Henry VIII Marries Anne Boleyn
After seven years of courtship, Henry and Anne exchanged vows on 25th January 1533, in the Private Chapel at Whitehall Palace.
This secret ceremony took place before the sun had even risen, and there were just a handful of witnesses to the event that Henry had worked so hard to bring about.
So clandestine was the marriage, that the name of the officiating priest remains cloaked in mystery.
Everyone there, even the triumphant bride and groom, kept the ceremony secret until Cranmer had finally dispensed with the pesky problem of Henry’s first wife, Katharine of Aragon.
However, there is every indication that the couple had already gone through another secret marriage ceremony – two months before their chilly, January wedding.
By autumn 1532, Anne had been made Marquess of Pembroke in her own right, and had accompanied Henry on an official mission to France.
Anne’s role as Henry’s consort was acknowledged in all but name, and sometime during her return to England with Henry, it is thought they married in secret.
The location of this mysterious ceremony isn’t known but its timing indicates that Anne was Henry’s wife before the start of 1533.
Their first wedding took place on 14th November 1532.
Coincidentally, it was exactly 31 years earlier on 14th November 1501, Katharine of Aragon had married Henry’s brother, Arthur Prince of Wales.
So why two weddings?
Anne gave birth to their child Elizabeth on 7th September 1533, just over seven months after the January marriage ~ but at least nine months after the proposed earlier November wedding.
One school of thought holds that Anne realised she was pregnant around the start of 1533, and the second ceremony was held to ensure the child would be legitimate.
If Anne and Henry had only consummated their relationship at the end of January 1533, their baby Elizabeth, would have been very early arriving in the first days of September.
Contemporary records show that the new queen was visibly pregnant at the time of her coronation on 1st June 1533.
Every indication points to the first secret marriage of Henry and Anne, taking place in November.
After all this time, Henry and Anne were finally and officially married.
Yet it would not last ~ the forthrightness, fiery temper and intelligence which had so enamoured Henry as a mistress, were not the qualities he wanted in a wife.
Anne’s inability to provide him with a son and heir, was the final nail in Anne’s coffin.
Jonathan Rhys Meyers & Natalie Dormer as Henry & Anne in ‘The Tudors’ Secret Wedding.
