18 Facts About The Dramatic Life Of Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn's only sister, Mary, was the mistress of Henry VIII before her sister entered the picture. The two sisters worked together for years. Along with Anne, Mary Boleyn once served Henry's sister, Mary, when she was Queen of France. Unlike Anne, Mary may have become the mistress of the new monarch of France, King Francis, who ascended to the throne once Louis XII died. Francis called her "the English mare" and "the royal mule," but some scholars think these names were actually meant for Anne.

But Mary did have relations with her sister's eventual husband, becoming Henry VIII's mistress once she returned to England. She succeeded Bessie Blount, mother of Henry's only acknowledged illegitimate child, but their affair didn't last beyond a year or so. And despite The Other Boleyn Girl's embellished claims, Mary's two children were most likely not Henry's, but those of her husband, whom she married around this time.

Mary's past with Henry came back to haunt Anne when the king sought to marry Mistress Boleyn. Technically, by legal standards of the time, trying to marry a woman whose sister he'd seduced was incestuous, so Henry had to seek a papal dispensation. Ironic, considering one of the excuses Henry used to cast off his first wife was that she had been his brother's wife.

Once they got married, Henry didn't remain fascinated with Anne for long, so he began having more affairs. Anne enlisted her own allies to spy on the king, and even become Henry's mistresses, so he wouldn't favor one of her enemies, who might turn Henry against her.

The women Anne convinced to seduce her own husband included one of her cousins, either Margaret or Mary Shelton (daughters of her father's sister). Ultimately, witnessing a relative have an affair with her husband made Anne intensely jealous, and it didn't soften Henry's allegedly terrible treatment of her.

Anne's fiercest opponents spread a rumor that her eventual husband slept with her mother, Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire. At least one woman hinted that Henry had sex with three Boleyn women: the mother and her two daughters. A goldsmith's wife also suggested Anne should be burned because Henry had slept with both her and her mother. And according to an account by Catholic priest Nicholas Sander, who hated the pro-Reformation Queen Anne, Henry's second wife was actually his own daughter by Elizabeth Boleyn. 

Henry definitely did sleep with both Boleyn sisters, Anne and Mary, but there's little evidence to suggest he had sex with Elizabeth, as well.

The Spanish ambassador to England reported that Anne plotted against Catherine of Aragon, Henry's first wife and the aunt of the Holy Roman Emperor. When Catherine finally died in January 1536, the ambassador recalled Anne was so happy that she wore yellow, a color of joy, not mourning.

Henry shouted in glee that he was finally free of the threat of war from Catherine's nephew, as the king's marriage to Anne could no longer be challenged by his first wife's family. 

Surprisingly for a consort, when Anne was made Queen in 1533, she wore St. Edward's crown. One of England's most ancient diadems, it was usually reserved for monarchs. When Catherine and Henry were crowned together years before, Henry got to wear St. Edward's crown, but Catherine only wore one that had belonged to the royal's wife. 

This crown emphasized that Anne and the child she was carrying at the time of her coronation were the real royal family (further excluding Catherine and her daughter, Mary). Regardless, Anne later wore a crown made especially for her. 

Before their marriage, Henry made Anne a peer (noble) in her own right in 1532, more than just a "lady" by virtue of her father's title as an earl. He appointed her Marquess of Pembroke, a title meant for a man: The wife of a marquess would be a marchioness. Unlike the majority of female nobles, who attained their titles by virtue of their fathers or husbands, Anne would hold a title in her own right, just like a male lord.

It was also important to make Anne a noble because Henry was taking her on an official visit to his rival, Francis I of France. So Anne needed to be of sufficient rank to merit meeting a foreign king and being a consort of the English monarch. She was thus on par with - and outranked - many of the male nobles in the kingdom. Henry gave her the most gorgeous jewels in town, even asking his first wife to send back the royal gems, which she refused.