[Anne] Boleyn Was The Crucial Catalyst For Three Of The Most Important Events In Modern History: The

“’[Anne] Boleyn was the crucial catalyst for three of the most important events in modern history: the break with Rome causing the English Reformation, the advent of the nation state, and the birth of a daughter whose forty-three years on the throne stand as England’s most spectacular literary and political success story.‘”

— Lacey Baldwin Smith, Anne Boleyn - the Queen of Controversy.

Okay, I don’t usually add to these bcus they’re fandom-related , but given this one is making actual historic claims ....

1) To say ‘even if we ignore Chapuys’ claims’ and then cite the example of the christening cloth .... that comes from Chapuys. And no other. Idk if anon is aware of that , but ... yeah. Something to think about .

2) It wasn’t her coat of arms (her coat of arms was a falcon, but that was her family’s heraldry), it was actually embroidery that has been attributed to Elizabeth Howard (her mother) most recently by historians , that depicted what you mention :

Here are her coat of arms

No pomegranate , as you can see. To have put that in actual official heraldry would have been very odd .

3) If you don’t like Anne Boleyn, that is of course , your prerogative. But it is true that the bulk of the contemporary reports about her that are negative come from Chapuys. There are some from other diplomats that are also not positive , but his are where there is the highest volume of negative reports about her. Whether or not you take them at face value , totally disregard them, or somewhere in between (my personal recommendation) is totally up to you.

‘How could Anne Boleyn attend a party right after KoA had died’, idk. How could Mary I get proxy-married right after Jane Grey and Guildford Dudley were executed? How could Henry VIII and Jane Seymour get married right after the executions of his wife, brother-in-law, and close friends?

Sometimes shit was fucked .

♕ Daughters of James I of Scotland and Joan Beaufort (requested by anonymous)

Illustration from The Wood Beyond the World William Morris 1894 

Anna Netrebko as Anna Bolena (Vienna, 2011)