Thursday, February 04, 2010

Question from Evelyn - Anne Boleyn's intentions

So I have seen the movie ''The other Boleyn girl'', and read the books, Mary, bloody mary''
and ''Doomed queen Anne''. What is everyone's veiw on what Anne Boleyn's actual intentions were? It seems to m like she wanted to be queen, but some have told me it was completly the king's idea. Thanks!

Evelyn

5 comments:

Kathy said...

Evelyn, I am not a fan of Anne Boleyn's, so my opinion is biased and I won't even bother to express it. I just want to tell you not to base your ideas on anything regarding the Tudor era on novels and movies. Please realize that these are not accurate and are just sensationalized and grossly simplified and distorted takes on the real people and issues of the day. Please take the time to read history books. Though, of course, there is disagreement among historians, there is a wealth of genuine knowledge out there that will give you a much better idea of the period and personalities than what you see in the popular works.

Elizabeth M. said...

The Other Boleyn Girl is absolutely worthless in trying to learn anything about Anne Boleyn. The book and the film are so inaccurate. Things are made up out of whole cloth or sensationalized. I went to see the film just out of curiosity, and I made an annoyance of myself to the other theater goers with my comments to my husband about all the inaccuracies. The book is not any better. It is a pet peeve of mine to alter history for the sake of drama, when the actual events were more dramatic.
To get an accurate portrait of the woman, the standard biography of her is THE RISE AND FALL OF ANNE BOLEYN by Eric Ives. There are lots of books about Anne, but this is by far the best and most authoritative.
As to her intentions, well she was in love as a young girl just returned from France with young Henry Percy, heir to the Earl of Northumberland. Had the young man's father and Cardinal Wolsey not put a halt to her relationship, whether at King Henry's instigation or not, she may have been contented to live out her life as the Countess of Northumberland.

boohoo said...

While I agree with the previous posters - you shouldn't base your opinion on fiction only, I don't actually think there's anything wrong with getting a different view on what these people may have been like through the eyes of fiction-writers, doesn't mean you have to agree with them of course ;)

I personally think Anne Boleyn was neither all good nor all bad. So many factors have to be taken into account. Just think how many things happen to change your opinions and view on life and goals. I think she pushed Henry into a divorce but that doesn't mean she neccesarily did it to be "evil". I love how we'll never really know and all the different opinions every one has on her :)

Rachel said...

I have read both historical and fictional accounts of Anne Boleyn's life. I rely more on the historical accounts but some of the fictional-based on fact ones are fun just to get a different perspective. I think Anne Boleyn was a scorned woman who was denied the marriage she wanted with Henry Percy. She was then expected by Henry VIII and her family to bed the King and become his mistress after her sister had already done so. In my opinion she wanted nothing to do with Henry in the beginning but women had very little say in the matter back then and she eventually relented to both Henry and her family. This was not pretty and Anne was a very spiteful, vindictive person. Do I blame her for being spiteful and vindictive? Not entirely. Do I condone her behavior, absolutely not. Yet I believe in the old saying that you must walk a mile in a persons shoes to really know who they were. I have always been in her corner. And I have never believed most of the vicious rumors that circulated around about her at the time of her downfall and beheading. JMHO

tudor fanatic said...

I personally think that she was a very ambitious and intelligent woman in an era when the main purpose of a woman was as a machine for turning out children, sons in particular. Women had no real freedom and were simply expected to live out their days being obedient to their husband. I think Anne Boleyn probably just wanted something more than that, and the only way she felt she could achieve that was by using her charms to make herself queen. I don't agree with the way that she treated Katherine of Aragon, but at the same time I think that maybe had their positions been reversed Katherine would have done the same to Anne. However, I think we can all agree that whether or not Anne was justified in her treatment of Katherine, it still should not have meant her getting sent to her death.