Thinking About Anne Boleyn Today

We always want what we can't have. She learned that lesson early on.

When Anne avoided Henry's company, was sullen and evasive to him, he sent her from court; he hoped that a few months in the country would persuade her of his charms. It did not work. Anne was already playing a far more serious game than the king. Later, after she had been arrested, Henry would claim he had been 'bewitched' and the term wasn't used lightly in the 16th century. But perhaps it was simply the contrast between her vivacity and Katharine's solemnity; or perhaps the king mistook the inexplicable ardor of true love for something more ominous, long after that love had faded.

It is impossible to fully explain the mystery of attraction between two people. How Anne was able to capture and maintain the king's attention for such a long while, despite great obstacles and the constant presence of malicious gossip, cannot be explained. Henry was headstrong and querulous. But for several years, he remained faithful to his feelings for Anne - and his attendant desire for a legitimate male heir.