Firstly, thank you so much for having me on your blog, Annie! My third and most recent book is called The Many Faces of Anne Boleyn: Interpreting Image and Perception so today I thought I’d offer some of my thoughts on why we are so fascinated with Anne Boleyn. None of the others of Henry VIII’s six wives get so much attention, or so many books written about them. Even books which cover all six wives, the majority is Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn with the other four wives condensed into the last third or quarter of the book.
So, what about Anne Boleyn makes us so enthralled by her story? Well one thing is the sheer drama of her rise and fall. The fact that Henry VIII annulled his first marriage to Katherine of Aragon and broke with the Roman Catholic Church in order to marry Anne, means that she was a very controversial person by the time of her coronation on 1 June 1533. But less than three years later when she was arrested for multiple adulteries, incest with her brother, and treason, her reputation disintegrated further. Anne Boleyn basically became taboo on her execution.
However, her life and reputation have been both rehabilitated and attacked over the nearly 500 years since her death. For me, in choosing to write this book on Anne Boleyn, I consciously decided that I didn’t want to write a traditional biography, but more of a study of how her image and reputation have been tackled over 500 years. The fact that we have Anne recurring through 500 years gives a sense of how much her story means to people – we don’t have the same interest in the other wives, or even in other consorts or regnant monarchs from across time!
Today, we have popular culture. The popularity of the likes of Philippa Gregory, or Showtime’s The Tudors, or Wolf Hall, or SIX The Musical, brings Anne Boleyn and Tudor history to new audiences. We are spoiled in the modern age with television, film, theatre, and a glut of historical novels. Anne Boleyn is a prime candidate for featuring because of the drama of both her rise and fall, as well as her position as the mother of Elizabeth I, often considered to be England’s first successful queen regnant, paving the way for later ruling queens like Victoria and Elizabeth II.
The lack of concrete knowledge about Anne Boleyn is also intriguing. Once people start digging into her life, they want facts but that often isn’t possible. We don’t know when Anne was born, what she really looked like, whether she really did hold Henry VIII at arm’s length for seven years, or how many pregnancies she underwent during her marriage. The portraits and images we have of her are all from after her death, aside from a crude sketch from her coronation banquet which doesn’t show any features, and a portrait medal from 1534 which has been damaged. The most popular images we think of are later creations. Not knowing her year of birth (estimates vary from 1501 to 1507 generally) means that we don’t know her age at significant events. The state of her relationship with the king is something that intrigues everyone who looks at her life, specifically Henry VIII’s involvement in her downfall.
What we find so alluring about Anne Boleyn is that she is a bit of an enigma, surrounded by drama, and ripe for modern entertainment drama. But we need to remember that Anne was a real person, who really was beheaded on the orders of her husband, a mother who lost at least two children, and spent years serving a queen, only to replace her on the throne. We will never be able to know or understand what she was feeling because times have changed hugely. We need to be careful not to put 21st century thoughts and feelings onto a 16th century woman. Anne Boleyn will no doubt continue to fascinate, and I hope that my book, The Many Faces of Anne Boleyn: Interpreting Image and Perception, will give some insight into how some of the myths about Anne came to be, and why I don’t think interpretations of Anne will ever stop – we just need to dig down into what we actually do know and strip away the layers of myth and perception to try and get closer to the real Anne Boleyn.
Thank you for being my guest on the blog today. That was so interesting and I thought your book was fascinating.
More About the Author
Helene Harrison studied at the University of Northumbria in Newcastle, achieving both a BA and MA in History before going on to complete an MSc in Library Management. Her passion for Tudor history started when studying for A Levels and completing a module on Tudor rebellions. Her master’s dissertation focused on portrayals of Anne Boleyn through the centuries, from contemporary letters to modern TV and film adaptations. Now she writes two blogs, one Tudor history and one book-related, and works in the university library of her alma mater. In her spare time, she loves visiting royal palaces and snuggling up with a book or embroidery project. Her books are ‘Elizabethan Rebellions: Conspiracy, Intrigue and Treason’ (2023), ‘Tudor Executions: From Nobility to the Block’ (2024) and ‘The Many Faces of Anne Boleyn: Interpreting Image and Perception’ (2025), all published by Pen and Sword.
Purchase Links to Helene's Publications
‘Elizabethan Rebellions: Conspiracy, Intrigue and Treason’ (2023)
‘Tudor Executions: From Nobility to the Block’ (2024)
‘The Many Faces of Anne Boleyn: Interpreting Image and Perception’ (2025)
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(media courtesy of the author)
(all opinions are my own)
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