There has been some discussion until present days about this woman who left her mark in the History of England. Her name was Anne Boleyn and she was the mother of one of the most popular queens Europe has ever known: Queen Elizabeth I.
Although the dynasty Lady Anne Boleyn was married into, the Tudors, had already a whole story before its ascension in 1485 and towards its end in 1603, her death would forever associate her to it, making it known just as famous as it happened to be with the Plantagenets.
The question that remains unanswered is: why are there people until nowadays who worship her? How her figure exerces influence outside England and why is she so famous?
There are many reasons that we could use in trying to explain this fascination many has with the first Queen of England to be judged as a traitor and receive beheading as punishment for such crime.
For many accounts, her story is already controversial: born into a middle class family who raised into Henry VIII's favour, the Boleyns set their only daughters, Anne and Mary, to serve the Queen of France where the reputations of both sisters had their start, though whilst Anne was regarded as a woman of virtue, Mary unfortunately was associated with a whore for supposedly being King Francis I's mistress.
At their return to England, it was Mary who captured Henry VIII's attention, not Anne. It was not unusual that Kings had their mistresses, as marriage was seen as a duty towards the kingdom- which explains the arranged marriages done between many related royals- and love was a matter they could leave to their lovers, when the match failed in producing such affection. On the case of King Henry VIII, it is known that he was frustrated by lacking male heirs with his then beloved Katherine of Aragon. The supposedly love he had for her apparently diminished with time and the birth of Henry Fitzroy, possibly the only bastard he officially recognized, only increased the distance between them and the ideas to a divorce had already started to built inside the monarch's mind.
Once Mary was replaced by Anne mainly because Henry was more interested in how Anne was not as his previous mistresses, always aware to hold virtue in matters of marriage, the story of her rise to the throne is very known and with such myths that for a time had managed to create an ideal of the woman she was, as daughter, wife, mother and Queen.
What is possible to say about one of the most infamous Queens of History is that her personality and looks were not as expected when we come to analyze the standards of the time. Regarding Queen Elizabeth of York, who died in 1503, the idea of how a woman should be and look became a social rule that Anne eventually would break. It was common sense that to be beautiful, one should bear blonde hair, pale skin and very light eyes; to be regarded as a good wife, one should be obedient, humble and never voicing one's opinions.
If we compare the portraits of Anne Boleyn and her successor's Jane Seymour, it is most evident how these differences spoke louder back then. Anne is often portrayed as a brunette with dark eyes, though her skin is pale and her hair is straight. But Jane was possibly one of light hair, humble in her looks (and motto), quiet and barely defying. In Anne's portraits, those done after her, it is not the characteristics of a submissive woman we see, but rather a strong one. Is it possible her nature left Jane Seymour in obscurity? Perhaps.
The main reason why Anne Boleyn had her fate was the lack of any sons, the same fault committed by her predecessor, Katherine of Aragon. But why did she have to die? Why did King Henry VIII pushed to social acceptable limits to execute a woman who herself was crowned under a new Church in difficult religious times?
As said before, the role Elizabeth of York, the first Tudor Queen, did much influenced her son and the social imagination of people in England. Many men feared what a powerful woman with decisive mind could do. Back then, the kingdom was not ready to have someone with such skills in a sex that was not male. Socially speaking, it was common sense that men should have not be questioned.
With Anne's execution, Henry VIII thought he destroyed the popular imagination of her. Bad things were spread on her behalf, as the fact she had six fingers, she was in fact a witch who cast a spell on him to do what he did and, finally, but not uncommonly, how she was raised to be a prostitute. Naturally, that would be the view of a monarch whose reign was marked mostly by his bad political views and his egotistic desire of bearing a male heir, doing whatever should be done until he achieved his main goal. But with Elizabeth becoming Queen in 1558, after Mary's death, much was changed. In fact, it was with Queen Mary that feminine role was finally being associated to others that not necessarily the domestic ones, though Protestant education would have its peck under the reign of Edward VI with Katherine Brandon, Dowager Duchess of Suffolk, managing it fiercely, helping ladies to improve their studies and thus developing a bigger participation at England's church.
In truth, Anne Boleyn's figure was turned into a sort of feminist resistance to male's control, though in the centuries after her death, especially at the Victorian Era, her character was softened. She became a victim, no longer being a heroine, of the mistreats she suffered with the relationship she had with Henry VIII. She was pure and innocent, almost a lamb herself. But in the 19th century, we must regard that the ideals were another. It was not a matter of beauty or colour hair, though it was still praised the pale skin, but to keep the temper under profile. Obedience was extremely appealing, but not entirely submission. It was an advance in between 1536 to 1848: many revolutions crossed Europe and England was no exception, having gone previously to two Civil Wars.
Social character was, thus, remodeled according to religious views of the monarch, good manners always observed. Tradition, a word that marked English's society, was the link that connected 19th century to Middle Ages, which was brought back by the historians to praise England's empire. Nationalism was raising and with that, humanist images of characters in past. Anne Boleyn was not an exception to suffer these changes in England's society.
Her death seemed to redeem her from the faults she previously committed, at the same time that these were forgotten: the bad relationship and possibly trauma she caused Princess Mary (Queen Mary I) in her teenage days and how influenced the King to forbid a meeting between Katherine of Aragon and her daughter are rarely mentioned. Was Anne Boleyn then a victim or guilty of her accusations? Is she a Queen still worthy of such praise?
In the 21st century, the idea we have of Lady Anne is more sexualized, producing in social imaginary the concept that mistresses used sex to hold a man to themselves or, in another interpretations, that this sex appeal is nothing but the strength of the female sex, that there's nothing wrong with it, regardless were the opinions of those who lived in 16th century.
With all that being said, we can say that Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, has become more a product of society with so many views concerning how she really was. That opened a concerning social construction of historical characters: many praise monarchs, heroes or not as victors who are guilty or not of their deeds. But there is more than that: these were humans beings whose actions entered to History for running from the common sense. Anne Boleyn was not an exception. Though we have the mystery surrounding her figure and we might never know who really she was, it is important to state that history figures were humans and both flaws and qualities should not be ignored or praised but remembered they are part of the individual who left its contribution to the society they lived.
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