Reply to What are your thoughts about Anne Boleyn?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Read history. What happened to her wasn't unusual. People who played politics, both men and women, put themselves at risk of bloody endings.

Her failure wasn't coming up with a boy but she went after the king. [b]Had she been content to be wife of a squire or lord she'd have a different ending. [/b][/quote]

Actually, "what happened to Anne Boleyn" was basically unusual all the way through. She essentially maintained a "doing everything but" relationship with the king of England for seven years - a king who was considered to be divine and entitled to anything he wanted.

AFTER Anne, it was immediately clear to all queens that they were only as safe as their ability to bear male children quickly and tolerate maltreatment from their husbands in various ways. But before her? No, not normal.

Also re the bolded, you say that as though it was entirely her choice whether and who she married. Once the king expressed an interest, it was in the family's best interest to try to make that go well. They did it with one daughter and thought they could up the ante with Anne. It didn't work because she didn't have a son, but it's not like ANY of it was within her control.

Signed,

I think about this A LOT
[/quote]

Agree all around. People want to look at it as Anne versus Henry, or Anne versus Catherine, but the truth was that Anne never had much agency at all. Whatever politics or manipulations she engaged in were undertaken to try and make the best of her situation.

It is irrelevant whether Anne was a great person. Even if she was conniving and manipulative, she did not deserve what she got (not her marriage and not her murder), and you have to ask yourself to what degree she was the product of her circumstances.

Similar feelings about Jane Grey, who had even less control over what occurred and was murdered primarily for doing what she was told.

These women deserved to live lives of dignity and self-satisfaction, as everyone deserves. They were denied that. Of course she was unjustly murdered. What the hell.[/quote]

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