Saturday, June 15, 2013

Quotes by Queen Anne Boleyn of England


Written By: Katelyn Abbott

 


I think Your Majesty, most noble and worthy king, speaketh these words in mirth to prove me, without intent of defiling your princely self, who I find thinks nothing less than of such wickedness which would justly procure the hatred of God and your good queen against us…. I have already given my maidenhead into my husband’s hands.”- Anne’s response in her refusal to become King Henry VIII’s mistress

 

“Sir, is it not a marvelous thing to consider what debt and danger the Cardinal has brought you in with all your subjects…there is not a man within all your realm worth five pounds but he hath indebted you unto him by his means. There is never a noblemen within your realm that if he had done but half so much as he hath done but we were well worthy to lose his head. If my Lord of Norfolk, my Lord of Suffolk, my lord my father, or any other noble person within your realm had done much less than he, but they should have lost their heads for this.”-Anne saying that anyone else who had done what Cardinal Wolsey had done they would have lost their heads for it to King Henry VIII

 

“Did I not tell you that whenever you argue with the Queen she is sure to have the upper hand? I see that some fine morning you will succumb to her reasoning and cast me off! I have been waiting long and might in the meanwhile have contracted some advantageous marriage, out of which I might have had issue, which is the greatest consolation in this world, but alas! Farewell to my time and youth spent to no purpose at all!” –Anne to King Henry VIII in an argument with him in 1529

 

“Tut! Nan, I think the book a bauble, and yet for the hope I have that the realm may be happy by my issue, I am resolved to have him whatsoever might become of me.”-Anne to her lady-in-waiting Anne Gainsford after she finds a book of prophecy with her having her head cut off on it in her apartments in 1530

 

“That matters not, for it is foretold in ancient prophecies that at this time a queen shall be burnt. But even if I were to suffer a thousand deaths, my love for you will not abate one jot.”-Anne to King Henry VIII in an argument with King Henry VIII after he reminds her how much she owes him and how many enemies she had made him in the summer of 1530

“You know I sometimes wish that all Spaniards were at the bottom of the sea.” – Anne attacking Katherine of Aragon to one of her ladies-in-waiting after she finds out that she is still making King Henry VIII’s shirts

 

“I care nothing for Katherine. I would rather see her hanged than acknowledge her as my mistress!” – Anne attacking Katherine of Aragon to one of her ladies-in-waiting after she finds out that she is still making King Henry VIII’s shirts

“I have a furious hankering for apples such as I have never had before. It started three days ago. The King told me it was a sign I was pregnant, but I said it was nothing of the sort!”-Anne Boleyn to Sir Thomas Wyatt after she has married King Henry VIII and become pregnant with her daughter Elizabeth in February 1533

“As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.”-Anne at her first public appearance as the Queen of England at Mass on March 26th, 1533

“Sir, I liked the City well enough-but I saw a great many caps on heads and heard but few tongues.”-Anne to King Henry VIII during her Coronation as the Queen of England

“I thank you all for the honour ye have done to me this day.”-Anne during her Coronation as the Queen of England

“He went to fetch your secretary, but he met a lady, who made him forget the matter!”-Anne to the French ambassador Admiral Chabot on December 1, 1533 about her laughter when she saw King Henry VIII go to fetch his secretary but saw a lady that made him forget about his errand in the first place

“I will curb her proud Spanish blood.”- Anne’s threat against Lady Mary Tudor

“One day I might give her too much dinner or marry her to some varlet.” - Anne’s threat against Lady Mary Tudor

“She is my death and I am hers, so I will take good care that she shall not laugh at me after my death.”-Anne about her belief that Katherine of Aragon will be the cause of her death

“Now I am indeed a queen!”-Anne after she hears about Katherine of Aragon’s death

“I have miscarried of my savior.”-Anne after her miscarriage of her son on January 29, 1536

“This is not all my fault. You have no one to blame but yourself for this! I was distressed to see you with that wench Jane Seymour. Because the love I bear you is so much greater than Katherine’s, my heart broke when I saw you loved others.”-Anne to King Henry VIII about his blame in the miscarriage of their son on January 29, 1536

“'I shall be the sooner with child again, and the son I bear will not be doubtful like this one, which was conceived during the life of the Princess Dowager.”-Anne talking to her ladies-in-waiting about her planning of her next pregnancy after the miscarriage of her son in 1536


“I never spake with him since but upon Saturday before May Day [29th April], and then I found him standing in the round window in my chamber of presence; and I asked why he was so sad, and he answered and said it was no matter. And then I said, ‘You may not look to have me speak to you as I should do to a noble man because you be an inferior person.’ ‘No, no,’ said he, ‘a look sufficed me; and thus fare you well.’”-Anne about her conversation with Mark Smeaton

“You look for dead men’s shoes, for if aught came to the King but good, you would look to have me.”-Anne to Sir Henry Norris after she asks him why he is delaying his marriage to her cousin Lady Madge Shelton

“If it be his majesty's pleasure I am ready to obey."-Anne after she is informed that she is to be arrested and brought to the Tower of London on May 2, 1536

“Master Kingston, do I go into a dungeon?” –Anne to Master William Kingston after her arrival to the Tower of London

“My God, bear witness there is no truth in these charges. I am as clear from the company of man as from sin.”-Anne about the charges against her in the Tower of London

“O Father! O Creator! Thou who art the way the life, and the truth, knowest whether I have deserved this death.” –Anne’s declaration after she has been convicted and deemed to die at her trial on May 15, 1536

My lords, I do not say that my opinion ought to be preferred to your judgment; but if you have reasons to justify it, they must be other than those which have been produced in court, for I am wholly innocent of all matters of which I have been accused, so that I cannot call upon God to pardon me. 

I have always been faithful to the King my lord; but perhaps I have not always shown to him such a perfect humility and reverence as his graciousness and courtesy deserved, and the honor he hath done me required. I confess that I have often had jealous fantasies against him which I had not wisdom or strength to repress. But God knows that I have not otherwise trespassed against him. 

Do not think I say this in the hope of prolonging my life, for He who saveth from death has taught me how to die, and will strengthen my faith. 

Think not, however, that I am so bewildered in mind that I do not care to vindicate my innocence. I knew that it would avail me little to defend it at the last moment if I had not maintained it all my life long, as much as ever Queen did. Still the last words out of my mouth shall justify my honor. 

As for my brother and the other gentlemen who are unjustly condemned, I would willingly die to save them; but as that is not the King’s pleasure, I shall accompany them in death. And then Afterwards, I shall live in eternal peace and joy without end, where I shall pray to God for the King and for you, my lords. 

 The judge of the entire world, in whom abounds justice and truth knows all, and through His love I beseech that He will have compassion on those who have condemned me to this death.”-Anne’s speech after she has been convicted and deemed to die at her trial on May 15, 1536

Has he not then cleared me of the public infamy he has brought me to? Alas, I fear his soul suffers for it, and that he is now punished for his false accusations! But for my brother and those others, I doubt not but they are now in the presence of that great King before whom I am to be tomorrow.”-Anne in her anguish after she finds out that Mark Smeaton had not retracted his false confession about him committing adultery with her in his final speech before his execution on May 17, 1536

“I hear I shall not die afore noon, and I am very sorry, for I thought to be dead by this time, and past my pain." –Anne to Master William Kingston after she finds out her execution has been postponed

““I have heard say that the executioner is very good, and I have a little neck."-Anne to Master William Kingston about her hearing that the French executioner was very good

“The people will have no difficulty in finding a nickname for me: I shall be Queen Anne Lack-Head."-Anne to her ladies-in-waiting at the Tower of London joking about how she will soon be headless to them

“Acquit yourself of your charge, for I have been long prepared.”-Anne to Master William Kingston after he comes to escort her to escort her to the scaffold for her execution on May 19, 1536

“Good Christian people, I am come hither to die, according to the law, for by the law I am judged to die, and therefore I will speak nothing against it. I come here only to die, and thus to yield myself humbly to the will of the King, my lord. And if, in my life, I did ever offend the King’s Grace, surely with my death I do now atone. I come hither to accuse no man, nor speak anything of that whereof I am accused, as I know full well that aught I say in my defense doth not appertain to you. I pray and beseech you all, good friends, to pray for the life of the King, my sovereign lord and yours, who is one of the best princes on the face of the earth, who has always treated me so well that better could not be, wherefore I submit to death with good will, humbly asking pardon of all the world. If any person will meddle with my cause, I require them to judge the best. Thus I take my leave of the world, and of you, and I heartily desire you all to pray for me.”-Anne’s final speech on the scaffold on May 19, 1536

“ And ye, my damsels, who ever showed yourselves so diligent in my service, and who are now to be present at my last hour and mortal agony, as in good fortune ye were faithful to me, so even in this my miserable death ye do not forsake me. And as I cannot reward you for your true service to me, I pray you take comfort for my loss. Forget me not, and be always faithful to the king’s grace, and to her whom with happier fortune, ye may have as your queen and mistress. Esteem your honor far above your life, and in prayers forget not to pray for my soul.”-Anne to her ladies-in-waiting as her final words to them before her death on the scaffold on May 19, 1536

Oh Lord, have mercy on me! To God I commend my soul.” –Anne’s final words right before she is beheaded on May 19, 1536

 

 

 

 

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