and Bolin was definitely born we're pretty sure of that at least anything else about her outside her marriage to Henry the eighth is a little fuzzy because we don't have very many primary sources from her life so what we do know of her is subjective depending on how the writer felt about Ann Henry and the Catholic Church Ann was the daughter of Thomas Boleyn 1st Earl of Wiltshire and Lady Elizabeth Howard as a child of nobility she was sent during your tween years to learn how to survive living at court she spent two years learning French with Archduchess Margaret Regent of the Netherlands before graduating on to the court of Mary Tudor Queen of France when she returned to England in her early 20s everyone was like she's so fresh she was witty and smart and fiery and just like so cool and quickly caught the eye of Lord Percy but the real story begins when she catches the eye of Henry VIII a now we have to address the sixth finger in the room there are many many many accounts that talk about how Anne Boleyn looked descriptions of her range from like perfectly Pleasant looking to troll woman with a hideous neck quarter and a sixth finger but all this back and forth hubbub around Anne's appearance tells us less about Anne and more about the long history of reducing a woman to her looks although even today people are like but Anne must have been super hot right or else why would a married King ditch his well-connected wife or some medium ranked noble um presumptuous first of all the thing the King wanted most was not a babe it was a baby a male baby to be his heir and his wife Catherine of Aragon couldn't do it for him and with olive skin dark hair and her swan-like neck was probably decent-looking enough but Henry went for her because of her personality and wit and presumed good fertility and step forward two steps back but Henri expressed interest in and she was smart about it her sister Mary had already been there done that and was tossed to the wind so Ann was like I'm into you but I'm not giving it up until I have some security so Henry generously offered her the prestigious position of his official one-and-only mistress he would only have relations with her not even his wife who by the way was still making all of his shirts but this still wasn't good enough for Ann she needed wife status so Henry who is ready to get this baby on the road needed to get the permission from the Pope for his annulment which should have been easy-peasy but the Pope is team Catherine so after six or seven years of back-and-forth Henri was like you know what I'm the king of England so now I'm the king of the English church I'm gonna give myself a divorce seeyou Catholicism this made the Catholics not happy lots of people blame Dan obviously it's true that she showed some sympathies to Protestantism before pushing for reform and it's also true the Catholic Church getting in their way pushed her towards it so it's like a little chicken ear in the egg situation they finally get married in January 1533 which was very important to Henri because Anne was six months pregnant and that baby needed to be born in wedlock they were so sure they were having a boy they'd even written out the birth announcements for their new Prince before she had even given birth and that boy's name was Elizabeth this is fine they're fine I'll have another kid it's fine it's fine it's fine it wasn't fine the feisty wit that attracted Henry to Anne was all fine and well for a mistress but as a wife not so cute anymore and had two stillborn children and a miscarriage which was a boy and Henry came to the only obvious conclusion and that seduced him by witchcraft and he was and hurt that he had already moved on to Jane Seymour one of Ann's ladies Henry gave orders for Ann to be investigated her favorite musician was arrested and was tortured into saying they had an affair a king cheating on his wife expected a queen doing the same treason the list of names and supposedly had affairs with Karuna five including her own brother George who was implicated by his own wife jealous of her husband's relationship with his sister it seems unlikely that Ann was actually guilty but Rizzo really mattered Henry and Anne was sentenced to death by beheading but Henry showed mercy and let her be beheaded by a sword instead of an axe what a good guy at her execution she was calm and poised giving a short speech accepting her fate and praying for Henry's long reign so was she a spiteful witch or forgiving obedient wife whatever you think about her it's undeniable that Ann left quite the impact on England changing the course of its history and religion oh yeah and giving birth to that useless daughter Elizabeth the first who would be remembered as one of the greatest leaders England has ever seen and who else can say that you