Anne Boleyn’s Marriage With Henry VIII Was Much Nastier Than You Thought

Anne Boleyn’s Marriage With Henry VIII Was Much Nastier Than You Thought January 25, 1533. In the King's private chapel inside Whitehall Palace. No announcement, no official invitation, one pregnant bride, and a ceremony so secret that the imperial ambassador only learned of it a month later. History usually tells of a passionate love that caused a king to destroy half a millennium of Catholicism for one woman. But look at the trial records. May 1536, the Tower of London. Charges: adultery with five men, incest with her own brother. Her uncle sat as judge. The executioner was summoned from Calais before the verdict was pronounced. One stroke of the sword. Three years earlier, she had given birth to a daughter. He needed a son. Seven years of pursuit. He severed ties with Rome, appointed himself head of the Church, destroyed a 24-year marriage with the Spanish princess. Less than 24 hours after the sword stroke, he was engaged to someone else. The 17 love letters he wrote now lie in the Vatican Library, belonging to the very Church he destroyed. That daughter of the wrong sex became England's greatest queen. But before the sword, before the trial, there was a girl at Hever Castle. #documentary #darkhistory