25th January 2015
482 years ago this very day, Henry VIII secretly married Anne Boleyn, before the annulment of his marriage to Katherine of Aragon was agreed by the Pope. After six years of courtship, this was a great triumph for Anne. She was already pregnant, possibly after another, more secret wedding ceremony in November – so it was then imperative to speed up the annulment from Katherine and the wedding to Anne to ensure that the expected son was born legitimate. The news of the ceremony was rapidly leaked, and Henry ruled that his own first marriage was invalid, four months before the baby – the disappointingly female Elizabeth – was born.
Many will have expected Henry to repeat his wedding with Anne after Katherine’s death in 1536, to assert her status with those who regarded his annulment as invalid. However, 25 January 1533 was to be Anne’s final wedding day – by 1536 she was falling from favour, and she was beheaded only four months after Katherine had died.
My first novel featuring Anne was The Other Boleyn Girl, written from the perspective of her sister Mary. I wrote the wedding scene from a distance – I had Mary and her brother cover for the couple by pretending to be dining with them while the ceremony went on elsewhere. My fictional account has Mary sitting in Anne’s chair and trying on her bedgown while Anne marries Mary’s former lover, the King of England.
Portrait from the National Portrait Gallery Collection.