A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Anne Boleyn
ANNE BOLEYN,
Or, more properly, Bullen, was the daughter of Sir Thomas Bullen, the representative of an ancient and noble family in Norfolk. Anne was born in 1607, and in 1514 was carried to France by Mary, the sister of Henry the Eighth of England, when she went to marry Louis the Twelfth. After the death of Louis, Mary returned to England, but Anne remained in France, in the service of Claude, wife of Francis the First; and, after her death, with the duchess of Alen{{subst:ç,}}on. The beauty and accomplishments of Anne, even at that early age, attracted great admiration in the French court.
She returned to England, and, about 1526, became maid of honour to Katharine of Arragon, wife of Henry the Eighth. Here she was receiving the addresses of Lord Percy, eldest son of the duke of Northumberland, when Henry fell violently in love with her. But Anne resolutely resisted his passion, either from principle or policy; and at length the king's impatience induced him to set on foot the divorce of Katharine, which was executed with great solemnity. The pope, however, would not consent to this proceeding; therefore Henry disowned his authority and threw off his yoke.
He married Anne privately, on the 14th. of November, 1682. The marriage was made public on Easter-eve, 1538, and Anne was crowned the 1st. of June. Her daughter Elizabeth, afterwards queen, was born on the 7th. of the following September. Anne continued to be much beloved by the king, till 1686, when the disappointment caused by the birth of a still-born son, and the charms of one of her maids of honour, Jane Seymour, alienated his affections, and turned his love to hatred.
He caused her, on very slight grounds, to be indicted for high treason, in allowing her brother, the viscount of Rochford, and four other persons, to invade the king's conjugal rights, and she was taken to the Tower, from which she addressed a pathetic and eloquent letter which failed to touch the heart of the tyrant, whom licentious and selfish gratification had steeled against her.
Anne was tried by a jury of peers, of which her uncle, one of her most inveterate enemies, was president. She was unassisted by legal advisers, but, notwithstanding the indecent impatience of the president, she defended herself with so much clearness and presence of mmd, that she was unanimously believed guiltless. Judgment was however passed against her, and she was sentenced to be burned or beheaded, according to. the king's pleasure. Not satisfied with annulling the marriage, Henry had her daughter Elizabeth declared illigitimate.
The queen, hopeless of redress, prepared to submit without repining. In her last message to the king, she acknowledged obligation to him, for having advanced her from a private gentlewoman, first to the dignity of a marchioness, and afterwards to the throne; and now, since he could raise her no higher in this world, he was sending her to be a saint in heaven. She earnestly recommended her daughter to his care, and renewed her protestations of innocence and fidelity. She made the same declarations to all who approached her, and behaved not only with serenity, but with her usual cheerfulness. "The executioner," said she to the lieutenant of the Tower, "is, I hear, very expert; and my neck (grasping it with her hand, and laughing heartily,) is very slender."
When brought to the scaffold, she prayed fervently for the king, calling him a most merciful and gentle prince, and acknowledging that he had been to her a good and gracious sovereign. She added, that if any one should think proper to canvass her cause, she desired him to judge the best. She was beheaded by the executioner of Calais, who was brought over for the purpose, as being particularly expert. Her body was thrown into a common elm chest, made to hold arrows, and buried in the Tower.
The innocence of Anne Boleyn can hardly be questioned. The tyrant himself knew not whom to accuse as her lover; and no proof was brought against any of the persons named. An occasional levity and condescension, unbecoming the rank to which she was elevated, is all that can be charged against her. Henry's marriage with Jane Seymour, the very day after Anne's execution, shows clearly his object in obtaining her death.
It was through the influence of Anne Boleyn that the translation of the Scriptures was sanctioned by Henry the Eighth. Her own private copy of Tindal's translation is still in existence. She was a woman of a highly cultivated mind, and there are still extant some verses composed by her, shortly before her execution, which are touching, from the grief and desolation they express.