Anne enjoyed a reasonably happy accord with King Henry VIII in the
beginning of their marriage with periods of affection and calm. Both were known
for their passionate relationship with each other and quarrels were soon
followed by loving remarks. Anne’s
forward manners, political acumen, and sharp intelligence clearly were a
desirable in a mistress, but at the time were unacceptable in a wife. She did
not end up shifting herself into the obedient and passive wife that King Henry
VIII wanted her to be after they were married and Anne ended up getting jealous
and having heated fights where she burst into fits of rage and tears with King Henry VIII whenever he was unfaithful to her
with a mistress. King Henry VIII firmly explained to her that ‘she
must shut her eyes and endure as her betters had done” referring to Katherine
of Aragon with him saying that she had been a better wife and a better woman
that Anne was and he gave her a warning that it was ‘in his power to humble her
again in a moment more than he had exalted her.’ Anne had been known to follow King Henry VIII
around all of the time to spy on him and she managed to avoid King Henry VIII’s
personal guard and servants to find out about who his mistresses were by
learning of his dealings with women at the English Court and outside of the
English Court and where his whereabouts were which frustrated King Henry VIII
to no end. She was once reported to have spoken to her uncle Thomas
Howard, the Duke of Norfolk, who both were unable to accept each other for who
they were, cared nothing for each other, and despised each other and were
enemies in words that “shouldn’t be used to a dog,” but that might have been
because he called her a whore to her face.
Soon after a miscarriage, a stillbirth, or a son that only lived minutes
after he was born who they named Henry in honor of his father as early as
Christmas 1534, King Henry VIII was discussing with Archbishop Thomas Cranmer
and Thomas Cromwell the possibly of divorcing Anne without himself having to
return to Katherine of Aragon. Nothing came of the issue as the royal couple
reconciled and spent the summer of 1535 on progress together. She was again pregnant by October 1535.
Anne and King Henry VIII’s marriage was strained in
1535. The French ambassador reported on the frosty atmosphere between the royal
couple at a banquet in 1535. When he asked Anne about it later in the evening,
she told him that she felt utterly lonely and that she could feel the eyes of
the entire whole English court spying on her.
Anne was blamed for the tyranny of her husband’s government and she was
referred to by some of her subjects as “the king’s whore” or a “naughty paike [prostitute]”. She came to be held responsible for Elizabeth
Barton or the “Mad Nun of Kent” being executed along with four priests for
treason as the result of her prophecies against the marriage of King Henry VIII
to Anne on April 20, 1534
as well with the executions of monk Richard
Reynolds and Carthusian priors Augustine Webster, John Houghton, and Robert
Lawerence on May 5, 1535 by hanging, drawing, and courting. Public opinion turned further against her following her failure to produce a
son. It would sink even lower after the executions of her enemies Bishop John
Fisher and Sir Thomas More.
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