Anne Boleyn’s Final Miscarriage

Anne Boleyn, attributed to John Hoskins

On the 29 January 1536, Anne Boleyn miscarried.

The details appear in Chapuys’ dispatch to Charles V dated February 10:

‘On the day of the interment the Concubine had an abortion which seemed to be a male child which she had not borne 3½ months, at which the King has shown great distress. The said concubine wished to lay the blame on the duke of Norfolk, whom she hates, saying he frightened her by bringing the news of the fall the King had six days before. But it is well known that is not the cause, for it was told her in a way that she should not be alarmed or attach much importance to it. Some think it was owing to her own incapacity to bear children, others to a fear that the King would treat her like the late Queen, especially considering the treatment shown to a lady of the Court, named Mistress Semel, to whom, as many say, he has lately made great presents. The Princess’s gouvernante, her daughters, and a niece, have been in great sorrow for the said abortion, and have been continually questioning a lady who is very intimate with the Princess whether the said Princess did not know the said news of the abortion, and that she might know that, but they would not for the world that she knew the rest, meaning that there was some fear the King might take another wife. The Princess is well. She changed her lodging on Saturday last, and was better accompanied on her removal and provided with what was necessary to her than she had been before. She had an opportunity of distributing alms on the way, because her father had placed about 100,000 crowns at her disposal. It is rumoured that the King, as Cromwell sent to inform me immediately after the Queen’s death, means to increase her train and exalt her position. I hope it may be so, and that no scorpion lurks under the honey. I think the King only waited to summon the said Princess to swear to the statutes in expectation that the concubine would have had a male child, of which they both felt assured. I know not what he will do now. I have suggested to the Princess to consider if it be not expedient, when she is pressed to take the oath, if she be reduced to extremity, to offer that if the King her father have a son she will condescend to his will, and that she might at once begin throwing out some such hint to her gouvernante. I will inform you of her reply.’

A private note made by Charles Wriothesley, Windsor Herald that also claimed that it had been a ‘man child’, corroborates Chapuys’ report that Anne had miscarried a ‘male child which she had not borne 3½ months’. The only difference in this report is that Wriothesley gives the date as 30 January and states that Anne herself had said ‘that she had reckoned herself at that time but fifteen weeks gone with child’ (Ives, Pg. 298).

Wriothesley was certainly in a position to attain this information but one must question whether or not the sex of the baby could have been ascertained at only 14-15 weeks?

Even with all the modern technologies at our disposal today, the gender of a foetus can usually only be determined beyond doubt at around 17-18 weeks.  Perhaps Anne had miscalculated? Even so, Ives points out that at this early stage the more experienced midwives were unlikely to have been on hand, so what we are left with is ‘an amateur diagnosis by the queen’s normal attendants’ (Pg. 296).

And what of the deformed foetus story? Well, it’s exactly that – a story!

In Elizabeth’s reign Nicholas Sander circulated that Anne had miscarried of ‘a shapeless mass of flesh’ (Ives, Pg. 296). Of course this is the same Nicholas Sander that also claimed Henry VIII was Anne’s father and described Anne as,

‘rather tall of stature, with black hair and an oval face of sallow complexion, as if troubled with jaundice. She had a projecting tooth under the upper lip, and on her right hand, six fingers. There was a large wen under her chin, and therefore to hide its ugliness, she wore a high dress covering her throat.’

There is no evidence to substantiate Sanders’ claim. If she had given birth to a deformed foetus, why was it not mentioned during Anne’s trial, Henry’s reign or Mary’s reign?

The only likely explanation is that Sanders circulated the story to support his view of Anne the monster.

This story though does not end here…

In Retha Warnicke’s The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn, she argues that the foetus ‘was born deformed, a tragedy constituting the sole reason for the king’s setting in motion the process that led to Anne’s execution.’ (Pg. 191)

Ives though labels this as historical ‘Newspeak’ and asserts that there is not a shred of evidence to support the ‘alleged deformity’ (Pg. 297) and I must say I am in complete agreeance.

Interestingly, there was a belief in the sixteenth century that witches were connected with monstrous births. So, the ‘deformed foetus’ story has led some historians to speculate that there was a connection between Anne’s fall and charges of witchcraft (Ives, Pg. 297).

Chapuys claims the Exeters reported that Henry had told a courtier that he had ‘made this marriage seduced and constrained by sortileges and for this reason he held the said marriage void and that God had demonstrated this in not allowing them to have male heirs and that he considered that he could take another.’ (Ives, Pg. 298)

We should though keep in mind that, as Ives points out,

‘this is Chapuys’ report in French of what he had understood of whatever a messenger had conveyed by word of mouth of a report from the Exeters of what the marquis and his wife said they had been told by ‘ung des principaux de court’ of what Henry had said to him, presumably in English. ‘ (Pg. 298)

Furthermore, and most importantly, no accusation of witchcraft was ever made against Anne Boleyn.

How did Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII react to the miscarriage?

Again, Chapuys’ dispatch is the only contemporary insight into this event. On the 10 February 1536, he reported:

‘On the day of the interment the Concubine had an abortion which seemed to be a male child which she had not borne 3½ months, at which the King has shown great distress. The said concubine wished to lay the blame on the duke of Norfolk, whom she hates, saying he frightened her by bringing the news of the fall the King had six days before. But it is well known that is not the cause, for it was told her in a way that she should not be alarmed or attach much importance to it. Some think it was owing to her own incapacity to bear children, others to a fear that the King would treat her like the late Queen, especially considering the treatment shown to a lady of the Court, named Mistress Semel, to whom, as many say, he has lately made great presents.’

On the 25 February 1536, Chapuys related more information about Anne’s miscarriage:

‘I learn from several persons of this Court that for more than three months this King has not spoken ten times to the Concubine, and that when she miscarried he scarcely said anything to her, except that he saw clearly that God did not wish to give him male children; and in leaving her he told her, as if for spite, that he would speak to her after she was “releuize.” The said Concubine attributed the misfortune to two causes: first, the King’s fall; and, secondly, that the love she bore him was far greater than that of the late Queen, so that her heart broke when she saw that he loved others. At which remark the King was much grieved, and has shown his feeling by the fact that during these festive days he is here, and has left the other at Greenwich, when formerly he could not leave her for an hour.’

At first glance it looks like bad news all round for Anne and that the miscarriage was the beginning of the end for Anne and Henry’s relationship but there are some obvious inaccuracies and contradictory remarks made here by Chapuys when compared to his dispatch about the King’s behaviour after Catherine of Aragon’s death, that you can read here.

Ives also points out that although Chapuys makes a point of emphasizing that Henry and Anne were apart for Shrovetide and that he ‘left the other at Greenwich’, it is probably not as ominous at it sounds.

‘Shrovetide 1536 coincided with the key stages of the final session of the Reformation Parliament. The bill to dissolve the monasteries was on the point of being put into the Lords and, even more important, five days before Shrovetide, the final dispositions had been made to achieve victory in the king’s five-year campaign, fought against bitter resistance, to secure legislation restoring his feudal rights. Henry needed to be on the spot. If, as is likely, Anne was still convalescent, necessarily he had to go to Westminster alone.’ (Pg. 299)

Even after Anne’s miscarriage, Henry continued efforts to persuade Europe to accept Anne but the loss of another child must have added stress to their relationship and, more importantly, reawakened old fears in Henry’s mind.

Was his marriage to Anne Boleyn going to end like his first marriage? Was God also condemning their union by not blessing them with a living son?

This leads us then to question whether or not Anne had in fact miscarried of her saviour?

She was certainly left in a very vulnerable position but I agree with Ives in that,

‘The miscarriage of 29 January was neither Anne’s last chance nor the point at which Jane Seymour replaced Anne in Henry’s priorities.’ (Pg. 300)

The seed of doubt though was planted and Anne’s enemies prepared…

References
Henry VIII: February 1536, 6-10′, Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 10: January-June 1536 (1887), pp. 98-108. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=75415 Date accessed: 10 January 2012.
Ives, E. The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, 2004.
Warnicke, R. M. The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn, 1989.
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Comments

  1. what does releuize mean?

    • Good question. I’ve googled and nothing has come up.

    • Cynthia Schrage says:

      It’s interesting that this term has never been sufficiently translated. It crops up in every document, but no one ever makes a stab about its meaning.

      Does it have something to do with recuperating from childbirth? Or more just having to do with resuming marital “activities” after a hiatus of any type?

      Is it a obsolete Spanish word? It doesn’t seem to be Latin, a language both Henry and Chapuys knew well, but probably Anne did not. Was it some archaic French term?

      I can’t believe, with all the attention placed on the most inconsequential details odd these documents, that nothing more has been made of this intriguing word.

    • Luetenizing hormone triggers ovulation, so I’m going to guess that it means when she’s physically ready to try for another baby.

  2. Due to the way a fetus develops, visual examination of a fetus as young as this one would have given the impression that it was a boy, regardless of its actual gender. I won’t go into a lot of clinical discussion, but there really was no way for them to tell if it was a boy or a girl, because at that point in the pregnancy, they look very much the same. It’s certainly understandable that they looked and thought it was a boy, of course, given the lack of modern understanding of fetal development.

    Not that the gender of the fetus makes much difference in the long run, but it did probably contribute to Henry’s belief and fear that he was being divinely punished and was a factor in his disenchantment with Anne, especially coming on the day of Catherine’s funeral and so soon after Henry’s rather significant injury (which plagued him for the rest of his life, as it turned out).

  3. This is one of the reasons I get confused about the loss of her last child. In some books it suggests that her pregnancy was further along, and that her pregnacy was visable, therefore a stillborn baby rather than a miscarriage. And I am of the same mind as you, Natalie, that an early miscarriage as this, sex would not be able to be determined especially in those dark days of medical knowledge. As for stating that it was ‘a shapeless mass of flesh’ I would presume that a miscarriage of only 15 weeks would look like that, and also did Nicholas Sanders see the the fetus to make his statement, I think the man was sending anti-Boleyn propaganda and to be as reliable as his cruel discription of her. My heart goes out to her and her lost baby, she must have felt desolate, poor, poor lady.

  4. Reulize does not mean ready to try for another baby. It was referring to her recuperation after the miscarriage. Basically, when she “recovered” from it.

  5. Is it possible that Anne boyln’s miscarried child was not deformed at all but being a fetus just past the first trimester and so premature would have looked deformed due to the development stage of the fetus?. After all physicians knew very little of internal medicine at that time. Or another theory I have always had was with the fetus looking so odd simply because of prematurely that those who hated Anne took advantage of the situation such as Cromwell, the Spanish ambassador and possibly King Henry himself? And used it to be rid of her and scream witch craft. I’m sure Anne boyln was clever and conniving to get where she was as Queen but she certainly did not deserve to be beheaded and accused of the things she was just so King Henry to move on to he next conquest. After all he left poor Jane Seymour dying in her bed after giving birth calling for him and he stayed away. He only made a martyr of her because she died and he didn’t have to get rid of her after he bored of her. The Tutor’s were a barbaric bloodline King Henry v11 had so very little claim to the throne the Tutor’s weren’t Royal at all but Welch mountain men. And Margaret his mother had very little Royal blood. Plus I consider him a Frenchman since he lived in France most of his child hood and early adult hood he didn’t even know the county GE came back to with a band of dirty diseased prisoners. Elizabeth of York she have been crowned Queen of England when her two brothers were killed in the tower by who knows who King Richard his wife King henys mother? At any rate the yaork’s were the rightful monarchs of England and when the good English people allowed Henry v11 to put that crown on it proved to me they would obey anyone wearing a crown even if it was a monkey. By allowing that they had to suffer both tyrants Henry v11 and Henry v111.

  6. I’m not familiar with midwifery but may I ask that if the miscarriage was after only just more than 3 months, could it be that the”shapeless mass of flesh” described later, was in fact mostly the developing placenta, amniotic sac etc. in which the foetus was nearly lost in all the expelled debris and exudate?

  7. Laura Denney says:

    My mind is blown by the lack of medical knowledge by the writer as well as the commenters.

    At 12 weeks (or 10 weeks past conception… In the US they count the pregnancy back to first day of blood thst started the cycle which the baby was conceived from) a fetus looks like a miniature fully formed baby…
    I have 5 children, 2 boys and 3 girls, born from 2004 to 2015 and each child’s gender was confirmed at 13 weeks (11 weeks post conception) … And, actually, my 2 youngest, twins, born in 2015, were introduced to us as both females at an ultrasound at 12 weeks and 4 days into the pregnancy. 4 of my children were conceived via fertility treatments so we know exactly what day they were conceived so no, it is also not possible that I was further along. Also, I miscarried a first set of twins prior to my successful pregnancy with my 2nd set of twins… And, when I did, at 11 weeks 5 days gestation, they already looked like perfect minature babies, not masses of flesh as some have said…

    • My apologies for “my lack of medical knowledge”, Laura. I know of many people who were told during an early ultrasound (12-13 weeks) that they were having a boy, only to give birth to a daughter. The reason being that until about 14 weeks, the penis and the clitoris are actually about the same size. When I enquired about the sex of my children at 12 weeks, I was told, but also warned that this could prove incorrect and to wait for the 17-18 week ultrasound where the sex could be confirmed. Sadly, I too have seen a 12 week old miscarried foetus and as you say, they are certainly not “masses of flesh”. I’m sorry for the loss you experienced and thank you for sharing such a personal story with us. Natalie

  8. I have just read these comments too. I had a late miscarriage at 14 weeks and my baby definetly looked like a tiny baby rather than a “mass of flesh” and we were also very clearly able to see that it was a little boy. So perhaps we should belive the account of Anne Boleyn rather than believing ourselves to be medically superior.

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