The Marriage of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn

~ The Marriage of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn ~

One of the most important weddings in history may have taken place on November 14,1532. King Henry VIII defied the world in order to marry the young woman he was in love with, having created the Anglican Church and in the process destroying England’s thousand-year-old relationship with the Catholic Church. For decades to come, the political balance in Europe would be upset, and the repercussions from the rapid religious changes would echo for generations. Henry’s “Great Matter” had culminated in this moment.

It’s believed they wed at Dover Castle, where they stayed after returning from Calais. There, Anne had been tacitly accepted by King Francis as Henry’s consort.

No description of the wedding ceremony exists, but it likely would have been like the king’s other weddings: a private ceremony in the king’s closet (private chapel). Anne’s sister, Mary Boleyn, had come along on the trip – it’s easy to imagine she was one of the witnesses.

The rooms where Anne Boleyn and Henry may have spent their wedding night – the night Henry for which Henry had waited seven long years – still survive. Later, Henry would have the windows in his apartments in Dover replaced with stained glass that featured an image of Anne’s falcon emblem, though the couple never stayed there again. (Three years later, he would have those windows torn out and replaced with Jane Seymour’s phoenix emblem.)

The court made its way back toward London a few days afterward, a long leisurely trip, stopping at castles and towns along the way – a winter honeymoon for the newly married pair.

But history records a second wedding on January 25, 1533, something that has stirred debate through the centuries. Some allege the ceremony in Dover was simply some sort of betrothal ceremony, but at this stage in their relationship, when all of Europe knew their intention to wed (the pope had even issued a dispensation for it before Henry decided that he was head of the church in his realm), a betrothal ceremony would have been profoundly pointless.

It could simply be that Henry went through both ceremonies, first with an unnamed priest in a secret ceremony Dover after returning from their trip to France, and then in front of a few select members of his court at Whitehall Palace with his chaplain Dr. Rowland Lee. Most monarchs of the era were “doubly married,” first in a proxy ceremony before the bride left her homeland, and then again once she reached her new husband’s side. So doing it twice, in front of separate sets of witnesses, wouldn’t have seemed unusual, especially since Henry was concerned that his union with Anne must be accepted as a legitimate marriage.

November 14 seems to coincide with the beginning of the couple’s sexual relationship. Anne became pregnant quickly, and her daughter, Elizabeth, was born in September 1533. If Elizabeth was a full-term baby, as her health and strength would seem to indicate, she was conceived in early December. Anne had calculated her birth for two weeks later than Elizabeth actually appeared, but that’s not unusual in an era before pregnancy tests and ultrasounds.

Since Henry would not have wanted to risk the possibility of his child being conceived outside of wedlock, the couple had to be married before they began sleeping together. Once Henry had decided to make Anne his queen, he wanted everything to be exactly right so the son he knew he would have with her would be indisputably legitimate as England’s heir.

November 14 also held a special significance: it was the date on which Katherine of Aragon had married Henry’s older brother, Arthur, in 1501, underscoring – in Henry’s mind, at least – that Katherine was Arthur’s widow and couldn’t be Henry’s legal wife.
Henry’s marriage to Anne would not be announced until Easter of that year, and by that time, she was visibly pregnant, and all of the court knew of it anyway. Around that time, the new Anglican church officially ruled on Henry’s previous marriage to Katherine of Aragon, declaring it null and void and his marriage to Anne sound and legal.

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