Overview of The Creation of Anne Boleyn by Susan Bordo

The story of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, has been elusive to historians since her death in 1536 at the hands of her husband. This, in part, can be attributed to the destruction of almost everything she touched soon after her execution. On orders of the king, the castles that were once her home had all memory stripped of her. Portraits were destroyed, letters disappeared, their symbol of the H and A intertwined had the A ripped away. The remnants of her time on the throne are pieces of history that were overlooked in the workers haste to strip the castles in preparation for Jane Seymour to become queen. There are few hints left of what really happened during Anne’s life and how important she was during her reign which has created the widespread infatuation with Anne and who she really was. Why is Anne’s life of such interest to us then? The reasons are many and include the desire to know her role in the English reformation, being the first queen of England to ever be executed, and the impact it had on her daughter and the later Queen Elizabeth I.

In the beginning of their relationship, it is quite that Henry VIII was deeply infatuated with Anne, as she remained something unattainable in his eyes. The evidence of their love story remains as the letters Henry wrote to Anne prior to their marriage were left undamaged in the attempt to erase Anne from history. In his letter to her in 1528, Henry is not shy about calling Anne his sweetheart and discussing his desire to be with her as he begins to see the flaws in his marriage to Catherine of Aragon (N. Key & R. Bucholz (Eds.), 2009). He was hopeful for a new marriage, and a male heir, that would ensure his family’s claim to the throne. In part, it is this stage of hist...

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...stery compels people to learn more and as a result, historians and those that work with the Tudor England should remain close to fact so that Tudor England does not devolve into a fictional tale. This would be a travesty to history, to the monarchs and to the people that died while the Tudor monarchs tried to unite the kingdom, create peace within the isles, and grow to include more lands and a wealthier empire. Those constructing historical fiction must remember that these people are real, shaped the world and have earned being remembered for their contributions to a world that was expanding rapidly.

Works Cited

Bordo, S. (2013). The creation of anne boleyn. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

Religious reformations. In (2009). N. Key & R. Bucholz (Eds.), Sources and Debates in English History (2 ed., ch. 3). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.