Bluestocking Oxford

By Karis Tavernier-Nicholas

Witch, adulterer, heretic and morally corrupt are all words that have been used to describe Anne Boleyn. Following her imprisonment in the Tower of London, on 19th May 1536 she was beheaded, a death that has perhaps become more famous than her life. Boleyn’s last words were remarkably measured; she is reported to have said nothing in defence of herself and in fact prayed for the soul of Henry VIII, her husband and the man who had damned her to this fate.

In popular culture, Boleyn’s life is often reduced to her inability to provide Henry with a male heir after years of navigating her way to becoming queen consort, a position she held for only a thousand days following a courtship that spanned seven years. In reality, we know little about her; she was the mother of Elizabeth I, but facts such as her date of birth remain unknown, and we cannot be certain what portraits are indeed a true reflection of her image. On the orders of Henry VIII, all traces of Boleyn were destroyed, so historical evidence is limited when studying this controversial queen. Eric Ives’ biography The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn remains the seminal scholarly work on her life, but more recent work, such as Hayley Nolan’s Anne Boleyn: 500 Years of Lies and her campaigns, has shone light on hitherto unknown aspects of Boleyn’s life.

In the short period in which Boleyn was queen, she has been considered by some historians as the most impactful queen consort that England has had. Of course, Henry VIII’s relationship with Boleyn was the catalyst for the break from the Roman Catholic Church, a momentous decision for the nation and one which has had lasting effects to this day. Beyond the evident advantages she experienced due to the Reformation, Boleyn appears to have genuinely held strong Evangelical beliefs. She is thought to have been exposed to them during her time abroad, where she spent her formative years in the service of both Margaret of Austria and Queen Claude of France. With this religious conviction, Boleyn was spurred into providing Henry VIII with works that were at that point banned, and using her influence to push forward a new way of Christianity, one that broke away from Catholicism and laid the groundwork for Protestantism in England. But critical focus typically centres on other aspects of her life and death. What is often devoid of mention is her political activism around education and religious reform, a factor that likely played a role in her death.

Charity

Boleyn, especially in her position as queen, was said to have been notably charitable. Some could suggest this was a tactical move on her part, as distributing alms was expected of a queen, and being generous was surely a way of winning favour with a public that was not especially endeared to her. But there is evidence to support the idea that her generosity went beyond personal gain. This can be seen in the 1536 Poor Law drafted by William Marshall, a Boleyn protegé, which brought forward a policy tackling poverty through progressive and widespread action. The policy sought to ease poverty by engaging local authority figures to find work for the poor, with local Church parishes given the role of being the hub for poor relief. The paper, which Marshall had dedicated to Boleyn in order to capture her attention, was introduced to parliament, where Henry himself attended to ensure it went through, promising to provide his share of contributions to enable the policy to succeed. The 1536 Poor Law served as the framework for future poor laws, including those made in the reign of Elizabeth I. The historian John Foxe claims Boleyn was involved in the policy and used her unique influence to help pass it through, influence she held due to her proximity to Henry—although, until recently, only Cromwell’s work on the policy was acknowledged by the UK parliament.

Education

Boleyn was known to occasionally step in to help individual cases, both for those in need and for educational purposes. Her activism in education can be seen in how she helped Matthew Parker’s reform of a collegiate church in Stoke by Clare, Suffolk. The collegiate church underwent reforms that saw the development of a new grammar school which offered free places to some pupils, choral scholarships (that could potentially lead to a six year bursary at Cambridge University), and lectures of the Bible in both Latin and English to ensure that a wider audience could understand sermons. This reformed collegiate church served as a blueprint for what Boleyn hoped to achieve with further reforms of other monasteries. The intention was to fund these reforms with the money made available from the dissolution of monasteries as they represented charitable donations, and Boleyn—as well as many other prominent sixteenth-century reformers—believed educational and charitable causes were the most proper use of such finances.

Once again, Boleyn used her unique influence to sway others to her view, including Henry VIII, as can be seen in various sermons given by Boleyn’s almoner John Skip and prominent bishop, Hugh Latimer. Following Boleyn’s encouragement, Latimer preached about how places of study could be made of monasteries in the wake of their dissolution, knowing that the king would be present that day to hear him. However, her former ally, Thomas Cromwell, saw a better use for the funds extracted, such as providing a boost to Henry VIII’s finances. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the king ensured Cromwell’s plan succeeded.

It is said that Boleyn’s public revolt against Cromwell and the king following this, spurred Cromwell into forming a coup against Boleyn, which damned her with what are now considered false charges and ultimately led to her downfall. Indeed, Henry’s word of caution to his third wife, Jane Seymour, when she tried to use her position as queen in a similar fashion, supports the view that Boleyn’s political activism led to her demise as she ‘… died in consequence of meddling too much in state affairs’.

By the time of Elizabeth I’s reign, Boleyn’s image was in need of rehabilitation. During this period, she was presented as a martyr for the English Reformation, but in the centuries following, her political activism in charity and education was largely forgotten. But work by historians such as Hayley Nolan, and hopefully this article, shed light on these missing pieces of Boleyn’s life and provide greater insight into the ways in which sixteenth century politics were shaped by England’s most controversial queen. 

References

Eric Ives, The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn (1986)

Neil L. Kunze, ‘The Origins of Modern Social Legislation: The Henrician Poor Law of 1536’, Albion: A Quarterly Concerned with British Studies (1971), 3:1, pp. 9-20.

Hayley Nolan, Anne Boleyn: 500 Years of Lies (2019)

Anna Spender, ‘The Many Faces of Anne Boleyn.’ Accessed August 19. https://www.hevercastle.co.uk/news/doubts-raised-over-anne-boleyn-portraits