Was Anne Boleyn Really a Witch?

"If any person will meddle with my cause, I require them to judge the best" - Queen Anne Boleyn, 1536. 

In life and in death, Anne Boleyn has always invited controversy. She was annihilated in one of the most brutal complots in English history. The first Queen in English history executed by a King,  she was and she will be an enigma because, unfortunately, the best documented period of her short life is the last two weeks of it. 

Anne Boleyn has been commonly represented in history as the clever brunette with six fingers who enchanted Henry VIII and made him make such radical decisions in her name, like breaking his Catholic ties and found the Church of England. An entire culture changed. 

Was the second wife of Henry VIII a conniving witch or simply a woman too advanced of her time? How old was she? Was she truly a cunning seductress or just an innocent prisoner of the king’s mercurial love? Love her or hate her, she lived with the cards she was dealt. 

Her unprecedented rise and fall is fascinating. As someone with a passionate interest in Tudor history, I find this particular intrigue very juicy. Let's explore it. 

The Great Matter 

Anne Boleyn was born in about 1501. Her father was the diplomat Sir Thomas Boleyn and her mother Lady Elizabeth Howard, the daughter of the second Duke of Norfolk.

Anne was an outspoken, bold, and graceful girl. Her ambitious and politically astute father noticed early on that his daughter was exceptionally intelligent. He decided to take “all possible care for her good education” and despatched her to the Low Countries to serve as Margaret of Austria’s maid of honor. A few years later, he found an even better position for her at the court of the Queen of France.

One observer remembered Anne as "the most bewitching of all the lovely dames of the French court". 

She returned to England in 1522. After nearly a decade in foreign courts and mastering their manners and customs, everything about Anne was fascinating. Soon, she gained a place in Queen Catherine of Aragon’s household, Henry VIII’s consort. There, thanks to her grace, she attracted the attention of many gentlemen, but it took four years for King Henry to notice her.

In 1526, he finally asked the captivating lady to become his mistress.

To his surprise, Anne refused. No one rejects a King and Henry soon became obsessed with her. "Well, madam", he said to Anne, "I shall live in hope". But she made clear she would have marriage or nothing: "You have a queen already and your mistress I will not be". 

Very clever. The queen in question was already an aging woman, no longer attractive, with "only" a daughter - the future Mary I- after multiple pregnancies and miscarriages,  and out of favor. Henry VIII needed a male heir and, consequently, a new wife to secure it: Anne Boleyn was at the right place at the right moment.

Like a man "possessed", the king began showering Anne with expensive gifts, splendid clothes and extravagant jewelry. The lady was attended and courted like a queen. Courtiers and foreign ambassadors were perplexed, especially the French one, who tough Henry "so in love that God alone can abate his madness".

The King's letters reveal an unexpectedly intense passion. No wonder why Anne Boleyn's enemies attributed Henry's passion to witchcraft from the start.

Henry VIII and the Catholic Church

What began as a romance became a theological and social revolution.

Anne Boleyn's most formidable enemy was the woman she was supplanting: Catherine of Aragon. The Queen was a stubborn woman, ready to fight and determined to challenge "that shameless creature". As the aunt of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, perhaps the richest and most powerful man of his time she had good allies. On January 1531, Pope Clement VII sent a letter to Henry VIII forbidding him to remarry or to abandon his legitimate wife under penalty of excommunication.

The only possible resolution proposed was the annulment of the marriage should Catherine agree to enter a convent, a condition the queen firmly refused. 

Subsequently, King Henry rejected the Pope's authority, and in a move that changed English history forever, became the head of the Church of England. He had now complete jurisdiction over his subjects spiritual welfare. Not only had the King had enough of Rome: protestantism was taking root in the country, and as the Bible began to circulate in English, many of the Catholic Church’s abuses, distortions, and lies became impossible to ignore. 

Anne Boleyn was a passionate and bold reformer. She openly read forbidden religious books and even asked Henry to take a look at them when certain passages proved convenient to their situation. She handled the King with such cleverness that, in 1533, after years of waiting in vain for the legal dissolution of his first marriage, Henry banished Catherine of Aragon from his court, and secretly married his mistress, who was already pregnant. Pope Clement VII was livid at the shocking news. 

Anne's reputation thought Christendom was disastrous. She was called a whore and an heretic in the courts of Europe. The Spanish ambassador referred to her as "the English Messalina or Agrippina", and "a Jezebel", despite the fact that no lovers were ever attributed to her and that she had famously refused to become the King’s mistress for years. Henry VIII, the ambassador added, was “bewitched by this cursed woman... does all she says, and dare not contradict her”. 

The King's subjects were not impressed by their new queen, either, and her elevation met with little enthusiasm. But the new royal couldn't care less: Anne Boleyn chose "the most happy" as her motto. Before then, she used the legend “grumble all you like, this is how it’s going to be". 

When someone is operating at such a high level, there's a huge amount of hubris involved.

With Greater Heights Come Greater Falls 

Henry VIII had done for Anne Boleyn all he had promised to do. He moved heaven and earth to be with her - now it was her turn to deliver her part. The King expected a son and the Queen figured the odds were in her favor. Little did she known she was living on borrowed time unless she bore a male heir. 

On the morning of 7 September 1533, Anne Boleyn went into labour, and although the enthusiastic astrologers' promises that the child would be a son, the new-born turned out to be a girl. 

"You and I are both young", the angry King told his wife, "and by God's grace boys will follow". But it never happened. On the 29 January 1536, Anne Boleyn miscarried "a male child". It was her second miscarriage at least. Fertility wasn’t well understood in Tudor times, and any issues were always assumed to be only the woman’s fault. After all, there was clearly no issue with Henry VIII impregnating his wives.

The King's need for a son was now a matter of state. He was forty four - too old to wait much longer. Henry knew that not having a son to succeed him could lead to another War of the Roses. Again, he had a queen who had only given him a daughter. To make things worse, the fourteen week old aborted fetus was said to have been greatly deformed. There is no evidence that the "monster" baby ever existed, but these deformities were intended as God’s punishment in an extremely superstitious era. Even the most educated people believed that supernatural powers governed the natural order of things. Great disgraces were caused by divine displeasure or witchcraft, and sadly, monstrous births were interpreted as the result of demonic interference.

On the day of the queen's last miscarriage, Henry VIII reportedly said that "he had made this marriage seduced and constrained by sortileges". 

These days, Anne was no longer the sexy forbidden fruit that had charmed the King of England. She had become, in hostile descriptions, a “thin old woman,” deeply unpopular at court, while Henry VIII was already described as “tired to satiety” of her.

Almost simultaneously, a new object of desire emerged. In February 1536, Henry was reported to have sent “very large presents” to Jane Seymour, one of Anne Boleyn’s own maids of honor and her opposite in every way. Where Anne was sharp, commanding, and politically engaged, Jane was presented as quiet, compliant, and unthreatening. Carefully placed before the King by her family, she rose as the queen was falling.

The dark clouds arrived. Anne's fall was inevitable.  

Anne Boleyn's Dangerous Enemies 

Did Anne Boleyn have any idea what was coming? 

The Queen's biographers believe that the plot to remove her was instigated by her former ally, Thomas Cromwell, the King's trusted advisor. From Cromwell's point of view, it would be in everyone's interest for the King to rid himself of his problematic wife. The Tudor minister understood the situation with brutal clarity. England was politically isolated, and the queen was an obstacle to reestablishing ties with former allies, particularly Charles V. She had failed in the one role that justified everything: producing a male heir. And it was well known that Henry, who had the extraordinary capacity to believe whatever best suited his capacity at the moment, was interested in another woman.

As the Queen of England, Anne should have been in an invincible position, but as a commoner, her power and influence was at the whim of Henry VIII - unlike her predecessors, she had no grand connections, royal blood, and no powerful dynastic network to protect her, making her an easy target.

But what, exactly, was her crime? Infertility and enchantment were not sufficient reasons to execute a queen. As the purging of her faction was also necessary, the case was initially built on the Queen's filtratious and frivolous nature. Anne loved courtly love and male attention. It was easy to present testimonials that she had seduced members of her privy council, including her own brother, George Boleyn. 

By April, Cromwell's plotting was well advanced. Events moved forward quickly. Anne Boleyn was formally arrested the morning of 2 May and taken to the Tower of London. She passionately protested her innocence and said that, if she were to die, there would "no rain for seven years", a typical witch threat which did her no favors.

Anne Boleyn was found guilty of treason on 15 May 1536, accused of having extramarital affairs with five men and of conspiracy to procure the King’s death.

Anne Boleyn's Mark of the Devil

Why was Anne Boleyn ever accused of being a witch? How could anyone seriously think that the crowned Queen of England was engaged in sorcery?

By the standards of the sixteenth century, there were enough signs to construct a case that appeared convincing. Anne was known to have a double nail on one of her fingers, "certain small moles" and a wen on her throat, which she hid with jewelry. In early modern Europe, these bodily irregularities were believed to be special marks placed by the Devil upon witches. 

The Queen also had a dog named Urian, given to her in 1532. Urian was believed to be a Satanic name, and animals were frequently suspected of being witches’ familiars.

Anne Boleyn also believed in prophecies. She was reported to have remarked that there was “a prophecy that about this time a Queen of England would be burned,” a statement that, in the charged atmosphere surrounding her downfall, was later interpreted as evidence of dangerous knowledge.

Her ladies-in-waiting, in fear for their lives, testified in court that they’d witnessed the Queen's affairs and knew the King was "charmed by potions or otherwise". 

Anne Boleyn's Final Days

After her arrest, Anne's family and supporters immediately distanced themselves from her, a common instinct in a court where association itself could be fatal. 

Anne Boleyn maintained her innocence but she was found guilty of treason on the 15th May 1536, and condemned to be beheaded or burned at “the King’s pleasure”. The trial was a mere formality: the queen was in the way of what King Henry VIII wanted - a son, a new life, and wife number three- and she had to die. 

Henry VIII decided that his wife head should be “cut off’ by a French sword, a real gentleness by the standards of the day. 

At nine o-clock on Friday, 19 May 1536, Queen Anne Boleyn died "boldly", even if she could not sleep the night before. A witness reported "Never had the Queen looked so beautiful". 

Eleven days later, Henry married Jane Seymour at the Palace of Whitehall, as if the removal of one queen were merely a procedural step toward the next. A year later, the promising new bride gave birth to a prince, the long-awaited legitimate successor to the Tudor throne. Yet the victory was short-lived: Queen Jane died shortly after the birth, weakened by a difficult labor that lasted three days and two nights. 

Did the scorned and disgraced Anne Boleyn curse her successor before her execution? To contemporaries steeped in prophecy, divine retribution, and witchcraft, the coincidence would not have gone unnoticed. 

The Truth 

Henry VIII made witchcraft a crime in 1542, six years after Anne Boleyn's execution.

The truth is that the queen was never charged with witchcraft. She was executed on charges of incest, adultery and conspiracy against the king. However, all her crimes were seen as diabolical and carried clear witchcraft connotations. Tudor's subjects believed that witches enticed men into sexual immorality and marriage, gave birth to deformed children, committed incest regularly and could afflict their husbands with impotence. 

For sure, we don’t have any evidence to confirm that Queen Anne Boleyn practiced witchcraft, but what means evidence exactly? In the sixteenth century, witchcraft was a genuine threat. Any real involvement would have left no documentary or testimonial trace. She was intrigued by the black arts, but what she did or did not do remains impossible to determine.  

However, as a witch, I can recognize a sister. 

I first became interested in Anne Boleyn when I visited the Tower of London, years ago. I was surprised by the horrible energy of the place, as if centuries of fear, suffering, and silenced voices had never fully dissipated. Walking through the Tower felt less like visiting a monument and more like moving through a space where the dead were not as absent as history pretends.

After the creepy tour, I consumed books, biographies, archives and everything else about her. I was fascinated by her glorious ascension and shocked by her disastrous fall, all of this at a moment of immense historical change. 

I loved that she dared to say no to be a king's mistress. She knew what she wanted and made sure she got it. When she saw a chance, she took it. She was ruthless only with those who could have ruined her chances for happiness. She both experienced the great rises and lows of the wheel of fortune. 

I don't see her as a romantic heroine, and I believe people should stop romanticising Henry VIII's toxic relationship with her. The truth was much more mundane. Together, Anne and Henry changed England forever and for the good, but the chemistry and passion showed in fiction was non-existent in real life: the queen admitted to have never feel truly attracted to her husband, and he never spoke of her again after the execution. He exhibited no regret whatsoever. It was as if she had never existed. 

But she existed. None of Henry VIII's wives have fascinated later generations as the second one: Anne Boleyn, the mother of the great Elizabeth I. 

Both famous and infamous, the most controversial woman ever to wear the English crown will never stop captivating our imagination.