Anne Boleyn
Queen of England
1501 – 1536 A.D.

Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, one of the wives of Henry VIII, beheaded May 19, 1536. The date of her birth is uncertain, and is placed between 1500 and 1507. She was a daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn, and became attached to the household of Catharine of Aragon. Witty, vivacious and accomplished, it was not long before she attracted the attention of Henry, who obliged Cardinal Wolsey to break off a proposed marriage between Anne and Lord Percy.

After five years’ agitation, Henry obtained a divorce from Catharine, and was married to Anne at Whitehall, January 25, 1533. She had already for three years resided in the palace and been Henry’s constant companion. On June 1, her coronation was performed with great pomp, and three months later was born the princess Elizabeth, whose subsequent reign shed so much splendor upon English history.

The life of the court while Anne shared the throne was gay and easy, and when Henry began to tire of her, it was not difficult to convict Anne of improprieties. She was tried by a commission of peers, and found guilt, though she protested innocence to the last. Her prison hours were spent in alternations of composure and excitement, but on the scaffold she conducted herself with queenly dignity.

John Fox in his Book of Martyrs says:

“Certain this was, that for the rare and singular gifts of her mind, so well instructed, and given toward God, with such a fervent desire unto the truth, and setting forth of sincere religion, joined wih like gentleness, modesty, and pity toward all men, there have not many such queens before her borne the Crown of England.”

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Reference: Famous Women; An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women By Joseph Adelman. Copyright, 1926 by Ellis M. Lonow Company.