Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Question from Gervase - Anne's miscarriage

I do not know if a topic that was on in the series The Tudors is factual but I would like to know if the last baby that Anne miscarried was a boy,and, was it disfigured?

4 comments:

Elizabeth M. said...

The fetus was described as having the appearance of a male child. However, despite author Retha Warnicke's assertion in her book THE RISE AND FALL OF ANNE BOLEYN, there was no contemporary evidence that said the fetus was deformed. Had it been, it would have almost certainly caused a furor in court circles. Something like that would have certainly gotten out, despite attempts to hide it. Deformed fetuses would have been considered marks of evil--there were allegations Anne was a witch, and Henry VIII himself remarked she had tricked him into marrying her by sorcery. But tellingly, witchcraft was NOT one of the charges brought against her at her trial. The deformed fetus story was one of those tales--along with the supposed sixth finger, extra nipple, mole on her neck--that came out of the woodwork by people like Nicholas Sander, who did everything they could to blacken Anne's name after her fall and death because they viewed her as the catalyst in Henry's breaking with the Catholic church and setting himself up as the Head of the Church of England.
Surely, too, any physical deformities--such as the sixth finger, mole, extra nipple--would have aroused considerable comment and fright at court if they were true. The sixth finger, especially, as polydactyly was considered a sign of of the devil. There are no contemporary accounts of Anne having any of these alleged deformities. And by contemporary, I mean by people living in her lifetime, who would have known Anne well. Had she been such a monster, one must wonder what Henry was thinking by wanting to bed her, let alone risk his immortal soul by breaking with the Catholic church to marry her. And, had her fetus been deformed, a sign of evil, it is highly doubtful Henry would have slept with her again and possibly impregnated her, in the months before her death, as Alison Weir in her book HENRY VIII THE KING AND HIS COURT states may have been a possibility.

Anonymous said...

Well we can not truely be sure that was the last child Anne had. Anne had miscarried in January. In April (according to David Loads, G.W Bernard, and Alison Weir) the king had made some vague reference to Anne being pregnant again. Which is why everyone was so surprise by Anne's sudden downfall.

Anonymous said...

Anne Boleyn during her marriage and courtship to the king as far as I know became pregnant three times.once in 1533 with elizabeth second in 1535 miscarrage of a child that being a boy and another in 1535 with a boy which was stillborn.(It was not a miscarrage)
There is evidence to say the child was a male but I am not sure that the child was deformed in anyway.I have heard that the baby was deformed but I am not sure how and what evidence there is to back it up.I heard also that Anne was pregnant in1536 on the lead up to her execution.But if she had of been wouldn't of Henry of prosponed or stopped the execution.Because wouldn't that of been bad and have been murder if he had gone along with the execution in theese cicumstances?
If true this would have made four pregnancies.

Anonymous said...

@tudorrose

- No.If Anne was pregnant at the time of her execution, Henry VIII would not had stopped it, because by that time he was already convince (by Cromwell)that Anne had cheated on him with Norris,Smeaton, etc. therefore he was convince that the baby she might have been carrying could not have been his. Which makes me wonder if Henry VIII had sleep with Anne after her miscarriage? Anne had miscarried in January,yet her downfall didn't happen until June. So if Anne conceive right after her miscarriage, than she would have been 3 months pregnant in April. If she miscarried the child around that time and it was deformed,it would however explain there being no mention of Anne being pregnant, after Henry VIII's vague reference to her pregnancy April,it would also account for the charges of incest (the king trying to throw blame off himself) witchcraft, the statement about Anne sleeping with over a hundred men....In that Era people felt that promiscuity ,incest and witchcraft was the cause of deformity . If Anne did miscarried a 4th child in April/May, it would also account for her strange statement about Lady Worcester. Anne was worried about the lady of Worcester's unborn baby. Anne stated that the baby did not stir in her (lady worcester's ) body. When ask what would be the cause,Anne replied: 'For The sorrow she took for me'. Anne could be referring to Lady Worcester's sadness,or she the "sorrow" could be a reference to the miscarriage/fetus. I would like to note that Lady Worcester is one of the women question by Cromwell, and who had given testimony against Anne.