Was Anne Boleyn responsible for some of the most sweeping changes in Europe during her lifetime?

Ineffectual

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by Carol H. Morgan

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Anne Boleyn did cause quite a stir while she lived, and has been the topic of countless biographies and historical novels afterward. There was eveb special mention of her in the court records datuing to her teen years of her having just arrived from France, when she was likely to have caught Henry VIII's eye, as a "fresche younge damsel just come to court." She was educated in languages, music, literature, (particularly of the latest controversial religious debates), and dressed in the latest French fashions. These were probably some of the reasons why she won Henry's favor, and as more than his potential mistress, as she was not considered to be particulraly beautiful, nor does any particularlly striking beauty come through in any portraits of her from the time.

But Henry was tiring of his twenty-year marriage to Catherine of Aragon, who, among other reasons including the physical consequences of age and many pregnancies, most notably couldn't present him with an all-important heir. His father had led the country into Civil War over the issue of succession and he was humilliated that the Tudor dynasty that Henry VII faught so hard to establish might end with him, He was obviously besotted with Anne personally, stimulated by her intellectually, and impressed with the polish that she might be able to offer his crown. His rivals on the continent, Francis and Charles, were always showing him up, and he was tired of taking the dowdy Catherine over for state affairs. (Francis I humiliated him by referring to his queen's figure as being 'deformed' - after all, his queens had died in their twenties and hadn't endured the fortune of surviving multiple childbirths). So there were many reasons for him to want to remary, and he had to break with Rome to do it, But aside from that, was Anne Boleyn personally responsible for bringing religious Reformation to England?

THE ARGUMENT FOR ANNE BOLEYN AS A RADICAL LUTHERAN REFORMER

Since Anne Boleyn's days in the Court of Francis I she had become sensitive to listen for court intriques and get on the better side of them, So that, and the fact that her marriage needed convincin Henry that he was the sole governor in his realme, even over the church, was certainly an agent of change in the kingdom initially. In turn, he did what he could to please her, even letting her denounce his father-figure Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, promoting her family's favorite chaplain Thomas Cramner instead, and between the two of them and the family friend Thomas Cromwell, they would whisper the latest reformation notion in his ear (which he would have considered heresy as a devout Catholic before Anne came along and biased his opinions considerably). She was successful at flattering his favorite recent notion while arguing his great matter that no one save him alone should rule in his kingdom in matters important to his crown, including any "Bishop of Rome" (what her sympathizers called the Pope). If Anne Boleyn had remained his wife and mother to his heir, it is possible that she would have taken credit for the sweeping changes in the religion that she had attempted to begin and that eventually came to pass.

It is a matter of historical debate how devoted she was to the extreme reformation causes that at the time served to convince Henry to put aside his Queen, since no records exist as to whether she actually wanted to marry Hery or would have preferred (as she said) to have a normal marriage at a young age with her first love Henry Percy. Many stories tell her tale as though she was either unwilling to receive his courtsip, simple fell in love with Henry or had ambition to be Queen to gain influence and would have done anything to achieve the end of marriage. Only the third could possibily answer the question of whether she was a religious radical the likes of Anne Askew or Katherine Parr that would come later and be accused of heresy in a different climate. And while there are many theories about why she fell out with her uncle Norfolk, who initially schemed to put his niece on the throne and promote her as his family, that he was not quite as radical as she was in terms of religious reforms - he preferred the old religion, whatever his political ambitions led him to do in the mean time.

And the biggest argument that she was a reformer who changed the kingdom was the result of her marriage to the King, whatever analyzing the particulars suggest about her intentions. Because Henry wanted her as his new queen, he was willing to set his kingdom in a roar to have her. It isn't entirely clear, as her looks don't reveal the extent of what he saw in her. But he was willing to tear his kingdom in half and be excommunicated from a church that he had dedicated his life to serving in order to rewed. In fact though he remained a Catholic his entire life, he severely persecuted Catholics and others if they didn't accept his marriage to her.

THE ARGUMENT THAT SHE WAS A MODERATE

So even though there was a good deal of evidence that Anne had reformist or even Lutheran sympathies and tendencies, the flip side of the argument was that she was likely more of a moderate than a radical, herself. In fact, one thing that got her in trouble was in just such a moderating influence. No radical religious statements or actions of hers were mentioned by her enemies, even Chapuys the Emperor's envoy who was certainly willing to say many things about her such as the presence of a 'witch's teat' on her neck. And though she had reformist friends, she had just as many reformist enemies. What may have led to her death directly (other than her failure to produce a male heir) was that she likely fell out with Thomas Cromwell because she thought he should only be suppressing corrupt religious houses, not smashing the entire Catholic church to the ground in utter to utterly destroy it in the British kingdom, which was the objective of many of the Lutherans in England.

So particularly since she may have been the middle ideologically, even though her marriage had great initial consequences, was Anne Boleyn actually an agent of any permanent change? Many arguments suggest not. The limitations that she experienced in making permanent impact in any way were several. First, she was a commoner, so she didn't have foreign protection and suffered the intrigues of competing factions. She had no real protection or hold over the king as she started to loose his favor. As quickly as she was in the limelight, there were others at court actively to bring her downfall and take her place, and her supporters were few and weak. Second, she didn't bear that longed-for son. So what she was able to do, was able to be undone, simply because her one heir, Elizabeth, was declared illegitimate at her death.

Third was her very brief tenure as queen. When Catherine of Aragon died, Anne made the mistake of being happy to be finally the uncontested queen. But this was a serious miscalculation, as it is the event that marked her swift downfall. It meant Henry could get rid of his inconvenient, unpopular and barren new wife without being besieged by Catherine's lawyers arguing that he was actually still married to her. When he was free of Catherine, he could wipe the slate clean of Anne, too, and start over, by bringing about her death. He began to argue with her nearly as soon as they married, was frustrated at how much the daughter and stillbirths made him think that he could go down the same path he went down with Catherine, and he hated the fact that his Catholic friends now called him a heretic since he still, whatever the political expediency of separating his power from Rome, considered himself a devoted Catholic.

So because of Anne's almost near unpopularity and failure even with Henry, the revolution that she was able to bring about was ultimately reversed with her terrible reputation, even with her reformist friends and family, and of course with her execution. This was to the temporary reversal of much of Anne's reformation work, whether deliberate or Machiavellian. Anne was beheaded in disgrace with what were most certainly framed-up charges of horrible things such as adultery, witchcraft and treason, and so any arguments in favor of Protestant reformation or her friends Cramner or Cromwell were swiftly forgotten as Henry moved onto other romances and attempts at heirs.

THE QUEENS THAT HAD THE REAL SAY

All of Henry's wives had a varying amount of influence on Henry's persoanal level of devotion, and thus the trends in the realm. His first wife, Catherine of Aragon, was devoutly Catholic, and probably influenced Henr's personal devotion to the faith through his life. Anne Boleyn's relacement, Jane Seymour, was also a woman of the old faith, and she had an easy time of bringing Henry back to his old ways because that was where his heart was. Jane was everything that Anne wasn't. She was demure, she wore the traditional Tudor headdress instead of Anne's scandalous French hood, and she was submissive to his opinions including those on religion and politics. If she hadn't died delivering Henry's son and heir, England would have likely returned to the old faith fairly permanently. But since she died of puerperal fever, Henry was forced to go looking again. Anne of Cleves was an ineffectual figure, as not only did she last long, she didn't have strong religious views. She was more of a humanitarian that didn't want the fighting back and forth.

And of course Katherine Howard, Henry's fifth wife, was also of the old religion, but her penchant for young groomsmen got her an execution at age seventeen, along with permanent banishment for her Uncle Norfolk and his Papist friends. If Henry wound up with a successful marriage in the old religion, he would probably have flirted with being reinstated back in the Catholic church. When he did in fact have a son and heir, a Catholic wife (Katherine Howard) he was considering having his standing reinstated. If Katherine Howard hadn't been the actual adulteress that Anne probably wasn't, that is.

The reason that Anne Boleyn is associated with the Protestant reformation is mostly accidental. What she managed to do was undone several times over, particularly because of her tarnished reputation after her execution. The reason that England did indeed go down the road of the Protestant reformation was largely because of his continual falling out with Romanists in his court, and also because of Henry's Sixth wife, Katherine Parr. Parr was a wise and independent widow that was extremely virulent in her Lutheranism. So much so that the Papists at court tried to convince Henry that she should be burned at stake because she was trying to bend his ear as was inappropriate in a wife. Because Henry was quite sexist he listed briefly, and went along with their theory. But Katherine managed to get wind of the plans and told him that she was his mere wife learning at his feet. Henry sent away her accusers in a rage, and continued to listen to her ideas, if they were offered more cautiously.

So really, the reason that England was set on a permanent course toward reformation by the time Henry died was because of his last wife, not his second. She held his attention the last, and had sway over his heirs. And even though he remained at heart a Catholic, persecuting Lutherans and Catholics alike for being too radical, Parr's influence over his children was to be the real reason that England would divorce itself from Papist loyalties. Her new brother-in-law, Edward Seymour, was the regent for Henry's son, Prince Edward, and indoctrinated him in Lutheranism. Edward VI, Henry's son, was actually the first Protestant monarch, not Henry himself. And Catherine and her hew husband Thomas Seymour were guardians to Elizabeth, who absorbed their reformist ideas. Since she had the longest, most successful reign of all his children and institutionalized Protestantism when the others were just able to make temporary ground back and forth, Katherine Parr was clearly more influential in matters religion and state than Anne Boleyn ever was.

But those that came after her were much more permanent in their influence, even including one of the most important queens associated with her, her daughter Elizabeth. If there was to be anything permanent that Anne Boleyn ever achieved it was to be mother to Elizabeth, a monarch that was a success at a key time in the solidification of religious and political policies in the realm. But since Elizabeth barely knew her mother (much like King James certainly didn't become Catholic like his mother Mary Stuart who he scarcely met) and could well have taken after her father or older sister (but though Elizabeth and Mary Tudor (who was Queen between her and her younger brother Edward for a disastrous fiveyears, was also estranged andpractically forced to be enemies through much of their lives, seemed to have personal animosity as rivals rather than affection as sisters, so it wasn't likely), she may very well have become Catholic. So Elizabeth, like her mother was decidedly anti-Papist though not all that religious personally. But even that fact may have been more historical accident than alliance with her mother, even if it was just an emotional tie. In religious policy, Elizabeth, and thus the realm for the indefinite future, took more after the influence of Elizabeth I's step parents than her mother Anne Boleyn.

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