Anne Boleyn: a beheaded pregnant woman?

[queenvictoria]

Jane Grey and Guildford did love each other....very much so. He carved her name into the wall of the Tower of London and enclosed it with a heart on the night before his execution and asked to be buried with her ......

Alison Weir's book on Henry VIII's wives mentions that Anne had miscarried early in her 3rd pregnancy and Henry was never alone with her again

[Prince_Lieven]

Welcome to the forum!

Where did you hear that he asked to be buried with her?

And yes, he did carve 'Jane' but his mother's name was Jane too and he was close to her by all accounts!

[queenvictoria]

Thanks for the welcome.........

The keeper of the white tower at the TOL, self proclaimed expert in Jane Grey history. I like to think that it was his wife and not his mum he thought of last.... much more romantic that way

[Romanov_fan]

I welcome you to the board, and I myself don't feel that there was that much attraction between Lady Jane Grey, and her husband myself, for anybody's information.

[ilyala]

nobody can know how they actually felt. however:

1. jane refused to crown him king. when guildford realized that he ran to his mother to complain. not very affectionate behaviour there...

2. jane refused to see him the night before they died, although she was granted the right. ok, maybe it would have been painful, but so is knowing you're gonna die! isn't it much easier to spend the last moments of your life with someone you love?

however, calling your mother 'jane' is also unlikely especially in those times, so if guildford had wanted to carve his mother in stone maybe he would've carved 'mother' or something. maybe he wasn't the one who wrote that, i don't know...

[umigon]

´

Yes, but then when Guilford learned that he wasn't going to be named king by Jane, he and his mother decided they were leaving the Tower and Jane ordered him to remain "because his duty was at her side"... Don't know, maybe they were just two married teenagers with the typical arguments and problems teenage couples have-... maybe not a great love, but an immature love...


Could have been...

[Romanov_fan]

It is hard to know about how anybody actually felt, especially at such great remove, but all the evidence points to the fact there wasn't that much attraction between them, although it might have been a immature love, certainly.

[Rhiannon]

Hi! I am new here and I came across this thread while searching for information about if Anne was pregnant when beheaded after having read about it. (please forgive for starting up an old thread but..)

It is in Alison Weir's book Henry VIII she states that Henry had written his ambassador Richard Pate in Rome and duplicated to Gardiner and Wallop in France where Henry announced "the liklihood and appearance that God will send us heirs male," implying that his "most dear and beloved wife the Queen" was expecting a child. (pg 367)
She also gives sources for this statement.

Another thing or two that happened was that Anne was not examined for pregnancy and several pages of her trial are missing from the documents. Alison Weir also raises the thought of could Henry be seen as a baby killer and this could be the reason for the missing pages.

I am an Anne Boleyn nut and have been researching her for 2 years and this is the first times I have seen mentioned of the possibility of her being pregnant.

[Kimberly]

Welcome Rhiannon, its always nice to "see" a new face round these parts.
This begs the question; would Henry have knowingly murdered a potential son just to rid himself of a wife that he had fallen out of love with, particularly when the getting of an heir was the uppermost priority in his eyes.

[Yseult]

I agree with you, Kimberly...

[Rhiannon]

I would ask that same question. But accroding to Weir he may have killed the baby just to be rid for Anne.
I wonder though..... He seemed to have changed a lot after the fall he took. Could he have had brain damage after that fall? There is so much we don't know because of papers having been destroyed or no record at all.

Thanks for the welcome!!! I am really enjoying reading the posts here even on topics I am not usually interested in!

I am also trying to find if there is a forum for book suggestions on different topics, but haven't found it yet. If anyone knows could you lead this bland old woman there please? LOL
Thanks

[Paul]

Given Henry's desperation for a son, it doesn't seem possible to me that he would've beheaded a pregnant wife. There were other ways to go about such things.

It would've been easy to arrange it so that Anne never left the birthing room alive. If Anne had delivered a boy, the "grieving widower" would've consoled himself with a male heir. Jane Seymour, anyone?

If Anne had delivered another girl.. well... it wouldn't have been the first time that a mother and baby died in the delivery process.

Draconian? Of course, but there was nothing warm & fuzzy about any of the Tudors.

[Rhiannon]

If I remember right it was in a few books that Anne had had a falling out with Cranmer. One reason why Cranmer was so happy to find a way to be rid of her and why he waved her being examined for pregnancy. I can't remember the exact words Weir used but it was something like he couldn't let her by any chance even remotely have a male heir and have her be so secure in her station in life. She would have had him removed some how.
BUT I do agree as to why Henry would have taken the chance of losing a son....

So this leads us to... was Anne pregnant or was it a ploy of Henry's for security from invasion with the letters he wrote mentioning the Queen was pregnant.

[Mari]

Can you give us the entire quote or is that it (above in its entirety ! and are there footnotes with the quote? Could you paste them on the reply? It sounds like

"the liklihood and appearance that God will send us heirs male," implying that his "most dear and beloved wife the Queen" was expecting a child. (pg 367)

to me that he could just be implying that She got pregnant fairly easily and the likelihood was there! But since I love discussions like this....

The only way Henry would have beheaded a pregnant Queen that he no longer loved/lusted after... was if she was pregnant with another Man's child and he was totally convinced of it "in his mind". But then the lies would have to be fed him enough to salvage his conscience! Easy to do if he hated Anne by this time and was sick of her jealousy.  The right People around him (Anne's enemies certainly would have urged this option) and He had a huge ego!

Then another question would be would Anne be desperate enough to try and get pregnant by another Man to conceive and give Henry an Heir? Not to produce an Heir.... meant he got rid of her but getting caught would mean the Tower and Death! Like Catherine the Great urged on.... would her Family have been of that option....get pregnant any way you can!! Of course all this is speculation and a desperate Woman might have gambled on the pregnancy but I think at this point there is no proof that Anne ever cheated on Henry. And certainly not with her Brother!

[Rhiannon]

That is the quote from the book as Weir wrote it and the way Henry had written it in his letters. That was in April 1536. Weir said that Anne had become pregnant in Feb. right after having lost the last baby after henry's fall.

Weir doesn't give foot nots but does give a bib in the back of the book chapter by chapter.

I firmly believe that Anne never "cheated" on Henry. She was way too smart for that I think. She knew what would happen if she did and I believe she liked living life.

Here is another of my thoughts ..... If Henry wouldn't kill Anne while preganat because it was against the law,then how did she commit treason when she and Henry had not been married as it was proclaimed the day before her death?

I was wondering about something else. The RH factor had been mentioned here, but I had also read some where (I have CRS and can't remember right now where) that Anne had had damage from the birth of Elizabeth and would have a hard time holding on to another child. Anyone else hear of that?