(Both) My regular readers will recall that I’m not a fully signed-up member of the ever-growing Anne Boleyn fan club.

I will concede that she’s the most interesting of “the six” to study.  I would even go so far as to say that she’s one the most consequential English figures of the sixteenth century.  I also think she was guilty of unnecessary cruelty.

But even I react with horror when I see the second Queen of Henry VIII described as a home wrecker.  Here’s why:

1. Terms like “home wrecker” derive from a world with a drastically different sense of relationships, marriage and family life.  They are out of place in the sixteenth century

2. Although it’s not entirely clear, it’s probable that Henry had already decided to part from Katherine of Aragon before he set his heart upon making Anne his Queen.  Certainly the great Eric Ives seemed to think so…

3. Whatever the order of events that led to the King’s quest for an annulment, this hardly marks the “breakdown” of Katherine and Henry’s “relationship”.  Whatever “romantic love” had ever existed between them had long ceased.  (That hardly justifies Henry’s actions, but that’s not the point of this post…)

4. Even if Anne were the primary reason for Katherine’s fall (and I don’t think she was), it’s difficult to blame the young Boleyn personally. Men of the upper class enjoyed only very limited agency around their marital destiny. Women, considerably less. If it were the King himself that wanted your hand, your say in the matter was practically zero

There may very well be scenarios where we can assign Anne some culpability. I tend to think that she was the author of some of Katherine and Mary’s mistreatment, though I concede we are largely dependent on Imperial sources for that perspective. But to cast Anne as “the younger women” in breakdown of a middle-age marriage is unfair on the woman and the circumstances.

Of course, before Anne-enthusiasts get too carried away, we should note one other point. With a bit of light editing, almost all of this could also be offered in defence of Jane Seymour…