THERE WAS NEVER SUCH A WH0RE IN THE REALM
Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, wives number two and five of Henry VIII respectively – were disgraced, shamed, and b~headed in the prime of their lives.
According to some writers, Anne was at most thirty-five, while Catherine probably never saw her 19th birthday.
Both women are always portrayed as scheming and experienced seductresses, who flirtatiously snared the king of England.
Some historians believe that both women were, in varying degrees, to blame for their own violent and untimely deaths.
Generally Anne Boleyn, although a flirtatious woman, was innocent of the crimes she was accused of.
Few details survive of the proceedings of Anne’s trial.
Witnesses were called and several spoke of Anne Boleyn’s alleged s3xual activity.
One witness said that there was “never such a wh0re in the realm”.
Anne was charged, not only with a whole list of adulterous relationships going back to the autumn of 1533, but also with poisoning Katharine of Aragon, “afflicting Henry with actual bodily harm, and conspiring his death…..
Anne declared herself ready to die because she had ‘unwittingly incurred the King’s displeasure’.
However, she grieved for the innocent men who were also to die on her account.
We now believe that Anne was most likely framed in what was a vicious court conspiracy, and can begin to feel regret for what happened to her.
Catherine Howard’s character however, is perceived as dim, spoiled and generally unpopular.
Although Catherine’s beauty captivated both the king and Culpeper, her reputation will forever be as the ‘silly little girl’ who bedded men both before, and after, her marriage to the King.
Alison Weir, bestselling popular historian, has argued in three books that Anne was innocent of s3xual crimes, and died as a result of Cromwell’s move against her.
But she still paints a picture of a manipulative, power-hungry shrew, that was probably no virgin when she married the king.
In her same works, Weir thinks that Catherine was ‘certainly promiscuous’ and ‘incredibly stupid’.
Joanna Denny, wrote sympathetic biographies of both queens.
However, she alleged that Catherine committed s3xual intercourse with Thomas Culpeper, in a doomed attempt to pass off her lover’s bAstard, as the impotent king’s legitimate son.
Only Retha M. Warnicke, a foremost Tudor scholar, has provided convincing arguments in favour of both women’s innocence.
Warnicke points out that Catherine admitted to having meetings with Culpeper after she married the king.
A dangerous and suspicious activity for a royal wife and queen of England.
But…. her honesty, was a credit to her.
Even though Anne is still portrayed as promiscuous, the majority now know that the real woman was very different.
This is not the same with Catherine Howard, whose reputation will sadly forever be that of ‘a silly little girl’…….
? Natalie Dormer as Anne Boleyn & Tamzin Merchant as Catherine Howard~The Tudors
