Before the Glory: Anne Boleyn Before Henry VIII - Page 5
© Ellen McDaniel-Weissler
Anne Boleyn has been characterized as a whore and a gold-digger, a power-monger and a witch, yet the facts would indicate that, if anything, she was too virtuous for her own ultimate good. The evidence demonstrates very clearly that she did not actually sleep with Henry until very late in 1532, for her first child, Elizabeth, was born on 7 September 1533, and we know from the frequency of Anne's subsequent pregnancies (at least one a year) that she was a very fertile woman who would have conceived very quickly after the onset of sexual relations. This means that she managed to hold the king at arm's length, without losing his interest, from at least 1525 until their marriage in January, 1533. It is probable that she realized that to give in to him would be to lose him, for half his desire for her seems to have been created by her inaccessibility. She may have played this cat and mouse game to keep him panting after her until he could wiggle his way out of his marriage and make her queen. In this she may have been purely motivated by greed or a zest for power. However, if we remember Henry as he was at this time in his life(see earlier essays on Henry VIII on this web page) then it is entirely possible that she fell as deeply in love with him as he apparently was with her, and refused to give in to him in the short term because she wanted to be married to him for the rest of her life. (Because our hindsight shows us a man who went through six wives, we tend to forget that, in 1525, Henry had been a devoted husband for nearly two decades, and there was at that time no reason to believe that a second marriage would not last till the end of his life.)
It would be difficult for any woman not to love the Henry we see at this point in his life - virile, charming, intelligent, laughing, open-handed and generous, talented, and without having yet acquired the bitter edge which became apparent later in his life. This was a man who had not yet severed himself from the Church, or ordered the executions of his best friends, or dissolved and pillaged the monasteries, or executed two wives. This was a king who was still young and pleasure-loving, who genuinely wanted to be liked, and who had not been turned sour by tragedy and cynicism. He would have been a very easy man to love, even without the additional dazzle and splendor of being king.
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