Anne Boleyn: 500 Years of Lies

by Hayley Nolan

Women aren’t numbers!

As historian Professor Timothy Snyder says, ‘To abandon facts is to abandon freedom.’1

Anne was taught instead to fight back against the questionable authority of Rome by the very activists who kick-started the Reformation.

In 2017 we marked the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. Yes, it’s been five hundred years of war, death and sacrifice over exactly how we pray for love, peace and forgiveness. Oh, the irony.

‘As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, at once the soul to heaven springs!’

Anne’s personality is said to have stood out in court because she actually possessed one. She was said to have been a fan of lively conversation at a time when to give a simple smile was considered the height of intelligence. No wonder historians accuse her of shamelessly flirting with every man she encountered; she was probably the first woman who talked back and held eye contact when a coy glance to the side was all the fashion.

And you’re telling me someone who had quick-witted comebacks and putdowns for those who challenged her had religion and faith in her heart?

While they both display deceitful and manipulative behaviour, psychopaths are fearless, but sociopaths aren’t.

Whereas psychopaths are born (nature), sociopathy can be due to childhood trauma such as abuse or neglect (nurture), or as previously mentioned, it can be the result of a brain injury.

If a man can kill a woman, whatever the extenuating circumstances it was never love.

Ambition: the one word that features universally across all interpretations and analyses of Anne’s character.

One of the few things sociopaths can experience is something called Blame Externalisation, where they don’t believe they are ever to blame; everyone else is. People are against you and out to get you. This paranoia isn’t an emotion, it’s faulty reasoning; you’ve got to get them before they get you.

Good Christian people, I have not come here to preach a sermon; I have come here to die. For according to the law and by the law I am judged to die, and therefore will speak nothing against it. I am come hither to accuse no man, nor to speak of that whereof I am accused and condemned to die, but I pray God save the king and send him long to reign over you, for a gentler nor a more merciful prince was there never, and to me he was ever a good, a gentle, and sovereign lord. And if any person will meddle of my cause, I require thee to judge the best. And thus I take my leave of the world and of you all, and I heartily desire you all to pray for me.627