Mother of Queen Bess

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6626, 12 August 1931, Page 10

Mother of Queen Bess

Who: ANNE BOLEYN (or BULLEN). Whore : England. When: Sixteenth century. Why famous: Second wife of King Henry VJJLL and mother of the future Queen Elizabeth. She was the child of Sir Thomas Boieyn, late Earl of Wiltshiro and Ormonde, and of Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey. Neither the place nor tho date of Anno's birth are known certainly; but sho may first have seen tho world in the lovely aspect which it presented to Hover Gastio in Kent. That fifteenth century, castellated mansion, now exquisitely restored by its owner, Viscount Astor, was then tho homo of tho Boleyns. Thomas Nash, whose old English prints aro much sought after, has an enchanting one which shows the courtyard of Hover Castle, with Henry VIII alighting from his horse at the gateway while a coy maiden, Anne, peers from a lattice window. Inasmuch as the King had shown her. father conspicuous favour, Anne seems to have deemed it expedient to refuse her multitude of suitors. She meant to be Queen. And Queen she became in the spring of 1533, by ncr coronation in Westminster Hall. Little she cared for a broken-hearted Catherine of Aragon whose marriage with the King had, by a clever trick, boon declared null and void. Probably it was Anne, rather than her royal husband, whose inhuman treatment prolonged the sufferings of the Spanish Catherine , and her little daughter, Princess Mary. However, Anne's triumph was bitterly curtailed. Henry's affections cooled with alarming speed, particularly after the birth of Princess Elizabeth. Henry wanted a sou and heir. How could he foresee tho glories which his daughter, Elizabeth, would secure for England ? It was not difficult to find accusations against Anne, who was a woman weak and of unstable character. Whether or not she was guilty, no one has ever proved ; but in her own time two grand juries, one petty jury and a tribunal of lay peers found her so. She was- led away to Tower Green for execution, and on the next day was announced Henry’s betrothal to Jane Seymour, those black eyes of Anne Boieyn forgotten as utterly as though they had never sparkied in merriment.