Anne Boleyn
I was recently interviewed and asked to answer this question, what is it about Anne Boleyn that has so inspired you?
I will be honest and say that I had difficulty ‘verbalising’ it. I know what I feel for Anne, the admiration, the respect, the loyalty, even – the love, but I had never been asked to dissect my feelings before and try and pin point exactly what it is that draws me to her.
I did though try and this is what I came up with:
Anne Boleyn inspires me because of her complexity and bold personality. She was intelligent, courageous, witty and determined. She was a sixteenth century woman with a voice! Anne Boleyn was magnetic, she could inspire fierce loyalty and, I believe, was the only one of Henry’s wives who managed to control him. Anne was also very loyal, often helping members of her family, her friends or those sympathetic to her cause.
On the flip side, Anne could be ruthless, calculating and unrelenting. She had a fiery temper and gave into bouts of ‘rashness’. As well as inspiring fierce loyalty, she inspired hatred.
This dichotomy coupled with her extraordinary story —her rise to fame from relative obscurity and her dramatic downfall—make her compelling and addictive.
The fact that so much about Anne is unknown, debated and controversial also captures the imagination.
Her dark eyes beckon us to try to understand her, to know her and once she captures you, there is no escaping.
We just need to look at her downfall to see the power she held. It was not enough to simply divorce her or remove her. She was so powerful that she had to be destroyed and her faction annihilated.
I think that Anne Boleyn was many things but definitely not a victim. She took on Cromwell in the end and lost.
Even after her execution, many of those unsympathetic to Anne spoke of her courage and the honourable way in which she met her death.
She was an extraordinary woman who aroused strong feelings and left her mark on this world. In my opinion, an indelible Queen.
I respect her power, but I don’t feel the love for her, especially because of her role in the Protestant Reformation, which I feel went way, way too far in throwing out the baby with the bath water.
Thanks Lola. As I say, she has always inspired a powerful reaction of some sort – even now.
Anne Boleyn has always fascinated me too as well as being the first favourite wife of mine for many years next to Katheryn Howard.
I guess the reasons for my fascination is a few of many things, first the simmilar colouring, hair colour and not too mention her difference like Howard in ways, not completely the same I know but they are the most resembled than any other of King Henry VIII’s wives put together and not to mention their names, I think they are my favourite Tudor ladies names alongside Jane, Elizabeth and Mary.
I love your response hun! I just ended up writing a little over 2000 words trying to describe what Anne Boleyn means to me!
Please share a little! 🙂
I guess I have been in awe of Anne Boleyn since I was 15. She IS a woman with a voice in a time when women were not supposed to have one. I have always admired her power and how she used it, her intelligence, the fact that she was not traditionally beautiful but had charisma and sex appeal, and her courage. SHe really was in a tough spot with Henry and she did the best she could. I am so intrigued by her that I wrote a book AT THE MERCY OF THE QUEEN, out in 2012 from St. Martin’s Press.
Sounds great Anne! Am really looking forward to reading your book.