'Plurimi Gavisus"
The Most Happy.
In the last 11 years, I adopted this 'motto'. It's simplicity is beautiful, its meaning so profound. Its significance even more so. It holds such a profound, significant complex, and multifaceted meaning for me. I've had this tattooed on myself people. That is how much it means to me.
It's not mine. It belongs to someone, who in my humble opinion is, one of the most significant individuals to ever grace History's stage. Allow me, The Duchess, to introduce you to a woman I find utterly fascinating, captivating, perplexing, frustrating, and a woman who deserves herstory to be told much better than I could ever be able to do. Or ever attempted to do- because I tried, but that's for another day.
Madames et Monsierurs... Queen Anne Boleyn.
Not what you were expecting? Ok, let me take a wild guess here. You were either picturing:
A) a beautiful fair skinned, smoldering blue eyed beauty
Or
B) an equally beautiful, fiery french brunette.
So either Natalie Dormer (The Tudors) or Geneviève Bujold (Anne of the Thousand Days). Notice how I didn't even MENTION... Natalie Portman's version (The Other Boleyn Girl) Yeah, just don't remind me about hers, mkay?
No, Anne was not a Hollywood beauty. We aren't 100% sure what she actually looked like. Her own friends described her as being attractive enough. Yeah Homies... those were her FRIENDS. But what Anne may, or may not have lacked in physical beauty she made up for in spades with her intelligence and personality. I'll get to this but... for now, this is Anne Boleyn. The reason behind the English Reformation.
Or, at least we think this is what she looked like. There are only a small number of surviving portraits of Anne, and likely all or most are copies of an original (it was a thing. Kinda like remaking those tv shows that should have stayed dead are now- I'm looking at you Charmed. Hard No. HARD NO.) The one above, which if you find yourself on that side of the pond (and I most assuredly recommend that you do so- I'll tell you why another day) can be found at the National Portrait Gallery in London. This one to the right, can be found at Hampton Court Palace.
Why Anne Boleyn?
Oh baby, That is a question I have asked myself FOR YEARS. I've found the answer entirely elusive. I can not explain it, but she is my Cerce, if you will indulge my Odyssey analysis here. It just simply can not- NOT be Anne. See, you think I'm kidding here, but I'm not. I have pursued this question for years. I finished my bachelors degree in history (stroy for later- too much info right now) and all the while was researching and devouring everything I could get my hands on that had to do with Anne Boleyn... the tragic 2nd Queen of Henry VIII of England. My Bachelors, isn't even in the same realm of History as Anne. If I really wanted to designate my speciality... it's political history, NOT Early Modern English History. Yet I found myself across the pond in search of the answer to this very question, WHY ANNE BOLEYN?
I'm not going to lie to you, I do not know. I have not found her. I hear her daily (here is that Odysseus and the sirens thing again) calling to me to answer this. I can't. It just is. 3 years after packing my bags and heading off to England, LITERALLY, to chase this answer I've yet to find the answer. I think I'm a masochist at this point honestly. Genuinely do, I gotta be. How does one go to another country to study, research and write everything they can about an individual and STILL not have an answer to the central question? Bruh, I damn sure did that. I've learned to answer it back however. Why NOT Anne Boleyn?
What is the point of me bringing this up, now, today you ask? Well, Anne Boleyn was executed May 19th, 1536 in The Tower of London. Her marriage to Henry VIII was declared Null and void a few days prior. She was convicted of Treason and Incest. Charges of Witchcraft- no matter what History's page six tells you, were not, I'm going to repeat that- NOT laid against her.
Memorial to those executed on Tower Green at The Tower of London
Alas, You contemporaries remember today much differently than I, don't you. Because flash forward 482 years- another, personally devastating, event occurs. Prince Henry of England marries American Actress Meghan Markle in Saint George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. Yes, here she is... yet again.
It's ok. I'm over it now. Can't you tell?
Both events, though significant in drastically different ways, are extremely, extremely significant points in History. In the case of current events, Markle is a divorcee, an actress, a foreigner and OMG- she's biracial too! Gasp! Pearls clutch! That's something that... had "never been seen" before. Well ok, the racial part I'm going to give you on a simple technicality (Race is a social construct not a scientific one ergo- exists solely in the social realm). Stop being a fucked up individual and let people live the life they wanna live, love the people they want to fucking love. It's not my, nor your business to have an opinion on anything others chose to do with their lives, even if she did take my whole dream life in a single death blow.
In the case of Anne Boleyn, her moment was significant in that she was the first English Queen to be executed. No other English Queen had suffered the same fate, and she had met this fate by her own accord, by daring to shape the world around her. Sound familiar? yeah, them getting married on the same day just did it for me. It is my profound belief that Anne has never received proper praise for her political role. She has been cast in the mold of history as the femme fatale, the other woman, the seductress. It is not my intention to argue that Anne was not all these, I think she very much was, however, she was much more than that. In my humble opinion, Anne was a woman who dared to be bold, dared to change her fate, dared to indulge in more than she was able to process and dared to have a say.
As today is the 484th anniversary of her death, I feel compelled to tell you what I know about her. I don't have enough time in this post to do so and frankly my dissertation was 19, 280 words. Something tells me you aren't here to read all that. I also do not want to put another living soul through that either. I do however want to leave you with a fraction of Anne Boleyn, as I have come to know her.
Exclusively for my readers... an edit of the conclusion to my Dissertation.
" Anne Boleyn actively promoted Anglo-French policies from the onset of the 1530’s. She very early on recognized that her strength lay in the experiences she had had while at the French court in her youth. She actively worked to tap into any political advantage she could muster in the French court. Before her marriage to Henry , she took avid interest in entertaining French Ambassadors. Perhaps a comfort to herself, but most assuredly a calculated ploy to garner favorable support. Anne’s intimate knowledge of the workings of French customs, and her proximity to the Monarch during her tenure at the French court were an asset to her. Anne was a smart woman who had learned by watching two of the most powerful women in Europe wield significant political power. She would not have easily forgotten the influence that Margaret of Austria had on Imperial politics, nor would she have dismissed the political significance of Marguerite d’Angoulême. Both women were powerhouses in their own countries and were avidly involved in the politics of the age.
Anne Boleyn felt herself no less capable of wielding the same level of political power as her mentors. She may have believed that in promoting a French alliance for Henry she could begin to make her mark in the same fashion as her mentors. In effect Anne was attempting to kill two birds with the same stone. In securing allegiances for herself she could rise to political prominence. Her active involvement in marriage negotiations for her daughter was one crucial step to securing such prominence. She had no legitimate reason to doubt in her ability to eventually give birth to a son whom would rule England, but in the meantime an advantageous marriage for her daughter was a very real pressing concern. Marriage for Elizabeth to the French prince would create a dynastic allegiance between France and England. It would have put Anne in an indisputable position of prominence and fostered her political agency. Despite this however, Anne was unable to separate her personal from her political. I must caution that this is not a promotion of an emotional-historical perspective. It is necessary to determine that Anne was personally invested in the outcomes of all her dealings in Anglo-French politics. She had to be and her actions throughout her tenure showcase the heavily personal element to Anne Boleyn.
As such, her strength was also her weakness. Her agency in successfully promoting and establishing these relations was her real error. Anne was so heavily invested in fostering connections with France that she completely isolated herself to any other potential allegiances. She makes no attempts to open relations with any other European nation. She is cordial and involved in the entertaining of other ambassadors at the court but her focus is primarily on France. France of course was always going to be the best allay in her corner, not simply because of her history in France but also because of its dominance on the European stage. It would not however, have hindered her cause to attempt to foster relations with other dignitaries and by extension their own princes. Her decision to not court other dignitaries had much to do, I believe, with an unwillingness on Henry’s part to fully look away from papal approval. He had wanted authority over his own church affairs, and broke with the church to have it, but he never the less continued to actively and doggedly seek a favorable decision to his divorce. The best illustration of this is the Anglo- French alliance agreement in April of 1536. Katherine was already dead, and he had already been married to Anne for three years. There was no actual need for him to seek papal approval by that point, the damage had been done.
Anne had also misinterpreted the diplomatic role that Queen Katherine had played between Spain and England. Katherine had the benefit of political experience. Anne did not. Katherine had the knowledge that she could intervene and attempt to patch relations between the two sovereigns, but that regardless of the outcomes it would not affect her own status. In contrast Anne’s entire status hinged on her political agency. During her tenure she was successful enough at facilitating a semblance of good relations between France and England. Her greatest success however, had been achieved in Calais with Francis’ acceptance of her. She had never again been able to achieve the same measure of success as she had in Calais. It had been the pinnacle of her diplomatic success. But it had been a small victory compared to the grander scale. The spectre of her success in Calais never left her. As Anne Boleyn walked onto the scaffold on the 19th of May 1536, she may have asked herself if it was worth having always maintained herself a good friend of France." (Felipe, Erika. Anne Boleyn and Anglo French Relations 1531-1536: Queenship, Coronation and the Spectre of Calais. Submitted to The University of York Sept. 2018)
Anne was a remarkable figure in History. One whom I find myself, dare I say... Hopelessly devoted to. Shall I be bolder and call myself a fangirl? Yeah, I think I will (that's for you Coops- yeah, fuck you). She is a female of history who, like so many, has been cast in a far to simple and confining role. One relegated to a single dimension. The reality is, that Anne was a multi faceted individual. What made her tick is an endless spectrum of possibilities. What makes any of us tick is an endless amalgamation of possibilities, circumstances and experiences. On this, the day of her death, I'd like to bring to light that fracture of History to the fore front. The belief that some are worth more rounded analysis, and others are not. I guess what I really want to ask is Why NOT Anne Boleyn?
With Some Type of Love,
The Duchess
This photo is of an etching found in the Beauchamp Tower at the Tower of London. Believed to have been carved by one of Anne's supporters, it depicts her badge as Queen, a falcon perched atop a tree stump with a bed of r red and white roses (The Tudor rose is made of the White Rose of York and the Red Rose of Lancaster. It was adopted as the Tudor emblem by Henry VII the First Tudor King, to pinpoint the unification of the Plantagenet and Lancastrian English dynasties).
On her badge the falcon holds a sceptre in one claw and wears a crown atop its head. In this etching, it is devoid of both crown and sceptre. A recreation of Anne's badge can be seen on the right for comparison.
“Honour and grace be to our Queen ANNE! For whose cause an Angel celestial Descendeth, the Falcon as white as swan, To crown with a Diadem Imperial! In her honour rejoice we all. For it Cometh from GOD, and not of man.” -extract from Nicholas Udall’s English Verses and Ditties at the Coronation Procession of Queen Anne Boleyn as found in Elizabeth Norton, The Anne Boleyn Papers, (Gloucestershire: Amberley Publishing, 2013) p.186
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