Sunday 27 March 2011

William Booth

NAME William Booth

WHAT FAMOUS FOR Founder of the Salvation Army

BIRTH b 10 April 1829, Sneinton, Nottingham, England

FAMILY BACKGROUND William was the only son of four surviving children born to Samuel Booth and Mary Moss. Booth's speculative builder father was wealthy by the standards of the time, but during his childhood, as a result of bad investments, the family descended into poverty and Samuel Booth became an alcoholic. William said of him "He set his heart unduly upon worldly gains and was miserable when his fortune melted away."

CHILDHOOD A "careless" lad up to the age of 15, after a bad illness William's spirit became awakened and he joined a Wesleyan chapel.

EDUCATION In 1842, Samuel Booth, who by then was bankrupt, could no longer afford his son's school fees, and 13-year-old William was apprenticed to a pawnbroker.

CAREER RECORD Two years into his apprenticeship William was inspired by a hellfire preacher from USA. He was converted to Methodism. He then read extensively and trained himself in writing and in speech, becoming a Methodist lay preacher initially in the Nottingham slums and a pawn broker. Booth disliked pawnbroking and considered it ungodly.

1852 On 10 April, his 23rd birthday, Booth left pawnbroking and became a full-time preacher. He travelled through England as an itinerant preacher of the Methodist Reform Church and took on several minister's jobs.
1861 Booth resigned from the Methodist ministry as he was unhappy that the annual conference of the denomination kept assigning him to a pastorate, the duties of which he had to neglect to respond to the frequent requests that he do evangelistic campaigns. Instead he became an independent evangelist.
1865 Began work as unattached evangelist in London's East End heading up 'The Christian Mission.'
1878 Adopted name Salvation Army as churches were reluctant to accept his converts. 1880 William set up first Salvation Army branch in USA.

APPEARANCE With his very long beard, the elderly William Booth looked like Uncle Albert in (British comedy show) Only Fools and Horses.

FASHION Booth's Salvation Army adopted their famous uniform including the bonnets which provided protective headgear when the going got rough.

CHARACTER Gruff voiced and a strong disciplinarian. A good orator, miraculously with Booth's beard you wouldn't think he'd be able to speak above a whisper.

SENSE OF HUMOUR It was William Booth who explained the authoritarian framework of his Salvation Army by remarking that if Moses had operated through committees the Israelites never would have got across the Red Sea."

RELATIONSHIPS William first met Catherine Mumford when he came to preach at her church in 1852. They soon fell in love and became engaged on 15 May 1852. During their three year engagement, Catherine constantly wrote letters of encouragement to William as he performed the tiring work of a preacher. They married on 16 June 1855 at Stockwell Green Congregational Church in London. Their wedding was very simple, as they wanted to use their time and money for his ministry. Even on their honeymoon Booth was asked to speak at meetings.
Catherine was a fervent Methodist of tenderest affection and great force of mind. She started preaching around 1860 and initiated a ministry of women. Catherine bore William 8 children and they were reared with an iron disciple. His grand daughter Catherine Bramwell-Booth (1884-1987) was a regular on British chat shows including Parkinson in the 1970s & 80s. His son William Bramwell (1856-1929) succeeded his father as general of Salvation Army.

MONEY AND FAME Booth lived on a small income partly settled on him by a friend and partly derived from the sale of his publications.

FOOD AND DRINK In his book In Darkest England and the Way Out, which contains proposals for the physical and spiritual assistance of the great mass of down and outs, Booth wrote, "A starving man cannot hear you preaching. Give him a bowl of soup and he will listen to every word."
Catherine was a temperance advocate and banned her husband’s medicinal port.

MUSIC AND ARTS Booth's Salvation army pinched the pop songs of their day and added Christian words. The bearded wonder's reaction to this was "Why should the devil have all the best tunes." Their loud processions with their drums and bass and dancing Christians disrupting the Sunday peace and quiet annoyed a lot of people.

LITERATURE Booth's 1890 In Darkest England and the Way Out contained proposals for the physical and spiritual assistance of the great mass of down and outs. As a result a scheme was launched the following year for the spiritual and social betterment of the submerged tenth. Booth asked for £100,000 - more than that came in.
Booth founded The War Cry, the official organ of The Salvation Army.

ANIMALS Booth once ordered his children's pet dog to be shot when it snapped at a servant. He was surprised when they were heartbroken and retrieved the carcass in order to have the pelt made into a rug. The Sally Army leader was bewildered when they received this with hysteria rather than gratitude.

PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY Booth experienced religious conversion at the age of 15 through the ministry of an American hellfire preacher and devoted his evenings over the following few years to religious work in the local slums. It is here that became acquainted with conditions of life among the very poor. Later Booth became a full-time travelling evangelist for the Methodist church. Trekking up and down the country by train, the recently married Booth and his wife, Catherine, survived on £2 a week.
In 1865 Booth and his wife started their mission aimed at the unprivileged classes that lived in unspeakable poverty in the East End of London. Thirteen years later, the annual Christmas appeal for William Booth’s Mission was drawn up. The circular was in dialogue form and to one of the questions “What is the Christian mission?” the answer was “a volunteer army”. Suddenly Booth seized a pen, crossed out “volunteer” and wrote instead “salvation”, thus coining the title “Salvation Army” for his movement.
His book In Darkest England, and the Way Out (1890) contained proposals for the physical and spiritual redemption of the many down-and-outs Booth ministered to. It was not only a best-seller after its 1890 release, but also set the foundation for the Army's modern social welfare schemes.
As a preacher Booth was a populist crowd puller. For example he was known to demonstrate the easy road to Hell by sliding down the stair-rail of his pulpit. A champion of the poor he railed against those who “reduce sweating to a fine art, who systematically and deliberately defraud the workman of his pay, who grind the faces of the poor and rob the widow and the orphan.”
In 1912 Booth, who had been in poor health for several years was dying. When asked what had been the secret of his success all the way through, the General replied “I will tell you the secret, God has had all there was of me!” The end of his last speech went as follows: “While women weep, as they do now, I’ll fight. While little children go hungry, I’ll fight. While there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, where there remains one dark soul without the light of God- I’ll fight! I’ll fight to the very end!”



SCANDAL In their early days Booth's "hallelujah band" of converted criminals and others met violent opposition. A skeleton army, supported by brewers which opposed Booth's teetotalism as a threat to their trade, was organised to break up meetings and for years the rank and file and the general himself incurred fines and imprisonment for breaches of peace. In 1882 642 Salvation Army officers including women were assaulted and 60 Salvation Army buildings damaged. Even leading evangelical, Lord Shaftesbury referred to him as "anti Christ."
When King Edward VII invited Booth to be officially present at his 1902 coronation ceremony, the public changed their views. By 1905 he was the cat's whiskers. The Salvation Army General went on a tour of the country and was received in state by many mayors and corporations.

HEALTH Booth discovered in 1909 that he was blind in his right eye and the sight in his left eye was dimmed by cataracts. On 21 August 1909 a surgeon at Guy's Hospital removed his right eye.

TRAVEL In 1904 Booth took part in a 'motorcade' when he was driven around Great Britain, stopping off in cities, towns and villages to preach to the assembled crowds from inside his open-top car.

DEATH William Booth was 83 years old when he died on 20 August 1912 at his home in Hadley Wood, London. He had been in poor health for several years. At the three day lying in state at Clapton Congress Hall 150,000people filed past his casket. On 27 August Booth's funeral service was held at London’s Olympia where 40,000 people attended, including Queen Mary, who sat almost unrecognised far to the rear of the great hall.
The following day Booth's funeral procession set out from International Headquarters. As it moved off 10,000 uniformed Salvationists fell in behind. Forty Salvation Army bands played the ‘Dead March’ from Handel’s Saul as the vast procession set off. He was buried with his wife Catherine Booth in the main London burial ground for 19th century non-conformist ministers and tutors, the non-denominational Abney Park Cemetery in Stoke Newington.

ACHIEVEMENTS (1) Booth founded the Salvation Army. By the time of his death his activities for the down and outs had extended all over the world.
(2) Booth's Salvation Army learnt that Under 16-year-old girls were being exploited as prostitutes. They were trapped and lured into brothels in London by adverts in county newspapers requesting "domestic help needed." Lured inside, drugged, raped and shipped off in caskets to Brussels and Antwerp, they were delivered to businessmen who had put in orders. The Salvation Army exposed this trade in a series of articles in the Pall Mall Gazette in the mid 1880s. As a result a 400,000 petition persuaded Parliament to change the age of consent from 12 to 16.
(3) His book In Darkest England And The Way Out not only caused a sensation after its 1890 release, but it set the foundation for modern social welfare schemes.

Sources Wikipedia
Food For Thought by Ed Pearce

Sunday 13 March 2011

Simon Bolivar

NAME Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte y Blanco. You will more likely know him as Simón Bolívar.

WHAT FAMOUS FOR Played a key role in Hispanic America's successful struggle for independence from the Spanish Empire.

BIRTH b July 24, 1783, Caracas, Venezuela

FAMILY BACKGROUND Simon's father, Coronel Don Juan Vicente Bolívar y Ponter, was a wealthy aristocratic landowner who had married into Spanish aristocracy. His mother was Doña María de la Concepción Palacios y Blanco . He had two older sisters and a brother: María Antonia, Juana, and Juan Vicente. Another sister, María del Carmen, died at birth.
Bolívar's father died when Simon was two and a half years old and his mother passed away when he was approaching nine years of age. He then was placed in the custody of a severe instructor, Miguel José Sanz, but this relationship did not work out and he was sent back to his home.

CHILDHOOD Simon's nanny, Hipólita gave young Simon all the affection he needed and indulged him in all his wishes and desires.

EDUCATION Not a simple Simon - Bolívar was educated by private tutors in Caracas and also in Spain, which he completed in 1799. The most influential of his tutors was Don Simón Rodríguez, who understood young Simon's personality and inclinations, and tried from the very beginning to be an empathetic friend. They took long walks through the countryside and climbed mountains. Don Simón taught the youngster how to swim and ride horses, and, in the process, taught him about liberty, human rights, politics, history, and sociology.
When Simon was fourteen, Don Simón had to abandon the country, as he was accused of being involved in a conspiracy against the Spanish government in Caracas. Thus, Simon entered the military academy of the Milicias de Veraguas, which his father had directed as colonel years earlier. Through these years of military training, he developed his fervent passion for armaments and military strategy, which he later would employ on the battlefields of the wars of independence.

CAREER RECORD 1804 For a time Bolívar was part of Napoleon's retinue during which he witnessed the coronation of the French Emperor in Notre Dame, and this majestic event left a profound a impression upon him. From that moment he wished that he could emulate similar triumphant glory for the people back home in Venezuela.
1807 Returned to Venezuela.
1810 After the Spanish governor is deprived of office Bolívar travels to London as representative of the Venezuelan government to attempt to secure British support for revolt against Spanish occupation.
1813 After invading Venezuela successfully, Bolívar is proclaimed El Libertador
1814 Bolívar entered Bogota, Columbia recapturing the city from the dissenting republican forces of Cundinamarca.
1815, After a number of political and military disputes with the government of Cartagena, Bolívar flees to Jamaica, then onto Haiti, where he was granted sanctuary and protection.
1817 With Haitian soldiers and vital material support (on the condition that he abolish slavery), Bolívar lands in Venezuela. He sets up provisional government in Venezuela & is elected president.
1819 Appointed himself President of Greater Colombia.
1824 Proclaimed himself Emperor of Peru.
1825 The Republic of Bolivia is created at the Congress of Upper Peru. Bolívar is thus one of the few men to have a country named after him.
1830 Abdicated as President of Colombia. "America" Bolívar said on his deathbed, " is ungovernable. Those who have served the revolution, have ploughed the sea."

APPEARANCE Long, thin face, long sideburns, dark hair. Like all good revolutionaries Bolívar had a beard.

FAMILY & OTHER AFFAIRS While in Madrid during 1802, he married María Teresa Rodríguez del Toro y Alaysa, who was the daughter of a nobleman. However on a brief return visit to Venezuela the following year, she succumbed to yellow fever. Bolívar never married again.

In the last eight years of his life, Bolívar had a relationship with Manuela Sáenz (1797 – 1856), the illegimate daughter of a Spanish nobleman in Quto, Ecudaor. She married a wealthy English merchant in 1817 and became an aristocrat and socialite in Lima, Peru, where she became active in support of revolutionary efforts. Leaving her husband in 1822, she soon began an eight-year collaboration and intimate relationship with Bolívar that lasted until his death in 1830.
After Manuela prevented an 1828 assassination attempt against her lover and facilitated his escape, Bolivar began to call her, "Libertadora del Libertador", the liberator of the liberator and she was celebrated and given many honors.

MONEY The Bolívar, Venezuela’s basic unit of currency is named after him.

LITERATURE In 1814 during his exile in Jamaica Bolívar wrote Letter From Jamaica, a vision of what he hoped Latin America might become.

PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION Bolívar was influenced by Napoleon, Rousseau and the French and American Revolutions. He dreamt of creating one nation from Mexico to Cape Horn. His Letter From Jamaica outlined a continent of constitution Republics based on England’s Houses of Lords and Commons. The president (him of course!) would serve for life.
Religion-wise Bolívar was brought up in the Catholic Church but got himself excommunicated and became an atheist.
Bolívar was a Freemason. He was initiated in 1803 in Cadiz, Spain's Masonic Lodge Lautaro. It was in this lodge that he first met some of his revolutionary peers, such as
José de San Martín. In May 1806 he was conferred the rank of Master Mason in the "Scottish Mother of St. Alexander of Scotland" in Paris.

SCANDAL Bolívar was prevented from fulfilling his dream of one single South American state by the powerful families whose dreams he threatened.
If one is being critical you could say that having destroyed Spanish rule Bolívar failed to replace it with an adequate form of government and was forced into dictatorship.

MILITARY RECORD During his time in Europe Bolívar was influenced by the revolutionary fervour of the time and vowed to free Venezuela. He fought over 200 battles in his military career.
1810 Bolívar fought under the command of Francisco de Miranda who led the revolt against the Spanish royalists.
1813 Bolívar invaded Venezuela, he captured Caracas, where he established a dictatorship.
1814 Bolívar commanded a force for the United Provinces and entered Bogota, Columbia, recapturing the city from the dissenting republican forces of Cuninamarca.
1815 Withdrew to Jamaica and Haiti. Bolívar raided Spanish American coasts and rallied the insurgents in Haiti proclaiming it a republic.
1817 Bolívar again invaded Venezuela, this time more successfully. He established a revolutionary government at Angostura (now Ciudad Bolívar).
1818 Secured independence for Chile & Venezuela
1819 Defeated Spanish in Colombia.
1821 Bolívar countered a resurgence of Spanish royalist activity by leading his army to an overwhelming victory near Carabobo, thus ensuring Venezuelan independence.
1822 Liberated Ecuador. New republic of Colombia now completely independent of Spain
1823 Bolívar was invited to lead Peruvian struggle. Did he accept? Do chicken have lips?
1824 Final victory won and framed constitution
1825 Independence of Upper Peru proclaimed.



TRAVEL Bolívar travelled widely in Europe in his younger days, which inspired him to liberate his country from Spain. He also saw a lot of West Indies and South America

DEATH Died a disillusioned & hated man at a friend’s estate in Columbia, having failed to pacify contending factions in Columbia.
Bolívar resigned his presidency on April 27, 1830, intending to leave the country for exile in Europe or the Caribbean. However he died a disillusioned man on December 17, 1830, at a friend’s estate in Columbia after a painful battle with tubercolis. His remains were buried in the cathedral of
Santa Marta. Twelve years later, in 1842, at the request of President José Antonio Páez, they were moved from Santa Marta to Caracas, where a monument was set up for his interment in the National Pantheon of Venezuela. The 'Quinta' near Santa Marta has been preserved as a museum with numerous references to his life.

APPEARANCES IN MEDIA 1. French composer Darius Milhaud wrote an opera in 1943 "Bolívar," based on his life.
2. Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s 1991 novel, The General In His Labyrinth, describes the last four months of Bolívar’s life.

ACHIEVEMENTS 1. Freed much of South America from Spanish occupation. Thus creating Panama, Venezuela and Ecuador from Spain
2. Bolivia (formerly Upper Peru ) is named thus in Bolívar’s honour.
3. In Venezuela & Bolivia Bolívar’s birthday is a national holiday.
4. Proclaimed the liberty of slaves in Venezuela.

Sources Wikipedia and my knowledge.

Sunday 6 March 2011

Anne Boleyn

NAME Anne Boleyn

WHAT FAMOUS FOR Second wife of King Henry VIII.

BIRTH born sometime between 1501 - 1507 at Blicking Hall, Norfolk. I cannot be more accurate as a lack of parish records from the period has made it impossible to establish Anne's date of birth.

FAMILY BACKGROUND Her father, Sir Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wiltshire (1477-1539), was a wealthy diplomat whose offices included ambassador to France and Envoy to Holy Roman Emperor. Anne's mum, Elizabeth Howard was the daughter of the 2nd Duke of Norfolk. Later tradition would claim that the Boleyns were practically middle-class, but recent research has proven that Anne Boleyn was born a "great lady". Her great-grandparents included a Lord Mayor of London, a duke, an earl, two aristocratic ladies and a knight
Anne's older sister, Mary was a mistress to Henry VIII for four years, before Anne and Henry were an item. Her brother George was born some time around 1504.

CHILDHOOD Anne and her siblings grew up at Hever Castle in Kent and she later accompanied her father to France when he was posted there as an ambassador.

EDUCATION Anne's father secured a place for her with Margaret, Archduchess of Austria and daughter of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, for Anne to be educated in the Netherlands where it is believed she lived from the spring of 1513 to the autumn of 1514. This was followed by some years in France, until 1521, where she was lady-in waiting to Queen Claude of France. In the Queen's household, she completed her study of French as well as acquiring a thorough knowledge of French culture and etiquette. For all practical purposes, she was a Frenchwoman.
Anne's European education ended in the winter of 1521, when she was summoned back to England on her father's orders, sailing from Calais around January 1522.

CAREER RECORD Before she'd reached her teens, Anne's father arranged for her to attend Henry VIII's sister, Mary Tudor, Queen of France, for Mary's marriage to Louis XII of France. She went on to be a maid of honour to Queen Claude of France, with whom she stayed nearly seven years. Anne was later promoted by Henry VIII from a maid to marchioness then to Queen in 1533. She was Queen for a thousand days but failed in her prime duty of royal breeding machine.

APPEARANCE Reputedly, Anne has six fingers on one hand despite the popular prejudice falling in favour of five and a strawberry birth mark on her throat. In fact she had two finger tips on the end of one finger. Anne wasn't all fingers and thumbs, having beautiful coal black eyes with long dark hair, long neck,swarthy complexion, middling to pert stature. Anne wasn't a physical beauty but had the ability to exploit her vivaciousness.
Her enemies exaggerated her defects, claiming she was a witch with three nipples and six fingers.



FASHION Anne wore special gloves to hide her extra finger.

CHARACTER Indiscreet, tempestuous, ambitious, bossy. Possessed a quick temper and savage tongue. On the other hand, enchanting, flirty and bold and resolute.
Anne's personality was complex, and it has been greatly distorted by those opposed to her marriage and religious views. She was also a very loyal woman who gave generously to charity and, contrary to popular myth, was extremely emotional. In her youth she was "sweet and cheerful," enjoyed gambling, drinking wine and gossiping. She was also brave and charismatic and her personal motto loosely translated as "This will be, no matter who grumbles!" She was also well-educated, bold, resolute and charming. Yet Anne could also be extravagant, neurotic, indiscreet, bossy and possessed a quick temper and savage tongue.

SENSE OF HUMOUR Prone to bouts of hysterical laughter.

RELATIONSHIPS Anne was taken to court in early life, and was courted first around 1522 by Lord Henry Percy, the son of the Earl of Northumberland. Some say that they became lovers, while others maintain that it was just a simple courtship. The latter was probably true, for Anne was far too intelligent to waste what value she had on a few nights' passion that were to avail her nothing. Her elder sister, Mary Boleyn had been sexually 'adventurous' in France, and Anne had been deeply humiliated as a result.
Around the spring of 1523, Anne and Percy were secretly betrothed. Lord Henry's father refused to sanction the marriage when he heard of it from Cardinal Wolsey, who was possibly acting upon the King's instructions to leave Anne free for him. Anne was sent from court to Hever Castle in Kent. It is not known how long she remained away from court, although she was certainly back by mid-1525.
Henry, who for four years had dated Anne's big sis was attracted to her and at Shrovetide 1526 he began the serious pursuit. Anne refused to become the King's mistress, but began a correspondence with him, (The Vatican library preserves 12 love letters he wrote to her) and Henry proposed marriage to her sometime in 1527 (probably around New Year), while he sought a divorce from Katherine of Aragon. After some hesitation, she agreed. Anne and Henry finally slept together for the first time in late 1532 at Calais, and her reasons for submitting at this point are difficult to fathom. They married in secret on January 25, 1533 and Archbishop Cranmer blessed the marriage a few months later. The couple had fingers crossed for a male heir but there were only several miscarriages, a still birth and the illegitimate Elizabeth, who was conceived before they married. Anne and Henry were soon heading for splitsville, the result being she became the new kid on the block.
Anne was obviously very alluring. The French ambassador, de la Pommeraye, was completely captivated by her and paid tribute to her formidable intellect and influence over English foreign policy. The diplomat John Barlow was devoted to her, and spied for her in Rome. Later in life this ability to attract fanatical male devotion back-fired spectacularly when she found herself the object of feverish unrequited love from a Dutch musician in her household called Marc Smeaton.

MONEY AND FAME Once she became the king's mistress, Anne became the victim of a public hate campaign, mobilised by Katherine of Aragon's supporters, and in 1531 a crowd of 8,000 women marched through the streets of London in an attempt to lynch her.
Anne's coronation in 1533 was marked by the people's hostility, and the crowds refused to remove their hats as a sign of respect for their new queen. When asked what she had made of London at her coronation, Anne replied, "I liked the City well-enough, but I saw few caps in the air and heard few tongues."

FOOD AND DRINK Anne had a rather off-putting habit, first observed during her coronation banquet, of vomiting during meals. So one of her ladies in waiting had to hold up a sheet to shield her from other diners at appropriate moments.
In her younger days Anne created a recipe for a small tart with an almond, curd cheese and lemon filling. Henry was so enchanted he named the creator of the cake maid of honour.

MUSIC AND ARTS Anne was gifted musically - her extra finger must have made her a mean harpsichord player. Ole dark eye's ballads included "O Deathe oche me on Sepe" which is said to have moved her husband.
William Forrest, author of a contemporary poem about Catherine of Aragon, complimented Anne's "passing excellent" skill as a dancer. "Here", he wrote, "was [a] fresh young damsel, that could trip and go."

LITERATURE Fluent in French, some of Anne's love letters between her and Henry were in French.
Final words from Anne Boleyn's Book of Hours "Remember me when you do pray. That hope doth lead from day to day."

NATURE Anne had a wolfhound called Vrian who was allegedly beheaded along with her.

HOBBIES AND SPORTS Quite sporty, Anne went riding and hunting with Henry. However during a deer shoot with the king, she ruined her chances of winning Sports Personality of the Year when she shot a cow.
Anne also played indoor bowls with the king. Presumably her extra finger came in handy for imparting extra spin.
Anne was a great card player and she won loads of dosh and other things when she played Henry for money.
Legend has it that a 19th-century painting based on a disputed sketch by Hans Holbein the Younger of Anne is the basis for the queens in a deck of cards. However, the actual inspiration was Anne's mother-in-law Elizabeth of York.
The queen was watching some real tennis when she was arrested and taken off to the Tower before she had a chance to collect her winnings.

SCIENCE AND MATHS Anne could count on her fingers to 11.

PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY Despite being a Catholic herself, Anne was sympathetic towards the new Bible based Protestantism and Martin Luther viewed her rise to the throne as a positive sign.
When Anne was executed in 1536 for alleged adultery and incest, her last words being “Christ have mercy on my soul.”

SCANDAL Henry VIII was passionately in love with Anne and despite being already married to Catherine of Aragon he was concerned about letting her slip through his fingers. When the king appointed as archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer as archbishop of Canterbury, one of the first things he did was declare the former marriage void and gave his blessing to the proposed marriage thus incurring the wrath of the pope. Henry and Anne were excommunicated and in the next year Parliament passed an Act of Supremacy which made the king head of the Church of England and severe penalties for anyone who opposed Henry's marriage to Anne. However, Anne's lack of success on the child bearing front was causing concern and when she miscarried, Henry thought the marriage was damned.
That esteemed historian Jane Austen wrote in her History of England "It is however but justice and my duty to declare that this amiable woman was entirely innocent of the crimes with which she was accused and of which her beauty, her elegance and her sprightliness were sufficient proofs, not to mention her solemn protestations of innocence, the weakness of the charges against her and the king's character;"

HOMES Anne was brought up at Hever Castle in Kent, her family having purchased it in 1462.

DEATH Anne died 19 May 1536(aged 29-35 depending on when she was actually born... I must sort out those darn parish records) The queen was fingered for incest with her half brother and infidelity with four others. When told of the charge he said "Oh, Lord help me as I am guiltless of that where I am charged." She continued to protest her innocence, but Henry didn't lift a finger, in fact he was probably behind the trumped up charges as by this time the cad was in love with Jane Seymour. Anne was sentenced to be beheaded at Tower Green, London. She requested to be executed by sword and the service of a skilled executioner of Calais was engaged, who used a sword for the beheading according to French practice instead of the axe used by English executioners. Anne rehearsed the beheading the night before and the execution itself had to be delayed so she had to walk around the block weeping and laughing in turns. Her last words were probably sarcastic about her husband, "A gentler or more merciful prince was there never. To me he was ever a good, gentle and sovereign lord. Christ have mercy on my soul." Anne refused to be blindfolded and the executioner found her so disarming he persuaded someone to attract her attention so he could steal up silently behind her to carry out the death penalty.
Meanwhile Henry was in Epping forest taking part in a hunt waiting for a signal to proclaim the news that "it" had been done.
Anne was buried in the chapel of St Peter at the Tower of London in a box that had contained arrows. Henry wore white to her funeral. A day later he was betrothed to Jane Seymour.
When the chapel was restored in 1876, Queen Victoria had the 1,500 bodies buried there exhumed and properly reburied including Anne.



APPEARANCES IN MEDIA 1. Three big film appearances
1936 Played by Merle Oberon in The Private Life of Henry 8th .
1971 Played by Genevieve Bujold in Anne of a Thousand Days.
2008 Played by Natalie Portman in The Other Boleyn Girl (Incidentally, one of uncredited lawyers in the court scene was yours truly)
2. Dorothy Tutin was nominated for a BAFTA TV Award for her role as Anne in the 1970 mini-series Henry 8th and his Six Wives and Natalie Dormer portrayed Anne in the Showtime series The Tudors (2007-10)
3. Donizetti wrote an opera Anne Bolena (1830).
4. You may not be aware of the 1936 novelty song "With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm" but its worth checking out. Click here to listen to the ditty and read its songfacts.

ACHIEVEMENTS 1. Giving birth to Queen Elizabeth
2. It was in order to marry Anne that Henry divorced his first wife, Catherine of Aragon and thus initiated the quarrel with the pope that led to the English reformation. In other words if Anne had been born with a double chin and cauliflower ears maybe the Church of England would never have been born. On the other hand she did have six fingers.
3. The first babe.
4. Anne played an enormous role in England's international position, by solidifying the French alliance in 1531. She established an excellent rapport with the French ambassador, de la Pommeraye, who was captivated by her.
5. When, in 1532, Henry gave her the title Marchioness of Pembroke, it was the first time a woman had ever been created a peer in her own right.

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