Before the Glory: Anne Boleyn Before Henry VIII
Anne Boleyn was born sometime between 1501 and 1507, though it is impossible to be certain of the exact year. Her father was a minor official at the court of Henry VII, but the stories that Anne came of bourgeois stock are exaggerated. Thomas Boleyn, Anne's father, was heir to the Boleyn and Hoo estates, and married a daughter of the earl of Surrey. He was to rise himself, in time, to become Earl of Ormonde and Wiltshire, and King's Treasurer. A "climber" like most of the "new men" at the court of the young Henry VIII, Thomas Boleyn made himself invaluable to the young king, his knowledge of French ensuring his place as a useful go-between in the diplomacy between the French and English courts, and it is known that he was largely in charge of the transportation of the Princess Mary to France in 1514 for her marriage to Louis XII.
Thomas's daughter Anne may have by this time already been stationed at the court of Margaret of Austria, regent of the Low Countries for her nephew, Charles of Burgundy. Margaret of Austria exposed Anne to a varied and cultured life, for she was a woman of intelligence, great learning, and surprising strength of will. Managing to place his daughter in such a court was a coup for Thomas Boleyn, for not only was Margaret's court a wonderful place to learn the social and intellectual graces Anne would need for success, but Margaret was Catherine of Aragon's sister-in-law, and thus a recommendation from Margaret could pave the way for Anne's placement as a lady-in-waiting to the English queen when her education had been completed.
Anne spent only a year with Margaret, but during that time she honed her French to a fine edge, studied music, dance, literature, and art, learned to have a discerning eye for the beautiful in fabric and style and the niceties of culture, and began her career as a polished ornament at the royal courts of Europe.
Anne Boleyn apparently journeyed to France in 1514 to become a lady-in-waiting to Mary Tudor when she traveled across the Channel to wed Louis XII. For this to have occurred, the birthdate for Anne of 1501 is more probable, as it is doubtful that a child of seven (if Anne were born in 1507) would have been of any use to the new French queen, even if that child were fluent in French. Sending Anne to France was a sensible arrangement, as the English contingent at the French court would need all the French-speaking help it could get. It is certain that her sister Mary Boleyn was also in Mary Tudor's train, coming from England, and that this other Boleyn rapidly established for herself a less-than-savory reputation at the court of Louis's successor, Francis I.
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