autrenecherche:

royal-confessions:

“It disappoints me that so many people admire Anne Boleyn. She had a good side but also an intolerant and vengeful side which I think is glossed over. She relished keeping Katherine and Mary apart while Katharine was fatally ill. She encouraged her husband to execute those who opposed her marriage such as Sir Thomas More and Cardinal John Fisher. This and much more. Anne didn’t deserve to be executed especially on those bogus charges. She was framed, but this doesn’t make her innocent.” – Submitted by Anonymous

All reports of Anne allegedly “encouraging” Henry VIII to have More and Fisher executed come from sources that are clearly biased against her, some of whom lack credibility due to their flagrantly obvious lies in regards to other topics:

“William Roper, the chancellor’s son in-law, claimed that it was Anne’s personal vendetta against More which encouraged Henry to demand that he conform.”

“It was More’s nephew, William Rastell, religious exile and (briefly) judge of the court of Queen’s Bench, who gave currency… to the lie that Henry VIII was Anne Boleyn’s father. He also alleged – with obvious echoes of Herodias, Salome and Herod – that Anne put on a great banquet for Henry at Hanworth, where she ‘allured there the king with her dalliance and pastime to grant unto her this request, to put the bishop [Fisher] and Sir Thomas More to death’.

In his edition of More’s English works, Rastell even edited out remarks by Sir Thomas which were favourable to the queen. What More had written in a letter to Thomas Cromwell in March 1534 was: 

So am I he that among other his Grace’s faithful subjects, his Highness being in possession of his marriage and this noble woman really anointed queen, neither murmur at it nor dispute upon it, nor never did nor will, but without any other manner meddling of the matter among his other faithful subjects, faithfully pray to God for his Grace and hers both long to live and well, and their noble issue too, in such wise as may be to the pleasure of God, honour and surety to themselves, rest, peace, wealth and profit unto this noble realm.”

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As for Bishop John Fisher, Anne Boleyn attended his Requiem Mass– this would be an odd thing to do if she’d encouraged his execution. 

As for “relishing” keeping Katherine and Mary apart…what evidence proves that was something she solicited, much less enjoyed? Reports from Chapuys would suggest this, but no others do. It was Henry that insisted they be kept apart (although I don’t know if this is something he “relished”); and he was the only person with the power to guarantee they remained so– not Anne.