Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn was born around 1501 in England. Her family was rich and important. When she was young, she went to live in France for some years. There she learned about fashion, music and beautiful manners. When she came back to England, she was clever, stylish and very interesting. Many people looked at her.

King Henry VIII saw Anne, and he wanted her. But Anne said no. She did not want to be just a girlfriend, like her sister. She wanted to be his wife. The more she said no, the more the king wanted her. He wrote her many letters and gave her many gifts. There was a big problem: Henry was already married, to a woman called Catherine of Aragon. Catherine had a daughter but no son, and Henry wanted a son very much.

Henry decided to marry Anne. But only the Pope in Rome could end his first marriage — and the Pope said no. So Henry did something huge. He said no to the Church in Rome. He made himself the leader of a new church in England. Now he could end his marriage. In 1533, he married Anne, and she became queen. One woman's "no" helped to change the religion of a whole country.

Now Anne was queen. This was the top of the world. But there was one big problem: the king wanted a son. In 1533, Anne had a baby. It was not a son — it was a girl, called Elizabeth. Henry was not happy. Anne was clever and said what she thought, and this made some powerful people at court angry with her. She had enemies.

The next two years were hard. Anne lost a baby before it was born. This was very sad, and maybe the baby was a boy. At the same time, the king started to look at another woman: Jane Seymour, one of Anne's own ladies. Jane was quiet and calm — very different from Anne. Now Jane was Anne's rival. The king who changed everything to marry Anne did not love her anymore.

Around the king, there were powerful men. The most powerful was Thomas Cromwell. He was Anne's friend before, but now they wanted different things, and he became her enemy. We do not know exactly what the king and his men said in 1536. But we know the end: they decided to get rid of Anne. And in those days, that did not mean a simple divorce. It meant something much worse.

In May 1536, everything happened very fast. Soldiers arrested Anne and took her to the Tower of London, a famous prison. They said she loved other men, even her own brother, and that she wanted to kill the king. These were terrible things to say. Almost certainly, they were not true. But at her trial, the court said she was guilty. The truth is, people decided this before the trial started.

Anne was calm and brave, even at the end. On 19 May 1536, she was executed at the Tower. The king sent for a special swordsman from France — a small kindness from the man who once changed a kingdom for her. Anne was about thirty-five years old. She was queen for only about one thousand days. A few days later, Henry planned to marry Jane Seymour.

But this is not the end of the story. The little daughter, Elizabeth, grew up. She became Elizabeth I — one of the greatest queens in the history of England. People still talk about that time as a golden age. So the woman who died as a "traitor" became the mother of a great queen. Today, people still argue about Anne: was she clever and dangerous, or was she just a victim? Maybe she was more than one simple thing.