Anne Boleyn Day
So today is the day, 473 years ago today, Anne Boleyn was beheaded at the Tower of London after a sham trial in which she was convicted of adultery, incest, witchcraft, etc. It's amazing how sad I can feel about someone dying when their passing was almost 450 years before I born. I've always felt inspired by her, she used her intelligence and wit to get ahead in life in a time when women were simply supposed to be agreeable coquettes. She was an intellectual and a reformer who completely changed the future of Christianity, England, and really all of Europe. I can't imagine anyone doing that today, let alone a young woman in the 16th century.
I always find it hard to watch the end of a movie or read the final chapters in an Anne Boleyn book. I have this sinking feeling, I know what is going to happen but I can't stop it. I try to placate myself by remembering that in the end, Queen Anne had the last laugh - her daughter Elizabeth I was one of the greatest monarchs of English history and she did it all without a king consort. And that's all the happy ending I'll ever get to this story.
My thoughts are with you Queen Anne Boleyn.
Queen Anne Boleyn Queen Elizabeth I at her coronation
I always find it hard to watch the end of a movie or read the final chapters in an Anne Boleyn book. I have this sinking feeling, I know what is going to happen but I can't stop it. I try to placate myself by remembering that in the end, Queen Anne had the last laugh - her daughter Elizabeth I was one of the greatest monarchs of English history and she did it all without a king consort. And that's all the happy ending I'll ever get to this story.
My thoughts are with you Queen Anne Boleyn.
Queen Anne Boleyn Queen Elizabeth I at her coronation