Anne Boleyn Quotes

“I hate to be the one to break the news, but epic love stories don’t end with one partner decapitating the other.”
― Hayley Nolan, Anne Boleyn: 500 Years of Lies

“Anne’s personality is said to have stood out in court because she actually possessed one.”
― Hayley Nolan, Anne Boleyn: 500 Years of Lies

“But this is where we have to agree that suffering is relative; while some may never know extreme poverty and the true horrors and abuses we hear of around the world, it doesn't mean that in their eyes, in their unique set of circumstances, life can't be their version of traumatic, and hence still have the same psychological impact. Mental illness does not discriminate. It can hit paupers and princes and be equally devastating.”
― Hayley Nolan, Anne Boleyn: 500 Years of Lies

“modern historians need to stop this sexist, double-standard analysis that has them call the self-made men shrewd for using their wit, diligence and industriousness181 while they imply the women are whores and sluts who used their bodies to play the men like sexual puppeteers.”
― Hayley Nolan, Anne Boleyn: 500 Years of Lies

“European monarchs – although this was”
― Hayley Nolan, Anne Boleyn: 500 Years of Lies

“Marguerite was only twenty-two, yet already known to be ‘learned and witty’. She called herself the ‘prime minister of the poor’, something you’ll come to see Anne Boleyn could equally have called herself later in life.”
― Hayley Nolan, Anne Boleyn: 500 Years of Lies

“we have been pitting women against each other in divorce for the past five centuries and we’re not about to stop now.”
― Hayley Nolan, Anne Boleyn: 500 Years of Lies

“Of course, the centuries that followed Anne’s death were hardly known for their level-headed rationality, so they were unlikely to question the standard spin. Why would they even want to, when they had tabloid tales of witchcraft and incest to tell?”
― Hayley Nolan, Anne Boleyn: 500 Years of Lies

“The story the world was told of Anne Boleyn in the sixteenth century was carefully stage-managed by those who killed her, so is there any wonder that what has filtered down is a warped and perverted version?”
― Hayley Nolan, Anne Boleyn: 500 Years of Lies

“But if we want to understand the human beings that were Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII, complete with all their seemingly irrational decisions and nonsensical actions, then we must also take into account the one thing historians tend to dismiss, and that is the screwed-up enigma of the human psyche.”
― Hayley Nolan, Anne Boleyn: 500 Years of Lies

“missing year, the one that began in the summer of 1526. With her suitor Henry Percy now safely married”
― Hayley Nolan, Anne Boleyn: 500 Years of Lies

“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.”
― Hayley Nolan, Anne Boleyn: 500 Years of Lies

“The problem is, history is written by the winners. The story the world was told of Anne Boleyn in the sixteenth century was carefully stage-managed by those who killed her, so is there any wonder that what has filtered down is a warped and perverted version?”
― Hayley Nolan, Anne Boleyn: 500 Years of Lies

“It’s no secret that he believed he was personally chosen by God to be the king of England; for this reason, he felt himself closer to the Almighty than everyone else. So he took it as a sign of the Lord’s ardent displeasure when he failed to produce a son and heir to his hallowed throne with Katherine of Aragon. Although Henry was aware of the potential issues in marrying his brother’s widow from the start, it wasn’t until God made his anger known concerning the distinct lack of sons that he began to take it seriously. By the time a passage in the Book of Leviticus was brought to his attention, he knew he was in trouble. He obsessed over the scripture that stated in no uncertain terms: ‘Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother’s wife; it is thy brother’s nakedness. And if a man should take his brother’s wife it is an unclean thing: they shall be childless.’ Incidentally, this was deemed to apply only to male children because, lest we forget, Henry had a daughter by Katherine of Aragon, Princess Mary.”
― Hayley Nolan, Anne Boleyn: 500 Years of Lies