Henry VIII & Anne Boleyn: The Queen Who Lost Her Head Over a Divorce

What Happened

Anne Boleyn's rise to queen consort of England was one of history's most dramatic love stories. Henry VIII literally split England from the Roman Catholic Church, created the Church of England, and declared himself its Supreme Head — all to annul his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne. Their wedding in January 1533 was supposed to produce the male heir Henry desperately wanted. Instead, Anne gave birth to a daughter, the future Elizabeth I, and suffered multiple miscarriages afterward.

By early 1536, Henry's eye had wandered to the demure Jane Seymour, one of Anne's own ladies-in-waiting. Anne's failure to produce a male heir sealed her fate. Thomas Cromwell orchestrated charges of adultery, incest with her brother George Boleyn, and high treason against the queen — charges that most modern historians consider fabricated. Anne was arrested on May 2, 1536, and imprisoned in the Tower of London.

On May 17, just two days before her execution, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer annulled the marriage entirely, likely on the grounds that Henry's prior relationship with Anne's sister Mary created a forbidden degree of affinity. The annulment had the devastating side effect of bastardizing their daughter Elizabeth. On May 19, 1536, Anne Boleyn was beheaded by a French swordsman on Tower Green — one of only two English queens consort to be executed.

The case represents perhaps history's most extreme example of a powerful spouse using institutional authority to end a marriage. Henry married Jane Seymour just eleven days after Anne's execution. Anne's daughter Elizabeth would eventually become one of England's greatest monarchs — and famously never married, perhaps haunted by what marriage had done to her mother.

Legal Breakdown: When a powerful spouse rewrites the rules to exit a marriage

What This Means for Your Divorce