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Before the Glory: Anne Boleyn Before Henry VIII - Page 3

© Ellen McDaniel-Weissler

There are no contemporary accounts to support later claims that she had a sixth finger growing out of her hand, or that she had a large "wen" or goiter on her neck, both of which blemishes, it was posthumously claimed, were signs that she was a witch. Even those of her contemporaries who loathed her make no mention of such taints, and when such accounts finally do appear, the sources closest to her describe the "deformities" as scarcely visible - which accounts are then blown terrifically out of proportion by those who wished to further sully her memory. There are eyewitness accounts which state that she had a small sixth nail growing out of the end of one of her fingers, which she hid by skillful manipulation of her other fingers and by wearing long sleeves which she made fashionable at the English court (one of the bases for supposing that Henry VIII wrote "Greensleeves" for her.) It is also possible that she had a large mole on her throat, which she covered with necklaces or high collars. Yet the extant portraits of her show her almost without exception to be wearing low-cut gowns with only a slim strand of pearls around the neck, and no such mole is visible. It is most likely that slight blemishes were exaggerated in an attempt to make Anne out to be some sort of deformed creature, whose hold upon the king must have had its foundation in black magic.

It is possible that Anne met Henry VIII before her return to England in 1521, for she would undoubtedly have been present in Queen Claude's train at the glittering meeting of Henry and Francis I in 1520 called The Field of Cloth of Gold. This meeting took place on French soil, and Anne, as an Englishwoman stationed at the French court, would naturally have been included in the party, if only for her value as an interpreter. However, when she was recalled to England in 1521 it was not to attend the English queen at court, but to help settle a family inheritance dispute by marrying her distant cousin, James Butler, thereby bringing, it was to be hoped, the title of the Earl of Ormonde safely into Thomas Boleyn's purvue. Why this marriage never took place is not clear, but whatever the reason, by March of 1522 Anne was found making her debut at the English court, her engagement apparently at an end.

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