Has Anne Boleyn In These Pages Appeared The Creature Of Evil Which Her Enemies (and It Must Be Borne

“Has Anne Boleyn in these pages appeared the creature of evil which her enemies (and it must be borne in mind that it is almost entirely from the writings of her enemies that we have to disentangle her history) represented her to be? If so, the attempt which has been made to consider her without prejudice has failed. That she was proud, ambitious, a foe to her foes, even to vindictiveness, given to speaking her mind, careless of speech, gaiety-loving, is evident. But she was also brave, true to her friends, lavish with her gifts where liking or charity led her, sincere in her religious opinions, and withal a woman of genuine intellectual power. In the cruel, immoral, avaricious, treacherous and lying age of the Tudors, she crosses the scene a brilliant, perplexing […] figure, and vanishes into the darkness, still only in her youthful womanhood. History — considered in the light of a record of personages, not of peoples — would be more intriguing were there more in it such as Anne the Queen.”

— The Life of Anne Boleyn (1924), Philip W. Sergeant  

MARIA DE SALINAS in SIX WIVES WITH LUCY WORSLEY (2016)

Claire Foy as Anne Boleyn in Wolf Hall (2015)

     Queen Jane Seymour c. 1508 - 24th October 1537

Paulus Jansz. Moreelse, 1571-1638

A mother and child as Venus and Cupid, 1624, oil on panel, 73x58 cm

Private Collection

mary tudor + smiling (requested by anonymous)