Was Anne Boleyn Innocent?

[TheNightScentedStock]

I'm not entirely sure.

It must have been so tempting to try and have a child. She knew it was out of the question with Henry and also knew that she was in danger of losing him.

A child, a son, would have secured her safety and destiny.

It would have been dangerous but maybe worth the risk.

That was the allegation. But the only “evidence” was her SIL having a moan about how close George and Anne were, and I don’t think Lady Rochford said they were shagging, just that they kissed and hung out together a bit too often.

Incest between siblings was taboo then as now; I think we need a much higher burden of proof than “disgruntled wife was disgruntled”

She was accused of sleeping with her brother, the idea being to reinforce in the eyes of the jury that would try her (I say 'try' but Tudor treason trial verdicts were a foregone conclusion) she was a monster of depravity and that the king was right to get rid of her.

Bear in mind that a lot of what was written at the time and after was by people who were opposed to her politics, religion and the fact that she was a woman with a voice she wasn't afraid to use. A lot of the myths about AB come from a Catholic writer called Nicholas Sander writing later in the century.

She wasn’t, no, because she was almost certainly pregnant with Elizabeth by the time they married in Calais, given dates. Whether she had had sex pre HVIII’s courting, I don’t know but broadly, I would assume not because of dire consequences for her and family if she got pregnant.

Was she “complicit and manipulative” re the divorce? Hmm.

To me, that’s a bit like accusing a woman of sleeping her way to the top and ignoring the fact that there are men in power making the actual decisions as to which women to promote based on attractiveness, sexiness etc.

If HVIII had wanted to stay married, he absolutely could have done, by staying faithful
to Katherine or taking another mistress (having already had Mary Boleyn and Bessie Blount, and no doubt others in his time). Anne had no moral obligation to have sex with any man outside of marriage, King or not.