The Fascinating Anne Boleyn

I'm curious as to the rest of the world's opinion on the fascination with Anne Boleyn. Do we simply find her fascinating like so many other might've been people in history? Or perhaps due to the fact of her execution?

Eg. if Anne had perhaps died during the sweating sickness or had died in childbirth with one of her pregnancies, would she still be as interesting?

Opinions welcome. As well as reasons why you think Anne is interesting.
 

cpip

Gone Fishin'
I'm curious as to the rest of the world's opinion on the fascination with Anne Boleyn. Do we simply find her fascinating like so many other might've been people in history? Or perhaps due to the fact of her execution?

Eg. if Anne had perhaps died during the sweating sickness or had died in childbirth with one of her pregnancies, would she still be as interesting?

Opinions welcome. As well as reasons why you think Anne is interesting.

I suspect a great deal of it has to do with how, for love of her, Henry VIII set aside his wife and his church. It's that sort of epic, sweeping tale, and can be spun any number of ways depending on how you care to tell it -- but at its heart, she's the excuse that Henry VIII used to cut ties with the Catholic faith, reject his wife, and shake up English life.

That she went on to end up being executed by that same king (again, for a range of argued reasons) just puts the capstone on the tale.
 
She's at the centre of one of more important moments in English history. While she wasn't sole reason that England went CoE she played an important role. Plus her downfall was built around BS charges and in the end she was sort-of vindicated, seeing how Henry cut her loose because she didn't give him a son and their daughter went to became Elizabeth I, she of red hair and of Armada defeat.
 
I suspect a great deal of it has to do with how, for love of her, Henry VIII set aside his wife and his church. It's that sort of epic, sweeping tale, and can be spun any number of ways depending on how you care to tell it -- but at its heart, she's the excuse that Henry VIII used to cut ties with the Catholic faith, reject his wife, and shake up English life.

That she went on to end up being executed by that same king (again, for a range of argued reasons) just puts the capstone on the tale.

I have to agree with Cpip, it sounds like a romantic tragedy straight out of a Shakespearean play, one man defies the Pope to marry his true love ... only to find that she is not the one and that the only way to get rid of her is not divorce but to execute her.

This has been made stronger by the fact that even she unlike her sister demanded she became queen instead of just being another mistress.

It also helps she is the mother of Elizabeth, the queen during the golden era of England. Catherine of Aragon is remembers as the mother of Bloody Mary, Jane Seymour wasn't around long enough to have an impact and her only child was a sickly one.
The last three had no influence on any part of Henry's or England's life.
 
She's at the centre of one of more important moments in English history. While she wasn't sole reason that England went CoE she played an important role. Plus her downfall was built around BS charges and in the end she was sort-of vindicated, seeing how Henry cut her loose because she didn't give him a son and their daughter went to became Elizabeth I, she of red hair and of Armada defeat.

Henry VIII was temperamental and "Great Woman" isn't necessarily determinative but, No Anne, Anne dying in 1528, and Anne giving Henry a male heir that survives to adulthood/Henry's death, could result in significantly different timelines in the short term.

I have to agree with Cpip, it sounds like a romantic tragedy straight out of a Shakespearean play, one man defies the Pope to marry his true love ... only to find that she is not the one and that the only way to get rid of her is not divorce but to execute her.

This has been made stronger by the fact that even she unlike her sister demanded she became queen instead of just being another mistress.

It also helps she is the mother of Elizabeth, the queen during the golden era of England. Catherine of Aragon is remembers as the mother of Bloody Mary, Jane Seymour wasn't around long enough to have an impact and her only child was a sickly one.
The last three had no influence on any part of Henry's or England's life.

Agreed.
 
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Henry VIII was temperamental and "Great Woman" isn't necessarily determinative but, No Anne, Anne dying in 1528, and Anne giving Henry a male heir that survives to adulthood/Henry's death, could result in significantly different timelines in the short term.

Yes, there are a lot of PODs centered on her, some that pop up here from time to time. But average person is not althistorian and they are still fascinated by Anne because of reasons I mentioned. Simply because events she played a part in shaped English history down the road.
 
I think there are a couple of other reasons why she continues to fascinate.

1. There's a lot of raw material for historians and fiction writers to work with. She had a very strong, dominant, extrovert personality and lived at a time when many surviving diaries were written, and because of that we know more about what kind of person she was, at least to others, than of any queen consort before the modern day.

2. She was and continues to be controversial. Nicholas Sander and George Wyatt may have begun the public debate on Anne: Whore or Angel, but it's never stopped. Even today we have Hilary Mantel vs Sandra Byrd on the fictional front and David Starkey vs George Bernard on the non-fiction side of things.
 
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