Was Anne Boleyn actually untrue?

As the second wife of King Henry VIII, she was the queen who was long pursued – and then brutally discarded.

But was Anne Boleyn – the mother of Queen Elizabeth I – really guilty of adultery with several men, including her own brother? 

That is the key question explored in the seventh episode of new Daily Mail podcast Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things.

Mail columnist and royal biographer Robert Hardman and his co-presenter Professor Kate Williams examine the charges that led to Anne’s execution in 1536.

And they also explore how exactly Anne rose to be Henry’s second wife, and why she changed her mind about marriage after years of resisting the monarch’s advances. 

Professor Williams says: ‘I think most people will have an idea of what Anne Boleyn’s fate was, but how did she reach her final destination, the executioner’s block?

‘What always fascinates me is how swift it was. Married, queen, 1533; 1536, executed. We’ll be asking the question, how guilty, if at all, was Anne Boleyn?’

Listen to the full episode now: 

Mr Hardman adds that Anne is, ‘one of history’s biggest names, the inspiration for not only a royal divorce, but really for an entire country’s divorce from an entire religion.’

‘The mother of a great queen of England and arguably the most important and perhaps influential Queen Consort England has ever had.’ 

Despite the enormous interest in Anne over the centuries, there is still uncertainty about exactly when she was born.

She was either born in 1501 or 1507. Professor Williams says: ‘If we choose 1501, she’d be around 25 when Henry spots her. Or if we choose 1507, she’d be 19.’

Anne was from a particularly well connected family. Her father, Thomas, was a politician and diplomat, while her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, was a brilliant soldier.

Young Anne had been a courtier from an early age, having been sent away to serve Queen Claude of France. 

She returned to England to marry her cousin, but the union fell through and so instead she became lady in waiting to Henry’s then-wife, Catherine of Aragon. 

Meanwhile, Anne’s sister Mary had weaved her way into the King’s affections and had become a mistress of the monarch.

In the spring of 1526, Henry turned his attention on Anne, who Professor Williams says was initially ‘ambivalent’ to his advances.

That was in part because the King had played a role in denying her the chance to tie the knot with love match Henry Percy, the Earl of Northumberland.

Professor Williams says of the King: ‘I think that Henry was particularly attracted to her wit, to her intelligence, to her knowledge and love of France.’

But she adds: ‘Most men wouldn’t want to go out with their lover’s sister. We might think that’s a bit icky, really, but for Henry, it’s a recommendation.

‘Mary was a good mistress, so he thinks to his little self, Well, Anne must be a good mistress, too.’ 

However, Anne refused to allow Henry to make her his mistress. 

Professor Williams says she ‘doesn’t really like the idea’ because she has seen her sister be ‘used and then cast aside’, and so is ‘not that interested’ in the King. 

After she retired to her family’s pile, Heaver Castle, Henry sent her dozens of letters in an attempt to seduce her.

Eventually, Anne succumbed to the King’s advances. Professor Williams says: ‘What these letters prove is that Henry’s serious about her. 

‘He doesn’t just want to use her as a mistress, set her aside and then she’s discarded.’

But Catherine, who had fallen out of favour with Henry by failing to give birth to a son, would not allow the King to set her aside.

The Pope refused to grant Henry an annulment, and so the King triggered a seismic split with the Catholic Church to get what he wanted. 

He was made the head of the Church of England and appointed a new Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, who allowed the annulment to proceed.

Anne and Henry finally married – more or less in secret – in November 1532 and then announced the union to the public. 

The King’s marriage to Catherine was annulled in the May of 1533, and just five days later Anne was crowned Queen. 

Anne, now visibly pregnant, was crowned with St Edward’s Crown, which was ordinarily for the monarch, not the consort. 

The crown was used to make her ‘legitimate’, Professor Williams says. But Anne was not popular with a general population that still preferred Catherine.  

Anne too was unhappy at the way in which, soon after she married Henry and had become pregnant, the King was cavorting with mistresses.

But the monarch told his wife that she had to endure his unfaithfulness. 

Although astrologers and royal physicians had predicted that Anne would give birth to a son – much desired by Henry – she instead had a daughter in September 1533.

Henry was hugely disappointed but convinced that he and Anne could have more children together and that she would give him his male heir.  

Meanwhile, there were tensions between Anne and Thomas Cromwell, largely over the pair’s differing visions for the future of the Church in England. 

Both were competing for the King’s hear in their attempts to ensure their views were the ones favoured. 

But in January 1536, Anne suffered the latest of two miscarriages, leaving both her and Henry devastated.

Anne lost her unborn child on the same day that Catherine of Aragon – who had died just days earlier – was buried. 

Professor Williams explains that Catherine had been a ‘protection’ to Anne because he could not ‘set her aside’ while his first wife still lived. 

She adds: ‘When Catherine of Aragon dies, he starts to think, “should I get rid of Anne as well?” 

Henry then turned his attention to Anne’s lady in waiting, Jane Seymour, who would become his third wife. 

But the King knew he could not divorce Anne, because of the impact it would have on his reputation after his split from Catherine.

Instead, Cromwell looked into how Henry’s marriage could be brought to an end.

He set about trying to find out if Anne, whose flirtatiousness had initially made her popular with the King, was having liaisons with men in her household.

Cromwell built a case against the Queen, claiming that she had had sex with men including musician Mark Smeaton, courtier Henry Norris, and George Boleyn, her own brother.  

Both Smeaton and Norris were sent to the Tower of London.

Anne too was arrested – along with her brother – and accused of adultery, incest and treason.

She was subjected to a sham trial before she was held prisoner in the same royal apartment in the Tower of London where she had awaited her coronation.

On May 19, 1536, two days after her brother, Norris and Smeaton had been beheaded, Anne was put to death.  

In her final statement, she heaped praise on her husband. 

She said: ‘Good Christian people, I am come hither to die, for according to the law, and by the law I am judged to die, and therefore I will speak nothing against it. 

‘I am come hither to accuse no man, nor to speak anything of that, whereof I am accused and condemned to die, but I pray God save the king and send him long to reign over you, for a gentler nor a more merciful prince was there never: and to me he was ever a good, a gentle and sovereign lord. 

‘And if any person will meddle of my cause, I require them to judge the best. 

‘And thus I take my leave of the world and of you all, and I heartily desire you all to pray for me. O Lord have mercy on me, to God I commend my soul.’ 

But did Anne really commit adultery and incest, and how much did she love the King?

Find out the verdict of Professor Williams and Mr Hardman in episode seven – released today – of Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things.  

Robert Hardman is the author of books including Queen of Our Times: The Life of Elizabeth II and Charles III: New King. New Court. The Inside Story. 

Professor Kate Williams is the author of the recent book The Royal Palaces: Secrets and Scandals, along with many other works.