Anne Boleyn. The National Gallery portrait, London.

This article represents Part Two of a three part treatise on the correct approach for success in Anna Bolena, in particular for Miss Netrebko as earlier discussed here.  Excusing ones professional existence, there is perhaps nothing more interesting to Crew Mantle next to opera than history from the Medieval period onwards to the early 1600’s. In the library of my manor house, one will find volumes on some of the pivotal yet lesser appreciated nuances which directed the flow of civilisation during this period. For instance, there is the two volume set devoted to English Queens published in the late Victorian period, which includes lithographs of each Queen borne from descriptions of their particular period. Although I have found only the earliest part of Henry VIII’s reign of worthy interest, his maniaical determination to bear a son at any cost changed the path of Europe decisively. Perhaps this is why Anne Boleyn remains perhaps as one of the most important figures in English history.

The Anne Boleyn I have come to know, was an interesting dilemma. Given her formative years were spent in the morally loose courts of France, as an adult woman it would follow that her awareness of a woman’s ‘gifts’ made her that much more alluring then the pale English court ladies of the day. Not only did it possess her with a special aura at court, the fact is she knew precisely how to use this allure to best advantage. A woman who is capable of exhibiting this sort of balancing act of demureness required of early 16 th century English court women, alongside the sexually liberated young woman from France, indicates an extremely vibrant and intelligent mind. While in the service of Queen Claude of France, Anne Boleyn also began her keen interest with reformation. Conversely, Anne Boleyn was also a product of the period where woman were nothing more then chattels to men of power, and thus enjoyed an exceptionally limited scope of power herself; hers was drawn solely from her husband. Still at the end of the day Anne Boleyn can only be viewed as an articulate, disciplined woman who knew what she wanted and went after it. When she finally reached her pinnacle as Queen, she was more aware than anyone else how precarious her position was. And make no mistake, this woman did not have close friends… they were ALL thouroghly on the side of Henry, including her own father and uncle. The inner resources of Anne Boleyn had to have been incredible, as her outward hateur masked a desperate harrowed woman who could not whisper a single phrase which might be taken out of context. Here is a clip from Anne of the Thousand Days which for myself draws something of the real extant character of Anne:

Miss Genevieve Bujold and Sir Richard Burton, the Tower Scene. 

To fully understand Anne Boleyn and thus correctly portray her, COMMANDOpera has drawn a lengthy portrait below of the real woman. Although one may read the numerous volumes on Queen Anne as I have, that would take weeks of the readers time as opposed to the single hour required to earnestly attend this post. It is well worth the time invested particularly if you are an artist looking to portray this particular Queen at some point. Her history is cleanly laid out with the text, and the supporting five part video series COMMANDOpera has selected. If only Maestro Donizetti had these armaments. It is critical to try to understand and figure out Anne as a living woman as opposed to the historical figure. Who does she remind you of, or speak to you as? Was she the Anna Wintour of her day, or was she more like Wallis Simpson? Noting that Mr. Felice Romani’s text is seriously loosely based on reality, an artist must nevertheless bring Anne Boleyn to life in such a way to satisfy the expectations of a knowledgeable public.   

For a woman who played such an important part in English history, we know remarkably little about her earliest years. Biographer Paul Friedmann puts Anne’s birth at 1502, probably at Blickling (Norfolk) and the date of birth seems to be at the end of May or early June. Other historians put Anne’s birth as late as 1507 or 1509. Anne spent part of her childhood at the court of the Archduchess Margaret. Mr.Friedmann puts her age at 12-13, as that was the minimum age for a ‘fille d’honneur’. It was from there that she was transferred to the household of Mary, Henry VIII’s sister, who was married to Louis XII of France. Anne’s sister Mary was already in ‘the French Queen’s’ attendance. However, when Louis died, Mary Boleyn returned to England with Mary Tudor, while Anne remained in France to attend Claude, the new French queen. Anne remained in France for the next 6 or 7 years. Because of her position, it is possible that she was at the Field of Cloth of Gold, the famous meeting between Henry VIII and the French king, Francis I. During her stay in France she learned to speak French fluently and developed a taste for French clothes, poetry and music.

Anne Boleyn Part 1

The legend of Anne Boleyn always includes a sixth finger and a large mole or goiter on her neck. However, one would have to wonder if a woman with these oddities (not to mention the numerous other moles and warts she was said to have) would be so captivating to the king. She may have had some small moles, as most people do, but they would be more like the attractive ‘beauty marks’. A quote from the Venetian Ambassador said she was ‘not one of the handsomest women in the world…’. She was considered moderately pretty. But, one must consider what ‘pretty’ was in the 16th century. Anne was the opposite of the pale, blonde-haired, blue-eyed image of beauty. She had dark, olive-colored skin, thick dark brown hair and dark brown eyes which often appeared black. Those large dark eyes were often singled out in descriptions of Anne. She clearly used them, and the fascination they aroused, to her advantage whenever possible. She was of average height, had small breasts and a long, elegant neck.

Anne Boleyn Part 2

Anne returned to England around 1521 for details for her marriage were being worked out. Meanwhile she went to court to attend Queen Catherine. Her first recorded appearance at Court was March 1, 1522 at a masque. After her marriage to the heir of Ormonde fell through, she began an affair with Henry Percy, also a rich heir. Cardinal Wolsey put a stop to the romance, which could be why Anne engendered such a hatred of him later in life. It has been suggested that Wolsey stepped in on behalf of the King to remove Percy from the scene because he had already noticed Anne and wanted her for himself. Fraser asserts that this is not the case since the romance between Anne and Percy ended in 1522 and the King didn’t notice Anne until 1526. It is possible that Anne had a precontract with Percy. Somewhere in this time, Anne also had a relationship of some sort with the poet Sir Thomas Wyatt. Wyatt was married in 1520, so the timing of the supposed affair is uncertain. Wyatt was separated from his wife, but there could be little suggestion of his eventual marriage to Anne. Theirs appears to be more of a courtly love.

Exactly when and where Henry VIII first noticed Anne is not known. It is likely that Henry sought to make Anne his mistress, as he had her sister Mary years before. Maybe drawing on the example of Elizabeth Woodville, Queen to Edward IV (and maternal grandmother to Henry VIII) who was said to have told King Edward that she would only be his wife, not his mistress, Anne denied Henry VIII sexual favors. We don’t know who first had the idea marriage, but eventually it evolved into “Queen or nothing” for Anne. At first, the court probably thought that Anne would just end up as another one of Henry’s mistresses. But, in 1527 we see that Henry began to seek an annulment of his marriage to Catherine, making him free to marry again. King Henry’s passion for Anne can be attested to in the love letters he wrote to her when she was away from court. Henry hated writing letters, and very few documents in his own hand survive. However, 17 love letters to Anne remain and are preserved in the Vatican library.

In 1528, Anne’s emergence at Court began. Anne also showed real interest in religious reform and may have introduced some of the ‘new ideas’ to Henry, and gaining the hatred of some members of the Court. When the court spent Christmas at Greenwich that year, Anne was lodged in nice apartments near those of the King. The legal debates on the marriage of Henry and Catherine of Aragon continued on. Anne was no doubt frustrated by the lack of progress. Her temper and tongue showed themselves at times in famous arguments between her and Henry for all the court to see. Anne feared that Henry might go back to Catherine if the marriage could not be annulled and Anne would have wasted time that she could have used to make an advantageous marriage. Anne was not popular with the people of England. They were upset to learn that at the Christmas celebrations of 1529, Anne was given precedence over the Duchesses of Norfolk and Suffolk, the latter of which was the King’s own sister, Mary. In this period, records show that Henry began to spend more and more on Anne, buying her clothes, jewellery, and things for her amusement such as playing cards and bows and arrows. The waiting continued and Anne’s position continued to rise. On the first day of September 1532, she was created Marquess of Pembroke, a title she held in her own right. In October, she held a position of honor at meetings between Henry and the French King in Calais.

Anne Boleyn Part 3

Sometime near the end of 1532, Anne finally gave way and by December she was pregnant. To avoid any questions of the legitimacy of the child, Henry was forced into action. Sometime near St. Paul’s Day (January 25) 1533, Anne and Henry were secretly married. Although the King’s marriage to Catherine was not dissolved, in the King’s mind it had never existed in the first place, so he was free to marry whomever he wanted. On May 23, the Archbishop officially proclaimed that the marriage of Henry and Catherine was invalid. Plans for Anne’s coronation began. In preparation, she had been brought by water from Greenwich to the Tower of London dressed in cloth of gold. The barges following her were said to stretch for four miles down the Thames. On the 1st of June, she left the Tower in procession to Westminster Abbey, where she became a crowned and anointed Queen in a ceremony led by Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Anne Bolyen Part 4

By August, preparations were being made for the birth of Anne’s child, which was sure to be a boy. Names were being chosen, with Edward and Henry the top choices. The proclamation of the child’s birth had already been written with ‘prince’ used to refer to the child. Anne took to her chamber, according to custom, on August 26, 1533 and on September 7, at about 3:00 in the afternoon, the Princess Elizabeth was born. Her christening service was scaled down, but still a pleasant affair. The princess’ white christening robes can currently be seen on display at Sudeley Castle in England. Anne now knew that it was imperative that she produce a son. By January of 1534, she was pregnant again, but the child was either miscarried or stillborn. In 1535, she was become pregnant again but miscarried by the end of January. The child was reported to have been a boy. The Queen was quite upset, and blamed the miscarriage on her state of mind after hearing that Henry had taken a fall in jousting. She had to have known at this point that her failure to produce a living male heir was a threat to her own life, especially since the King’s fancy for one of her ladies-in-waiting, Jane Seymour, began to grow.

Anne Boleyn Part 5

It is within this next paragraph of Anne Boleyns history that Maestro Donizetti derives the plot for Anna Bolena;

Anne’s enemies at court began to plot against her using the King’s attentions to Jane Seymour as the catalyst for action. Cromwell began to move in action to bring down the Queen. He persuaded the King to sign a document calling for an investigation that would possibly result in charges of treason. On April 30, 1536, Anne’s musician and friend for several years, Mark Smeaton, was arrested and probably tortured into making ‘revelations’ about the Queen. Next, Sir Henry Norris was arrested and taken to the Tower of London. Then the Queen’s own brother, George Boleyn, Lord Rochford was arrested. On May 2, the Queen herself was arrested at Greenwich and was informed of the charges against her: adultery, incest and plotting to murder the King. She was then taken to the Tower by barge along the same path she had traveled to prepare for her coronation just three years earlier. In fact, she was lodged in the same rooms she had held on that occasion. There were several more arrests. Sir Francis Weston and William Brereton were charged with adultery with the Queen. Sir Thomas Wyatt was also arrested, but later released. They were put on trial with Smeaton and Norris at Westminster Hall on May 12, 1536. The men were not allowed to defend themselves, as was the case in charges of treason. They were found guilty and received the required punishment: they were to be hanged at Tyburn, cut down while still living and then disemboweled and quartered. On Monday the 15th, the Queen and her brother were put on trial at the Great Hall of the Tower of London. It is estimated that some 2000 people attended. Anne conducted herself in a calm and dignified manner, denying all the charges against her. Her brother was tried next, with his own wife testifying against him (she got her due later in the scandal of Kathryn Howard). Even though the evidence against them was scant, they were both found guilty, with the sentence being read by their uncle, Thomas Howard , the Duke of Norfolk. They were to be either burnt at the stake (which was the punishment for incest) or beheaded, at the discretion of the King.

On May 17, George Boleyn was executed on Tower Hill. The other four men condemned with the Queen had their sentences commuted from the grisly fate at Tyburn to a simple beheading at the Tower with Lord Rochford. Anne knew that her time would soon come and started to become hysterical, her behavior swinging from great levity to body- wracking sobs. She received news that an expert swordsman from Calais had been summoned, who would no doubt deliver a cleaner blow with a sharp sword than the traditional axe. It was then that she made the famous comment about her ‘little neck’. Interestingly, shortly before her execution on charges of adultery, the Queen’s marriage to the King was dissolved and declared invalid. One would wonder then how she could have committed adultery if she had in fact never been married to the King, but this was overlooked, as were so many other lapses of logic in the charges against Anne. They came for Anne on the morning of May 19 to take her to the Tower Green, where she was to be afforded the dignity of a private execution. She made a short speech before kneeling on the scaffold. She removed her headdress (which was an English gable hood and not her usual French hood, according to contemporary reports) and her ladies tied a blindfold over her eyes. The sword itself had been hidden under the straw. The swordsman cut off her head with one swift stroke. Anne’s body and head were put into an arrow chest and buried in an unmarked grave in the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula which adjoined the Tower Green. Her body was one that was identified in renovations of the chapel under the reign of Queen Victoria, so Anne’s final resting place is now marked in the marble floor.

The synopsis of Anna Bolena by Gaetano Donizetti:

Act One

Act One, Scene One, takes places at night in the apartments of the Queen at Windsor Castle. Courtiers comment that the queen’s star is setting, because the king’s fickle heart burns with another love. Giovanna (Jane Seymour) enters. Troubled, she wonders why the queen has asked to see her. (“Ella di me, sollecita più dell’usato, ha chiesto.”) Anna (the queen, Anne Boleyn) enters and notes that people seem sad. (“Si taciturna e mesta mai non vidi assemblea.”) The queen admits being troubled to Giovanna. At the queen’s request, her page Smeton plays the harp and sings to cheer the people present. (“Deh! non voler costringere a finta gioia il viso . . .”) The queen asks him to stop. Unheard by any one else, she says to herself that the ashes of her first love are still burning, and that she is now unhappy in her vain splendor. The queen is unwilling to tell Giovanna what is troubling her. All leave, except Giovanna. Enrico (Henry VIII) the king enters. Enrico tells Giovanna that soon she will have no rival, that the altar has been prepared for her , that she will have husband, sceptre, and throne. Each leaves by a different door.

Act One, Scene Two, takes place during the daytime in the park surrounding Windsor Castle. Lord Rochefort, Anna’s brother, is surprised to meet Lord Richard Percy, who has been called back to England from exile by Enrico. Percy asks is it true that the Queen is unhappy and that the King has changed. “And does love ever remain content?,” replies Rochefort. Hunters enter. Percy is agitated at the prospect of possibly seeing Anna, who was his first love. Enrico and Anna enter and express surprise at seeing Percy. Enrico does not allow Percy to kiss his hand, but says that Anna has given him assurances of Percy’s innocence. “Ah! do not betray me, o heart!,” says Anna to herself. She still has feelings for Percy. In an aside, Enrico tells Hervey, an officer of the king, to be the spy of every step and every word of Anna and Percy.

Act One, Scene Three, takes place in Windsor Castle in a small room leading into Anna’s apartments. Smeton takes from his breast a locket containing Anna’s portrait and he kisses it. He has stolen it and has come to return it. He hears a sound and hides beyond a screen. Anna and Rochefort enter. Rochefort asks Anna to hear Percy. Then he leaves. Smeton peeps out from behind the screen, but feels that he cannot escape. Percy enters. Percy says that he sees that Anna is unhappy. She tells him that the king now loathes her. Percy says that he still loves her. Anna tell him not to speak to her of love. Before leaving, Percy asks whether he can see Anna again. She says, “No. Never again.” He draws his sword to stab himself, and Anna screams. In the mistaken belief that Percy is attacking Anna, Smeton rushes out from behind the screen. Smeton and Percy are about to fight. Anna faints, and Rochefort rushes in. Just then, Enrico enters and sees the unsheathed swords. Summoning attendants, he says that these persons have betrayed their king. Smeton says that it is not true, and tears open his tunic to offer his breast to the king for slaying if he is lying. The locket with Anna’s portrait falls at the king’s feet. The king snatches it up. “Ecco il tradimento,” “Here is betrayal,” he says. He orders that the offenders be dragged to dungeons. Anna says to herself that her fate is sealed.

Act Two

Act Two, Scene One, takes place in London in an antechamber leading into the rooms where Anna is held prisoner. Guards stand at the door. They note that even Giovanna Seymour has stayed away from Anna. Anna enters with a chorus of ladies, who tell her to place her trust in heaven. Hervey enters and says that the Council of Peers has summoned the ladies into its presence. The ladies leave with Hervey. Giovanna enters, and says that Anna can avoid being put to death by admitting guilt. Anna says that she will not buy her life with infamy. She expresses the hope that her successor will wear a crown of thorns. Giovanna admits that she is to be the successor. Anna tells her to leave, but says that Enrico alone is the guilty one. Giovanna leaves, deeply upset.

Act Two, Scene Two, takes place in the antechamber leading into the hall where the Council of Peers is meeting. Hervey tells courtiers that Anna is lost, because Smeton has talked and has revealed a crime. Enrico enters. Hervey says that Smeton has fallen into the trap. Enrico tells Hervey to continue to let Smeton believe that he has saved Anna’s life. Anna and Percy are brought in, separately. Enrico says that Anna has made love to the page Smeton, and that there are witnesses. He says that both Anna and Percy will dies. Percy says that it is written in heaven that he and Anna are married. They are led away by guards. Giovanna enters. She says that she does not want to be the cause of Anna’s death. Enrico says that she will not save Anna by leaving. Hervey enters and says that the Council has dissolved the royal marriage and has condemned Anna and her accomplices to death. Courtiers and Giovanna ask the king to be merciful. He tells them to leave.

Act Two, Scene Three, takes place at the Tower of London. Percy and Rochefort are together in their cell. Hervey enters and says that the king has pardoned them. They ask about Anna. Hearing that she is to be executed, they choose to be executed also. They leave, surrounded by guards.

In Anna’s cell, a chorus of ladies comment on her madness and grief. Anna enters and asks them “Are you weeping?”, “Piangete voi?” She imagines that it is her wedding day to the king. Then she imagines that she sees Percy, and she asks him to take her back to her childhood home. (“Al dolce guidami castel natio . . .”) Percy, Rochefort, and Smeton are brought in. Smeton throws himself at Anna’s feet, and says that he accused her in the belief that he was saving her life. In delirium, Anna asks him why he is not playing his lute. The sound of cannon is heard. Anna comes to her senses. She is told that Giovanna and Enrico are being acclaimed by the populace on their wedding day. Anna says that she does not invoke vengeance on the wicked couple. She faints. Guards enter to lead the prisoners to the block. Smeton, Percy and Rochefort say that one victim has already been sacrificed.