The Life and Times of Anne Boleyn

Think you know about the Tudors? Think you know about Anne Boleyn? You might be surprised...

1. Anne Boleyn gave 14x more money to charity than any English monarch before her. She also personally distributed these alms to the poor, despite their "unclean" and "sickly" nature...even when she was pregnant with a desperately needed heir! 

2. Anne Boleyn had no physical malformations. This means no second thumb, no strange fingernail, no bumps or wens or extra nipples. There is no mention of this in contemporary records (with the exception of a post-humous Catholic mention) and when her body was exhumed during the Victorian period there was no sign of any such malformations. 

3. Queen Anne kept an English bible open in her rooms (a big no-no) and encouraged her ladies to read it. She also encouraged her ladies to pursue decorum and a liberal education...also unheard of in those times. 

4. Anne was skilled in riding, hunting, singing, dancing, sewing, musical composition, the playing of instruments, the reading of music, several languages (including French and Latin), theology, history, politics and arithmetic. (Which was relatively unheard of, even in a queen, until the rise of Mary I and Anne's daughter, Elizabeth I). 

(...No wonder she captivated so many men, eh?)

5. Anne Boleyn was never charged with witchcraft. As a matter of fact, the only contemporary "evidence" with any mention of witchcraft is a SUPPOSEDLY off-cuff comment Henry VIII made about his recently dispatched wife that used a word sometimes used for witchcraft, but which most commonly just meant "bewildered".