanists and reformers. Marguerite de Navarre was also an author in her own right, and her works include elements of Christian mysticism and reform that verged on heresy, though she was protected by her status as the French king's beloved sister. She or her circle may have encouraged Anne's interest in religious reform, as well as in poetry and literature. [37] Anne's education in France proved itself in later years, inspiring many new trends among the ladies and courtiers of England. It may have been instrumental in pressing their King toward England's break with the Papacy. [40] William Forrest, author of a contemporary poem about Catherine of Aragon, complimented Anne's "passing excellent" skill as a dancer. "Here", he wrote, "was [a] fresh young damsel, that could trip and go." [29] At the court of Henry VIII: 1522–1533