Contemporary Descriptions of Anne Boleyn
In the early 1530s, the Venetian
Ambassador
Savorgnano wrote:
' a young woman of noble birth, though many say of bad character,
whose will is law to him, and he is expected to marry her should the divorce
take place, which it is supposed will not be effected, as the peers of the
realm.... and the people are opposed to it.'
In 1532, a new Venetian
Ambassador described Anne
thusly:
'not one of the handsomest women in the world. She is of middling stature,
with a swarthy complexion, long neck, wide mouth, bosom not much raised, and in
fact has nothing but the King's great appetite, and her eyes, which are black
and beautiful - and take great effect on those who served the Queen when she was
on the throne. She lives like a queen, and the King accompanies her to Mass -
and everywhere'.
When news of
her arrest reached Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, he bravely wrote to
Henry VIII protesting. Cranmer added a suitably apologetic postscript to
the letter in which he
describes Anne:
'If it be true that is openly reported of the Queen's Grace... I am in such
perplexity that my mind is clean amazed; for I never had better opinion in woman
than I had in her; which maketh me to think that she should not be culpable...
Next to Your Grace, I was most bound to her of all creatures living... I wish
and pray for her that she may declare herself inculpable and innocent... I loved
her not a little for the love which I judged her to bear towards God and His
Gospel.'
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