Opposing Views of Anne Boleyn

Bucholz, Robert and Newton Key, Early Modern England, 1485-1714. A Narrative

History, second edition. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.

Warnicke, Retha. The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family Politics at the Court of Henry VIII.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Anne Boleyn, second queen to King Henry VIII, remains a popular and controversial figure today just as she was in her own time, and will be the subject of our scrutiny for the next several minutes. Over the course of this brief paper we shall look at Anne as she is portrayed in The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn by Retha M. Warnicke as compared to Robert Bucholz and Newton Key's textbook Early Modern England, 1485-1714. We will begin with the interesting and important question of how Anne is characterized by these different authors: upon which points they agree about her personality, and on what topics they part ways. Second, let us ask ourselves what these authors' intentions may have been in composing the works as they did, and what sort of audiences they may appeal to. Lastly we shall compare the two books to see which is easier to read, and why.

Upon comparing these two books and their characterizations of Anne, we run into an immediate problem. Both books are concerned with facts: with what happened and what the effects were of those incidents. Because of this, the authors are less focused on personality, and it is left largely to us, the readers, to determine the motivation behind Anne's actions. This said, the authors do give us their beliefs on Anne, but much of their focus is also on Henry VIII, through whose eyes we see much of the action, rather than through the eyes of Anne herself.

In Warnicke's book, Anne is shown as a mostly reasonable lady, extreme in few things and moderate in many. Bucholz and Key's book, while agreeing with Warnicke on some matters, paints Anne as a rather dislikable woman: a shrew, if you will. Where Warnicke shows Anne as an intelligent woman debating religious matters with her husband, Bucholz and Key paint her as an insolent wife lecturing the king. Both books agree that she was attractive but not especially beautiful, and that she was a bright woman with a good education. However, Warnicke goes more in depth, describing Anne as an extremely cultured individual with many skills (this was, after all, the Renaissance!) while Bucholz and Key merely say that Anne had picked up a certain "polish" at the French court (67). Another topic agreed upon by both books is that Anne was not the seductress she has often been thought to be, and that Henry VIII did mean to annul his former marriage, with or without the temptation of Anne Boleyn as a new bride.

Perhaps the largest difference between these two books and their portrayal of Anne is not in the content of their descriptions so much as it is in the length. As noted above, Warnicke's study is deeper and more specific. Bucholz and Key, on the other hand, have written a very broad and very long study of over two centuries in English history. In the coming pages we shall discuss the reasons for, and the effects of, these methods. It is interesting to note though that Anne herself is given very little attention by Bucholz and Key, who seem to view her only as a player in the grand scheme of the Reformation, as opposed to Warnicke who views Anne in the context of her own life.

Now let us turn our attention to the question mentioned briefly above: that is, the question as to why these books were written. Let us also consider for what sorts of audiences the works may have been intended, or which sorts of people are likely to take an interest in each of them. It is clear that Warnicke's The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn is a much more detailed book than is Bucholz and Key's Early Modern England, 1485-1714. In fact, one need look no further than the titles of these two works to accurately guess which will give more particulars on the life of Henry VIII's second queen. There is one reason for this which is quite simple: these two books do not belong to the same genera. Both may be vaguely declared "history books," but Warnicke has written a biography where Bucholz and Key have written a survey textbook. Bucholz and Key appeal to a wide audience with wide tastes, while Warnicke appeals to specialists.

Yet Warnicke's book has another aspect to it as well: more than being simply a historical statement of facts, it works to refute prior claims made about Anne Boleyn. Since the time of Anne's death all the way up to the present day, views of her have been skewed by the negative reports of one Chapuys who lived at the same time as Anne, and spread rumors painting her as a wicked whore. While Bucholz and Key do not accept the idea of Anne as a seductress, they do still show her in a negative light: a common sentiment, which Warnicke attributes to the false statements of Chapuys and others. Bucholz and Key may appeal to beginning students of English history; they give us a large number of facts, and put Anne in her historical setting. Warnicke on the other hand provides us with a deeper look, and challenges many of society's preconceived notions about Anne.

Finally let us consider the readability of these two books. While Warnicke's book is probably more accurate than Bucholz', it is also much longer, and can be difficult at parts. Bucholz' broad study is divided into chapters and subsections, and lists the dates which will be covered in each part. This makes it easy to pick out and read the parts where he mentions Anne, not going into minute detail but rather touching upon the most famous and influential moments in her life. Warnicke's book is written chronologically, and so is comparable to Bucholz in that it allows readers to track down the parts of her life which they find to be most engaging; but The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn also includes much that is not of interest to anyone other than a true scholar. This is to say that Early Modern England, 1485-1714 is more helpful and an easier read for those who are not yet experts in the field of English history.

Over the course of this paper we have seen different ways in which Anne has been portrayed, concluding that Warnicke's representation is much deeper than Bucholz'. Then we examined the authors' reasons for composing their texts, and saw that where Warnicke has a thesis and a focused argument, Bucholz merely gives us the information he sees as most relevant. We looked at last at the readability of the books, deciding that Bucholz' is an easier read because it gives us only the most relevant events in the context of English history as a whole. Personally I feel that Bucholz' book would serve as a good introduction to the subject, and that only after gaining an understanding of Henry VIII's reign will students be prepared to move on to Warnicke's more specific study.