Is it true that “Anne Boleyn tore a nation apart by keeping her knees together”?
If this is based on the new movie, “The Other Boleyn Girl” I haven’t seen it. However, from the previews there is already one major error. Henry was done with Mary Boleyn before Anne returned from France. Mary was pregnant with Henry’s bastard & married her off to one of his drinking buddies. There were titles lands to go with the task. Mary gave birth to a son. There are also good odds that Henry had an affair with Anne & Mary’s mother as well. Anne was pregnant when Henry made the final break & that was the driving force behind the split. The child had to be born in wedlock or very, very close to it if Henry was to have an heir to inherit the throne. Had he known she was carrying a girl, he may not have pushed so hard. The other problem that Henry faced was getting an annulment from the Pope, who was virtually Charles V prisononer & nephew of Catherine of Aragon. Henry had to get a special dispensation to marry Catherine, his brother’s widow. There wasn’t a great deal of tearing a na
Anne Boleyn played her cards nicely, but Henry needed a male heir. You need to put it into the context of there having been so many civil wars between the different houses (Richard III is a reasonably good guide) and he feared that unless he established the Tudor line with a male heir then there’d be another take-over bid for the throne when he snuffed it. He’d produced a fair number of male bastards already, so there must have been something especially charming about the Lady Anne, but the need to keep the line going was more important than anything else.
only one person’s actions. Anne Boleyn certainly gave Henry a nudge in that direction, but there were already plenty of people in England and Europe who were dissatisfied with the state of the Catholic church. The Reformation was well underway in Europe and Henry wrote a defense of the Pope that criticized Martin Luther in 1521 for which he was awarded “Defender of the Faith by the Pope. By 1533 he declared himself to be the head of the church in England. It is true that this move had more to do with political expediency than religion. Henry believed he needed a legitimate male heir (although I am sure that his daughters would disagree) to succeed the throne. By the time Henry began his pursuit of Anne (and Anne began her pursuit of power) Henry already had illegitimate sons that he openly recognized – one of them with Anne’s sister Mary born in 1526. Henry stopped sleeping with his wife, Catherine, in 1525 because he believed that since he married his brother’s wife he was cursed with
Your question is something historians have explored both in fear and now freedom. College professors pose this or a similar question to students. Countless essays can be found online about the forming of the Church of England or Henry’s relationship with Anne Boleyn and possibly her sister. Historical accounts say many things, but what would Henry VIII say or Anne Boleyn herself say? Without a time machine then we rely on an amalgam of accounts and historical “what ifs” and theories. The Tudors, a Showtime series, has explored this period in history very thoroughly but with that Hollywood spin, of course. Henry was defititely smitten, spoiled, and determined to have his way – whatever law or governing body he had to oppose, ignore, or manipulate to get what he wanted. Do I believe she tore the nation apart by keeping her knees together? No. There are far too many other factors that were already tearing England apart. Did she help drive the king mad? Yes, but everyone he dealt with did
