Anne Boleyn: Fatal Attractions

Description

In this groundbreaking new biography, G. W. Bernard offers a fresh portrait of one of England’s most captivating queens. Through a wide-ranging forensic examination of sixteenth-century sources, Bernard reconsiders Boleyn’s girlhood, her experience at the French court, the nature of her relationship with Henry, and the authenticity of her evangelical sympathies. He depicts Anne Boleyn as a captivating, intelligent, and highly sexual woman whose attractions Henry resisted for years until marriage could ensure legitimacy for their offspring. He shows that it was Henry, not Anne, who developed the ideas that led to the break with Rome. And, most radically, he argues that the allegations of adultery that led to Anne’s execution in the Tower could be close to the truth. Contents List of Illustrations Preface Acknowledgements 1. ‘These Bloody Days Have Broken my Heart’: The Fall of Anne Boleyn 2. Who Was Anne Boleyn? 3. ‘Whose pretty dukkys I Trust Shortly to kiss’ Henry VIII’s Infatuation With Anne 4. ‘The King’s Great Matter’: Henry’s Divorce and Anne 5. ‘The Most Happy’: King Henry and Queen Anne 6. She ‘Wore Yellow for the Mourning’: Anne Against Catherine 7. ‘I Have Done Many Good Deeds in My Life’: Anne Boleyn’s Religion 8. Anne’s Miscarriage 9. Conspiracy? 10. ‘A Much Higher Fault’: The Countess of Worcester’s Charge Against Anne 11. ‘You Would Look to Have Me’: Anne’s Lovers? 12. ‘Incontinent Living so Rank and Common’: Was Anne Guilty? Epilogue Appendix: The Portraits of Anne Boleyn Notes Bibliography Index