Anne Boleyn

Here's my timeline for events beginning with Henry's courtship of Anne, the reign of Anne as queen, to her death. I plan to start well into the divorce case, and refer to earlier events.

1526: Henry begins to show his affections for Anne (letters, etc.)

May 1527: Secret ecclesiastical court to determine the validity of Henry's marriage
to Katherine of Aragon

June 1527: Henry tells Katherine of the investigation, asks her to withdraw to a convent. Katherine says no, her marriage with Henry is valid.

August 1527: Ecclesiastical court cannot come to decision, decision made to refer to pope for special dispensation. Henry has begun to give Anne gifts.

Summer1528: Henry and Anne separated while Anne's lady, then Anne, has the sweating sickness

Fall 1528: Campeggio, pope's representative, arrives. Anne and Henry believe decision in their favor will be shortly forthcoming

1529 May 31-July 1529: Legatine court in Blackfriars. Henry and Katherine arrive to be judged whether their marriage is valid. Cardinals Wolsey and Campeggio preside. Katherine makes impassioned speech to Henry, insisting she never consummated her marriage with his brother Arthur, and so is legitimately married to Henry. Campeggio has orders to stall, and after short deliberation, returns to Rome. Henry furious.

December 1529: Henry gives Anne precedence over his sister Mary (former queen of France) at a banquet.

Summer 1530: Wolsey reverses course and tries for a reconciliation between Katherine and Henry, and Charles V (Holy Roman Emperor and Katherine's nephew).

November 1530: Henry orders Wolsey's arrest. Wolsey dies of illness en route to London. Henry takes possession of Wolsey's houses--Hampton Court and York Place (later Whitehall palace)

September 1532: Anne made Marchioness of Pembroke. Acquires lands, queen's jewels, etc. etc.

October 1532: Anne and Henry in Calais (historians speculate they consummated relationship here during bad weather).

January 1533: Anne and Henry secretly marry

May 1533: Archbishop Thomas Cramner declares Henry's marriage to Katherine invalid and marriage to Anne legitimate. Henry is excommunicated

May 31-June 1, 1533: Anne's coronation: Progress, pageants, tableaus designed by Hans Holbein

Sept 7, 1533: Birth of Princess Elizabeth (later Elizabeth I)

March 1534: Act of Succession declared (making Mary, daughter of Katherine of Aragon illegitimate, and Elizabeth, daughter of Anne the legitimate heir)

April 1534: Thomas More refuses to take oath supporting Act of Succession, is arrested and sent to Tower.

Summer 1534: Anne miscarries

June 1535: Anne has stillborn child (speculative)

July 1535: Thomas More executed.

January 1536: Katherine of Aragon dies. Anne miscarries a boy--possibly deformed, bringing fears of witchcraft and incest

March 1536: Henry pays attention to Jane Seymour

March-April 1536: Jane Seymour and her brother are moved into rooms of Thomas Cromwell's (close to king's own rooms).

May 1, 1536: Smeeton arrested for supposedly committing adultery with Anne. Tortured Confesses to adultery and names others.

May 1-5, 1536: Arrested: Norris, George Boleyn (Lord Rochford), Weston, Brereton, Wyatt, Page

May 17, 1536: Smeeton, Norris, Rochford, Weston, and Brereton executed (Wyatt and Page later freed)

May 19 1536: Execution of Anne Boleyn. Anne's marriage to Henry declared invalid, and Elizabeth illegitimate


That's a basic, scratch outline of events. More events intertwine, of course, but that's the rough story.

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