Hi

For me to sum it up briefly; because of her sheer strength of character, but I could write an essay

Anne was intelligent, attractive, and far seeing. She was not confined by the priorities or ‘rules’ of her time. She was also brave in that she went the course with Henry and must have known from the early days that she was taking the thorny path. She knew it could not be an easy choice to make but she made her choice and then stuck to it. She coped with her unpopularity at court, and the negative feelings toward her family, she did what she could to change the approach to religion and make it more available to the poor and unlearned but managed at the same time to maintain her faith and died a catholic. She was a woman who shone as a lantern in the darkness for other women. She deserves that we all ‘like’ her, respect her and keep her history alive.

I’m a lawyer and I went into the law because I am passionate about the idea of justice. Law isn’t always about justice even today, but I still hate the idea of injustice. Injustice makes me feel physically sick. Injustice is what drew me to Anne Boleyn; that in a country that considered itself civilised could judicially murder someone. But I’m not just drawn to Anne Boleyn because of the injustice of her death, I’m also drawn to the five men who were murdered with her, particularly George Boleyn. Their deaths were equally tragic and unjust.
But the unjustice of their deaths continues today. It’s why I hate to see these people demonised in fiction. We just seem to accept the continuation of the unfair destruction of their characters which began in 1536. George Boleyn’s character has been destroyed more in the last twenty years than it was at the time of his execution. I know I’m criticised for my dislike of historical fiction but it boils down to my genuine distress and frustration at injustice.

Thank you, Neil. That’s a lovely thing to say.

Well…she got me my one and only A in history….However…Anne is a very accessible character for 21st Century women.

She was placed between Charybdis and Scylla..Her king and her honour and she had to decide which she was prepared to scarifice for her happinesss and yet managed to keep both in the short term.

Anne valued herself in an era where women had none of our advantages and still her wit, wisdom and fortidude live on nearly 500 yrs after her untimely death..

I meditate alot on Anne these days. I would say im almost obsessed. Its true i have not read or researched as much as most others on this site, but I share the fascination of a woman who lived and died 500 years ago, and died tragically. Mostly i feel a kinship to her, as many do i think. I think I honestly thought little of her the first time I saw her referred to in literature, but then that night i had a dream, powerful, I dreamed of her alone in her chambers, alone reading at a table and writing. I didnt see ambition, i didnt see a woman doing everything she can to keep a man interested, to use his passion to gain her ends, I saw an amazing vibrant and intelligent woman waiting for a man. Waiting for more than 6 years. Pursued because of her talent and vigour, and chosing the path that would lead her to glory and then her terrible fall from grace and death. I think she knew where the path would lead her, I think she felt the great destiny her journey would take her to, and I think she knew how she was and would be veiwed, the thing I love dearly about her, is that she was brave enough and strong enough to take that path anyway. And not only become Queen of England, which i feel was not her whole or dearest amibition, but to use her magnetism and talent to change the world. It wasnt just what she did in life that changed the world, it was how she died, and i think that was the most amazing thing she ever did. She slept in the room in the tower she had slept on her coronation eve, she got up that day, she dressed, did her hair, put on her jewels, and she walked dignified as if it were her coronation down to the green up the scaffold to while the swordmen stood waiting. The whole bittersweet aspect is that her life had been a beacon of hope for women, in a world where men were kings and women their possessions, she lived a life that was brilliant and unique and flung in the face of men, then she died because the man she married fell out of love with her, as quickly as if she had been a puppy given to a child at christmas, and she and her brother and friends all died because of it, and yet she still prayed for his soul and kneeled in submission. Its the story and its anne herself. But most of all its the legacy.

A fascinating character who was obviously wronged and cruelly condemned…..