Queen Elizabeth the First

Posts Tagged ‘Anne Boleyn’

Here is the high acclaimed movie The Other Boleyn Girl starring many famous actors and actresses, released in 2008.

The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)

A tale of two sisters competing for the same king, The Other Boleyn Girl uses historical facts as window dressing for this work of fiction that is entertaining, if not wholly believable. Anne Boleyn (Natalie Portman) is the doe-eyed vixen ordered by her power-hungry uncle to bewitch King Henry VIII (Eric Bana).

Her shy sister Mary (Scarlett Johansson) has always been in Anne’s shadow; Anne is prettier, more accomplished, and desired by many men. So when the King picks Mary–the “other Boleyn girl”–as his mistress, Anne turns on her sister and schemes to become not only the King’s consort, but his new queen.

With a pair of American actresses in the lead roles and an Aussie portraying their hunky object of desire, the English accents are all over the place in this period piece with a modern feel. Though the Boleyn girls’ mother points out that her “daughters are being traded like cattle for the advancement of men,” it is Anne who ultimately throws her slight weight around to bully Henry into doing her bidding. When he begs her to give herself to him, Anne–wearing a Carrie Bradshaw-esque “B” pendant on her neck–counters, “Make me your Queen.”

Is the audience really supposed to believe that Henry the VIII–the most powerful man in the land–would divorce Catherine of Aragon, separate from the Catholic church, and put England in upheaval simply because Anne refused to sleep with him until he jumped through all her hoops? “I have torn this country apart for you,” he hisses at her before finally getting his way.

Based on Philippa Gregory’s bestselling novel of the same name, The Other Boleyn Girl features an attractive cast and a familiar plot with some icky twists. Kieran McGuigan’s cinematography is breathtaking and is as crucial to setting the film’s tone as the dialogue. Actually, it fares better: Lines such as “Well? Did he have you?!” sound almost comical. But the sweeping shots of Henry’s kingdom and the carefully framed close-ups of Portman and Johansson are breathtaking in their beauty and say what words simply cannot. –Jae-Ha Kim

The Cast of The Other Boleyn Girl

Natalie Portman (Anne Boleyn)

Scarlett Johansson (Mary Boleyn)

Eric Bana (Henry Tudor)	Jim Sturgess (George Boleyn)	Kristin Scott Thomas (Lady Elizabeth Boleyn)

Beyond The Other Boleyn Girl

Paperback Book

On Blu-ray

The Soundtrack

Stills from The Other Boleyn Girl (click for larger image)

Movie Description

Based on the best-selling novel, The Other Boleyn Girl is a captivating tale of intrigue, romance and betrayal starring Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, and Eric Bana. Two sisters, Anne (Portman) and Mary (Johansson), are driven by their ambitious family to seduce the king of England (Bana) in order to advance their position in court. What starts as an opportunity for the girls to increase their family fortune becomes a deadly rivalry to capture the heart of a king to stay alive.

Buy The Other Boleyn Girl (2008) DVD

Queen Elizabeth the First’s story was a captivating one even before she was born. Queen Elizabeth started out her life as Elizabeth Tudor, the second daughter of King Henry VIII. She was the only child of the short marriage between King Henry and Anne Boleyn, the King’s second wife, amidst a considerable amount of controversy.

The relationship of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII

The relationship between Anne Boleyn and Henry the Eighth of England started out loving. Henry VIII had once loved Anne Boleyn passionately, despite its brutal ending. King Henry loved Anne Boleyn so much that he was willing to shock all of England by leaving the Catholic Church so he could divorce his first queen, Catherine of Aragon for her.

Henry VIII then established a separate church, the Church of England, with himself as the head. As head of his own church, Henry VIII then sanctioned his divorce and his marriage to Anne Boleyn.

The marriage of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII

A few months after Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII were married, Anne Boleyn gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth Tudor, who would eventually become Queen Elizabeth the First. King Henry VIII was so outraged at another daughter that he refused to attend the Elizabeth Tudor’s christening.

The loving marriage of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII did not last long. Their marriage came to an end and King Henry became disenchanted with Anne Boleyn when she failed to have a son. King Henry VIII desperately wanted a male heir and Anne Boleyn failed him repeatedly.

The Birth of Queen Elizabeth I

Queen Elizabeth I was born on September 7, 1533. Queen Elizabeth I ’s birth did not please her father, King Henry VIII for he had desperately wanted a son. When Queen Elizabeth I ’s mother, Anne Boleyn, could only produce a stillborn son, King Henry VIII denounced her and had Queen Anne Boleyn beheaded in 1536. Queen Elizabeth I was only three at the time.

A binding marriage between Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII

After Anne Boleyn had a series of miscarriages, the only son Anne Boleyn was able to deliver was stillborn. Henry VIII was convinced his marriage to Anne Boleyn was cursed and he set his eyes on a new, younger woman named Jane Seymour. But Henry VIII knew he couldn’t divorce Anne Boleyn without making a fool of himself since at the time of their marriage he’d publicly stated, as head of the Church of England, that the marriage to Anne Boleyn was permanent and binding.

He had just set the rules in place, he would have lost all credibility to break them now. However, King Henry was not the kind of person to let a little thing like rules get in the way of what he wanted.

How did King Henry VIII divorce Anne Boleyn?

King Henry VIII divorced Anne Boleyn by destroying her reputation. He decided to destroy Anne Boleyn’s reputation instead of just divorcing Anne Boleyn and making a fool of himself. To do so, he simply made up false charges of adultery and treason.

Several innocent men were tortured until they agreed to confess to affairs with the queen Anne Boleyn. One of the accused was Anne Boleyn’s own brother. There was a trial, the queen Anne Boleyn was found guilty and sentenced to die.

Anne Boleyn’s Noble Sacrifice

Shortly before the death of Anne Boleyn, King Henry had visited Anne Boleyn in her cell in the Tower of London and offered Anne Boleyn one last chance: if Anne Boleyn agreed to divorce him, to exile herself and her daughter, Elizabeth Tudor, to France, and give up Elizabeth Tudor ’s rights to the throne, he would let her live.

Anne Boleyn had refused. She preferred an honorable death to a life of disgrace. More importantly, she had no intention of depriving her daughter Elizabeth Tudor of her legitimate birthright. Anne Boleyn believed that Elizabeth Tudor would be a queen someday and she believed Elizabeth would be a great queen. She was right, Elizabeth Tudor became Queen Elizabeth Tudor or Queen Elizabeth I and led England into a prosperous era.

Anne Boleyn sacrificed her life for Elizabeth Tudor

With that conviction and faith, Anne Boleyn sacrificed her life. Anne Boleyn did not do so in vain.

Elizabeth Tudor grew up to become Queen Elizabeth Tudor or Queen Elizabeth I, queen of England, the most famous monarch in the history of the country. Queen Elizabeth Tudor ’s achievements in exploration, the arts, and international and domestic politics were so outstanding that her period of reign has ever since been called The Golden Age of England.

The Death of Anne Boleyn

On May 19th of the year 1536, a slim and beautiful 29-year-old queen named Anne Boleyn was led to a green before the Tower of London where a small crowd of spectators waited to witness the execution of Anne Boleyn by beheading.

Anne Boleyn was quiet and calm and made no attempt to resist the guards who led her to her gruesome execution. But inside Anne Boleyn was confused and stunned; Anne Boleyn had been quite sure her husband, King Henry VIII would change his mind at the last minute and stopped the execution. He didn’t.

Beheading Anne Boleyn

For the beheading of Anne Boleyn, an expert executioner from Calais was called in. Instead of using an axe, as was the practice in England, he would use a sword. Anne Boleyn was grateful the king had approved the sword, which Anne found more refined than an axe. Anne Boleyn said, perhaps with some irony: “The King has been very good to me. He promoted me from a simple maid to a marchioness. Then he raised me to be a queen. Now he will raise me to be a martyr.”

When Anne Boleyn arrived at the green Anne Boleyn refused to be blindfolded. The executioner found Anne Boleyn so charming, and was so unnerved by her lovely expression, that he persuaded someone to distract her, so his task would be easier. Then, when Anne Boleyn was looking elsewhere, he stole silently up behind her and completed his grim work.

Anne Boleyn was then beheaded and her body and head were put into an arrow chest and buried in an unmarked grave.

Elizabeth Tudor was barely three years old. No one knows how Anne Boleyn’s death affected the young Queen to be since Queen Elizabeth I never mentioned her mother for the rest of her life.

Nevertheless, Queen Elizabeth I seemed to learn an important lesson from the treachery that led to her mother’s death and which was such an integral part of England ’s royal history. As queen, and even as a young woman, Queen Elizabeth Tudor  was known for her cautious and secretive manner and her ability to neutralize potentially dangerous situations.

Buy The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn

Few monarchs throughout history have made so much from so little as did Queen Elizabeth I. At 25 she took the throne of what was the most tired, broke, and conflicted country in all of Europe, and turned it around so well that by the time she died, it was in fact the most powerful country in Europe. England had, under her reign, entered the Golden Age, thanks to her alone.

Few would disagree with the fact that she did an amazing thing. Further, she was a woman who did this amazing thing, which was yet another thing that was simply unfathomable in her day.

Queen Elizabeth I was born on September 7, 1533, in Greenwich, England. She was the last Tudor monarch, and ruled very differently from her 2 siblings before her.  When Anne Boleyn gave birth to Elizabeth Tudor (later became Queen Elizabeth I), King Henry VIII did not want a daughter. When Anne Boleyn failed to produce a son for him, he had her executed and sent Elizabeth Tudor away.

After a very interesting series of life events, Queen Elizabeth I was crowned queen of England in Westminster Abbey in 1559. Queen Elizabeth the first’s coronation ended the “reign of terror” by her half-sister, Queen Mary Tudor, also known as “Queen Bloody Mary.”

Mary Tudor was Queen Elizabeth’s half-Spanish sister. England could not be happier to get rid of her, as she made it a habit to burn at the stake many of the countries’ protestants. Queen Mary also represented a very real threat for Spain to take over all of England from the inside. Luckily she died before she could do too much damage and the throne fell to Queen Elizabeth, and there was much rejoicing. (In England, at least.)

The Queen Elizabeth I blog you are reading is entirely dedicated to the life, biography, and facts about Queen Elizabeth I, the ‘virgin’ queen of England. The series that you are  now reading is our own condensed biography of Queen Elizabeth, and we will keep all of the other biographical entries here in the “Biography of Queen Elizabeth I” category.

If you have any comments, corrections, or questions, feel free to stop by our About us page and drop us a line. It’s our hope to make this blog the greatest online resource dedicated to Queen Elizabeth I ever made.