It was 484 years ago today that Anne Boleyn was executed by her husband. No one is sure when she was born, but we know when she died.
Today I participated in a Zoom call on Anne Boleyn with Tudor expert and historian Carol Ann Lloyd . As she said, how many people would have others talking about them 484 years after their death?
Lloyd first became fascinated with Anne by watching The Six Wives of Henry VIII on BBC. For me, it was Anne of the Thousand Days.
I'm not alone in my fascination of Anne. There were 31 of us on the call today; I had only a day's notice. There have been several books and movies about Anne Boleyn.
Is it because she went to her death with such courage and dignity? Well damn, isn't that enough?
How about the way she kept the king in love with her for years before her marriage? It wasn't easy to say no to a king.
What about her religious work disseminating the English translation of the Bible?
Anne was never the vixen that many described her as. Nor was she the feminist Protestant reformer that some of us wished.
She was a complex women who fell outside others' boxes.
Today we remember Anne.
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