Author Topic: Anne Boleyn Question  (Read 12865 times)

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TroubleTwin2

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Anne Boleyn Question
« on: October 06, 2010, 07:11:39 PM »
So, I'm in my senior year of high school and part of my school districts requirements for me to graduate is I have to write a research paper for my English class and it has to be a controversial topic and you have to be in support of one side of it. So I decided to do my paper on Anne Boleyn and all the controversies surrounding her (within reason) I don't want to do her birth date, that would be a bit hard to do. I was hoping that you lovely people would be able help me get some of those controversy's. Am I making sense?

Please get back to me as soon as you possibly can, time is off the essence. I really need to get this done. Thankyou all of you in advance for any help you can give me. :)

Offline Kimberly

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Re: Anne Boleyn Question
« Reply #1 on: October 07, 2010, 02:43:35 AM »
What about discussing her supposed adultery? There are loads of books and resources that will supply you with the dates her "sexual encounters" took place.
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Robert_Hall

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Re: Anne Boleyn Question
« Reply #2 on: October 07, 2010, 04:25:52 AM »
Another angle  might be  her suppsedly causing the rift between Henry and the Pope. That may be a bit complicated to get into, though

TroubleTwin2

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Re: Anne Boleyn Question
« Reply #3 on: October 07, 2010, 04:53:43 AM »
Well I was originally just going to do something about the fact that she was wrongly executed and innocent of the crimes she was accused of, but then I realized it would be a bit difficult to do just that so I figured I'd just do all of them. You know the issue of her adultery, incest, accusations of treason, possibly things like the issues of the rumors of her having a sixth finger and what not. I just need a way to get all those things kinda in a list in front of me so I know what to look for and figure out how to search for it and not get just a bunch of random things when I do my research. I might have to end changing my topic though if I can't get anything (sad face). Also thankyou. :) Sorry if I didn't explain myself very well here, it's 5:30 in the morning and I'm really tiered.

Offline Kalafrana

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Re: Anne Boleyn Question
« Reply #4 on: October 07, 2010, 06:26:55 AM »
How about the legal validity of her marriage to Henry?

What is the word limit for what you've got to write? I always tell my students to be careful not to choose too broad a topic, because there is a danger of getting insufficient depth for good marks.

Ann

Elisabeth

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Re: Anne Boleyn Question
« Reply #5 on: October 07, 2010, 12:48:17 PM »
How about we just do all of TroubleTwin's work for him? Yikes, whatever happened to critical thinking? This person is perfectly capable of making all these intellectual decisions by himself, and in fact, I believe that's the point of at least half of the entire assignment. If he can't decide what to write about without other people's input, major input I might add, then where is he intellectually speaking? Utterly helpless.

TroubleTwin, my advice to you is to write about the one or two aspects of AB's life and death that really INTEREST YOU. This is always the key to a good research paper. You have to find the angle on the subject that interests you personally, intellectually, historically, emotionally, or whatever. Any one of these angles will do, and the more the merrier.

If you're not interested in your topic, at the very least as an intellectual question (a mind teaser, as it were), then your paper will just be another recap of the Encyclopedia Britannica entry.

TroubleTwin2

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Re: Anne Boleyn Question
« Reply #6 on: October 07, 2010, 03:30:36 PM »
Well first of all Elisabeth, I'm a girl. Second I'm not asking anyone to do any of my work for me at all. Third I know what I'm writing about, I'm not having an trouble deciding that. I'm also not asking for an "major input" but rather some of the key parts of Anne's like that are controversial/ have different sides to them, that I may have over looked. Also, I am not utterly hepless. I'm actually pretty smart, if I wasn't I wouldn't be taking a harder history class than I had to, continue with my Spanish class even though I don't need to, or eve continue on with math which I also don't need to be doing. I am quite happy to write the essay by my self, but I kinda got the impression that this was a place where we could all come to learn more and share with others what we already know. I'm actually very interested in Anne's life and the Tudor period in general. If I wasn't I wouldn't have chosen her for my topic. I'm just trying to get a good solid starting point so I know what to look for.

Now, thankyou Kalafrana. I will probably use that. It didn't really click until I read your comment that, that was something I had over looked. Also, I'm not sure of the word limit. I do know that it has to 8 pages (double spaced I think).

Elisabeth

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Re: Anne Boleyn Question
« Reply #7 on: October 07, 2010, 06:54:30 PM »
You know, TroubleTwin, I only used "he" and "him" as generic catch-all pronouns for human beings. I didn't intend any personal insult, for crying out loud. I had no way of distinguishing your gender from your post.

I do think you're being a bit disingenuous in claiming in so many words that you're not picking AP members' brains about Anne Boleyn. But why this should even be necessary escapes me since there are how many threads about her now, in this very same forum... I mean, perhaps I'm being unfair and you're either just a) not terribly bright and/or b) very overworked with all these special courses of yours. But my overall impression is that on this subject at least you are being a tad bit lazy.

GrandDuchessAndrea

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Re: Anne Boleyn Question
« Reply #8 on: October 07, 2010, 07:13:31 PM »
I think that actually putting the birthdate controversy in is a good idea, well, maybe not, who knows, but it really would only take a paragraph or so, just to say that there is question about Anne's actual date of birth but it was around... you see?
And since you asked for a list, here you go: (may be incomplete.)
-Year of birth (maybe, just including it on the list.)
-the witch bisuness/supposed 6th finger and wart on her neck
-supposed adultery
-treason accusaitions
-supposed (?) incest
I can't think of any more. I'm not very informed on the subject!
Perhaps you could post a bit of your essay for us when you're finished! Good luck!  :)

TroubleTwin2

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Re: Anne Boleyn Question
« Reply #9 on: October 07, 2010, 07:34:24 PM »
First, I didn't take it as an insult. I was merley pointing out that I was a girl and not a boy. Second, I'm not asking anyone to just give loads and loads of information. Just what some people have already posted is good, all I want is one little sentence, not even that. Just to give me a starting point. I already know what I'm looking for, the sole purpose for me posting this is just to help me refine all the results I'll get when I'm doing reseach. I would have searched the other threads, but this was easier and I can't access this forum in school. I know enough about her that I obviously know some of what I need to look for. And for the record I do think your being unfair. Saying you don't think I'm very bright or "utterly helpless", I don't think you know me well enough to say things like that. Especially based off of the couple of posts, you've read from me here were I might possibly be having a hard time putting into words what I'm thinking. Also, no I'm not overworked with me "special" classes. I'm just pointing out that I'm not as stupid as you obviously think I am. On that note, I also think your hardly in any position to be saying that because I'm asking for a bit of help (something I've always been encouraged to do) to refine some small details (that I could get myself, but would be a bit time consuming which won't do anything for seeing as I am on a time limit here.) that concerning this subject, or any other one for that matter, that I'm lazy. I'm not. I always get my work done, and I always do it my self. If I need help then I'll ask for it, I just want to be sure that I have all my bases covered before I jump into something that I might not be able to do. And I need to know all this within a couple of days before the deadline to change the topic of my paper has run out. Which is within the next couple of days.

TroubleTwin2

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Re: Anne Boleyn Question
« Reply #10 on: October 07, 2010, 07:37:51 PM »
Thankyou GDA. I don't think I'll be able to do her birthdate, I was going to but then I ruled it out. Part of the requierments are that you have to be able to take a side, and than actually support one of the sides. Thankyou for the list. I will do my best to get them. I'd be happy to post it. I'd love to know what you all think.

GrandDuchessAndrea

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Re: Anne Boleyn Question
« Reply #11 on: October 07, 2010, 08:00:31 PM »
Oh, I see. I didn't realize you had to take sides.   ;)

TroubleTwin2

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Re: Anne Boleyn Question
« Reply #12 on: October 07, 2010, 08:13:57 PM »
Yeah, makes it a bit harder to choose things. But I should be able to figure out how to support everything, and get the research to back it up. I mean there's allot out there. I just have to wade through it all, which is why I'm asking for some of the controversies so I know what I need to look for. I mean I already thought of some, I just want to make sure that I haven't overlooked anything or that there might want to be a better way to go about it. You know what I mean? And again, thankyou. :)

Astraea

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Re: Anne Boleyn Question
« Reply #13 on: October 07, 2010, 09:26:59 PM »
I'm thinking that perhaps the birth year question may not be the best issue to deal with - it would lack depth, since there really are only speculations on both sides, with neither being able to conclusively say one way or another. I think the best road to take would be a topic with lots of conclusive information from different sources. There is tons of stuff on her as being head of the "reforming" faction at court. There really is no information about her early life, and really her life is only best documented from about 1529 on. You could indeed do something about her fall - but not directly on whether she was guilty or not, because I believe there is only one modern historian who believes she was actually guilty, with everyone else being completely certain she was innocent. You could still involve the adultery topic here by integrating it into a paper about her fall from grace, by taking one side or another about its causes. Out of anything else, this has probably the most information on it. A great resource in any event, would definitely be Eric Ives' The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn. Do you know if your school has access to Jstor? It's a database where you can access many journal articles (which of course make lighter and more condensed reading than books), and there are many, many on Anne Boleyn, in particular by Eric Ives, George Bernard, and Retha Warnicke. If you want a really good argument about Anne's fall, you can compare the views of Warnicke and contrast them with Ives - they are polar opposite, and both historians have written numerous articles back and forth fighting their viewpoints (Ives argues that a fallout between Cromwell and Anne over the closing of the Monasteries caused her fall, and Warnicke sticks to things like the deformed foetus theory). Personally, I feel Ives' position to be more solid, but that would be up to you to decide. For starters anyway, you can go to your library and search for the authors mentioned above, as well as also Alison Weir and David Starkey.

« Last Edit: October 07, 2010, 09:29:58 PM by LadyAstraea »

Offline Kalafrana

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Re: Anne Boleyn Question
« Reply #14 on: October 08, 2010, 03:35:48 AM »
TroubleTwin

8 pages double-spaced is only about 2,000 words - not a lot. The validity of Anne and Henry's marriage turns on whether the marriage to Catherine of Aragon was valid, and, if it was, whether it was properly brought to an end. This is fairly complex stuff and you really can't do it justice in 2,000 words. For a short essay like that you need a tight focus.

Hope that helps

Ann