The Anne Boleyn Collection II: Anne Boleyn & the Boleyn Family by Ridgway Claire

Author:Ridgway, Claire [Ridgway, Claire]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MadeGlobal Publishing
Published: 2013-09-22T23:00:00+00:00

Figure 20 - St. Peter & St. Paul, Salle, Norfolk

That all sounds rather far-fetched, but reputable historian Retha Warnicke5 also mentions witchcraft in her book on Anne. Warnicke writes that sodomy and incest were associated with witchcraft. Warnicke believes that the men executed for adultery with Anne were "libertines" who practised "buggery". In addition, of course, Anne and George were charged with incest. Warnicke also thinks that the rather lurid mentions in the indictments of Anne procuring the men and inciting them to have sexual relations with her was "consistent with the need to prove that she was a witch". She continues, saying that "the licentious charges against the queen, even if the rumours of her attempted poisonings and of her causing her husband's impotence were never introduced into any of the trials, indicate that Henry believed that she was a witch."6 Now, Henry VIII may well have said that he had been "forced into this second marriage by sortilèges and charms",7 but I don't for one second believe that Henry was convinced that Anne was a witch. If he had believed it, then surely Cromwell would have used this claim to get Henry's marriage to Anne annulled. If Anne was a witch, then it could have been said that Henry had been bewitched and tricked into the marriage, that the marriage was, therefore, invalid. Anne Boleyn was charged with adultery, with plotting the King's death and with committing incest with her brother, George Boleyn, Lord Rochford. There was no mention or suggestion of witchcraft or sorcery in the Middlesex or Kent indictments. What's more, at her trial, Anne was found guilty of committing treason against the King – again, no mention of witchcraft. Although witchcraft was not a felony or a crime punishable by death until the act of 1542, a suggestion of witchcraft could still have helped the Crown's case and served as propaganda. I believe that the details of the indictments were simply there for shock value, rather than to prove that Anne was a witch.

So, where does the whole witchcraft charge come from if it was not mentioned in 1536? Well, I think we can put some of the blame on the Catholic recusant Nicholas Sander who in 1585 described Anne Boleyn as having "a projecting tooth", six fingers on her right hand and "a large wen under her chin" – very witch-like! He also wrote that Anne miscarried "a shapeless mass of flesh" in January 1536. This "shapeless mass" was turned by historical fiction writer Philippa Gregory into "a monster", "a baby horridly malformed, with a spine flayed open and a huge head, twice as large as the spindly little body", and was used to back up the idea that Anne had committed incest and dabbled in witchcraft. However, Sander's words have to be judged as Catholic propaganda, as an attempt to denigrate Elizabeth I by blackening the name of her mother. Sander was only about six years of age when Anne died, so he

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