Coordinates	30°19′10″N81°39′36″N
name	Catherine of Aragon
succession	Queen consort of England
reign	11 June 1509 – 23 May 1533
reign-type	Tenure
coronation	24 June 1509
spouse	Arthur, Prince of WalesHenry VIII of England
issue	Henry, Duke of CornwallMary I of EnglandOthers
house	House of Trastámara ''(by birth)''House of Tudor ''(by marriage)''
father	Ferdinand II of Aragon
mother	Isabella I of Castile
birth date	16 December 1485
birth place	Archbishop's Palace, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid
death date	January 07, 1536
death place	Kimbolton Castle, Cambridgeshire
religion	Roman Catholic
signature	Catherine of Aragon Signature.svg }}

Catherine of Aragon (Spanish: ''Catalina de Aragón'') (16 December 1485 – 7 January 1536), also known as Katherine or Katharine, was Queen of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII of England. She had previously been styled Princess of Wales as the wife of Arthur, Prince of Wales. (Arthur died shortly after their wedding, and Catherine subsequently married Henry, who was Arthur's younger brother.) In 1507, Catherine also held the position of Ambassador for the Spanish Court in England when her father found himself without one, becoming the first female ambassador in European history. For six months, she served as regent of England while Henry VIII was in France. During that time the English won the Battle of Flodden, an event in which Catherine played an important part. The controversial book (''The Education of Christian Women'') by Juan Luis Vives, which claimed women have the right to an education, was dedicated to and commissioned by her. Such was Catherine's impression on people, that even her enemy, Thomas Cromwell, said of her "If not for her sex, she could have defied all the heroes of History." William Shakespeare described her as "The Queen of Earthly Queens", and during her early years as queen consort she was described as "The most beautiful creature in the world." She successfully appealed for the lives of the rebels involved in the Evil May Day for the sake of their families. Furthermore, Catherine won widespread admiration by starting an extensive programme for the relief of the poor. She was also a patron of Renaissance humanism, and a friend of the great scholars Erasmus of Rotterdam and Saint Thomas More.

At the age of three Catherine was betrothed to Prince Arthur, heir to the English throne, and they married in 1501, but Arthur died five months later. Catherine subsequently married Arthur's younger brother, the recently-succeeded Henry VIII. By 1525 Henry was infatuated with his mistress Anne Boleyn and dissatisfied that his marriage to Catherine had produced no surviving sons, leaving their daughter, the future Mary I of England, as heiress presumptive at a time when there was no established precedent for a woman on the throne. He sought to have their marriage annulled, setting in motion a chain of events that led to England's break with the Roman Catholic Church. When Pope Clement VII refused to annul the marriage, Henry defied him by assuming supremacy over religious matters. In 1533 their marriage was declared invalid and Henry married Anne on the judgement of clergy in England, without reference to the Pope. Catherine refused to accept Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England and considered herself, as did most of England and Europe, the King's rightful wife and Queen until her death. Now acknowledged by Henry only as Dowager Princess of Wales, she lived out the remainder of her life at Kimbolton Castle, and died there on 7 January 1536.

Early life

Catherine was born at the Archbishop's Palace in Alcalá de Henares near Madrid, on the night of 16 December 1485. She was the youngest surviving child of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile. Catherine was quite short in stature with long golden auburn hair, wide blue eyes, a round face, and a fair complexion. She was descended, on her maternal side, from the English royal house as her great-grandmother Catherine of Lancaster, after whom she was named, and her great-great-grandmother Philippa of Lancaster, were both daughters of John of Gaunt and granddaughters of Edward III of England. Consequently she was third cousin of her father-in-law, Henry VII, and fourth cousin of her mother-in-law Elizabeth of York.

She was educated by a tutor, Alessandro Geraldini, who was a clerk in Holy Orders. Catherine was able to read, speak, and write in Latin and Spanish and also spoke English, Flemish, French, and Greek. She studied canon and civil law, the classics, genealogy, heraldry, Latin histories, mathematics, philosophy, and religion. She had a strong religious upbringing and developed a faith that would play a major role in later life. She was taught domestic skills, such as art, dancing, embroidery, household management, lace-making, music, needlepoint, spinning, and weaving. The great scholar Erasmus would later say that Catherine "loved good literature which she had studied with success since childhood". Catherine was also taught games such as cards, chess, and dice as well as archery, falconry, horseback riding, and hunting.

At an early age, she was considered a suitable wife for Arthur, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of Henry VII of England and heir to the throne, due to her overwhelmingly prominent English ancestry inherited from her mother Queen Isabella I of Castile. By means of her mother, Catherine had a stronger legitimate ancestry to the English throne via the two first wives of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster; Blanche of Lancaster and the Spanish Infanta Constance of Castile, by whom John had hoped to claim the Crown of Castile. On the other hand Henry VII was the descendant of Gaunt's third marriage to Katherine Swynford, whose children were born out of wedlock and only legitimized after the death of Constance and the marriage of John to Katherine. The children of John and Katherine, while legitimized, were barred from ever inheriting the English throne. Because of this, the Tudor monarchy was not accepted by all the European kingdoms. At the time, the house of Trastámara was the most prestigious, due to the great rule of the Catholic Monarchs, so the alliance of Catherine and Arthur validated the House of Tudor in the eyes of European royalty and also strengthened the Tudor claim to the English throne via Catherine of Aragon's ancestry. It would also have given a male heir an indisputable claim to the throne. The two were married by proxy on 19 May 1499, and corresponded in Latin until Arthur turned fifteen and it was decided that they were old enough to be married.

As wife and widow of Arthur

The couple later met on 4 November at Dogmersfield in Hampshire. Little is known about their first impressions of each other, but Arthur did write to his parents-in-law that he would be "a true and loving husband" and told his parents that he was immensely happy to "behold the face of his lovely bride". Unfortunately, the couple found that they were unable to speak to each other since they had learned different pronunciations of Latin. Ten days later, on 14 November 1501, they were married at Old St. Paul's Cathedral.

Once married, Arthur was sent to Ludlow Castle on the borders of Wales, to preside over the Council of Wales and the Marches, as was his duty as Prince of Wales, and his bride accompanied him. The couple stayed in Castle Lodge, Ludlow. A few months later, they both became ill, possibly with the sweating sickness which was sweeping the area. He died on 2 April 1502, and Catherine recovered to find herself a widow.

At this point, Henry VII faced the challenge of avoiding returning her dowry to her father. To avoid complications, it was agreed she would marry Henry VII's second son, Henry, Duke of York, who was five years younger than she was. However, the death of her mother meant that Catherine's 'value' in the marriage market decreased. Castile was a much larger kingdom than Aragon and it was inherited by Catherine's mentally unstable elder sister, Joanna. Ostensibly, the marriage was delayed until Henry was old enough, but Henry VII procrastinated so much about Catherine's unpaid dowry that it was doubtful if the marriage would ever take place. She lived as a virtual prisoner at Durham House in London. Some of her letters to her father, complaining of her treatment, have survived. In one of these letters she tells him that "I choose what I believe, and say nothing. For I am not as simple as I may seem." She had little money and struggled to cope, as she had the wellbeing of her ladies-in-waiting to maintain as well as her own. In 1507 she served as the Spanish Ambassador for England, thus becoming the first female ambassador in European history. While Henry VII and his councillors expected her to be easily manipulated, Catherine went on to prove them wrong.

Marriage to Arthur's brother depended on the Pope granting a dispensation because canon law forbade men to marry their brother's widows. Catherine testified her marriage to Arthur was never consummated, as also according to canon law, a marriage is not valid until consummated. The matter was considered of minor importance at the time, as the Pope had the power to overrule any objections, whether or not they were for religious reasons.

Queen of England (1509–1533)

Catherine's second wedding took place on 11 June 1509, seven years after Prince Arthur's death. She married the then recently succeeded Henry VIII in a private ceremony at Greenwich Church. She was 23 years of age. The king was just days short of his 18th birthday.

Coronation

On Saturday 23 June, the traditional eve-of-coronation procession to Westminster was greeted by a large and enthusiastic crowd. As was the custom, they spent the night before their coronation at the Tower of London. On Midsummer's Day, Sunday, 1509, Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon were anointed and crowned together by the Archbishop of Canterbury at a lavish ceremony at Westminster Abbey. The coronation was followed by a banquet in Westminster Hall. Many new Knights of the Bath were created in honour of the coronation.

Pregnancies and children

On 31 January 1510, Catherine gave birth prematurely to a stillborn daughter. A son, Henry, Duke of Cornwall, was born on New Year's Day 1511. He lived for only 52 days. In 1513, Catherine was pregnant again. Henry appointed her regent when he went to France on a military campaign. Catherine wrote to Wolsey that while Henry approached the Siege of Thérouanne near Calais, she was encumbered with war in England; they were all very glad "to be busy with the Scots, for they take it for (a) pastime. My heart is very good to it, and I am horribly busy with making (of) standards, banners, and badges." When the Scots invaded, they were defeated at the Battle of Flodden Field, with Catherine addressing the army, and riding north in full armour with some of the troops, despite being heavily pregnant at the time. She sent a letter to Henry along with the bloodied coat of the King of Scots, James IV, who died in the battle.

!Name!!Birth!!Death
Stillborn Daughter	31 January 1510
Henry, Duke of Cornwall	1 January 1511
Stillborn Son	c. October 1513
Henry, Duke of Cornwall	December 1514
Mary I, Queen of England	18 February 1516
Unnamed Daughter	10 November 1518

Catherine had lost another son when Henry returned from France. He was either stillborn or died shortly after birth. In December 1514, she had another son, Prince Henry. On 18 February 1516, Catherine delivered a healthy girl. She was named Mary and christened three days later with great ceremony at the Church of Observant Friars. In 1518, Catherine became pregnant for the last time. She gave birth to a daughter on 10 November, but the child was weak and lived either only a few hours or at most a week. Catherine was pregnant six times altogether.

Catherine's religious dedication increased as she aged, as did her interest in academics. She continued to broaden her knowledge and provide training for her daughter. Education among women became fashionable, partly because of Catherine's influence. She also donated large sums of money to several colleges. Henry, however, still considered a male heir essential. The Tudor dynasty was new, and its legitimacy might still be tested. A long civil war (1135–54) had been fought the last time a woman, (Henry I of England's daughter, Empress Matilda), had inherited the throne. The disasters of civil war were still fresh in living memory from the Wars of the Roses.

In 1520, Catherine's nephew Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, paid a state visit to England, and she urged Henry to enter an alliance with Charles rather than with France. Immediately after his departure, she accompanied Henry to France on the celebrated visit to Francis I, the so-called Field of the Cloth of Gold. Within two years, war was declared against France and the Emperor was once again welcome in England, where plans were afoot to betroth him to Catherine's daughter Mary. It is a common belief that Catherine was indeed related to Clement VII.

The King's great matter

In 1525, Henry VIII became enamoured of Anne Boleyn, a maid-of-honour to Queen Catherine who was between 10 and 17 years younger than Henry (Anne's exact year of birth is unknown). Henry began pursuing her. By this time Catherine was no longer able to bear children. Henry began to believe that his marriage was cursed and sought confirmation from the Bible, which he interpreted to say that if a man marries his brother's wife, the couple will be childless. Even if her marriage to Arthur had not been consummated (and Catherine would insist, to her dying day, that she had come to Henry's bed a virgin), Henry's interpretation of that biblical passage meant that their marriage had been wrong in the eyes of God. Whether the Pope at the time of Henry and Catherine's marriage had had the right to overrule Henry's claimed scriptural impediment would become a hot point in Henry's campaign to wrest an annulment from the present Pope. It is possible that the idea of annulment had been suggested to Henry much earlier than this, and is highly probable that it was motivated by his desire for a son. Before Henry's father, Henry VII, ascended the throne, England was beset by civil warfare over rival claims to the English crown, and Henry may have wanted to avoid a similar uncertainty over the succession.

It soon became the one absorbing object of Henry's desires to secure an annulment. Catherine was defiant when it was suggested that she quietly retire to a nunnery, saying "God never called me to a nunnery, I am the King's true and legitimate wife". He set his hopes upon an appeal to the Holy See, acting independently of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, whom he told nothing of his plans. William Knight, the King's secretary, was sent to Pope Clement VII to sue for an annulment, on the grounds that the dispensing bull of Pope Julius II was obtained by false pretences.

As the Pope was, at that time, the prisoner of Catherine's nephew, Emperor Charles V, following the Sack of Rome in May 1527, Knight had difficulty in obtaining access to him. In the end, Henry's envoy had to return without accomplishing much. Henry now had no choice but to put his great matter into the hands of Thomas Wolsey, and Wolsey did all he could to secure a decision in Henry's favour. Wolsey went so far as to convene an ecclesiastical court in England, with a representative of the Pope presiding, and Henry and Catherine herself in attendance. The Pope had no intention of allowing a decision to be reached in England, and his legate was recalled. (How far the pope was influenced by Charles V is difficult to say, but it is clear Henry saw that the Pope was unlikely to annul his marriage to the Emperor's aunt.) The Pope forbade Henry to marry again before a decision was given in Rome. Wolsey had failed and was dismissed from public office in 1529. Wolsey then began a secret plot to have Anne Boleyn forced into exile and began communicating with the Pope, to that end. When this was discovered, Henry ordered Wolsey's arrest and, had he not been terminally ill and died in 1530, he might have been executed for treason. A year later, Catherine was banished from court, and her old rooms were given to Anne Boleyn. When Archbishop of Canterbury William Warham died, the Boleyn family's chaplain, Thomas Cranmer, was appointed to the vacant position.

When Henry decided to annul his marriage to Catherine, John Fisher became her most trusted counsellor and one of her chief supporters. He appeared in the legates' court on her behalf, where he shocked people with the directness of his language, and by declaring that, like John the Baptist, he was ready to die on behalf of the indissolubility of marriage. Henry was so enraged by this that he wrote a long Latin address to the legates in answer to Fisher's speech. Fisher's copy of this still exists, with his manuscript annotations in the margin which show how little he feared Henry's anger. The removal of the cause to Rome ended Fisher's role in the matter, but Henry never forgave him. Other people who supported Catherine's case included Thomas More, Henry's own sister Mary Tudor, Queen of France, Maria de Salinas, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, Pope Paul III and Protestant Reformers Martin Luther and William Tyndale.

Later years

Upon returning to Dover from a meeting with King Francis I of France in Calais, Henry married Anne Boleyn in a secret ceremony. Some sources speculate that Anne was already pregnant at the time, but others testify that Anne (who had seen her sister Mary Boleyn taken up as the king's mistress and summarily cast aside) refused to sleep with Henry until they were married. Henry defended the legality of their union by pointing out that Catherine had previously been married. If she and Arthur had consummated their marriage, Henry by canon law had the right to remarry. On 23 May 1533, Cranmer, sitting in judgment at a special court convened at Dunstable Priory to rule on the validity of Henry's marriage to Catherine, declared the marriage illegal, even though Catherine testified she and Arthur had never had physical relations. Cranmer ruled Henry and Anne's marriage valid five days later, on 28 May 1533.

Until the end of her life, Catherine would refer to herself as Henry's only lawful wedded wife and England's only rightful queen, and her servants continued to address her by that title. However, Henry refused her the right to any title but "Dowager Princess of Wales", in recognition of her position as his brother's widow.

In 1535 she was transferred to Kimbolton Castle. There, she confined herself to one room (which she left only to attend Mass), dressed only in the hair shirt of the Order of St. Francis, and fasted continuously. While she was permitted to receive occasional visitors, she was forbidden to see her daughter, Mary. They were also forbidden to communicate in writing but sympathizers discreetly ferried letters between the two. Henry offered both mother and daughter better quarters and permission to see each other if they would acknowledge Anne Boleyn as his new Queen. Both refused.

In late December 1535, sensing her death was near, Catherine made her will, and wrote to her nephew, the Emperor Charles V, asking him to protect her daughter. She then penned one final letter to Henry, her "most dear lord and husband":

She died at Kimbolton Castle, on 1536. The following day, news of her death reached the King. There were rumours at the time that she was poisoned, possibly by Gregory di Casale. According to the chronicler Edward Hall, Anne Boleyn wore yellow for the mourning, which has been interpreted in various ways; Polydore Vergil interpreted this to mean that Anne did not mourn. However, Chapuys reported that it was actually King Henry who decked himself in yellow, celebrating the news and making a great show of his and Anne's daughter, Elizabeth, to his courtiers. This was seen as distasteful and vulgar by many. Another theory is that the dressing in yellow was out of respect for the late queen-princess dowager as yellow was said to be the Spanish colour of mourning. Certainly, later in the day it is reported that Henry and Anne both individually and privately wept for her death. On the day of Catherine's funeral, Anne Boleyn miscarried a son, which led to her execution a few months later. Rumours then circulated that Catherine had been poisoned by Anne or Henry, or both, as Anne had threatened to murder both Catherine and Mary on several occasions. The rumours were born after the apparent discovery during her embalming that there was a black growth on her heart that might have been caused by poisoning. Modern medical experts are in agreement that her heart's discolouration was due not to poisoning, but to cancer, something which was not understood at the time.

Catherine was buried in Peterborough Cathedral with the ceremony due to a Dowager Princess of Wales, not a queen. Henry did not attend the funeral and refused to allow Mary to attend either.

Faith

Catherine was a member of the Spanish order of Observant Franciscans and was punctilious in her religious observations, integrating without demur her necessary duties as queen with her personal piety. The outward celebration of saints and holy relics formed no part of her personal devotions, which she rather expressed in mass, prayer, confession and penance. Privately, however, she was aware of what she identified as the shortcomings of the papacy and church officialdom. Her doubts about church improprieties certainly did not extend so far as to support the allegations of corruption made public by Martin Luther in Wittenberg in 1517, which were soon to have such far-reaching consequences in initiating the Protestant Reformation: In 1523 Fray Alfonso de Villa Sancta, a learned friar of the Observant Franciscans and friend of the king's old advisor Erasmus, dedicated to the queen his book ''De Liberio Arbitrio adversus Melanchthonem'' denouncing Philipp Melanchthon, a supporter of Luther. Acting as her confessor, he was able to nominate her as a "Defender of the Faith" for denying Luther's arguments.

Appearance

Catherine was of a very fair complexion, had blue eyes, and had a hair colour that was between reddish–blonde and auburn; these were typical in members of the Trastámara family who were descendants of Peter I of Castile. During her lifetime she was described as "The most beautiful creature in the world", and that there was "Nothing lacking in her that the most beautiful girl should have." Saint Thomas More would reflect later in her lifetime that in regards to her appearance "There were few women who could compete with the Queen [Catherine] in her prime."

Legacy, memory, and historiography

In the reign of her daughter, Mary I of England, Catherine's marriage to Henry VIII was declared "good and valid." Her daughter Queen Mary I also had several portraits commissioned of Catherine, and it would not by any means be the last time she was painted. After her death, numerous portraits were painted of her, particularly of her speech at the Legatine Trial, a moment accurately rendered in Shakespeare's play about Henry VIII. Because of her long-suffering adherence to her faith, some saw her as a martyr.

Her tomb in Peterborough Cathedral can be seen and there is hardly ever a time when it is not decorated with flowers or pomegranates, her heraldic symbol. It bears the title ''Katharine Queen of England''.

In the 20th century, George V's consort, Queen Mary had her grave upgraded and there are now banners there denoting Catherine as a Queen of England. Every year at Peterborough Cathedral there is a service in her memory. There are processions, prayers, and various events in the Cathedral including processions to Catherine's grave in which candles, pomegranates, flowers and other offerings are placed on her grave. On the service commemorating the 470th anniversary of her death, the Spanish Ambassador to the United Kingdom attended. During the 2010 service a rendition of Catherine of Aragon's speech before the legatine court was read by Jane Lapotaire. There is a statue of her in her birthplace of Alcalá de Henares, as a young woman holding a book and a rose.

Catherine has remained a popular biographical subject to the present day. The American historian Garrett Mattingly was the author of a popular biography ''Katherine of Aragon'' in 1942. In 1966, Catherine and her many supporters at court were the subjects of ''Catherine of Aragon and her Friends'', a biography by John E. Paul. In 1967, Mary M. Luke wrote the first book of her Tudor trilogy, ''Catherine the Queen'' which portrayed her and the controversial era of English history through which she lived. thumb|Grave of Katherine of Aragon in Peterborough Cathedral. In recent years, the historian Alison Weir covered her life extensively in her biography ''The Six Wives of Henry VIII'', first published in 1991. Antonia Fraser did the same in her own 1992 biography of the same title; as did the British historian David Starkey in his 2003 book ''Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII''. Giles Tremlett's biography "Catherine of Aragon: The Spanish Queen of Henry VIII" came out in 2010, and Julia Fox's biography of Catherine of Aragon will be released in 2011.

Places and statues

In Alcalá de Henares, the place of Catherine's birth, a statue of Catherine as a young woman holding a rose and a book can be seen in the Archbishop's Palace.

Peterborough is twinned with the Castilian city of Alcalá de Henares. Children from schools in the two places have learned about each other as part of the twinning venture, and artists have even come over from Alcalá de Henares to paint Catherine's tombstone.

Aragon Road in Ampthill is named after Catherine, there is also in Ampthill a statue of a cross named "Queen Catherine's Cross" in her honour.

Spelling of her name

Her baptismal name was "Catalina", but "Catherine" was soon the accepted form in England after her marriage to Arthur. Catherine herself signed her name "Katherine", "Katherina", "Katharine" and sometimes "Katharina". In a letter to her, Arthur, her husband, addressed her as "Princess Katerine". Her daughter Queen Mary I called her "Quene Kateryn", in her will. Rarely were names, particularly first names, written in an exact manner during the sixteenth century and it is evident from Catherine's own letters that she endorsed different variations. Loveknots built into his various palaces by her husband, Henry VIII, display the initials "H & K", as do other items belonging to Henry and Catherine, including gold goblets, a gold salt cellar, basins of gold, and candlesticks. Her tomb in Peterborough Cathedral is marked "Katharine Queen of England".

Titles, styles and arms

[[Image:Coat of Arms of Catherine of Aragon.svg|thumb|right|upright|250px|Catherine of Aragon's arms while queen ]]

16 December 1485 – 14 November 1501: Infanta Catherine of Castile and Aragon

14 November 1501 – 2 April 1502: The Princess of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Countess of Chester 2 April 1502 – 11 June 1509: The Dowager Princess of Wales, Dowager Duchess of Cornwall, Dowager Countess of Chester

11 June 1509 – 23 May 1533: ''Her Grace'' The Queen of England

c. 1519 – 23 May 1533: ''Her Majesty'' The Queen of England

23 May 1533 – 7 January 1536: The Dowager Princess of Wales, Dowager Duchess of Cornwall, Dowager Countess of Chester

In art and media

Over the years, numerous artistic and cultural works have been dedicated to her, written about her, or mentioned her, including some by her husband Henry VIII, who wrote "Grene growth the holy" about and for her, and Juan Luis Vives, who dedicated "The Education of Christian Women" to her.

Catherine of Aragon has been portrayed in film, television, plays, books, and other forms many times, and as a result she has stayed very much in popular memory. There has never been a film or television series where she is the main character although an arguable exception is the first episode of ''The Six Wives of Henry VIII'' which is told from her point of view and where she is portrayed by Annette Crosbie. There are also many novels, songs, and poems written about her. Shakespeare's play ''Henry VIII'' is tremendously successful in recreating, with great accuracy, Catherine's statement about the legitimacy of her marriage at the court in Blackfriars before King Henry, and Catherine's portrayal is very sympathetic therein. However, most of the rest of the play is an attempt to absolve many, especially Henry VIII, and the timing of key incidents (including Catherine's death) are changed and other events are avoided (the play makes Henry nearly an innocent pawn in the hands of a dastard Cardinal Wolsey, and the play stops short of Anne Boleyn's execution).

Although Catherine is often portrayed in film and on stage as having possessed the stereotypical Spanish traits of dark hair and eyes and an olive complexion, existing portraits and contemporary descriptions depict her as having had blue eyes, fair skin, and reddish-blonde hair, not uncommon for Spaniards from the northern regions of Spain, such as those from her father's land of Aragon. Furthermore, she was part English, through her ancestors, Katherine of Lancaster and Philippa of Lancaster, who were both daughters of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster.

She is often played with a Spanish accent; from most reports, this is accurate, as she never fully mastered the English language.

Music and rhymes

Rick Wakeman recorded the piece "Catherine of Aragon" for his 1973 album ''The Six Wives of Henry VIII''.

The song "Green Groweth the Holly" is said to have been written for her by Henry VIII.

In the children's nursery rhyme "I Had a Little Nut Tree" she is the "King of Spain's daughter".

She is remembered in a street ballad, for vouching for the rioters, on behalf of their wives and children, after the Evil May Day.

Books

Catherine is the main character in:

''Katharine, The Virgin Widow'', ''The Shadow of the Pomegranate'', and ''The King's Secret Matter'' (later published in an omnibus ''Katharine of Aragon'') by Jean Plaidy

''The King's Pleasure'', by Norah Lofts;

''The Constant Princess'', by Philippa Gregory (a novel about Catherine's younger years);

''Patience, Princess Catherine'' by Carolyn Meyer (young adult novel);

''Isabella's Daughter'' by Charity Bishop.

Catherine is a character in:

''Murder Most Royal'', by Jean Plaidy;

''The Trusted Servant'' by Alison Macleod

''The Other Boleyn Girl'' by Philippa Gregory (a novel about Mary Boleyn's life)

''The Dark Rose'', Volume 2 of ''The Morland Dynasty'', by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

''Wolf Hall'' by Hilary Mantel

Theatre, film, stage, and TV

Catherine was portrayed by:

Sarah Siddons in the 18th century, in Shakespeare's ''Henry VIII''. She told Samuel Johnson that the role of Queen Catherine was her favourite of all the Shakespearean roles she had played, as it was "the most natural".

Violet Vanbrugh in the 1911 short film production of hakespeare's play ''Henry VIII'' (first film portrayal).

German actress Hedwig Pauly-Winterstein in the film ''Anna Boleyn''.

Rosalie Crutchley in ''The Sword and the Rose'', an account of Mary Tudor's romance with the Duke of Suffolk in 1515. (Crutchley later played Henry's sixth queen Katherine Parr in ''The Six Wives of Henry VIII''.)

Greek actress Irene Pappas in Hal B. Wallis's acclaimed film ''Anne of the Thousand Days''.

Frances Cuka in the 1973 film ''Henry VIII and his Six Wives''. Keith Michell reprised his role as Henry VIII. A scene was incorporated between Frances Cuka and Charlotte Rampling (playing Anne Boleyn) to show their quiet, glacial enmity.

Claire Bloom in a 1979 adaptation of Shakespeare's ''Henry VIII''.

British actress Annette Crosbie in a 90-minute television drama entitled "Catherine of Aragon", the first part of the BBC series ''The Six Wives of Henry VIII''.

Annabelle Dowler in Dr. David Starkey's 2001 documentary series on Henry VIII's Six Wives.

Spanish actress Yolanda Vazuez, a brief appearance in the British TV version ''The Other Boleyn Girl'' (January 2003), opposite Jared Harris as Henry VIII and Natascha McElhone as Mary Boleyn.

Assumpta Serna in the October 2003 ITV two-part television drama, ''Henry VIII'' which starred Ray Winstone in the title role. Part 1 chronicled the king's life from the birth of his bastard son, Henry Fitzroy until the execution of Anne Boleyn in 1536. David Suchet co-starred as Cardinal Wolsey.

Marge Simpson (voiced by Julie Kavner), as "Margerine of Aragon" in ''The Simpsons'' episode "Margical History Tour."

Maria Doyle Kennedy in the Showtime 2007 television series, ''The Tudors'' opposite Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Henry. For her performance, Kennedy won an IFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Television, and a Gemini Award for an Actress in a Featured Supporting Role in a Dramatic Series.

Ana Torrent in the 2007 film The Other Boleyn Girl'', with Eric Bana as Henry VIII.

Virginia Weeks portrayed her in the play ''Six Dead Queens and an Inflatable Henry'', and is one of only three productions that show Catherine with the correct colouring.

In 2008 she was played by Victoria Pelro in the film ''The Twisted Tale of Bloody Mary''.

She is played by Siobhan Hewlett in the 2009 documentary ''Henry: Mind of a Tyrant''. This documentary is one of the few portrayals of Catherine to get her appearance correct.

Kate Duchêne in a 2010 adaptation of Shakespeare's ''Henry VIII'' at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.

Ancestry

{{ahnentafel-compact5 |style=font-size: 90%; line-height: 110%; |border=1 |boxstyle=padding-top: 0; padding-bottom: 0; |boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc; |boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9; |boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc; |boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc; |boxstyle_5=background-color: #9fe; |1= 1. Catherine of Aragon (1485–1536)|2= 2. Ferdinand II of Aragon (1452-1516) |3= 3. Isabella I of Castile (1451-1504) |4= 4. John II of Aragon (1397-1479) |5= 5. Juana Enriquez de Córdoba, 5th Lady of Casarrubios del Monte (1425-1468) |6= 6. John II of Castile (1405-1454) |7= 7. Isabella of Portugal (1428-1496) |8= 8. Ferdinand I of Aragon (1380-1416) |9= 9. Eleanor of Alburquerque (1374-1435) |10= 10. Fadrique Enríquez, 1st Count of Melba and Rueda (1390-1473) |11= 11. Mariana Fernández de Córdoba y Ayala, 4th Lady of Casarrubios del Monte (1394—1431) |12= 12. Henry III of Castile (1379-1406) |13= 13. Catherine of Lancaster (1372-1418) |14= 14. Infante John, Lord of Reguengos de Monsaraz (1400-1442) |15= 15. Isabella of Braganza (1402-1445) |16= 16. John I of Castile (1358-1390) (=24) |17= 17. Eleanor of Aragon (1358-1382) (=25) |18= 18. Sancho Alfonso, 1st Count of Alburquerque (1342-1375) |19= 19. Infanta Beatrice of Portugal (1347-1374) |20= 20. Alfonso Enriquez, 1st Lord of Medina de Rio Seco (1354-1429) |22= 22. Diego Fernández de Córdova, 1st Lord of Baena (1355-1435) |23= 23. Inés de Ayala y Toledo, 3rd Lady of Casarrubios del Monte (d. 1453) |24= 24. John I of Castile (1358-1390) (=16) |25= 25. Eleanor of Aragon (1358-1382) (=17) |26= 26. John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (1340-1399) |27= 27. Constance of Castile (1354-1394) |28= 28. John I of Portugal (1357-1433) |29= 29. Philippa of Lancaster (1360-1415) |30= 30. Afonso, 1st Duke of Braganza (1370-1461) |31= 31. Beatriz Pereira de Alvim (1380–1415) }}

See also

List of English consorts

Descendants of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon

Notes

References

Brigden, Susan (2000). ''New Worlds, Lost Worlds''.

Fraser, Antonia (1992). ''The Wives of Henry VIII''. ISBN 0-679-73001-X

Haigh, Christopher (1993) ''English Reformations''.

J.O. Hand & M. Wolff, (1986) ''Early Netherlandish Painting'', National Gallery of Art, Washington(catalogue)/Cambridge UP, 1986, ISBN 0-521-34016-0

Lacey, Robert (1972) ''The Life and Times of Henry VIII''.

Lofts, Norah (1979) ''Anne Boleyn''. ISBN 0-698-11005-6.

Morris, T. A. (1998) ''Europe and England in the Sixteenth Century''.

Starkey, David (2003). ''Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII''. ISBN 0-06-000550-5

Warnicke, Retha M. (1991). ''The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn''. ISBN 0-521-40677-3

Weir, Alison (1991). ''The Six Wives of Henry VIII''. ISBN 0-8021-3683-4

Williams, Neville (1971) ''Henry VIII and His Court''.

Mattingly, Gareth (1941) ''Catherine of Aragon''

John E. Paul (1996) ''Catherine of Aragon and Her Friends''

Further reading

Mattingly, Garrett. (1941). ''Katherine of Aragon''.

Lindsey, Karen. (1995). ''Divorced Beheaded Survived: A Feminist Reinterpretation of the Wives of Henry VIII''. ISBN 0-201-40823-6

Coates, Tim. (2001) ''Letters of Henry VIII 1526–29''.

Ashley, Mike (2002). ''British Kings & Queens''. ISBN 0-7867-1104-3

Weir, Alison. (2002). ''Henry VIII: The King and His Court''. ISBN 0-345-43708-X

Starkey, David. (2003) ''Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII''.

Bernard, G.W. (2005) ''The King's Reformation: Henry VIII and the Remaking of the English Church''.

Tremlett, Giles (2010) ''Catherine of Aragon: The Spanish Queen of Henry VIII''

External links

Catherine of Aragon's divorce papers and other Tudor treasures online to mark the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII's accession

tudorhistory.org – An overview of her life, accompanied by a portrait gallery

englishhistory.net – An in-depth look at her life and times

A geo-biography of the Six Wives of Henry the VIII on Google Earth

Guardian unlimited, letter from her to Pope Clement VII

Katharine of Aragon.com – An Official Website For Her Cause

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Category:English Roman Catholics Category:Irish royal consorts Category:Wives of Henry VIII of England Category:House of Trastamara Category:Repudiated queens Category:Princesses of Wales Category:Regents of England Category:Female regents Category:Annulment Category:Aragonese infantas Category:Castilian infantas Category:1485 births Category:1536 deaths Category:Ambassadors to England Category:Ambassadors of Spain Category:English people of Spanish descent Category:Spanish people of English descent

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Coordinates	30°19′10″N81°39′36″N
succession	Queen consort of England
reign	28 May 1533 – 17 May 1536
coronation	1 June 1533
spouse	Henry VIII of England
issue	Elizabeth I of England
house	House of Tudor
father	Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire
mother	Lady Elizabeth Howard
birth date	c.1501/1507
birth place	Blickling Hall/ Hever Castle, England
death date	May 19, 1536 (aged 29-35)
death place	Tower of London
religion	Anglican, formerly Roman Catholic
signature	Anne Boleyn Signature.svg }}

Anne Boleyn (, or ); c.1501/1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 as the second wife of Henry VIII of England and Marquess of Pembroke in her own right. Henry's marriage to Anne, and her subsequent execution, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that was the start of the English Reformation. A commoner, Anne was the daughter of Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Howard, and was educated in the Netherlands and France, largely as a maid of honour to Claude of France. She returned to England in early 1522, in order to marry her Irish cousin James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond; however, the marriage plans ended in failure and she secured a post at court as maid of honour to Henry VIII's queen consort, Catherine of Aragon.

In 1525 Henry VIII became enamoured of Anne and began pursuing her. She resisted his attempts to seduce her, refusing to become his mistress as her sister Mary had. It soon became the one absorbing object of Henry's desires to annul his marriage to Queen Catherine so he would be free to marry Anne. When it became clear that Pope Clement VII would not annul the marriage, the breaking of the power of the Catholic Church in England began.

In 1532 Henry granted her a peerage in her own right; and that one of the highest in England, the Marquesate of Pembroke.

Henry and Anne married on 25 January 1533. On 23 May 1533 Thomas Cranmer declared Henry and Catherine's marriage null and void; five days later, he declared Henry and Anne's marriage to be good and valid. Shortly afterwards, the Pope decreed sentences of excommunication against Henry and Cranmer. As a result of this marriage and these excommunications, the first break between the Church of England and Rome took place and the Church of England was brought under the King's control.

Anne was crowned Queen of England on 1 June 1533. On 7 September she gave birth to the future Elizabeth I of England. To Henry's displeasure, however, she failed to produce a male heir. Henry was not totally discouraged, for he said that he loved Elizabeth and that a son would surely follow. Three miscarriages followed, however, and by March 1536, Henry was courting Jane Seymour.

Henry had Anne investigated for high treason in April 1536. On 2 May she was arrested and sent to the Tower of London, where she was tried before a jury of peers and found guilty on 15 May. She was beheaded four days later on Tower Green. Modern historians view the charges against her, which included adultery and incest, as unconvincing. Following the coronation of her daughter, Elizabeth, as queen, Anne was venerated as a martyr and heroine of the English Reformation, particularly through the works of John Foxe. Over the centuries, she has inspired or been mentioned in numerous artistic and cultural works. As a result, she has retained her hold on the popular imagination. Anne has been called "the most influential and important queen consort England has ever had," since she provided the occasion for Henry VIII to divorce Catherine of Aragon, and declare his independence from Rome.

Early years

Anne was the daughter of Thomas Boleyn, later Earl of Wiltshire and Earl of Ormond, and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk. Thomas Boleyn was a respected diplomat with a gift for languages; he was also a favourite of Henry VII of England, who sent him on many diplomatic missions abroad. Anne and her siblings grew up at Hever Castle in Kent. A lack of parish records from the period has made it impossible to establish Anne's date of birth. Contemporary evidence is contradictory, with several dates having been put forward by various historians. An Italian, writing in 1600, suggested that she had been born in 1499, while Sir Thomas More's son-in-law, William Roper, indicated a much later date of 1512. However her birth was most likely sometime between 1501 and 1507. As with Anne herself, it is uncertain when her two siblings were born, but it seems clear that her sister Mary was older than Anne. Mary's children clearly believed their mother had been the elder sister. Most historians now agree that Mary was born in 1499. Mary's grandson claimed the Ormonde title in 1596 on the basis she was the elder daughter, which Elizabeth I accepted. Also, Mary was married first, and by custom, the eldest daughter would be married before the younger. Their brother George was born some time around 1504.

The academic debate about Anne's birth date focuses on two key dates: 1501 and 1507. Eric Ives, a British historian and legal expert, advocates the 1501 date, while Retha Warnicke, an American scholar who has also written a biography of Anne, prefers 1507. The key piece of surviving written evidence is a letter Anne wrote sometime in 1514. She wrote it in French to her father, who was still living in England while Anne was completing her education in the Netherlands. Ives argues that the style of the letter and its mature handwriting prove that Anne must have been about thirteen at the time of its composition, while Warnicke argues that the numerous misspellings and grammar errors show that the letter was written by a child. In Ives's view this would also be around the minimum age that a girl could be a Maid of Honour, as Anne was to the regent, Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Savoy. This is supported by claims by a chronicler from the late 16th century, who wrote that Anne was twenty when she returned from France. These findings are contested by Warnicke in several books and articles, but the evidence does not conclusively support either date.

Anne's great-grandparents included a Lord Mayor of London, a duke, an earl, two aristocratic ladies, and a knight. One of them, Geoffrey Boleyn, had been a mercer and wool merchant before becoming Lord Mayor. The Boleyn family originally came from Blickling in Norfolk, fifteen miles north of Norwich. The spelling of the Boleyn name was variable. Sometimes it was written as ''Bullen'', hence the bull heads which formed part of her family arms. At the court of Margaret of Austria in the Netherlands, Anne is listed as ''Boullan''. From there she signed the letter to her father as ''Anna de Boullan''. She is also referred to as "Anna Bolina" (which is Latin); that name is in most portraits of her. Anne made a good impression in the Netherlands with her manners and studiousness, Margaret reported that she was well spoken and pleasant for her young age (''"son josne eaige"''). and told Sir Thomas Boleyn that his daughter was "so presentable and so pleasant, considering her youthful age, that I am more beholden to you for sending her to me, than you to me" (E.W. Ives, op.cit.). Anne stayed with Margaret from spring 1513 until her father arranged for her to attend Henry VIII's sister, Mary Tudor, Queen of France, for Mary's marriage to Louis XII of France in October 1514.

In France Anne was a maid of honour to Queen Mary, and then to 15-year-old Queen Claude of France, with whom she stayed nearly seven years. In the Queen's household she completed her study of French and developed interests in fashion and religious philosophy. She also acquired knowledge of French culture and etiquette. Though all knowledge about Anne's experiences in the French court are conjecture, even Eric Ives, in his latest edition of the biography, conjectures that she was likely to have made the acquaintance of King Francis I's sister, Marguerite de Navarre, a patron of humanists and reformers. Marguerite de Navarre was also an author in her own right, and her works include elements of Christian mysticism and reform that, but for her protection as the French king's beloved sister, verged on heresy. She or her circle may have encouraged Anne's interest in reform, as well as in poetry and literature. Anne's education in France proved itself in later years, inspiring many new trends among the ladies and courtiers of England, and it may have been instrumental in pressing their King toward the culture-shattering contretemps with the Papacy itself. Eric Ives's latest version of his biography hypothesizes that Anne may have had evangelist conviction and a strong spiritual inner life. William Forrest, author of a contemporary poem about Catherine of Aragon, complimented Anne's "passing excellent" skill as a dancer. "Here", he wrote, "was [a] fresh young damsel, that could trip and go."

Anne exerted a powerful charm on those who met her, though opinions differed on her attractiveness. The Venetian diarist Marino Sanuto, who saw Anne when Henry VIII met Francis I at Calais in October 1532, described her as "not one of the handsomest women in the world; she is of middling stature, swarthy complexion, long neck, wide mouth, bosom not much raised ... eyes, which are black and beautiful". Simon Grynée wrote to Martin Bucer in September 1531 that Anne was "young, good-looking, of a rather dark complexion". Lancelot de Carles called her "beautiful with an elegant figure", and a Venetian in Paris in 1528 also reported that she was said to be beautiful. The most influential description of Anne, but also the least reliable, was written by the Catholic propagandist and polemicist Nicholas Sanders in 1586, half a century after Anne's death: "Anne Boleyn was rather tall of stature, with black hair, and an oval face of a sallow complexion, as if troubled with jaundice. It is said she had a projecting tooth under the upper lip, and on her right hand six fingers. There was a large wen under her chin, and therefore to hide its ugliness she wore a high dress covering her throat ... She was handsome to look at, with a pretty mouth". Sanders held Anne responsible for Henry VIII's rejection of the Catholic church, and writing fifty years after her death, was keen to demonize her. Sanders's description contributed to what biographer Eric Ives calls the "monster legend" of Anne Boleyn. Though his details were fictitious, they have formed the basis for references to Anne's appearance even in some modern textbooks.

Anne's experience in France made her a devout Christian in the new tradition of Renaissance humanism. While she would later hold the reformist position that the papacy was a corrupting influence on Christianity, her conservative tendencies could be seen in her devotion to the Virgin Mary. Anne's European education ended in 1521, when her father summoned her back to England. She sailed from Calais in January 1522.

At the court of Henry VIII: 1522–1533

Anne was recalled to marry her Irish cousin, James Butler, a young man who was several years older than she was and who was living at the English court, in an attempt to settle a dispute over the title and estates of the Earldom of Ormond. The 7th Earl of Ormond died in 1515, leaving his daughters, Margaret Boleyn and Anne St Leger, as co-heiresses. In Ireland the great-great-grandson of the 3rd earl, Sir Piers Butler, contested the will and claimed the Earldom himself. He was already in possession of Kilkenny Castle - the ancestral seat of the earls. Sir Thomas Boleyn, being the son of the eldest daughter, felt the title belonged to him and protested to his brother-in-law, the Duke of Norfolk, who spoke to King Henry about the matter. Henry, fearful the dispute could be the spark to ignite civil war in Ireland, sought to resolve the matter by arranging an alliance between Piers's son, James, and Anne Boleyn. She would bring her Ormond inheritance as dowry and thus end the dispute. The plan ended in failure, perhaps because Sir Thomas hoped for a grander marriage for his daughter or because he himself coveted the titles. Whatever the reason, the marriage negotiations came to a complete halt. James Butler later married Lady Joan Fitzgerald, daughter and heiress of James FitzGerald, 10th Earl of Desmond and Amy O'Brien.

Mary Boleyn, Anne Boleyn's older sister, had earlier been recalled from France in late 1519, ostensibly for her affairs with the French king and his courtiers. She married William Carey, a minor noble, in February 1520, at Greenwich, with Henry VIII in attendance: soon after, Mary Boleyn became the English King's mistress. Historians dispute King Henry VIII's paternity of one or both of Mary Boleyn's children born during this marriage. ''Henry VIII: The King and His Court'', by Alison Weir, questions the paternity of Henry Carey; Dr. G.W. Bernard (''The King's Reformation'') and Joanna Denny (''Anne Boleyn: A New Life of England's Tragic Queen'') argue that Henry VIII was their father. Henry did not acknowledge either child, as he did his son Henry Fitzroy, his illegitimate son by Elizabeth Blount, Lady Talboys.

Anne made her début at the ''Chateau Vert'' (Green Castle) pageant in honour of the imperial ambassadors on 4 March 1522, playing "Perseverance." There she took part in an elaborate dance accompanying Henry's younger sister Mary, several other ladies of the court, and her sister. All wore gowns of white satin embroidered with gold thread. She quickly established herself as one of the most stylish and accomplished women at the court, and soon a number of young men were competing for her.

The American historian Retha M. Warnicke writes that Anne was "the perfect woman courtier... her carriage was graceful and her French clothes were pleasing and stylish; she danced with ease, had a pleasant singing voice, played the lute and several other musical instruments well, and spoke French fluently... A remarkable, intelligent, quick-witted young noblewoman... that first drew people into conversation with her and then amused and entertained them. In short, her energy and vitality made her the center of attention in any social gathering." Henry VIII's biographer J. J. Scarisbrick adds that Anne "revelled in" the attention she received from her admirers.

During this time, Anne was courted by Henry Percy, son of the Earl of Northumberland, and entered into a secret betrothal with the young man. Thomas Wolsey's gentleman usher, George Cavendish, maintained the two had not been lovers. If Cavendish is to be believed, it may be that their relationship wasn't sexual. The romance was broken off when Percy's father refused to support their engagement. According to Cavendish, Anne was sent from court to her family's countryside estates, but it is not known for how long. Upon her return to court, she again entered the service of Catherine of Aragon.

The distinguished courtier-poet Sir Thomas Wyatt grew up at Allington, an estate nearly adjoining the Boleyn family's estate at Hever Castle in Kent. Wyatt was estranged from his own wife, and unverifiable romantic legends about Anne and him abound, particularly in the writings of Wyatt's grandson. There is conjecture that some of the most yearning poetry attributed to Wyatt was inspired by their relationship and that it is Anne whom he describes in the sonnet ''Whoso List to Hunt'', as unobtainable, headstrong, and belonging to the King: "''noli me tangere'' for Caesar's I am/And wild for to hold though I seem tame". In 1526 King Henry became enamoured with her and began his pursuit.

Some say that Anne resisted the King's attempts to seduce her, refusing to become his mistress, often leaving court for the seclusion of Hever Castle. But within a year, he proposed marriage to her, and she accepted. Both assumed an annulment could be obtained within a matter of months. There is no evidence to suggest that they engaged in a sexual relationship until very shortly before their marriage; Henry's love letters to Anne seem to suggest that their love affair remained unconsummated for much of their seven year courtship. However, Anne was pregnant by the time of her marriage.

Henry's annulment

It is probable that the idea of annulment (not divorce as commonly assumed) had suggested itself to Henry much earlier than this and was motivated by his desire for an heir to secure the legitimacy of the Tudor claim to the crown. Before Henry's father Henry VII ascended the throne, England was beset by civil warfare over rival claims to the crown and Henry wanted to avoid a similar uncertainty over the succession. He and Catherine had no living sons: all Catherine's children except Mary died in infancy. Catherine of Aragon had first come to England to be bride to Henry's brother Arthur who died soon after their marriage. Spain and England had, at that time, still wanted a union of their kingdoms, and, in 1509, Henry and Catherine were wed. But this marriage could not take place until the Pope had ruled about a passage in the Leviticus 20:21, which seems to forbid the marriage of a man to his brother's widow lest he and the widow be cursed. The Pope ruled that the passage was inapplicable as Arthur had not had relations with Catherine and so the Pope issued a dispensation to that effect. However some years and a new Pope later, Henry was re-thinking things. Prodded by Catherine's inability to provide an heir, and possibly by Anne herself, Henry decided that no Pope had a right to overrule the Bible. This meant that he had been living in sin with Catherine of Aragon all these years, though Catherine hotly contested this and refused to concede that her marriage to Arthur had been consummated. It also meant that his daughter Mary was a bastard, and that the new Pope (Clement VII) must admit the previous Pope's mistake and annul his marriage. Henry's quest for an annulment became euphemistically known as the "King's Great Matter."

Anne saw an opportunity in Henry's infatuation and the convenient moral quandary. She determined that she would yield to his embraces only as his acknowledged queen. She began to take her place at his side in policy and in state, but not, at least not just yet, in his bed. Confusing the issue of whether or not Anne and Henry had a sexual relationship, is the fact that there is no doubt that Anne was pregnant with Elizabeth (born on 7 September 1533) when she and Henry hastily and secretly wed in order to be married when Anne was crowned queen in May, 1533, since any child born before she was queen would not be able to succeed to the throne.

Various are the opinions of scholars and historians as to how deep was Anne's commitment to the Reformation, how much was she perhaps only personally ambitious, and how much she had to do with Henry's defiance of Papal power. There is anecdotal evidence, related to biographer George Wyatt by her former lady-in-waiting Anne Gainsford, that Anne brought to Henry's attention a heretical pamphlet, perhaps Tyndale's "The Obedience of the Christian Man" or one by Simon Fish called "Supplication for Beggars," which cried out to monarchs to rein in the evil excesses of the Catholic Church. If Cavendish is to be believed, Anne's outrage at Wolsey may have personalized whatever philosophical defiance she brought with her from France. Further, the most recent edition of Ives's biography admits that Anne may very well have had a personal spiritual awakening in her youth which spurred her on, not just as catalyst but expediter for Henry's Reformation, though the process took a number of years.

In 1528 sweating sickness broke out with great severity. In London the mortality rate was great and the court was dispersed. Henry left London, frequently changing his residence; Anne Boleyn retreated to the Boleyn residence at Hever Castle, but contracted the illness; her brother-in-law, William Carey, died. Henry sent his own physician to Hever Castle to care for her, and shortly afterward, she recovered. It soon became the one absorbing object of Henry's desires to secure an annulment from Catherine. Henry had set his hopes upon a direct appeal to the Holy See, acting independently of Cardinal Wolsey, to whom he at first communicated nothing of his plans related to Anne. In 1527 William Knight, the King's secretary, had been sent to Pope Clement VII to sue for the annulment of his marriage to Catherine, on the grounds that the dispensing bull of Pope Julius II permitting him to marry his brother's widow, Catherine, had been obtained under false pretenses. Henry also petitioned, in the event of his becoming free, a dispensation to contract a new marriage with any woman even in the first degree of affinity, whether the affinity was contracted by lawful or unlawful connection. This clearly referred to Anne.

As the Pope was, at that time, prisoner of Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, as a result of the Sack of Rome in May 1527, Knight had some difficulty obtaining access. In the end he had to return with a conditional dispensation, which Wolsey insisted was technically insufficient. Henry had now no choice but to put his great matter into the hands of Wolsey, who did all he could to secure a decision in Henry's favor. Wolsey went so far as to convene an ecclesiastical court in England, with a special emissary, Lorenzo Campeggio, from the Pope himself to decide the matter. But the Pope never had empowered his deputy to make any decision. The Pope was still a veritable hostage of Charles V, and Charles V was the loyal nephew of Henry's queen, Catherine. The Pope forbade Henry to contract a new marriage until a decision was reached in Rome, not in England. Convinced that Wolsey's loyalties lay with the Pope, not England, Anne, as well as Wolsey's many enemies, ensured his dismissal from public office in 1529. George Cavendish, Wolsey's chamberlain, records that the servants who waited on the king and Anne at dinner in 1529 in Grafton heard her say that the dishonour that Wolsey had brought upon the realm would have cost any other Englishman his head. Henry replied, "Why then I perceive...you are not the Cardinal's friend." Henry finally agreed to Wolsey's arrest on grounds of ''praemunire''. Had it not been for his death from illness in 1530, he might have been executed for treason. A year later in 1531 (fully two years before Henry's marriage to Anne), Queen Catherine was banished from court and her rooms were given to Anne.

Public support, however, remained with Queen Catherine. One evening in the autumn of 1531, Anne was dining at a manor house on the river Thames and was almost seized by a crowd of angry women. Anne just managed to escape by boat.

When Archbishop of Canterbury William Warham died in 1532, the Boleyn family chaplain, Thomas Cranmer, was appointed, with papal approval.

In 1532 Thomas Cromwell brought before Parliament a number of acts including the Supplication against the Ordinaries and Submission of the Clergy, which recognised royal supremacy over the church, thus finalizing the break with Rome. Following these acts, Thomas More resigned as Chancellor, leaving Cromwell as Henry's chief minister.

Marriage

Anne Boleyn was able to grant petitions, receive diplomats, give patronage and had enormous influence over her future husband to plead the cause of foreign diplomats. The ambassador from Milan wrote in 1531 that it was essential to have her approval if one wanted to influence the English government, a view corroborated by an earlier French ambassador in 1529.

During this period, Anne Boleyn did indeed play an important role in England's international position by solidifying an alliance with France. She established an excellent rapport with the French ambassador, Gilles de la Pommeraie. Anne and Henry attended a meeting with the French king at Calais in winter 1532, in which Henry hoped to enlist the support of Francis I of France for his intended marriage. On 1 September 1532, Henry granted her ''suo jure'' the Marquessate of Pembroke , an appropriate peerage for a future Queen; as such she became a rich and important woman: The three Dukes and two Marquesses who existed in 1532 were the King's brother-in-law, the King's bastard, and other descendants of royalty; she ranked above all other peeresses. The Pembroke lands and the title of Earl of Pembroke had been held by Henry's great-uncle, and Henry performed the investiture himself.

Anne's family also profited from the relationship. Her father, already Viscount Rochford, was created Earl of Wiltshire. Henry also came to an arrangement with Anne's Irish cousin and created him Earl of Ormond. At the magnificent banquet to celebrate her father's elevation, Anne took precedence over the Duchesses of Suffolk and Norfolk, seated in the place of honour beside the King which was usually occupied by the Queen. Thanks to Anne's intervention, her widowed sister Mary received an annual pension of £100, and Mary's son, Henry Carey, was educated at a prestigious Cistercian monastery.

The conference at Calais was something of a political triumph, but even though the French government gave implicit support for Henry's re-marriage and Francis I himself held private conference with Anne, the French King maintained alliances with the Pope which he could not explicitly defy.

Soon after returning to Dover, Henry and Anne married in a secret ceremony. She soon became pregnant and, to legalise the first wedding considered to be unlawful at the time, there was a second wedding service, also private in accordance with The Royal Book, which took place in London on 25 January 1533. Events now began to move at a quick pace. On 23 May 1533, Cranmer (who had been hastened, with the Pope's assent, into the position of Archbishop of Canterbury recently vacated by the convenient death of Warham) sat in judgment at a special court convened at Dunstable Priory to rule on the validity of the King's marriage to Catherine of Aragon. He thereupon declared the marriage of Henry and Catherine null and void. Five days later, on 28 May 1533, Cranmer declared the marriage of Henry and Anne to be good and valid.

Queen of England: 1533–1536

[[File:Coat of Arms of Anne Boleyn.svg|thumb|right|upright|Anne Boleyn's arms as queen consort ]]

Catherine was formally stripped of her title as Queen and Anne was consequently crowned queen consort on 1 June 1533 in a magnificent ceremony at Westminster Abbey with a banquet afterwards. She was the last Queen Consort of England to be crowned separately from her husband. Unlike any other queen consort, Anne was crowned with St Edward's crown, which had previously been used to crown only a reigning monarch. Historian Alice Hunt suggests that this was done because Anne's pregnancy was visible by then and she was carrying the heir who was presumed to be male. On the previous day, Anne had taken part in an elaborate procession through the streets of London seated in a litter of "white cloth of gold" that rested on two palfreys clothed to the ground in white damask, while the barons of the Cinque Ports held a canopy of cloth of gold over her head. In accordance with tradition she wore white, and on her head a gold coronet beneath which her long dark hair hung down freely. The public's response to her appearance was lukewarm.

Meanwhile, the House of Commons had forbidden all appeals to Rome and exacted the penalties of ''praemunire'' against all who introduced papal bulls into England. It was only then that Pope Clement at last took the step of announcing a provisional sentence of excommunication against the King and Cranmer. He condemned the marriage to Anne, and in March 1534, he declared the marriage to Catherine legal and again ordered Henry to return to her. Henry now required his subjects to swear the oath attached to the First Succession Act, which effectively rejected papal authority in legal matters and recognised Anne Boleyn as queen. Those who refused, such as Sir Thomas More, who had resigned as Lord Chancellor, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, were then placed in the Tower of London. In late 1534 parliament declared Henry "the only supreme head on earth of the Church of England". The Church in England was now under Henry's control, not Rome's.

Struggle for a son

After her coronation, Anne settled into a quiet routine at the King's favorite residence, Greenwich Palace, to prepare for the birth of her baby. The child was born slightly premature on 7 September 1533. Between three and four in the afternoon, Anne gave birth to a girl, who was christened Elizabeth, probably in honour of either or both Anne's mother Elizabeth Howard and Henry's mother, Elizabeth of York. But the birth of a girl was a heavy blow to her parents, since they had confidently expected a boy. All but one of the royal physicians and astrologers had predicted a son for them and the French king had already been asked to stand as his godfather. Now the pre-prepared letters announcing the birth of a ''prince'' had an ''s'' hastily added to them to read ''princes[s]'' and the traditional tournament for the birth of an heir was cancelled.

Nevertheless the infant princess was given a splendid christening, but Anne feared that Catherine's daughter, Mary, now stripped of her title of princess and labelled a bastard, posed a threat to Elizabeth's position. Henry soothed his wife's fears by separating Mary from her many servants and sending her to Hatfield House, where Princess Elizabeth would be living with her own sizeable staff of servants, and where the country air was thought better for the baby's health. Anne frequently visited her daughter at Hatfield and other residences.

The new queen had a larger staff of servants than Catherine. There were over 250 servants to tend to her personal needs, everyone from priests to stable-boys. There were over 60 maids-of-honour who served her and accompanied her to social events. She also employed several priests who acted as her confessors, chaplains, and religious advisers. One of these was Matthew Parker, who would become one of the chief architects of Anglican thought during the reign of Anne's daughter Elizabeth I.

Strife with the king

The king and his new queen enjoyed a reasonably happy accord with periods of calm and affection. Anne Boleyn's sharp intelligence, political acumen and forward manners, although desirable in a mistress, were unacceptable in a wife. She was once reported to have spoken to her uncle in words that "shouldn't be used to a dog". After a stillbirth or miscarriage as early as Christmas 1534, Henry was discussing with Cranmer and Cromwell the possibility of leaving Anne without having to return to Catherine. Nothing came of the issue as the royal couple reconciled and spent summer 1535 on progress. By October, she was again pregnant.

Anne Boleyn presided over a magnificent court. She spent lavish amounts of money on gowns, jewels, head-dresses, ostrich-feather fans, riding equipment, furniture and upholstery, maintaining the ostentatious display required by her status. Numerous palaces were renovated to suit her and Henry's extravagant tastes. Her motto was "The most happy", and she had chosen a white falcon as her personal device.

Anne was blamed for the tyranny of her husband's government and was referred to by some of her subjects as "The king's whore" or a "naughty paike [prostitute]". Public opinion turned further against her following her failure to produce a son. It sank even lower after the executions of her enemies Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher. However, with her arrest, trial and execution, public opinion in London and the continent shifted to sympathy, and disapproval of Henry's behaviour.

Downfall and execution: 1536

On 8 January 1536, news of Catherine of Aragon's death reached the King and Anne. Hearing of her death, they were overjoyed. The following day, Henry wore yellow, the symbol of joy and celebration in England, from head to toe, and celebrated Catherine's death with festivities. In Spain, the home country of Catherine of Aragon, yellow is the colour of mourning, in addition to black. For this reason, the wearing of yellow by Henry and Anne may have been a symbol of mourning. With Princess Mary's mother dead, Anne, for her part, attempted to make peace with her.

The Queen, pregnant again, was aware of the dangers if she failed to give birth to a son. With Catherine dead, Henry would be free to marry without any taint of illegality. Mary rebuffed Anne's overtures, perhaps because of rumours circulating that Catherine had been poisoned by Anne and/or Henry. These began after the discovery during her embalming that her heart was blackened. Modern medical experts are in agreement that this was not the result of poisoning, but of cancer of the heart, something which was not understood at the time.

Later that month, the King was unhorsed in a tournament and knocked unconscious for two hours, a worrying incident that Anne believed led to her miscarriage five days later. On the day that Catherine of Aragon was buried at Peterborough Abbey, Anne miscarried a baby which, according to the imperial ambassador Chapuys, she had borne for about three and a half months, and which "seemed to be a male child". For Chapuys, this personal loss was the beginning of the end of the royal marriage.

Given Henry's desperate desire for a son, the sequence of Anne's pregnancies has attracted much interest. Author Mike Ashley speculated that Anne had two stillborn children after Elizabeth's birth and before the male child she miscarried in 1536. Most sources attest only to the birth of Elizabeth in September 1533, a possible miscarriage in the summer of 1534, and the miscarriage of a male child, of almost four months gestation, in January 1536. As Anne recovered from her miscarriage, Henry declared that he had been seduced into the marriage by means of "sortilege"—a French term indicating either "deception" or "spells". His new mistress, Jane Seymour, was quickly moved into royal quarters. This was followed by Anne's brother being refused a prestigious court honour, the Order of the Garter, given instead to Sir Nicholas Carew.

Charges of adultery, incest and treason

According to author and Tudor historian Alison Weir, Thomas Cromwell plotted Anne's downfall while feigning illness and detailing the plot 20–21 April 1536. Anne's biographer Eric Ives, among others, believes that her fall and execution were engineered by Thomas Cromwell. The conversations between Chapuys and Cromwell thereafter indicate Cromwell as the instigator of the plot to remove Anne; evidence of this is seen in the Spanish Chronicle and through letters written from Chapuys to Charles V. Anne differed with Cromwell over the redistribution of Church revenues and over foreign policy. She advocated that revenues be distributed to charitable and educational institutions; and she favoured a French alliance. Cromwell insisted on filling the King's depleted coffers, while taking a cut for himself, and preferred an imperial alliance. For these reasons, suggests Ives, "Anne Boleyn had become a major threat to Thomas Cromwell." Cromwell's biographer John Schofield, on the other hand, contends that no power struggle existed between Anne and Cromwell and that "not a trace can be found of a Cromwellian conspiracy against Anne ... Cromwell became involved in the royal marital drama only when Henry ordered him onto the case." Cromwell did not manufacture the accusations of adultery, though he and other officials used them to bolster Henry's case against Anne. Historian Retha Warnicke questions whether Cromwell could have manipulated the king in such a matter. Henry himself issued the crucial instructions: his officials, including Cromwell, carried them out. The result, historians agree, was a legal travesty. In order to do so the Master Secretary Cromwell would need sufficient evidence that would be convincing enough for her conviction or risk his own offices and perhaps life.

Towards the end of April a Flemish musician in Anne's service named Mark Smeaton was arrested, perhaps tortured or promised freedom. He initially denied being the Queen's lover but later confessed. Another courtier, Sir Henry Norris, was arrested on May Day, but since he was an aristocrat, he could not be tortured. Prior to his arrest, Norris was treated kindly by the King, who offered him his own horse to use on the May Day festivities. It seems likely that during the festivities the King was notified of Smeaton's confession and it was shortly thereafter the alleged conspirators were arrested upon order of the King. Norris was arrested at the festival. Norris denied his guilt and swore that Queen Anne was innocent. One of the most damaging pieces of evidence against Norris was an overheard conversation with Anne at the end of April, where she accused him of coming often to her chambers not to pay court to her lady-in-waiting Madge Shelton but to herself. Sir Francis Weston was arrested two days later on the same charge. Sir William Brereton, a Groom of the King's Privy Chamber, was also apprehended on grounds of adultery. Sir Thomas Wyatt, a poet and friend of the Boleyns who was allegedly infatuated with her before her marriage to the king, was also imprisoned for the same charge but was later released, most likely due to his friendship or his family's friendship with Cromwell. Sir Richard Page was also accused of having a sexual relationship with the Queen, but he was acquitted of all charges after further investigation could not implicate him with Anne. The final accused was Queen Anne's own brother, arrested on charges of incest and treason, accused of having a sexual relationship with his sister. George Boleyn was accused of two incidents of incest: November, 1535 at Whitehall and the following month at Eltham.

On 2 May 1536 Anne was arrested and taken to the Tower of London. In the Tower, she collapsed, demanding to know the location of her father and "swete broder", as well as the charges against her. Four of the accused men were tried in Westminster on 12 May 1536. Weston, Brereton, and Norris publicly maintained their innocence and only the tortured Smeaton supported the Crown by pleading guilty. Three days later, Anne and George Boleyn were tried separately in the Tower of London. She was accused of adultery, incest, and high treason. By the Treason Act of Edward III adultery on the part of a queen was a form of treason (presumably because of the implications for the succession to the throne) for which the penalty was hanging, drawing and quartering for a man and burning alive for a woman, but the accusations, and especially that of incestuous adultery, were also designed to impugn her moral character. The other form of treason alleged against her was that of plotting the king's death, with her "lovers", so that she might later marry Henry Norris.

Final hours

Although the evidence against them was unconvincing, the accused were found guilty under the law and condemned to death by a jury of their peers. George Boleyn and the other accused men were executed on 17 May 1536. Anthony Kingston, the keeper of the Tower, reported Anne seemed very happy and ready to be done with life. The King commuted Anne's sentence from burning to beheading and employed a swordsman from St Omer for the execution, rather than having a queen beheaded with the common axe. They came for Anne on the morning of 19 May to take her to the Tower Green. Anthony Kingston, the Constable of the Tower, wrote:

However, her impending death may have caused her great sorrow for some time during her imprisonment. The poem "Oh Death Rock Me Asleep" is generally believed to have been authored by Anne and reveals that she may have hoped death would end her suffering.

Shortly before dawn, she called Kingston to hear mass with her, and swore in his presence, on the eternal salvation of her soul, upon the Holy Sacraments, that she had never been unfaithful to the king. She ritually repeated this oath both immediately before and after receiving the sacrament of the Eucharist.

On the morning of Friday 19 May, Anne Boleyn was judicially executed, not upon Tower Green, but rather, a scaffold erected on the north side of the White Tower, in front of what is now the Waterloo Barracks. She wore a red petticoat under a loose, dark grey gown of damask trimmed in fur and a mantle of ermine. Accompanied by two female attendants, Anne made her final walk from the Queen's House to the scaffold and she showed a "devilish spirit" and looked "as gay as if she was not going to die". Anne climbed the scaffold and made a short speech to the crowd:

This is one version of her speech, written by Lancelot de Carles in Paris, a few weeks following her death; he had been in London, but did not witness either trial or execution. All the accounts are similar, and undoubtedly correct to varying degrees. It is thought that she avoided criticizing Henry to save Elizabeth and her family from further consequences, but even under such extreme pressure Anne did not confess guilt, in fact subtly implying her innocence, in her appeal to historians who "will meddle of my cause".

Death and burial

She then knelt upright, in the French style of executions. Her final prayer consisted of her repeating continually, "To Jesus Christ I commend my soul; Lord Jesus receive my soul." Her ladies removed her headdress and necklaces, and then tied a blindfold over her eyes. Anne Boleyn was executed by French expert swordsman Jean Rombaud. According to Eric W. Ives, Rombaud was so taken by Anne that he was shaken. Rombaud found it so difficult to proceed with the execution that in order to distract her and for her to position her head correctly, he may have shouted, "Where is my sword?" just before killing her.

The execution was mercifully humane and consisted of a single stroke. It was witnessed by Thomas Cromwell, Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, the King's illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy, the Lord Mayor of London, as well as aldermen, sheriffs, and representatives of the various craft guilds. Most of the King's Council were also present. Cranmer, who was at Lambeth Palace, was reported to have broken down in tears after telling Alexander Ales: "She who has been the Queen of England on earth will today become a Queen in heaven." When the charges were first brought against Anne, Cranmer had expressed his astonishment to Henry and his belief that "she should not be culpable." Still, Cranmer felt vulnerable because of his closeness to the queen. On the night before the execution, he had declared Henry's marriage to Anne to have been void, like Catherine's before her. He made no serious attempt to save Anne's life, although some sources record that he had prepared her for death by hearing her last private confession of sins, in which she had stated her innocence before God. However, on the day of her death a Scottish friend found Cranmer weeping uncontrollably in his London gardens, saying that he was sure that Anne had now gone to Heaven.

Despite the effort put into Anne's execution, Henry failed to have organised any kind of funeral or even provide a proper coffin for her. Her body lay on the scaffold for some time before a man (believed to be working inside the Tower) found an empty arrow chest and placed her head and body inside. She was then buried in an unmarked grave in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula. Her skeleton was identified during renovations of the chapel in the reign of Queen Victoria and Anne's resting place is now marked in the marble floor.

Recognition and legacy

After her death a number of mysteries sprang up about Anne. Nicholas Sander, a Roman Catholic recusant born c. 1530, was committed to deposing Elizabeth I and re-establishing Roman Catholicism in England. In his ''De Origine ac Progressu schismatis Anglicani'' (''The Rise and Growth of the Anglican Schism''), published in 1585, he was the first to write that Anne had six fingers on her right hand. Since physical deformities were generally interpreted as a sign of evil, it is unlikely that Anne Boleyn would have gained Henry's romantic attention had she had any. Anne Boleyn was described by contemporaries as intelligent and gifted in musical arts and scholarly pursuits. She was also strong-willed and proud, and often quarreled with Henry. Biographer Eric Ives evaluates the apparent contradictions in Anne's persona:

Upon exhumation in 1876, no abnormalities were discovered. Her frame was described as delicate, approximately 5'3", with finely formed, tapering fingers. No contemporary portraits of Anne Boleyn have survived. The only likeness is a medal struck in 1534 to commemorate her second pregnancy, though it appears to be severely damaged.

Following the coronation of her daughter as queen, Anne was venerated as a martyr and heroine of the English Reformation, particularly through the works of John Foxe, who argued that Anne had saved England from the evils of Roman Catholicism and that God had provided proof of her innocence and virtue by making sure her daughter, Elizabeth I, later became Queen regnant. An example of Anne's direct influence in the reformed church is what Alexander Ales described to Queen Elizabeth as the "evangelical bishops whom your holy mother appointed from among those scholars who favoured the purer doctrine". Over the centuries, Anne has inspired or been mentioned in numerous artistic and cultural works. As a result, she has remained in the popular memory and Anne has been called "the most influential and important queen consort England has ever had." Her body was said to have rested in an Essex church on its journey to Norfolk. Another is that her heart, at her request, was buried in Erwarton (Arwarton) Church, Suffolk by her uncle Sir Philip Parker.

In 18th century Sicily the peasants of Nicolosi believed that Anne Boleyn, in consequence of having made Henry VIII a heretic, was condemned to burn for eternity inside Mount Etna. This legend was often told for the benefit of foreign travellers.

A number of people have claimed to have seen Anne's ghost at Hever Castle, Blickling Hall, Salle Church, Tower of London, and Marwell Hall. The most famous account of her reputed sighting has been described in paranormal researcher Hans Holzer's book ''Ghosts I've Met''. In 1864 one Major General J.D. Dundas of the 60th Rifles regiment was quartered in the Tower of London. As he was looking out the window of his quarters, he noticed a guard below in the courtyard, in front of the lodgings where Anne had been imprisoned, behaving strangely. He appeared to challenge something, which to the General, ''looked like a whitish, female figure sliding towards the soldier''. The guard charged through the form with his bayonet, then fainted. Only the General's testimony and corroboration at the court-martial saved the guard from a lengthy prison sentence for having fainted while on duty. In 1960 Canon W. S. Pakenham-Walsh, vicar of Sulgrave, Northamptonshire, published ''Tudor Story'' (ISBN 978-0-227-67678-3).

Ancestry

|4= 4. Sir William Boleyn (?–1505) |5= 5. Margaret Butler (c. 1454–1539/1540) |6= 6. Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk (1443–1524) |7= 7. Elizabeth Tilney (before 1445–1497) |8= 8. Sir Geoffrey Boleyn (1437–c. 1463) |9= 9. Ann Hoo (c. 1425–c. 1484) |10= 10. Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond (1450–?) |11= 11. Anne Hankford (c. 1431–1485) |12= 12. John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk (1425–1485) |13= 13. Catherine Moleyns (1424-1465) |14= 14. Sir Frederick Tilney |15= 15. Elizabeth Cheney |16= 16. Sir Thomas Boleyn (1421–?) |17= 17. Anne Bracton |18= 18. Thomas Hoo, Baron Hoo and Hastings (?–c. 1455) |19= 19. Elizabeth Wychingham |20= 20. James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormond (1392–1452) |21= 21. Joan Beauchamp (1396-1430) |22= 22. Sir Richard Hankford (1397–1431) |23= 23. Lady Anne de Montagu (1400–1457) |24= 24. Sir Robert Howard (?1385–1436) |25= 25. Lady Margaret Mowbray |26= 26. Sir William de Moleyns (1378–1425) |27= 27. Marjery Whalesborough (?–1438) |28= 28. Sir Philip Tilney (?-c.1453) |29= 29. Isabel Thorp (?–1436) |30= 30. Sir Lawrence Cheney (c. 1396–1461) |31= 31. Elizabeth Cokayne }}

See also

Anne Boleyn in popular culture

''Anna Bolena'', an opera by Gaetano Donizetti with lyrics by Felice Romani (1830)

''Anne of the Thousand Days'', a 1969 drama distributed by Universal Pictures

List of English consorts

References

Bibliography

Ashley, Mike ''British Kings & Queens'' (2002) ISBN 0-7867-1104-3

Bell, Doyne C. ''Notices of the Historic Persons Buried in the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula in the Tower of London'' (1877)

Brigden, Susan ''New Worlds, Lost Worlds'' (2000)

Elton, G. R. ''Reform and Reformation.'' London: Edward Arnold, 1977. ISBN 0-7131-5953-7.

Davenby, Claire '' Anne Boleyn'' (2009) (Manuscript)

Davenby, Claire ''The Women Of Henry Tudor'' (2011) (Manuscript)

Fraser, Antonia ''The Wives of Henry VIII'' (1992) ISBN 0-679-73001-X

Graves, Michael ''Henry VIII.'' London, Pearson Longman, 2003 ISBN 0-582-38110-X

Haigh, Christopher ''English Reformations'' (1993)

Hibbert, Christopher ''Tower Of London: A History of England From the Norman Conquest'' (1971)

Ives, Eric ''The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn'' (2004) ISBN 1-4051-3463-1

Lacey, Robert ''The Life and Times of Henry VIII'' (1972)

Lehmberg, Stanford E. ''The Reformation Parliament, 1529-1536'' (1970)

Lindsey, Karen ''Divorced Beheaded Survived: A Feminist Reinterpretation of the Wives of Henry VIII'' (1995) ISBN 0-201-40823-6

MacCulloch, Diarmaid ''Thomas Cranmer'' New Haven: Yale University Press (1996) ISBN 0-300-07448-4.

Morris, T. A. ''Europe and England in the Sixteenth Century'' (1998)

Norton, Elizabeth "Anne Boleyn: Henry VIII's Obsession" 2009 hardback ISBN 978-1-84868-084-5 paperback ISBN 978-1-84868-514-7

Parker, K. T. ''The Drawings of Hans Holbein at Windsor Castle'' Oxford: Phaidon (1945)OCLC 822974.

Rowlands, John ''The Age of Dürer and Holbein'' London: British Museum (1988) ISBN 0-7141-1639-4

Scarisbrick, J. J. ''Henry VIII'' (1972) ISBN 978-0-520-01130-4

Schama, Simon ''A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World?: 3000 BC–AD 1603'' (2000) ISBN 0-563-38497-2

Schofield, John. ''The Rise & Fall of Thomas Cromwell.'' Stroud (UK): The History Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-7524-4604-2.

Somerset, Anne ''Elizabeth I.'' London: Phoenix (1997) ISBN 0-385-72157-9

Starkey, David ''Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII'' (2003) ISBN 0-06-000550-5

Strong, Roy ''Tudor & Jacobean Portraits". London: HMSO (1969)OCLC 71370718.

Warnicke, Retha M. ''The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family politics at the court of Henry VIII'' (1989) ISBN 0-521-40677-3

Weir, Allison "The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn" ISBN 978-0-224-06319-7

Williams, Neville ''Henry VIII and His Court'' (1971).

Wilson, Derek ''Hans Holbein: Portrait of an Unknown Man'' London: Pimlico, Revised Edition (2006) ISBN 978-1-84413-918-7

Wooding, Lucy ''Henry VIII'' London: Routledge, 2009 ISBN 978-0-415-33995-7

Further reading

''To Die For: A Novel of Anne Boleyn,'' (2011) by Sandra Byrd ISBN 978-1-439-18311-3

''Anne Boleyn, a Music Book, and the Northern Renaissance Courts: Music Manuscript 1070 of the Royal College of Music, London" Ph.D., Musicology, University of Maryland, 1997 ISBN 0-591-46653-8

''The Politics of Marriage'' by David Loades (1994)

''The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn'' by Allison Weir. ISBN 978-0-224-06319-7

The Hever Castle Guide Book

External links

The Anne Boleyn Files

Anne Boleyn at Salle church Norfolk, UK

Anne Boleyn's indictment and other Tudor treasures online to mark the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII's accession

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Category:1500s births Category:1536 deaths Category:Annulment Pembroke, Anne Boleyn, 1st Marquess of Category:Daughters of British earls Category:English Anglicans Category:Executed English women Category:Executed royalty Category:Executions at the Tower of London Category:Former Roman Catholics Category:Howard family (English aristocracy) Category:Boleyn family Category:Ladies-in-Waiting of the British Royal Household Pembroke, Anne Boleyn, 1st Marquess of Category:Maids of Honour Category:People executed by decapitation Category:People executed for treason against England Category:People executed under the Tudors Category:People from Norfolk Category:People from Kent Category:Prisoners in the Tower of London Category:Wives of Henry VIII of England Category:16th-century women Category:16th-century English people

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Coordinates	30°19′10″N81°39′36″N
consort	yes
succession	Queen consort of England
reign	30 May 1536 – 24 October 1537
coronation	4 June 1536
cor-type	Proclamation
spouse	Henry VIII of England (1536-1537)
issue	Edward VI of England
religion	Catholic
father	John Seymour
mother	Margery Wentworth
birth date	October 10, 1508
death date	October 24, 1537 (aged 29)
death place	Hampton Court Palace
signature	Jane Seynour Signature.svg }}

Jane Seymour (c.1508 – 24 October 1537) was Queen of England as the third wife of King Henry VIII. She succeeded Anne Boleyn as queen consort following the latter's execution for trumped up charges of high treason, incest and adultery in May 1536. She died of postnatal complications less than two weeks after the birth of her only child, a son who reigned as Edward VI. She was the only one of Henry's wives to receive a queen's funeral, and his only consort to be buried beside him in St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, as she was the only consort to have a male heir.

Early life

Jane Seymour was born at Wulfhall, Savernake Forest, Wiltshire, the daughter of Sir John Seymour and Margery Wentworth. Through her maternal grandfather, she was a descendant of King Edward III of England and the Percy family. Because of this, she and King Henry VIII were fifth cousins three times removed. She was a half second cousin to her predecessor Anne Boleyn, sharing a great-grandmother, Elizabeth Cheney. Her date of birth is a matter of debate. It is usually given as 1509 or even 1510, but it has been noted that at her funeral, 29 women walked in succession. Since it was customary for the attendant company to mark every year of the deceased's life in numbers, this implies she was born in 1508, or 1507 and she had not yet celebrated her 30th birthday.

She was not educated as highly as King Henry's previous wives, Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. She could read and write a little, but was much better at needlework and household management, which were considered much more necessary for women. Jane's needlework was reported to be beautiful and elaborate; some of her work survived up to 1652, when it is recorded to have been given to the Seymour family. After her death, it was noted that Henry was an "enthusiastic embroiderer".

She became a maid-of-honour in 1532 to Queen Catherine, but Jane may have served Catherine as early as 1527, and went on to serve Queen Anne Boleyn. The first report of Henry VIII's interest in Jane Seymour was in April 1536, after Anne Boleyn's birth of a stillborn baby boy.

Jane was noted to have a child-like face, as well as a modest personality. According to the Imperial Ambassador Eustace Chapuys, Jane was of middling stature and very pale; he also commented that she was not of much beauty. However, John Russell stated that Jane was "the fairest of all the King's wives." (Although during the Tudor period, fair meant pale, not beautiful) Polydore Vergil commented that she was "a woman of the utmost charm in both character and appearance."

Marriage

King Henry VIII was married to Jane at the Palace of Whitehall, Whitehall, London, on 30 May 1536, just eleven days after Anne Boleyn's execution. She was publicly proclaimed as queen consort on 4 June. She was never crowned, due to a plague in London where the coronation was to take place. Henry may have been reluctant to crown Jane before she had fulfilled her duty as a queen consort by bearing him a son and a male heir. [[Image:Coat of Arms of Jane Seymour.svg|thumb|left|Jane Seymour's arms as queen consort ]] As queen, Seymour was said to be strict and formal. She was close to her female relations, Anne Stanhope (her brother's wife) and her sister, Elizabeth. Jane was also close to the Lady Lisle along with her sister-in-law the Lady Beauchamp. Jane considered Lisle's daughters as ladies-in-waiting and she left many of her possessions to Beauchamp. Jane would form a very close relationship with Mary Tudor. The lavish entertainments, gaiety, and extravagance of the Queen's household, which had reached its peak during the time of Anne Boleyn, was replaced by a strict enforcement of decorum. For example, instead of the fashionable French hoods which Anne Boleyn had introduced, Jane preferred her ladies to wear the gabled English hoods that Catherine of Aragon had worn. Politically, Seymour appears to have been conservative. Her only reported involvement in national affairs, in 1536, was when she asked for pardons for participants in the Pilgrimage of Grace. Henry is said to have rejected this, reminding her of the fate her predecessor met with when she "meddled in his affairs".

Jane was of the Roman Catholic faith, not an Anglican. It is believed, because of this and her loyalty to her former mistress, Catherine of Aragon, Jane put forth much effort to restore Henry's first child, Princess Mary, to court and heir to the throne behind any children that Jane would have with Henry. Jane brought up the issue of Mary's restoration both before and after she became Queen. While Jane was unable to restore Mary to the line of succession, Jane was able to reconcile her with Henry. Eustace Chapuys wrote to Charles V of Jane's compassion and efforts on behalf of Mary's return to favour. A letter from Mary to Jane shows that Mary was grateful to Jane. While it was Jane who first pushed for the restoration, Mary and Elizabeth were not reinstated in the succession until Henry's sixth wife, Queen Catherine Parr, convinced him to do so.

In early 1537, Jane became pregnant. During her pregnancy, she developed a craving for quail, which Henry ordered for her from Calais and Flanders. She went into confinement in September 1537 and gave birth to the coveted male heir, the future King [[Edward VI of England| Edward VI]] on 12 October 1537 at Hampton Court Palace.

Death

Custom dictated that the Queen did not participate in her children's christening. Consequently, Edward was christened without his mother in attendance on 15 October 1537. Both of the King's daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, were present and carried the infant's train during the ceremony. After the christening, it became clear that Jane Seymour was seriously ill.

Jane Seymour's labor had been difficult, lasting two days and three nights, probably because the baby was not well positioned. According to King Edward's biographer, Jennifer Loach, Jane Seymour's death may have been due to an infection from a retained placenta. According to Alison Weir, death could have also been caused by puerperal fever due to a bacterial infection contracted during the birth or a tear in her perineum which became infected.

Jane Seymour died on 24 October 1537 at Hampton Court Palace at Kingston upon Thames.

Funeral

Jane Seymour was buried on 12 November 1537 in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle after a funeral in which her stepdaughter, Mary, acted as chief mourner. Jane Seymour was the only one of Henry's wives to receive a Queen's funeral.

The following inscription was above her grave for a time: :''Here lieth a Phoenix, by whose death'' :''Another Phoenix life gave breath:'' :''It is to be lamented much'' :''The world at once ne'er knew two such.''

After her death, Henry wore black for the next three months and did not remarry for three years, although marriage negotiations were tentatively begun soon after her death. She was Henry's favourite wife because, historians have speculated, she gave birth to a male heir. When he died in 1547, Henry was buried beside her in the grave he had made for her, on his request.

Legacy

Two of Jane's brothers, Thomas and Edward, used her memory to improve their own fortunes. Thomas was rumoured to have been pursuing Princess Elizabeth, but married Queen Catherine Parr instead after the King's death. In the reign of the young King Edward VI, Edward Seymour set himself up as Lord Protector and de facto ruler of the kingdom. Both brothers eventually fell from power, and were executed.

In film

In 1933, Wendy Barrie played Seymour opposite Charles Laughton's Henry VIII in Alexander Korda's highly-acclaimed film ''The Private Life of Henry VIII''.

Seymour is a minor character in Hal B. Wallis' 1969 Oscar-winning ''Anne of the Thousand Days''. She was played by Lesley Paterson, opposite Richard Burton as Henry VIII.

As part of the 1970 BBC series ''The Six Wives of Henry VIII'', the episode entitled "Jane Seymour" presented her as a shy but honest introvert, devoted to her husband. Henry was played by Keith Michell, and Seymour by Anne Stallybrass. The previous episode "Anne Boleyn" displayed Jane as fully knowing the damage her relationship with King Henry was doing.

In 1973, this interpretation was repeated in ''Henry VIII and his Six Wives'', in which Keith Michell reprised his role from the BBC drama; on this occasion Seymour was played by Jane Asher.

Seymour was played by Charlotte Roach in David Starkey's documentary series on Henry's Queens in 2001.

Seymour is a supporting character in the BBC television drama ''The Other Boleyn Girl,'' played by Naomi Benson opposite Jared Harris as Henry VIII and Jodhi May as Anne Boleyn.

In October 2003, in the two-part ITV drama ''Henry VIII,'' Ray Winstone starred as the King. Jane Seymour was played by Emilia Fox.

In ''The Simpsons'' episode "Margical History Tour," Seymour is portrayed by the shrill-tongued Miss Springfield during Marge's retelling of Henry's reign. Henry (portrayed by Homer) quickly orders Seymour's beheading after hearing her annoying voice.

Anita Briem portrays Seymour as lady-in-waiting to Anne Boleyn in the second season of the television series ''The Tudors'', produced for Showtime. In the third season of the same series, when Jane Seymour becomes Queen and later dies, the part is played by Annabelle Wallis.

Seymour was played by actress Corinne Galloway in the 2008 film ''The Other Boleyn Girl''.

In books

Appears in a background role in ''The Dark Rose'', Volume 2 of The Morland Dynasty, a series of historical novels by author Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, where, seen through the eyes of Anne Boleyn, she is given a less than sympathetic portrayal.

A minor character in Philippa Gregory's popular novel ''The Other Boleyn Girl''. Jane is a devout girl seen by the Boleyns as their rival family at court.

Appears in Alison Weir's debut novel ''Innocent Traitor'' and her second ''The Lady Elizabeth''.

Is the subject of the novel Plain Jane: A Novel of Jane Seymour (Tudor Women Series) by Laurien Gardner (Sarah Hoyt).

Appears as a lady serving both Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn in Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, which ends with hints of her coming prominence. A planned sequel, ''The Mirror and the Light,'' is expected to tell her story.

In music

Rick Wakeman recorded the piece, "Jane Seymour" for his 1973 album, ''The Six Wives of Henry VIII''.

The English ballad "The Death of Queen Jane" (Child #170) is about the death of Jane Seymour following the birth of Prince Edward. The story as related in the ballad is historically inaccurate, but apparently reflects the popular view at the time of the events surrounding her death. The historical fact is that Prince Edward was born naturally, and that his mother succumbed to infection and died 12 days later.

Most versions of the song end with the contrast between the joy of the birth of the Prince and the grief of the death of the Queen.

From version 170A: :''The baby was christened with joy and much mirth,'' :''Whilst poor Queen Jane's body lay cold under earth:'' :''There was ringing and singing and mourning all day,'' :''The Princess Elizabeth went weeping away''

The ballad is included in Loreena McKennitt's Barley album.

The song Lady Jane by The Rolling Stones is rumoured to be about Jane Seymour and her relationship with Henry VIII.

Historiography

Books solely on Jane Seymour are scarce, but two biographies of the Queen have recently been published. The first is a scholarly biography by Pamela Gross, while the second, by Elizabeth Norton, is more accessible to the average reader. A third book, William Seymour's ''Ordeal by Ambition'', is in part a biography of Jane.

Jane was widely praised as "the fairest, the most discreet, and the most meritous of all Henry VIII's wives" in the centuries after her passing away. One historian, however, took serious umbrage at this view in the 19th century. Victorian author Agnes Strickland, who wrote multi-volume anthologies of French, Scottish, and English royal women, said that the story of Anne Boleyn's last agonised hours and Henry VIII's swift remarriage to Jane Seymour "is repulsive enough, but it becomes tenfold more abhorrent when the woman who caused the whole tragedy is loaded with panegyric." Hester W. Chapman and Eric Ives resurrected Strickland's view of Jane Seymour, and believe she played a crucial and conscious role in the cold-blooded plot to bring Anne Boleyn to the executioner's block. Joanna Denny, Marie Louise Bruce and Carolly Erickson have also refrained from giving overly sympathetic accounts of Jane's life and career.

On the other hand, historical writers like Alison Weir and Antonia Fraser paint a favourable portrait of a woman of discretion and good sense - "a strong-minded matriarch in the making," says Weir. David Starkey and Karen Lindsey are relatively dismissive of Jane's importance in comparison to that of Henry's other major queens (Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Parr), though they refrain from claiming that she was the cause of the unfair trial. They further state that it was unlikely Jane could accomplish as much as her predecessors or her successors because her reign had been relatively short and spent mainly pregnant or unwell.

Lineage

{{ahnentafel-compact5 |style=font-size: 90%; line-height: 140%; |border=1 |boxstyle=padding-top: 0; padding-bottom: 0; |boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc; |boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9; |boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc; |boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc; |boxstyle_5=background-color: #9fe; |1= 1. Jane Seymour |2= 2. Sir John Seymour of Wulfhall |3= 3. Margery or Margaret Wentworth |4= 4. John Seymour of Wulfhall, of Stapleford, of Stitchcombe and of Huish |5= 5. Elizabeth Darell or Darrell |6= 6. Sir Henry Wentworth of Nettlestead |7= 7. Anne Say |8= 8. John Seymour of Stapleford |9= 9. Elizabeth Coker or Croker |10= 10. Sir George Darell or Darrell of Littlecote |11= 11. Margaret Stourton of Littlecote |12= 12. Sir Philip Wentworth, Kt., of Nettlestead |13= 13. Mary Clifford |14= 14. Sir John Say of Baas, of Little Berkhamsted and Sawbridgeworth, and of Lawford |15= 15. Elizabeth Cheney |16= 16. Sir John Seymour of Wulfhall and of Hatch Beauchamp |17= 17. Isabel William or Williams |18= 18. Sir John Croker of Lineham |19= 19. Elizabeth Fortescue |20= 20. William Darell or Darrell |21= 21. Elizabeth Calston |22= 22. John Stourton, 1st Baron Stourton (1400-1462) |23= 23. Margery or Marjory Wadham |24= 24. Sir Roger Wentworth, Esq., then Kt., of Parlington and of Nettlestead |25= 25. Margery or Margaret Despenser |26= 26. Sir John de Clifford, 7th Lord Clifford |27= 27. Lady Elizabeth Percy |28= 28. John Say |29= 29. Maud ... |30= 30. Sir Laurence or Lawrence Cheney or Cheyne |31= 31. Elizabeth Cokayn or Cokayne }}

Notes

External links

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid;=1966 - Find A Grave

A quick over-view of Jane's life, with a good portrait gallery as well

A more in-depth historical look at Jane's life and times

A geo-biography tour of the Six Wives of Henry VIII on Google Earth

The text of the ballad ''The Death of Queen Jane''

Photo of Seymour waxwork Flickr

A 1996 interview with Anne Boleyn's most respected academic biographer, E.W. Ives in which he offers his interpretations of Anne Boleyn but also speculates on the role Jane played in Anne's downfall

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Category:English Roman Catholics Category:English royalty Category:Irish royal consorts Category:Ladies of the Privy Chamber J Category:Wives of Henry VIII of England Category:1508 births Category:1537 deaths Category:Portrait by Hans Holbein the younger Category:Women of the Tudor period Category:16th-century English people Category:16th-century women

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Coordinates	30°19′10″N81°39′36″N
Name	Elizabeth II
Alt	Elderly Elizabeth with a smile
Succession	Queen of the Commonwealth realms
Reign
Cor-type	Coronation
Coronation	2 June 1953
Predecessor	George VI
Suc-type	Heir apparent
Successor	Charles, Prince of Wales
Reg-type
Regent	''See list''
Spouse	Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (m. 1947)
Issue-link	#Issue
Issue	Charles, Prince of WalesAnne, Princess RoyalPrince Andrew, Duke of YorkPrince Edward, Earl of Wessex
Full name	Elizabeth Alexandra Mary
House	House of Windsor
Father	George VI
Mother	Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
Birth date	April 21, 1926
Birth place	Mayfair, United Kingdom
Religion	Church of EnglandChurch of Scotland }}

Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; born 21 April 1926) is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms, and head of the 54-member Commonwealth of Nations. In her specific role as the monarch of the United Kingdom, one of her 16 realms, she is also Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

Elizabeth was born in London, and educated privately at home. Her father acceded to the throne as George VI in 1936 on the abdication of his brother Edward VIII. She began to undertake public duties during the Second World War, in which she served in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. On the death of her father in 1952, she became Head of the Commonwealth and queen regnant of seven independent Commonwealth countries: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, and Ceylon. Her coronation service in 1953 was the first to be televised. Between 1956 and 1992, the number of her realms varied as territories gained independence and some realms became republics. Today, in addition to the first four aforementioned countries, Elizabeth is Queen of Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Kitts and Nevis.

In 1947 she married Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, with whom she has four children: Charles, Anne, Andrew, and Edward. In 1992, which Elizabeth termed her '''' ("horrible year"), Charles and Andrew separated from their wives, Anne divorced, and a severe fire damaged part of Windsor Castle. Revelations continued on the state of Charles's marriage to Diana, Princess of Wales, and they divorced in 1996. The following year, Diana died in a Paris car crash, and the media criticised the royal family for remaining in seclusion in the days before her funeral. Elizabeth's personal popularity rebounded after she appeared in public and has subsequently remained high.

Her reign of years is the second-longest for a British monarch; only Queen Victoria has reigned longer. Her Silver and Golden Jubilees were celebrated in 1977 and 2002; her Diamond Jubilee is being celebrated during 2012.

Early life

Elizabeth was the first child of Prince Albert, Duke of York (later King George VI), and his wife, Elizabeth. Her father was the second son of King George V and Queen Mary, and her mother was the youngest daughter of Scottish aristocrat Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. She was born by Caesarean section at 2.40 am (GMT) on 21 April 1926 at her maternal grandfather's London house: 17 Bruton Street, Mayfair. The Anglican Archbishop of York, Cosmo Lang, baptised her in the private chapel of Buckingham Palace on 29 May. She was named Elizabeth after her mother, Alexandra after George V's mother, who had died six months earlier, and Mary after her paternal grandmother. Her close family called her "Lilibet". George V cherished his granddaughter, and during his serious illness in 1929 her regular visits were credited in the popular press and by later biographers with raising his spirits and aiding his recovery.

Elizabeth's only sibling was Princess Margaret, born in 1930. The two princesses were educated at home under the supervision of their mother and their governess, Marion Crawford, who was casually known as "Crawfie". Lessons concentrated on history, language, literature and music. To the dismay of the royal family, in 1950 Crawford published a biography of Elizabeth and Margaret's childhood years entitled ''The Little Princesses''. The book describes Elizabeth's love of horses and dogs, her orderliness, and her attitude of responsibility. Others echoed such observations: Winston Churchill described Elizabeth when she was two as "a character. She has an air of authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an infant." Her cousin Margaret Rhodes described her as "a jolly little girl, but fundamentally sensible and well-behaved".

Heiress presumptive

As a granddaughter of the monarch in the male line, Elizabeth's full style at birth was ''Her Royal Highness Princess Elizabeth of York''. She was third in the line of succession to the throne, behind her uncle, Edward, Prince of Wales, and her father. Although her birth generated public interest, she was not expected to become queen, as the Prince of Wales was still young, and many assumed he would marry and have children of his own. In 1936, when her grandfather, George V, died and her uncle Edward succeeded, she became second in line to the throne after her father. Later that year, Edward abdicated after his proposed marriage to divorced socialite Wallis Simpson provoked a constitutional crisis. Elizabeth's father became king, and she became heiress presumptive, with the style ''Her Royal Highness The Princess Elizabeth''. If her parents had had a son, he would have been heir apparent and above her in the line of succession.

Elizabeth received private tuition in constitutional history from Henry Marten, Vice-Provost of Eton College, and learned French from a succession of native-speaking governesses. A Girl Guides company, the 1st Buckingham Palace Company, was formed specifically so she could socialise with girls her own age. Later she was enrolled as a Sea Ranger.

In 1939 Elizabeth's parents toured Canada and visited the United States. As in 1927, when her parents had toured Australia and New Zealand, Elizabeth remained in Britain as her father thought her too young to undertake public tours. Elizabeth "looked tearful" as her parents departed. They corresponded regularly, and on 18 May, she and her parents made the first royal transatlantic telephone call.

Second World War

From September 1939, with the outbreak of the Second World War, Elizabeth and Margaret stayed at Balmoral Castle, Scotland, until Christmas 1939, when they moved to Sandringham House, Norfolk. From February to May 1940, they lived at Royal Lodge, Windsor, until moving to Windsor Castle, where they stayed for most of the next five years. The suggestion by senior politician Lord Hailsham that the two princesses should be evacuated to Canada was rejected by Elizabeth's mother; she declared, "The children won't go without me. I won't leave without the King. And the King will never leave." At Windsor, the princesses staged pantomimes at Christmas in aid of the Queen's Wool Fund, which bought yarn to knit into military garments. In 1940, the 14-year-old Elizabeth made her first radio broadcast during the BBC's ''Children's Hour'', addressing other children who had been evacuated from the cities. She stated:

In 1943, at the age of 16, Elizabeth undertook her first solo public appearance on a visit to the Grenadier Guards, of which she had been appointed Colonel-in-Chief the previous year. As she approached her 18th birthday, the law was changed so that she could act as one of five Counsellors of State in the event of her father's incapacity or absence abroad, such as his visit to Italy in July 1944. In February 1945, she joined the Women's Auxiliary Territorial Service, as an honorary Second Subaltern with the service number of 230873. She trained as a driver and mechanic, and was promoted to honorary Junior Commander five months later. During the war, plans were drawn up to quell Welsh nationalism by affiliating Elizabeth more closely with Wales. Welsh politicians proposed that Elizabeth be made Princess of Wales on her 18th birthday. The idea was supported by Home Secretary Herbert Morrison, but rejected by the King because he felt such a title belonged solely to the wife of a Prince of Wales, and the Prince of Wales had always been the heir apparent. In 1946, she was inducted into the Welsh Gorsedd of Bards at the National Eisteddfod of Wales.

At the end of the war in Europe, on Victory in Europe Day, Elizabeth and her sister mingled anonymously with the celebratory crowds in the streets of London. She later said in a rare interview, "we asked my parents if we could go out and see for ourselves. I remember we were terrified of being recognised ... I remember lines of unknown people linking arms and walking down Whitehall, all of us just swept along on a tide of happiness and relief." Two years later, the princess made her first overseas tour, when she accompanied her parents through southern Africa. During the tour, in a broadcast to the British Commonwealth on her 21st birthday, she pledged: "I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong."

Marriage

Elizabeth met her future husband, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, in 1934 and 1937. After another meeting at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth in July 1939, Elizabeth – though only 13 years old – fell in love with Philip, and they began to exchange letters. They married on 20 November 1947 at Westminster Abbey. They are second cousins once removed through King Christian IX of Denmark and third cousins through Queen Victoria. Before the marriage, Philip renounced his Greek and Danish titles, converted from Greek Orthodoxy to Anglicanism, and adopted the style ''Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten'', taking the surname of his mother's British family. Just before the wedding, he was created Duke of Edinburgh and granted the style of ''His Royal Highness''.

The marriage was not without controversy: Philip had no financial standing, was foreign-born (though a British subject), and had sisters who had married German noblemen with Nazi links. Marion Crawford wrote, "Some of the King's advisors did not think him good enough for her. He was a prince without a home or kingdom. Some of the papers played long and loud tunes on the string of Philip's foreign origin." Elizabeth's mother was reported, in later biographies, to have opposed the union initially, even dubbing Philip "The Hun". In later life, however, she told biographer Tim Heald that Philip was "an English gentleman".

Elizabeth and Philip received 2500 wedding gifts from around the world, but Britain had not yet completely rebounded from the devastation of the war. Elizabeth still required ration coupons to buy the material for her gown, designed by Norman Hartnell. In post-war Britain, it was not acceptable for the Duke of Edinburgh's German relations to be invited to the wedding, including Philip's three surviving sisters. Edward, the former king, was not invited either.

Elizabeth gave birth to her first child, Prince Charles, on 14 November 1948, less than one month after letters patent were issued by her father allowing her children to use the style and title of a royal prince or princess. They otherwise would not have been entitled to such a status as their father was no longer a royal prince. A second child, Princess Anne, was born in 1950.

Following their wedding, the couple leased Windlesham Moor near Windsor Castle, until 4 July 1949, when they took up residence at Clarence House in London. At various times between 1949 and 1951, the Duke of Edinburgh was stationed in the British Protectorate of Malta as a serving Royal Navy officer. He and Elizabeth lived intermittently, for several months at a time, in the Maltese hamlet of Gwardamanġia, at the Villa Gwardamanġia, the rented home of Philip's uncle, Lord Mountbatten. The children remained in Britain.

Reign

Accession and coronation

George VI's health declined during 1951, and Elizabeth was soon frequently standing in for him at public events. In October of that year, she toured Canada, and visited President Truman in Washington, D.C.; on the trip, her private secretary, Martin Charteris, carried a draft accession declaration for use if the King died while she was on tour. In early 1952, Elizabeth and Philip set out for a tour of Australia and New Zealand by way of Kenya. On 6 February 1952, they had just returned to their Kenyan home, Sagana Lodge, after a night spent at Treetops Hotel, when word arrived of the death of Elizabeth's father. Philip broke the news to the new queen. Martin Charteris asked her to choose a regnal name; she chose to remain Elizabeth, "of course". She was proclaimed queen throughout her realms, and the royal party hastily returned to the United Kingdom. She and the Duke of Edinburgh moved into Buckingham Palace.

With Elizabeth's accession it seemed likely that the royal house would bear her husband's name. Lord Mountbatten thought it would be the ''House of Mountbatten'', as Elizabeth would typically have taken Philip's last name on marriage; however Elizabeth's grandmother Queen Mary and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill favoured the retention of the House of Windsor, and so Windsor it remained. The Duke complained, "I am the only man in the country not allowed to give his name to his own children." After the death of Queen Mary on 24 March 1953 and the resignation of Churchill in 1955, the surname ''Mountbatten-Windsor'' was adopted in 1960 for Philip and Elizabeth's male-line descendants who do not carry royal titles.

Amid preparations for the coronation, Princess Margaret informed her sister that she wished to marry Peter Townsend, a divorced commoner 16 years her senior, with two sons from his previous marriage. The Queen asked them to wait for a year; in the words of Martin Charteris, "the Queen was naturally sympathetic towards the Princess, but I think she thought – she hoped – given time, the affair would peter out." Senior politicians were against the match, and the Church of England did not permit re-marriage after divorce. If Margaret contracted a civil marriage, she would have to renounce her right of succession. Eventually, she decided to abandon her plans with Townsend. In 1960, she married Antony Armstrong-Jones, who was created Earl of Snowdon the following year. They were divorced in 1978. She did not remarry.

Despite the death of Queen Mary ten weeks before, the coronation went ahead on 2 June 1953. Before she died, Mary had asked that the coronation not be delayed. The ceremony in Westminster Abbey, except the anointing and communion, was televised for the first time, and the coverage was instrumental in boosting the medium's popularity; the number of television licences in the United Kingdom doubled to 3 million, and many of the more than 20 million British viewers watched television for the first time in the homes of their friends or neighbours. In North America, just under 100 million viewers watched recorded broadcasts. Elizabeth's coronation gown was commissioned from Norman Hartnell and embroidered on her instructions with the floral emblems of Commonwealth countries: English Tudor rose, Scots thistle, Welsh leek, Irish shamrock, Australian wattle, Canadian maple leaf, New Zealand silver fern, South African protea, lotus flowers for India and Ceylon, and Pakistan's wheat, cotton, and jute.

Continuing evolution of the Commonwealth

Elizabeth witnessed, over her life, the ongoing transformation of the British Empire into the Commonwealth of Nations. By the time of her accession in 1952, her role as nominal head of multiple independent states was already established. Spanning 1953–54, the Queen and her husband embarked on a six-month around-the-world tour. She became the first reigning monarch of Australia and New Zealand to visit those nations. During the tour, crowds were immense; three-quarters of the population of Australia were estimated to have seen the Queen. Throughout her reign, Elizabeth has undertaken state visits to foreign countries, and tours of Commonwealth ones. She is the most widely travelled head of state in history.

In 1956, French Prime Minister Guy Mollet and British Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden discussed the possibility of France joining the Commonwealth. The proposal was never accepted, and the following year France signed the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community, the precursor of the European Union. In November 1956, Britain and France invaded Egypt in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to capture the Suez Canal. Lord Mountbatten claimed the Queen was opposed to the invasion, though Eden denied it. Eden resigned two months later.

The absence of a formal mechanism within the Conservative Party for choosing a leader meant that, following Eden's resignation, it fell to the Queen to decide whom to commission to form a government. Eden recommended that she consult Lord Salisbury (the Lord President of the Council). Lord Salisbury and Lord Kilmuir (the Lord Chancellor) consulted the Cabinet, Winston Churchill, and the Chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, as a result of which the Queen appointed their recommended candidate: Harold Macmillan.

The Suez crisis and the choice of Eden's successor led in 1957 to the first major personal criticism of the Queen. In a magazine, which he owned and edited, Lord Altrincham accused her of being "out of touch". Altrincham was denounced by public figures and physically attacked by a member of the public appalled at his comments. Six years later in 1963, Macmillan resigned and advised the Queen to appoint the Earl of Home as prime minister, advice that she followed. The Queen again came under criticism for appointing the Prime Minister on the advice of a small number of ministers, or a single minister. In 1965, the Conservatives adopted a formal mechanism for choosing a leader, thus relieving her of involvement.

In 1957, she made a state visit to the United States, where she addressed the United Nations General Assembly. On the same tour, she opened the 23rd Canadian Parliament, becoming the first monarch of Canada to open a parliamentary session. Two years later, she revisited the United States as Queen of Canada and toured Canada, despite learning upon landing at St. John's, Newfoundland, that she was pregnant with her third child. In 1961, she toured Cyprus, India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Iran. On a visit to Ghana the same year, she dismissed fears for her safety, even though her host President Kwame Nkrumah, who had replaced her as head of state, was a target for assassins. Harold Macmillan wrote: "The Queen has been absolutely determined all through ... She is impatient of the attitude towards her to treat her as ... a film star ... She has indeed 'the heart and stomach of a man' ... She loves her duty and means to be a Queen." Before her tour through parts of Quebec in 1964, the press reported that extermists within the Quebec separatist movement were plotting the Queen's assassination. No attempt was made, but a riot did break out while she was in Montreal; the Queen's "calmness and courage in the face of the violence" was noted.

Elizabeth's pregnancies with Princes Andrew and Edward in 1959 and 1963, respectively, mark the only times she has not performed the State Opening of the British parliament during her reign. In addition to performing traditional ceremonies, she also instituted new practices. Her first royal walkabout, meeting ordinary members of the public, took place during a tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1970.

The 1960s and 1970s saw an acceleration in the decolonisation of Africa and the Caribbean. Over 20 countries gained independence from Britain as part of a planned transition to self-government. In 1965, however, Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith declared unilateral independence in opposition to moves toward majority black rule. Although the Queen dismissed Smith in a formal declaration and the international community applied sanctions against Rhodesia, Smith's regime survived for over a decade.

In February 1974, British Prime Minister Edward Heath called a general election in the middle of the Queen's tour of the Austronesian Pacific Rim and she had to fly back to Britain, interrupting the tour. The inconclusive result of the election meant that Heath, whose Conservative party had the largest share of the popular vote but no overall majority, could stay in office if he formed a coalition with the Liberals. Heath only resigned when discussions on forming a cooperative government foundered, after which the Queen asked the Leader of the Opposition, Labour's Harold Wilson, to form a government.

A year later, at the height of the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis, Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was dismissed from his post by Governor-General Sir John Kerr, after the Opposition-controlled Senate rejected Whitlam's budget proposals. As Whitlam had a majority in the House of Representatives, Speaker Gordon Scholes appealed to the Queen to reverse Kerr's decision. Elizabeth declined, stating that she would not interfere in decisions reserved by the Constitution of Australia for the governor-general. The crisis fuelled Australian republicanism.

Silver Jubilee

In 1977, Elizabeth marked the Silver Jubilee of her accession. Parties and events took place throughout the Commonwealth, many coinciding with the Queen's associated national and Commonwealth tours. The celebrations re-affirmed the Queen's popularity, despite virtually coincident negative press coverage of Princess Margaret's separation from her husband. In 1978, Elizabeth endured a state visit to the United Kingdom by Romania's communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, and his wife Elena, though privately she thought they had "blood on their hands". The following year brought two blows: one was the unmasking of Anthony Blunt, former Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures, as a communist spy; the other was the assassination of her relative and in-law Lord Mountbatten by the Provisional Irish Republican Army.

According to Paul Martin, Sr., by the end of the 1970s the Queen was worried the Crown "had little meaning for" Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Tony Benn said that the Queen found Trudeau "rather disappointing". Trudeau's supposed republicanism seemed to be confirmed by his antics, such as sliding down banisters at Buckingham Palace and pirouetting behind the Queen's back in 1977, and the removal of various Canadian royal symbols during his term of office. In 1980, Canadian politicians sent to London to discuss the patriation of the Canadian constitution found the Queen "better informed on ... Canada's constitutional case than any of the British politicians or bureaucrats". She was interested in the constitutional debate after the failure of Bill C-60, which would have affected her role as head of state. Patriation removed the role of the British parliament in the Canadian constitution, but the monarchy was retained. Trudeau said in his memoirs: "The Queen favoured my attempt to reform the Constitution. I was always impressed not only by the grace she displayed in public at all times, but by the wisdom she showed in private conversation."

1980s

During the 1981 Trooping the Colour ceremony, and only six weeks before the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer, six shots were fired at the Queen from close range as she rode down The Mall on her horse, Burmese. Police later discovered that the shots were blanks. The 17-year-old assailant, Marcus Sarjeant, was sentenced to five years in prison and released after three. The Queen's composure and skill in controlling her mount were widely praised. From April to September 1982, the Queen remained anxious but proud of her son, Prince Andrew, who was serving with British forces during the Falklands War. On 9 July, the Queen awoke in her bedroom at Buckingham Palace to find an intruder, Michael Fagan, in the room with her. Remaining calm, and through two calls to the palace police switchboard, she spoke to Fagan while he sat at the foot of her bed until assistance arrived seven minutes later. Though she hosted President Ronald Reagan at Windsor Castle in 1982, and visited his Californian ranch in 1983, she was angered when his administration ordered the invasion of Grenada, one of her Caribbean realms, without her foreknowledge.

Intense media interest in the opinions and private lives of the royal family during the 1980s led to a series of sensational stories in the press, not all of which were entirely true. As Kelvin MacKenzie, editor of ''The Sun'', told his staff: "Give me a Sunday for Monday splash on the Royals. Don't worry if it's not true – so long as there's not too much of a fuss about it afterwards." Newspaper editor Donald Trelford wrote in ''The Observer'' of 21 September 1986: "The royal soap opera has now reached such a pitch of public interest that the boundary between fact and fiction has been lost sight of ... it is not just that some papers don't check their facts or accept denials: they don't care if the stories are true or not." It was reported, most notably in ''The Sunday Times'' of 20 July 1986, that Elizabeth was worried that British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's economic policies fostered social divisions, and was alarmed by high unemployment, a series of riots, the violence of a miners' strike, and Thatcher's refusal to apply sanctions against the apartheid regime in South Africa. The sources of the rumours included royal aide Michael Shea and Commonwealth Secretary-General Shridath Ramphal, but Shea claimed his remarks were taken out of context and embellished by speculation. Thatcher reputedly said the Queen would vote for the Social Democratic Party—Thatcher's political opponents. Thatcher's biographer John Campbell claimed "... the report was a piece of journalistic mischief-making". Belying reports of acrimony between them, Thatcher later conveyed her personal admiration for the Queen, and after Thatcher's replacement by John Major, Elizabeth gave two honours in her personal gift to Thatcher: appointment to the Order of Merit and the Order of the Garter.

In 1987, the elected Fijian government was deposed in a military coup. Elizabeth, as head of state, supported the attempts of the Governor-General, Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau, to assert executive power and negotiate a settlement. Coup leader Sitiveni Rabuka deposed Ganilau, abolished the monarchy, and declared Fiji a republic. By the start of 1991, republican feeling in Britain had risen because of press estimates of the Queen's private wealth, which were contradicted by the palace, and reports of affairs and strained marriages among her extended family. The involvement of the younger royals in the charity game show ''It's a Royal Knockout'' was ridiculed, and the Queen was the target of satire.

1990s

In 1991, in the wake of victory in the Gulf War, Elizabeth became the first British monarch to address a joint session of the United States Congress. The following year, she attempted to save the failing marriage of her eldest son, Charles, by counselling him and his wife, Diana, Princess of Wales, to reconcile. In a speech on 24 November 1992, to mark the 40th anniversary of her accession, the Queen called 1992 her ''annus horribilis'', meaning ''horrible year''. In March, her second son Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and his wife Sarah, Duchess of York, separated. In April, her daughter Anne, Princess Royal, divorced her husband Captain Mark Phillips. During a state visit to Germany in October, angry demonstrators in Dresden threw eggs at her, and in November Windsor Castle suffered severe fire damage. The monarchy received increased criticism and public scrutiny. In an unusually personal speech, Elizabeth said that any institution must expect criticism, but suggested it be done with "a touch of humour, gentleness and understanding". Two days later, Prime Minister John Major announced reforms of the royal finances that had been planned since the previous year, including the Queen paying income tax for the first time, starting in 1993, and a reduction in the civil list. In December, Charles and Diana formally separated. The year ended with a lawsuit as the Queen sued ''The Sun'' newspaper for breach of copyright when it published the text of her annual Christmas message two days before its broadcast. The newspaper was forced to pay her legal fees, and donated £200,000 to charity.

In the ensuing years, public revelations on the state of Charles and Diana's marriage continued. Even though support for republicanism in Britain seemed higher than at any time in living memory, republicanism remained a minority viewpoint and Elizabeth herself had high approval ratings. Criticism was focused on the institution of monarchy itself and the Queen's wider family rather than the Queen's own behaviour and actions. In consultation with Prime Minister Major, Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, her private secretary Robert Fellowes, and her husband, she wrote to Charles and Diana at the end of December 1995, saying that a divorce was desirable. A year after the divorce, which took place in 1996, Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997. The Queen was on holiday with her son and grandchildren at Balmoral. Diana's two sons wanted to attend church, and so the Queen and Prince Philip took them that morning. After that single public appearance, for five days the Queen and the Duke shielded their grandsons from the intense press interest by keeping them at Balmoral where they could grieve in private. The royal family's seclusion caused public dismay. Pressured by the hostile reaction, the Queen agreed to a live broadcast to the world and returned to London to deliver it on 5 September, the day before Diana's funeral. In the broadcast, she expressed admiration for Diana, and her feelings "as a grandmother" for Princes William and Harry. As a result, much of the public hostility evaporated. She again undertook an extensive tour of her realms, which began in Jamaica in February, where she called the farewell banquet "memorable" after a power cut plunged the King's House, the official residence of the Governor-General, into darkness. As in 1977, there were street parties and commemorative events, and monuments were named to honour the occasion. A million people attended each day of the three-day main Jubilee celebration in London, and the enthusiasm shown by the public for Elizabeth was greater than many journalists had predicted.

Though generally healthy throughout her life, in 2003 she had keyhole surgery on both knees, and in June 2005 she cancelled several engagements after contracting a bad cold. In October 2006, she missed the opening of the new Emirates Stadium because of a strained back muscle that had been troubling her since the summer. Two months later, she was seen in public with a bandage on her right hand, which led to press speculation of ill health. She had been bitten by one of her corgis while she was separating two that were fighting.

In May 2007, ''The Daily Telegraph'' newspaper reported claims from unnamed sources that the Queen was "exasperated and frustrated" by the policies of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, that she had shown concern that the British Armed Forces were overstretched in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that she had raised concerns over rural and countryside issues with Blair repeatedly. She was, however, said to admire Blair's efforts to achieve peace in Northern Ireland. On 20 March 2008, at the Church of Ireland St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh, the Queen attended the first Maundy service held outside of England and Wales. At the invitation of Irish President Mary McAleese, in May 2011 the Queen made the first state visit to the Republic of Ireland by a British monarch.

Elizabeth addressed the United Nations for a second time in 2010, again in her capacity as queen of all her realms and Head of the Commonwealth. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon introduced her as "an anchor for our age". During her visit to New York, which followed a tour of Canada, she officially opened a memorial garden for the British victims of the 11 September attacks.

The Queen's visit to Australia in October 2011, her 16th visit since 1954, was called her "farewell tour" in the press because of her age. Elizabeth plans to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee in 2012, marking 60 years as Queen. She is the longest-lived and second-longest-reigning monarch of the United Kingdom, and the second-longest-serving current head of state (after King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand). She does not intend to abdicate, though the proportion of public duties performed by Prince Charles may increase as Elizabeth reduces her commitments.

She is scheduled to open the 2012 Summer Olympics on 27 July and the Paralympics on 29 August in London. Her father, George VI, opened the 1948 London Olympics, and her great-grandfather, Edward VII, opened the 1908 London Olympics. Elizabeth also opened the 1976 Games in Canada, and Prince Philip opened the Melbourne Olympics in 1956.

Public perception and character

Since Elizabeth rarely gives interviews, little is known of her personal feelings. As a constitutional monarch, she has not expressed her own political opinions in a public forum. She does have a deep sense of religious and civic duty, and takes her coronation oath seriously. Aside from her official religious role as Supreme Governor of the established Church of England, she personally worships with that church and with the national Church of Scotland. She has demonstrated support for inter-faith relations, and has met with leaders of other religions, and granted her personal patronage to the Council of Christians and Jews. A personal note about her faith often features in her annual Royal Christmas Message broadcast to the Commonwealth, such as in 2000, when she spoke about the theological significance of the millennium marking the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ:

Shawcross, pp. 236–237}}

Elizabeth is the patron of over 600 charities and other organisations. Her main leisure interests include equestrianism and dogs, especially her Pembroke Welsh Corgis. Her clothes consist mostly of solid-colour overcoats and decorative hats, which allow her to be seen easily in a crowd.

In the 1950s, as a young woman at the start of her reign, Elizabeth was depicted as a glamorous "fairytale Queen". After the trauma of the war, it was a time of hope, a period of progress and achievement heralding a "new Elizabethan age". Lord Altrincham's accusation in 1957 that her speeches sounded like those of a "priggish schoolgirl" was an extremely rare criticism. In the late 1960s, attempts to portray a more modern image of monarchy were made in the television documentary ''Royal Family'', and by televising Prince Charles's investiture as Prince of Wales.

At her Silver Jubilee in 1977, the crowds and celebrations were genuinely enthusiastic, but in the 1980s public criticism of the royal family increased, as the personal and working lives of Elizabeth's children came under media scrutiny. Elizabeth's popularity sank to a low point in the 1990s. Under pressure from public opinion, she began to pay income tax for the first time, and Buckingham Palace was opened to the public. Discontent with the monarchy reached its peak on the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, though the Queen's popularity rebounded after her live broadcast to the world five days after Diana's death.

In November 1999, a referendum in Australia on the future of the Australian monarchy favoured its retention in preference to an indirectly elected head of state. Polls in Britain in 2006 and 2007 revealed strong support for Elizabeth, and referendums in Tuvalu in 2008 and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in 2009 both rejected proposals to become republics.

Finances

Elizabeth's personal fortune has been the subject of speculation for many years. ''Forbes'' magazine estimated her net worth at around US$450 million in 2010, but official Buckingham Palace statements in 1993 called estimates of £100 million "grossly overstated". Jock Colville, who was her former private secretary and a director of her bank, Coutts, estimated her wealth in 1971 at £2 million (the equivalent of about £}} today). The Royal Collection, which includes artworks and the Crown Jewels, is not owned by the Queen personally and is held in trust, as are the occupied palaces in the United Kingdom such as Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, and the Duchy of Lancaster, a property portfolio valued at £383 million in 2011. Sandringham House and Balmoral Castle are privately owned by the Queen. The British Crown Estate—with holdings of £7.3 billion in 2011—is held in trust for the nation, and cannot be sold or owned by Elizabeth in a private capacity.

Titles, styles, honours, and arms

Titles and styles

Elizabeth has held titles throughout her life, as a granddaughter of the monarch, as a daughter of the monarch, through her husband's titles, and eventually as Sovereign. In common parlance, she is ''The Queen'' or ''Her Majesty''. Officially, she has a distinct title in each of her realms: Queen of Canada in Canada, Queen of Australia in Australia, etc. In the Channel Islands and Isle of Man, which are Crown dependencies rather than separate realms, she is known as Duke of Normandy and Lord of Mann respectively. Additional styles include Defender of the Faith and Duke of Lancaster. When in conversation with the Queen, the practice is to initially address her as ''Your Majesty'' and thereafter as ''Ma'am''.

She has received honours and awards from around the world, and has held honorary military positions throughout the Commonwealth, both before and after her accession.

Arms

From 21 April 1944, Elizabeth's arms consisted of a lozenge bearing the royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom, differenced with a label of three points argent, the centre point bearing a Tudor rose and the first and third a cross of St. George. After her accession as Sovereign, she adopted the royal coat of arms undifferenced. The design of the shield is also used on the Royal Standard of the United Kingdom. Elizabeth has personal flags for use in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, and elsewhere.

Issue

29 July 1981<Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall rowspan="3" rowspan="2">Mark PhillipsTimothy Laurence 19 February 1960 10 March 1964

Name	Marriage !! Children !! Grandchildren
rowspan="2">Charles, Prince of Wales	14 November 1948	Divorced 28 August 1996	|	Diana, Princess of Wales>Lady Diana Spencer	Prince William, Duke of CambridgePrince Harry of Wales
9 April 2005		Camilla Shand ||
rowspan="3">Anne, Princess Royal	15 August 1950 ||	14 November 1973<	Divorced 28 April 1992	Captain Mark Phillips ||	Peter Phillips	Savannah PhillipsIsla Phillips
	Zara Phillips
12 December 1992	Sir Timothy Laurence ||
Prince Andrew, Duke of York	|	23 July 1986Divorced 30 May 1996	Sarah, Duchess of York>Sarah Ferguson	Princess Beatrice of YorkPrincess Eugenie of York
Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex	|	19 June 1999	Sophie, Countess of Wessex>Sophie Rhys-Jones	Lady Louise WindsorJames, Viscount Severn

Ancestry

{{ahnentafel-compact5 |style=font-size: 90%; line-height: 110%; |border=1 |boxstyle=padding-top: 0; padding-bottom: 0; |boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc; |boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9; |boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc; |boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc; |boxstyle_5=background-color: #9fe; |1= 1. Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom |2= 2. George VI of the United Kingdom |3= 3. Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon |4= 4. George V of the United Kingdom |5= 5. Princess Mary of Teck |6= 6. Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne |7= 7. Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck |8= 8. Edward VII of the United Kingdom |9= 9. Princess Alexandra of Denmark |10= 10. Francis, Duke of Teck |11= 11. Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge |12= 12. Claude Bowes-Lyon, 13th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne |13= 13. Frances Dora Smith |14= 14. Charles Cavendish-Bentinck |15= 15. Caroline Louisa Burnaby |16= 16. Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha |17= 17. Victoria of the United Kingdom (niece of 22) |18= 18. Christian IX of Denmark |19= 19. Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel |20= 20. Duke Alexander of Württemberg |21= 21. Countess Claudine Rhédey von Kis-Rhéde |22= 22. Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge (uncle of 17) |23= 23. Princess Augusta of Hesse-Kassel |24= 24. Thomas Lyon-Bowes, Lord Glamis |25= 25. Charlotte Grimstead |26= 26. Oswald Smith |27= 27. Henrietta Mildred Hodgson |28= 28. Lord Charles Cavendish-Bentinck |29= 29. Anne Wellesley |30= 30. Edwyn Burnaby |31= 31. Anne Caroline Salisbury }}

See also

List of current heads of state and government

List of the richest royals

Royal intermarriage

Notes

See Queen's Official Birthday for an explanation of why her official birthday is not the same as her real one. Her godparents were: King George V and Queen Mary; Lord Strathmore; Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught (her paternal great-granduncle); Princess Mary, Viscountess Lascelles (her paternal aunt); and Lady Elphinstone (her maternal aunt). Canada has used three different versions of the arms during her reign. This version was used between 1957 and 1994.

References

Bibliography

Bond, Jennie (2006). ''Elizabeth: Eighty Glorious Years''. London: Carlton Publishing Group. ISBN 1844422607

Bousfield, Arthur; Toffoli, Gary (2002). ''Fifty Years the Queen''. Toronto: Dundurn Press. ISBN 1550023608

Bradford, Sarah (2012). ''Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Our Times''. London: Penguin. ISBN 9780670919116

Brandreth, Gyles (2004). ''Philip and Elizabeth: Portrait of a Marriage''. London: Century. ISBN 0712661034

Briggs, Asa (1995). ''The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom: Volume 4''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0192129678

Campbell, John (2003). ''Margaret Thatcher: The Iron Lady''. London: Jonathan Cape. ISBN 0224061569

Crawford, Marion (1950). ''The Little Princesses''. London: Cassell & Co.

Hardman, Robert (2011). ''Our Queen''. London: Hutchinson. ISBN 9780091936891

Heald, Tim (2007). ''Princess Margaret: A Life Unravelled''. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 9780297848202

Hoey, Brian (2002). ''Her Majesty: Fifty Regal Years''. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 0006531369

Lacey, Robert (2002). ''Royal: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II''. London: Little, Brown. ISBN 0316859400

Macmillan, Harold (1972). ''Pointing The Way 1959–1961'' London: Macmillan. ISBN 0333124111

Marr, Andrew (2011). ''The Diamond Queen: Elizabeth II and Her People''. London: Macmillan. ISBN 9780230748521

Neil, Andrew (1996). ''Full Disclosure''. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0333646827

Nicolson, Sir Harold (1952). ''King George the Fifth: His Life and Reign''. London: Constable & Co.

Petropoulos, Jonathan (2006). ''Royals and the Reich: the princes von Hessen in Nazi Germany''. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195161335

Pimlott, Ben (2001). ''The Queen: Elizabeth II and the Monarchy''. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 0002554941

Roberts, Andrew; Edited by Antonia Fraser (2000). ''The House of Windsor''. London: Cassell & Co. ISBN 0304354066

Shawcross, William (2002). ''Queen and Country''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart. ISBN 0771080565

Thatcher, Margaret (1993). ''The Downing Street Years''. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 0002550490

Trudeau, Pierre Elliott (1993). ''Memoirs''. Toronto: McLelland & Stewart. ISBN 0771085885

Wyatt, Woodrow; Edited by Sarah Curtis (1999). ''The Journals of Woodrow Wyatt: Volume II''. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0333774051

External links

Official British website

Official Canadian website

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af:Elizabeth II van die Verenigde Koninkryk als:Elisabeth II. ang:Elisabeþ II ar:إليزابيث الثانية an:Isabel II d'o Reino Unito ast:Sabela II del Reinu Xuníu az:II Yelizaveta bn:দ্বিতীয় এলিজাবেথ bjn:Elizabeth II matan Britania Raya zh-min-nan:Elizabeth 2-sè be:Елізавета II be-x-old:Лізавета II bi:Elisabet II bg:Елизабет II (Обединено кралство) bs:Elizabeta II, kraljica Ujedinjenog Kraljevstva br:Elesbed II ca:Elisabet II del Regne Unit ceb:Elizabeth II sa Hiniusang Gingharian cs:Alžběta II. cbk-zam:Reina Elizabeth, el aca-segundo cy:Elisabeth II, brenhines y Deyrnas Unedig da:Elizabeth 2. af Storbritannien de:Elisabeth II. nv:Kwį́į́n Elizabeth II et:Elizabeth II el:Ελισάβετ Β΄ του Ηνωμένου Βασιλείου es:Isabel II del Reino Unido eo:Elizabeto la 2-a (Britio) ext:Isabel II del Réinu Uniu eu:Elisabet II.a Erresuma Batukoa fa:الیزابت دوم fr:Élisabeth II du Royaume-Uni fy:Elizabeth II fan it Feriene Keninkryk ga:Eilís II na Ríochta Aontaithe gv:Ealisaid II y Reeriaght Unnaneysit gd:Ban-rìgh Ealasaid II gl:Isabel II do Reino Unido hak:Elizabeth Ngi-sṳ ko:엘리자베스 2세 hy:Եղիսաբեթ II hi:संयुक्त राजशाही की एलिज़ाबेथ द्वितीय hr:Elizabeta II. io:Elizabeth 2ma ilo:Isabel II ti Reino Unido id:Elizabeth II dari Britania Raya ie:Elisabeth II os:Елизаветæ II zu:Elizabeth II is:Elísabet 2. Bretadrottning it:Elisabetta II del Regno Unito he:אליזבת השנייה, מלכת הממלכה המאוחדת jv:Elizabeth II saking Britania Raya kn:ಎರಡನೇ ಎಲಿಜಬೆಥ್ ka:ელისაბედ II kk:Елизавета ІІ kw:Elisabeth II sw:Elizabeth II wa Uingereza la:Elizabeth II (regina Britanniarum) lv:Elizabete II Vindzora lt:Elžbieta II hu:II. Erzsébet brit királynő mk:Елизабета II ml:എലിസബത്ത് II mi:Irihapeti te Tuarua mr:एलिझाबेथ दुसरी arz:اليزابيث التانيه ms:Elizabeth II dari United Kingdom mn:II Элизабет my:အယ်လီဇဘက် ဒုတိယ (ယူကေဘုရင်မ) nah:Cihuātlahtoāni Elizabeth II nl:Elizabeth II van het Verenigd Koninkrijk ja:エリザベス2世 no:Elisabeth II av Storbritannia nn:Elizabeth II av Storbritannia nrm:Lîzabé II du Rouoyaume Unni nov:Elisabeth II oc:Elisabeta II del Reialme Unit pnb:ملکہ الزبتھ II pap:Elizabet II pcd:HM Queen Elizabeth II pms:Elisabeta II dël Regn Unì tpi:Elisabet II pl:Elżbieta II pt:Isabel II do Reino Unido ro:Elisabeta a II-a qu:Elisabeth II ru:Елизавета II se:Elizabeth II sa:एलिज़बेथ २ sco:Elizabeth II sq:Elizabeth II scn:Elisabetta II dû Regnu Unitu si:දෙවන එලිසබෙත් රැජින simple:Elizabeth II ss:Indlovukazi Elizabeth II sk:Alžbeta II. sl:Elizabeta II. Britanska so:Elizabeth II sr:Елизабета II sh:Elizabeta II fi:Elisabet II sv:Elizabeth II tl:Elizabeth II ng Mga Nagkakaisang Kaharian ta:ஐக்கிய இராச்சியத்தின் இரண்டாம் எலிசபெத் kab:Elizabeth II roa-tara:Lesabbètte II d'u Regne Aunìte tt:Елизавета II te:ఎలిజబెత్ II th:สมเด็จพระราชินีนาถเอลิซาเบธที่ 2 แห่งสหราชอาณาจักร tr:II. Elizabeth uk:Єлизавета II (королева Великої Британії) ur:ایلزبتھ دوم ug:ئېلىزابېت II vi:Elizabeth II war:Elizabeth II han Reino Unido yi:עליזאבעט די צווייטע yo:Elisabeti Keji zh-yue:伊利沙伯二世 bat-smg:Elžbieta II zh:伊丽莎白二世

Coordinates	30°19′10″N81°39′36″N
consort	yes
succession	Queen consort of England
reign	18 January 1486 – 11 February 1503
coronation	25 November 1487
spouse	Henry VII of England
issue	Arthur, Prince of WalesMargaret, Queen of ScotsHenry VIII of EnglandElizabeth TudorMary, Queen of FranceEdmund, Duke of SomersetEdward of EnglandKatherine of England
house	House of York ''(by birth)''House of Tudor ''(by marriage)''
father	Edward IV of England
mother	Elizabeth Woodville
birth date	February 11, 1466
birth place	Westminster Palace
death date	February 11, 1503
death place	Richmond Palace
place of burial	Henry VII's Chapel, Westminster Abbey }}

Elizabeth of York (11 February 1466 – 11 February 1503) was Queen consort of England as spouse of King Henry VII from 1486 until 1503, and mother of King Henry VIII of England.

Elizabeth of York is the only English queen to have been a daughter, sister, niece, and wife of English monarchs during her lifetime.

Daughter of the king

She was born at Westminster, the eldest child of King Edward IV and his Queen consort, Elizabeth Woodville, the former Lady Grey.

Her christening was celebrated at Westminster Abbey, her sponsors being her grandmothers Cecily Neville, Duchess of York, and Jacquetta of Luxembourg, Duchess of Bedford. Her third sponsor was her cousin, Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick.

She was named a Lady of the Garter in 1477, along with her mother and her paternal aunt Elizabeth of York, Duchess of Suffolk.

In 1469, she was briefly betrothed to George Neville, son of John Neville, Earl of Northumberland, who initially supported Edward IV against his brother Warwick's rebellion. the Earl of Northumberland switched sides, the betrothal was called off. In 1475, Louis XI agreed to let her marry his son, Charles, the Dauphin of France, but Louis reneged on the promise in 1482.

Sister of the king

In 1483, Edward IV died and Elizabeth's younger brother, Edward V, became King. Her uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was appointed regent and protector of his nephews.

Shortly after his brother's death, Richard began taking steps to isolate his nephews from their Woodville relations. He intercepted Edward V on his way from Ludlow (where he was living as Prince of Wales) to London to be crowned. Edward was placed in the royal residence of the Tower of London, ostensibly for his protection. Elizabeth Woodville fled with her younger son, Richard, and her daughters into sanctuary in Westminster Abbey. Gloucester requested Richard go to the Tower to keep his brother company and Elizabeth agreed.

Two months later, on 22 June 1483, Edward IV's marriage was declared invalid (Edward, it was claimed, had at the time of his marriage to Elizabeth Woodville already been betrothed to Lady Eleanor Butler); this made the children of the marriage bastards and ineligible for the succession. Parliament issued a bill, ''Titulus Regius'' ("The Title of the King"), in support of this position: it legally bastardised the children of Edward IV, and declared Richard the rightful king. Richard then ascended the throne as Richard III on 6 July 1483, and Edward V and his brother disappeared shortly afterwards. Soon rumours began to spread that they had been murdered.

Niece of the king

Elizabeth's mother, Elizabeth Woodville, made an alliance with Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry Tudor, who was the closest to Royalty the Lancastrian party possessed. Although Henry was descended from King Edward III, his claim to the throne was weak, due to the clause barring ascension to the throne by any heirs of the legitimized offspring of his great-great-grandparents, John of Gaunt (3rd son of King Edward III) and Katherine Swynford. Despite this, his mother and Elizabeth Woodville agreed Henry should move to claim the throne, and once he had taken it, he would marry Woodville's daughter, Elizabeth of York, uniting the two rival Houses. In December 1483, in the cathedral in Rennes, Henry swore an oath promising to marry her, and began planning an invasion.

Meanwhile, Richard III made plans to marry her to an unimportant naval officer, a son of Robert Stillington. However, he was captured by the French along the coast of Normandy and imprisoned in Paris, where he died "of hunger and poverty".

In 1484, Elizabeth and her family left Westminster Abbey and returned to Richard's court. It was rumoured that Richard III intended to marry her: his wife, Anne Neville, was dying and they had no surviving children. Richard denied this and the Crowland Chronicle claims he was forced to do so by enemies of the Woodvilles, who dreaded the family's return to royal favour. There is no conclusive evidence of Richard's intention to marry Elizabeth (which would have been subject to the Pope granting dispensations for such marriages), although Sir George Buck later stated to have uncovered a now lost letter from Elizabeth which indicated she was involved and willing. In fact, very soon after Queen Anne's death, Richard opened negotiations with John II of Portugal for a double marriage alliance, by which he would have married the king's sister, Joanna, and Elizabeth their cousin, the future Manuel I.

However, on 7 August 1485, Henry and his army landed in Wales and began marching land-inwards. On 22 August 1485, Henry and Richard fought the Battle of Bosworth Field. Richard, despite having the larger army, was betrayed by some of his most powerful retainers and died in battle. Henry took the crown by right of conquest as Henry VII.

Wife of the king

Henry acknowledged the necessity of marrying Elizabeth to secure the stability of his rule and weaken the claims of other surviving members of the House of York, but he insisted on being King by conquest, ruling in his own right, and not by his marriage to the heir of the House of York, and had no intention of sharing power. Consequently, he chose to be crowned on 30 October 1485, before his marriage.

Henry had the ''Titulus Regius'' repealed, thereby re-legitimising the children of Edward IV and acknowledged Edward V as his predecessor, since he did not want the legitimacy of his wife or her claim as heiress of Edward IV called into question. After a Papal dispensation was procured, Henry and Elizabeth married on 18 January 1486. Their first son, Arthur, was born on 20 September 1486. Henry had Elizabeth crowned queen consort on 25 November 1487.

The marriage proved successful and both partners appear to have cared for each other. As queen, Elizabeth did not exercise much political influence, due to her strong-minded mother-in-law Lady Margaret Beaufort, but she was reported to be gentle and kind, and generous to her relations, servants and benefactors. Elizabeth enjoyed music and dancing, as well as dicing. She kept greyhounds, and she may have enjoyed hunting and archery.

thumb|right|upright|Elizabeth of York's arms On 14 November 1501, Elizabeth's eldest son, Arthur (aged 15), married Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, and the pair were sent to Ludlow Castle, traditional residence of the Prince of Wales. Five months later, Arthur died in April 1502. The news of Arthur's death caused Henry VII to break down in grief; Elizabeth comforted him, telling him that his mother (to whom she refers as ''My Lady'') had no more children but him, and that God had left him yet a fair prince, two fair princesses and that they are both young enough [for more children].

Following Arthur's death, Elizabeth became pregnant once more. On 2 February 1503, she gave birth to a girl named Katherine, but the child died a few days afterwards. Succumbing to a post-partum infection, Elizabeth died on 11 February, her 37th birthday. Her husband appeared to sincerely mourn her death: according to one account, he "privily departed to a solitary place and would no man should resort unto him". Despite his reputation for thrift, he gave her a splendid funeral: she lay in state in the Tower and was buried in Westminster Abbey, in the Lady Chapel Henry had built. He later entertained thoughts of remarriage in order to renew the alliance with Spain - Joan, Dowager Queen of Naples (niece of Ferdinand II of Aragon), Joanna, Queen of Castile (daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella), and Margaret, Dowager Duchess of Savoy (sister-in-law of Joanna of Castile) were all considered - but Henry died a widower in 1509. He was buried with Elizabeth; they can be found today, under their effigies in his chapel.

Legacy

In the children's nursery rhyme, "Sing a Song of Sixpence" Elizabeth is reportedly the queen in the parlour, while her husband is the king counting his money.

Issue

Elizabeth was a renowned beauty, inheriting her parents' fair hair and complexion. Elizabeth and Henry VII had seven children:

Arthur, Prince of Wales (20 September 1486 – 2 April 1502)

Margaret, Queen consort of Scotland (28 November 1489 – 18 October 1541)

Henry VIII of England (28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547)

Elizabeth Tudor (2 July 1492 – 14 September 1495)

Mary, Queen consort of France (18 March 1496 – 25 June 1533)

Edmund, Duke of Somerset (21 February 1499 – 19 June 1500)

Katherine Tudor (2 February 1503 – 10 February 1503)

Ancestry

Elizabeth of York in popular culture

Biography:

Elizabeth of York by Arlene Naylor Okerlund. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

Elizabeth of York: Tudor Queen by Nancy Lenz Harvey (out of print) .

Television & Film:

Elizabeth was portrayed by Norma West in the 1972 BBC mini-series ''The Shadow of the Tower''.

Elizabeth was portrayed by Kate Steavenson-Payne in the film adaption ''Richard III''.

Fiction:

Elizabeth is the subject of Hilda Brookman Stanier's novel ''Plantagenet Princess'', pub. Robert Hale, 1981

Elizabeth appears in three of Philippa Gregory's historical novels: briefly in ''The Constant Princess'' (2005), around the time of her son Arthur's marriage and death, but far more prominently in the account of her mother's life, ''The White Queen'' (2009), which features her from the time of her birth to the age of 18. She appears as a supporting character in The Red Queen, the sequel to The White Queen. In these novels, it is suggested that Elizabeth was indeed deeply in love with her uncle Richard and hoped to marry him rather than Henry Tudor.

Gregory has since revealed that the fourth book in the Plantagenet series will be centered on Elizabeths life.

Elizabeth also appears in "The Tudor Rose" by Margaret Campbell Barnes (1953, reissued 2009), in "The Dragon and the Rose" by Roberta Gellis (1977) and "The King's Daughter" by Sandra Worth, "Uneasy Lies the Head" ("To Hold the Crown : The Story of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York) by Jean Plaidy and "The King's Grace" by Anne Easter Smith.

Elizabeth appears in Sharon Penman's first novel, ''The Sunne in Splendour'', and is portrayed as having loved her uncle.

Notes

Sources

Morgan, Kenneth O., (1988), ''The Oxford History of Britain'', Oxford University Press. (ISBN 0-19-285202-7)

Williams, Neville, (1977), 'Henry VII', in Fraser, Antonia (ed), ''The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England'', Futura. (ISBN 0-8600-7449-8)

External links

ELIZABETH OF YORK GALLERY

Tudorplace

{{S-hou | House of York | 11 February | 1466 | 11 February | 1503 | House of Plantagenet}} {{S-vac | last = Anne Neville }} {{S-ttl | title = Queen consort of EnglandLady of Ireland | years = 18 January 1486 – 11 February 1503}} {{S-vac | next = Catherine of Aragon}}

Category:Irish royal consorts Category:1466 births Category:1503 deaths Category:People from Westminster Category:Heirs to the English throne Category:English royal consorts Category:House of York Category:House of Tudor Category:Women of medieval England Category:Ladies of the Garter Category:Deaths in childbirth Category:Burials at Westminster Abbey Category:Women of the Tudor period Category:15th-century women Category:16th-century women Category:15th-century English people Category:16th-century English people

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