From Hilary Mantel’s bestselling novels to a Showtime series, Anne Boleyn haunts us still. But why? Lauren Elkin on a new book, The Creation of Anne Boleyn, that traces the uses and abuses of her body, image, and legend throughout history.
Anne Boleyn already had a few counts against her when in 1536 Thomas Cromwell and the Seymours saw which way the wind was blowing, and decided to sweep her out of the way: Henry VIII wanted a new wife and Jane Seymour was waiting in the wings. One, Anne had grown up at the French court and was said to have “French airs,” an accusation as deadly in politics then as it is now. There were rumors about her behavior at the French court, but it’s possible the gossips had her confused with her slutty sister Mary. Two, she wasn’t conventionally beautiful; flat-chested, olive-skinned, and dark-haired, she was a far cry from the deliciously shapely, fair-skinned, fair-haired nymph so in fashion with the Tudors. And yet, with her foreign airs and unconventional looks, there was something suggestive about her, to such a degree that she could stun a man with her eyes. It made her the perfect screen on which to project any desire, any fear. Anything could be believed of her—and it was—a third nipple, a sixth finger, witchcraft, adultery, incest. Quick-witted, sharp-tongued, and flirtatious, Anne drew a coterie of men to her, and each would lose his head for her. Henry Norris, Francis Weston, William Brereton, Marc Smeaton, all were executed just days before Anne, all accused of carnal knowledge of the queen and treason against the king. Her brother went too. They say his wife turned him in.
Anne Boleyn. (Stapleton Collection/Corbis)
Anne has been as magnetic to posterity as she was to her contemporaries. Her story has been told countless times since her death, in histories, plays, operas, novels, films, television series, etc. Certain elements have seemed unimpeachably true for one generation, only to be revised and reversed by the next. Susan Bordo’s delightfully cheeky, solidly-researched The Creation of Anne Boleyn: A New Look at England’s Most Notorious Queen aims to investigate “the erasure of Anne Boleyn and the creation of ‘Anne Boleyn.” Bordo, a well-known scholar of cultural studies, uses her good sense and academic training to shrewdly chip away at historical commentary, which has hardened speculation into supposed “facts.” The result is a sensible look at the way Anne’s image has been manipulated and shaped by different agendas and historical periods over the centuries.
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