Historical Biographies

Anne Boleyn was arguably the most intriguing of England’s King Henry VIII’s six wives. She was at the center of his contentious divorce from Henry’s first wife, Catherine of Aragon, that resulted in a break from the Catholic Church and the formation of the new Church of England. Years of religious upheaval in England ensued. Even though Henry VIII had gone to great lengths to make her his wife, Anne’s time as queen was short-lived. Her three years as Queen Consort was riddled with controversy, failure, and scandal.  Anne’s estimated birth was in 1501 in Norfolk. Her father was Sir Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire and her mother was Lady Elizabeth Boleyn (née Howard). She had one sister, Mary, and one brother, George. She grew up at Hever Castle in Kent.  In 1513 Anne’s father arranged for her to serve as a maid-of-honor to Margaret of Austria at the Habsburg court in Brussels. This is where she started to learn French and had the opportunity to get a fine education. In 1514 Anne’s