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Anne Boleyn was the daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn and Elizabeth Howard, daughter of the Duke of Norfolk, was born in Norfolk in 1501. Anne was the second of three surviving children. Mary was born in 1499 and her brother George, in 1504. Her father had high ambitions for his daughter and when she was only seven she was sent to Paris to be educated with the children of the French royal family.

At thirteen she became one of the Queen's maids of honour. There was great competition to become a maid of honour as it offered the opportunity of meeting members of the nobility. Parents hoped that this would eventually lead to a good marriage. As maid of honour, Anne entertained the Queen by playing musical instruments and singing songs. She was also expected to make polite conversation with important guests at the royal court.

In 1521 Sir Thomas Boleyn arranged for Anne to be brought home because England and France were on the verge of war. Boleyn hoped that Anne would now become a maid of honour to Katherine of Aragon, the wife of Henry VIII. However, Anne had to wait until 1526 before being granted the post. Anne was a great success as a maid of honour. She was a good musician and a talented singer. She was also extremely intelligent and her time in the French court provided her with a great deal of interesting conversation. One member of court claimed that "no one would ever have taken her to be English by her manners, but a native-born Frenchwoman".

Henry VIII seemed to find her very entertaining and was often seen dancing with her. One contemporary wrote that Anne was "not one of the handsomest women in the world" she had a "swarthy complexion, long neck, wide mouth, bosom not much raised, and in fact had nothing but the king's great appetite, and her eyes, which are black and beautiful and take great effect".

According to Hilary Mantel: "We don't know exactly when he fell for Anne Boleyn. Her sister Mary had already been his mistress. Perhaps Henry simply didn't have much imagination. The court's erotic life seems knotted, intertwined, almost incestuous; the same faces, the same limbs and organs in different combinations. The king did not have many affairs, or many that we know about. He recognised only one illegitimate child. He valued discretion, deniability. His mistresses, whoever they were, faded back into private life. But the pattern broke with Anne Boleyn. She would not go to bed with him, even though he wrote her love letters in his own effortful hand. He drew a heart and wrote his initials and hers, carving them into the paper like a moody adolescent. In time favours were granted. She allowed him to kiss her breasts... She had made the man a fool."

Ever since 1524 Henry had been planning to divorce Katherine of Aragon. Now he knew who he wanted to replace her with. Christopher Morris, the author of The Tudors (1955), has argued: "Henry found her not easily tamed, for it is clear that she had the strength of will to withhold her favours until she was sure of being made his queen... Henry's passion was genuine enough but it was strangely mixed with political calculation and with the qualms of a tormented, if elastic, conscience."

Henry wrote Anne a series of passionate love letters. In 1526 he wrote: "Seeing I cannot be present in person with you, I send you the nearest thing to that possible, that is, my picture set in bracelets... wishing myself in their place, when it shall please you." Soon afterwards he wrote during a hunting exhibition: "I send you this letter begging you to give me an account of the state you are in... I send you by this bearer a buck killed late last night by my hand, hoping, when you eat it, you will think of the hunter."

Philippa Jones has suggested in Elizabeth: Virgin Queen? (2010) that this was part of Anne's strategy to become Henry's wife: "Anne frequently commented in her letters to the King that although her heart and soul were his to enjoy, her body would never be. By refusing to become Henry's mistress, Anne caught and retained his interest. Henry might find casual sexual gratification with others, but it was Anne that he truly wanted."

Anne's biographer, Eric Ives, has argued: "At first, however, Henry had no thought of marriage. He saw Anne as someone to replace her sister, Mary (wife of one of the privy chamber staff, William Carey), who had just ceased to be the royal mistress. Certainly the physical side of his marriage to Katherine of Aragon was already over and, with no male heir, Henry decided by the spring of 1527 that he had never validly been married and that his first marriage must be annulled.... However, Anne continued to refuse his advances, and the king realized that by marrying her he could kill two birds with one stone, possess Anne and gain a new wife."

Henry sent a message to the Pope Clement VII arguing that his marriage to Katherine had been invalid as she had previously been married to his brother Arthur. When Katherine discovered Henry's plans she informed King Charles (Carlos) of Spain and Emperor Charles (Karl) V of the Holy Roman Empire. Unwilling to have his aunt lose her position, Charles warned the Pope that he would be very angry if he granted Henry a divorce. The Pope knew that once he made a decision, he would upset one of these two powerful monarchs. In an attempt to keep the peace, the Pope put off making a decision about Henry's marriage.

Anne had strong opinions about religion. She tried to persuade Henry to give permission for bibles to be published in English. Anne also introduced Henry to the books of Protestant writers such as William Tyndale. She pointed out that in Obedience of a Christian Man, Tyndale had argued that kings had authority over the church. Anne also became close to Thomas Cromwell, who supported the ideas of Tyndale.

Eric Ives has argued: "Henry remained doubtful about the validity of any annulment in defiance of Rome, and when in September 1532 Anne was created marchioness of Pembroke, the remainder was to her offspring, legitimate or not. But late in 1532 (probably in Calais in November where François I may have promised support, or on the leisurely journey home) Anne grew confident that if she became pregnant the king would now commit himself, and she thus began to sleep with him."

In January 1533 Henry discovered that Anne Boleyn was pregnant. As it was important that the child should not be classed as illegitimate, arrangements were made for Henry and Anne to get married. King Charles V of Spain threatened to invade England if the marriage took place, but Henry ignored his threats and the marriage went ahead.

It was very important to Henry that his wife should give birth to a male child. Without a son to take over from him when he died, Henry feared that the Tudor family would lose control of England. Katherine had given birth to six children but five died within a few weeks of being born. Only one child, Mary, survived into adulthood.

Henry hoped that Anne would provide him with a son. He was therefore disappointed when, in September 1533, Anne gave birth to a daughter called Elizabeth. While Henry was furious about having another daughter, the supporters of Katherine were delighted and claimed that it proved God was punishing Henry for his illegal marriage to Anne.

In March 1534 Pope Clement VII eventually made his decision. He announced that Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn was invalid. Henry reacted by declaring that the Pope no longer had authority in England. In November 1534, Parliament passed an act that stated that Henry VIII was now the Head of the Church of England.

The author of The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn (2005), has argued: "Despite her delay in fulfilling what contemporaries saw as a wife's first duty, Henry's commitment to Anne remained firm. Since it was her challenging personality which had attracted the king in the first place, their marriage was at times stormy. Anne was no pale reflection of her husband. Nevertheless, on the personal level the relationship flourished until almost the end. What it lacked was the independent support which would have come from having a son: Anne had always to be aware that rivals might challenge for Henry's affections. Many of the stories about his supposed amours can be dismissed as rumour, often the wishful thinking of hostile critics, but there is no doubt that having begun as a relationship of passion, Henry's marriage to Anne was different in character from the arranged match with a foreign princess which was the norm for English monarchs. She knew that she had to hold Henry's affections."

Unfortunately for Anne she fell out with one of her main supporters, Thomas Cromwell. As Eric Ives has pointed out: " The fundamental reason for this was disagreement over the assets of the monasteries: Anne's support for the redeployment of monastic resources directly contradicted Cromwell's intention to put the proceeds of the dissolution into the king's coffers. The bill dissolving the smaller monasteries had passed both houses of parliament in mid-March, but before the royal assent was given Anne launched her chaplains on a dramatic preaching campaign to modify royal policy.... Cromwell was pilloried before the whole council as an evil and greedy royal adviser from the Old Testament, and specifically identified as the queen's enemy. Nor could the minister shrug off this declaration of war, even though, in spite of Anne's efforts, the dissolution act became law."

In January 1536, Anne had a son but unfortunately he was born dead. What is more, the baby was badly deformed. This was a serious matter because in Tudor times Christians believed that a deformed child was God's way of punishing parents for committing serious sins. Henry VIII feared that people might think that the Pope Clement VII was right when he claimed that God was angry because Henry had divorced Katherine and married Anne.

Henry approached Thomas Cromwell about how he could get out of his marriage with Anne. He suggested that one solution to this problem was to claim that he was not the father of this deformed child. On the king's instruction Cromwell was ordered to find out the name of the man who was the true father of the dead child. Anne was charged with having sexual affairs with Mark Smeaton, Henry Norris, Francis Weston, William Brereton and her own brother, George Boleyn.

Philippa Jones has pointed out: "Cromwell was careful that the charge should stipulate that Anne Boleyn had only been unfaithful to the King after the Princess Elizabeth's birth in 1533. Henry wanted Elizabeth to be acknowledged as his daughter, but at the same time he wanted her removed from any future claim to the succession."

Anne was clearly innocent of these charges. Only one of the men, Mark Smeaton, confessed after being tortured. Henry Norris refused the king's offer to pardon him if he would admit to adultery with Anne. The other men also refused to confess to having sex with the queen.

Anne went to the scaffold at Tower Green on 19th May, 1536. Her last words were: "Good Christian people... according to the law I am judged to die, and therefore I will speak nothing against it... I pray God save the King, and send him long to reign over you... for to me he was always a good, a gentle, and sovereign Lord." She was beheaded by the executioner of Calais, brought over on purpose to use a sword in the French fashion, not an axe - a "mercy" allowed her by Henry. Ten days after Anne was beheaded, Henry married Jane Seymour.

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(1) Henry VIII, letter to Anne Boleyn (1526)

Seeing I cannot be present in person with you, I send you the nearest thing to that possible, that is, my picture set in bracelets... wishing myself in their place, when it shall please you.

(2) Henry VIII, letter to Anne Boleyn (1526)

I send you this letter begging you to give me an account of the state you are in... I send you by this bearer a buck killed late last night by my hand, hoping, when you eat it, you will think of the hunter.

(3) Henry VIII, letter to Anne Boleyn (1528)

If only I was in your arms... for I think it is a long time since I kissed you. Written after the killing of a hart... with God's grace tomorrow I might kill another, by the hand which I trust shortly shall be yours.

(4) Hilary Mantel, Anne Boleyn (11th May, 2012)

When she first appeared at court she was about 21 years old, lithe, ivory-skinned, not a conventional beauty but vital and polished, glowing. Her father Thomas Boleyn was an experienced diplomat, and Anne had spent her teenage years at the French court. Even now, Englishwomen envy the way a Frenchwoman presents herself: that chic self-possession that is so hard to define or imitate. Anne had brought home an alluring strangeness: we imagine her as sleek, knowing, self-controlled. There is no evidence of an immediate attraction between Henry and the new arrival. But if, when she danced in that first masque, she raised her eyes to the king, what did she see? Not the obese, diseased figure of later years, but a man 6' 3" in height, trim-waisted, broad-chested, in his athletic prime: pious, learned, the pattern of courtesy, as accomplished a musician as he was a jouster. She saw all this but above all, she saw a married man...

We don't know exactly when he fell for Anne Boleyn. Her sister Mary had already been his mistress. Perhaps Henry simply didn't have much imagination. The court's erotic life seems knotted, intertwined, almost incestuous; the same faces, the same limbs and organs in different combinations. The king did not have many affairs, or many that we know about. He recognised only one illegitimate child. He valued discretion, deniability. His mistresses, whoever they were, faded back into private life.

But the pattern broke with Anne Boleyn. She would not go to bed with him, even though he wrote her love letters in his own effortful hand. He drew a heart and wrote his initials and hers, carving them into the paper like a moody adolescent. In time favours were granted. She allowed him to kiss her breasts. Her "pretty duckies", he called them. She had made the man a fool.

This, at least, was the view of most of Europe. No one dreamed that Henry would put aside a princess of Spain for the daughter of a mere gentleman. Nor could the English aristocracy credit what was happening. Long after the break with Rome, they remained revolted by Boleyn pretensions and loyal to Katherine and the pope. Anne did have the backing of a powerful kinsman, the Duke of Norfolk; her father had been lucky enough to marry into the powerful Howard clan. But for some years, the situation was deadlocked. There were two queens, the official one and the unofficial one: the king was sleeping with neither. Wolsey had been fortune's favourite, but failure to obtain the divorce cost him his career. He was exiled from court; though he died a natural death, it was under the shadow of the axe. Anne moved into his London palace. Still she kept Henry at a distance. She was, and is, credited with serpentine sexual wiles, as well as a vindictive streak that ruined anyone who crossed her. The truth may be more prosaic. Henry had decided at some point that Anne was the woman who would give him a healthy son. He wanted that son to be born in wedlock. It may have been he who insisted on self-control, and Anne who simmered and fretted.

(5) Christopher Morris, The Tudors (1955)

Henry found her not easily tamed, for it is clear that she had the strength of will to withhold her favours until she was sure of being made his queen. It is true that the final stages of Katherine's divorce had to be hurried because Anne was already pregnant; but by then the king had gone too far with his divorce proceedings to draw back; and in any case he was not going to throw away the chance of a legitimate male heir. Henry's passion was genuine enough but it was strangely mixed with political calculation and with the qualms of a tormented, if elastic, conscience.

(6) Philippa Jones, Elizabeth: Virgin Queen? (2010)

Anne frequently commented in her letters to the King that although her heart and soul were his to enjoy, her body would never be. By refusing to become Henry's mistress, Anne caught and retained his interest. Henry might find casual sexual gratification with others, but it was Anne that he truly wanted.

As the years passed and the prospect of Henry's divorce from Katherine of Aragon became more real, Anne began to hint that she might be persuaded to take that "final step" and give Henry the physical relationship that he craved above all else.

(7) Raphael Holinshed, Chronicles (1587)

On the fourteenth of November, 1532... the king married Lady Anne Boleyn... the marriage was kept so secret that very few knew it till Easter when it was discovered that she was with child.

(8) Statement made by Anne Boleyn just before she was executed.

Good Christian people... according to the law I am judged to die, and therefore I will speak nothing against it... I pray God save the King, and send him long to reign over you... for to me he was always a good, a gentle, and sovereign Lord.