According to Parsons, William and Margaret Boleyn had a large family:
• Anne, who died in 1479, shortly before her fourth birthday.
• Anthony, who died in 1493.
• Thomas (born ca. 1477), who married Elizabeth Howard, daughter of the Earl of Surrey.
• William, who became a priest.
• James, who married Elizabeth Wood.
• Edward, who married Anne Tempest.
• Alice, who married Robert Clere.
• Margaret, who married Sir John Sackville.
• Anne, who married Sir John Shelton.
Blomefield17 adds a "John," who died in 1484, and a "Jane," who married Sir Phillip Calthorp of Norwich.
On his father's death, Thomas Boleyn inherited the manors of Blickling, Calthorpe, Wikmere, Mekylberton, Fylby, West Lexham, Possewick and Stiffkey as well, of course, as Hever Castle. Thomas Boleyn was the father of Anne Boleyn, so we finally arrive at Anne in the family tree.
Parsons concluded that the Boleyns, like the famous Pastons, were "of somewhat humble origin" and that it was the second Geoffrey, a "Dick Whittington", who had "established the position of the family financially by successful trade, and socially by marriage with the nobility." This view is disputed by others, though. Sylvanus Urban wrote:
"The family of Boleyn was of Norman extraction. They were possessed of manors and lands at Salle and the adjacent villages in the 12th century. Among the Blickling evidences there is a deed, 1280, with the Boleyn seal attached, retaining enough to show that they bore then the same arms as were afterwards used by this family.
I presume that this will settle the question as to the 'gentility' of the Boleyns."18
In "Annals & Antiquities of the Counties & County Families of Wales", Thomas Nicholas, in writing of the lineage of Williams of Abercamlais, records:
"Among the companion knights of Bernard [Norman knight Bernard de Neuf Marché] was one who had probably come from the neighbourhood of Boulogne, for he went by the name de Boulogne, or Bullen, but it is uncertain whether his Christian name was Richard or Thomas. Opinion seems to be in favour of the latter.
"Sir Thomas de Boulogne, or Bullen (from one branch of whose descendants Anne Boleyn, mother of Queen Elizabeth, derived), was rewarded for his services with a lordship in Talgarth."19
Furthermore, Frederick Lewis Weis et al.20 believe that Anne's name "came into England much later with merchants from the Boullonnais."
Ralph Boleyn
Some genealogists add a "Ralph Boleyn" to the Boleyn family tree. Sylwia Thrupp writes "The records of the skinners' company fraternity of Corpus Christi show the entrance of a Raulyn (Ralph) Boleyn in 1402 and of a Bennid de Boleyn, Lombard, in 1436".21 It is hard to see how he fits in to Anne's family tree, though, so perhaps he was from one of the other branches.
A Provisional Boleyn Family Tree
Figure 3 shows a provisional family tree based on the sources already mentioned, but simplified so that it shows the direct line from Anne Boleyn back to the Counts of Boulogne. There is no way, however, that we can prove that this tree is wholly accurate since concrete evidence is lacking.
Figure 3 - Provisional Family Tree
Boleyn – The Name
It has been claimed, on various occasions, that Anne Boleyn 'frenchified' her name by changing it from 'Bullen' to 'Boleyn', making it less common - "Anne Boleyn" versus "Nan Bullen". This is a myth, however. In his research of records going back to the 13th century, Rev. Canon Parsons found it "spelt variously – Boleyn, Buleyn, Bolen, Bulleyne, Boleyne, Bolleyne, Boyleyn, Bowleyne, Bulloigne, and the modern form Bullen" and concluded that "Boleyn was the most common of the mediaeval forms." It is also spelled various ways in documents from Henry VIII's reign, in reference to Thomas Boleyn and Anne Boleyn. We also know that the city of Boulogne in France was written as "Boleyn" in the Chronicles of Calais, suggesting that the family name may well have had its origins there. There does not seem to be any record of any variations of the name before the Norman conquest.
Final Thoughts
We cannot know for certain where the Boleyns came from, so it is impossible to accuse Anne of fabricating a family tree, especially when we don't even know who was on that tree. As for the idea that Anne fabricated her family tree because she was ashamed of the Boleyns and their merchant roots; there is no evidence that Anne was ashamed of the Boleyns. It is thought that she wore a necklace consisting of the letter "B" for Boleyn; and why should she be ashamed of a family who had risen to such wealth and favour? Her family may not have been ancient nobles (we just don't know), but they weren't alone in that fact; the de la Pole family (the Earls and Dukes of Suffolk) descended from a merchant from Hull.
Notes and Sources
1 Friedmann, Anne Boleyn, A Chapter of English History, 1527-1536, 128.
2 Chapuys, "Letter to Charles V, 31 December 1530."
3 Ives, The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, 141.
4 "Calendar of State Papers, Spain, Volume 4: Part 1, Henry VIII, 1529-1530," 368.
5 Ives, "The Fall of Anne Boleyn Reconsidered," 141.
6 "Calendar of State Papers, Spain, Volume 4: Part 1, Henry VIII, 1529-1530," 762.
7 Ibid., 819.
8 Ives, The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, 141.
9 Denny, Anne Boleyn: A New Life of England's Tragic Queen, 26.
10 Brodeau, La Vie de Maistre Charles Du-Moulin Advocat Au Parlement de Paris, 6.
11 Bullen, "Anne Boleyn A Norfolk Girl?".
12 Duchess of Cleveland, The Battle Abbey Roll with Some Account of the Norman Lineages in Three Volumes, 1:27–29.
13 Ibid., 1:29.
14 Léchaudé-d'Anisy and marquis de Sainte-Marie, Recherches Sur Le Domesday, Ou Liber Censualis d'Angleterre, Tome Premier:207.
15 The Norman People and Their Existing Descendants in the British Dominions and the United States of America, 164.
16 W. L. E. Parsons, Rev. Canon, "Some Notes on the Boleyn Family."
17 Blomefield, An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk, 3:626.
18 Urban, "The Family of Boleyn," 155.
19 Nicholas, Annals & Antiquities of the Counties & County Families of Wales, 2:121.
20 Weis et al., Ancestral Roots Of Certain American Colonists Who Came To America Before 1700 Lineages from Alfred the Great Charlemagne Malcolm of Scotland Robert the Strong and Other Historical Individuals.
21 Thrupp, The Merchant Class of Medieval London 1300-1500, 325.
22 Amt, The Accession of Henry II in England: Royal Government Restored, 1149-1159, 85.
23 Norton, The Boleyn Women, chap. 1. Elizabeth Norton believes that Thomas was the grandson of Nicholas Boleyn and that his father was another John Boleyn.
2. Anne Boleyn's Birth Date
Nobody knows for sure when Anne Boleyn was born; all we can say is that it was in the first decade of the sixteenth century. There are two main dates given for Anne Boleyn's birth – 1501 and 1507 – and there are valid arguments for each year. Her place of birth is dependent on the year of her birth – if you take 1501 as her birth date then it is likely that Anne was born at Blicking Hall in Norfolk, if you take 1507 as her birth date then it is likely that she was born at Hever Castle in the Kent countryside. In addition, the date of her birth affects the way we view her life and her fall. As author Gareth Russell points out:
"If she was 28, as one of her stepdaughter's ladies-in-waiting claimed, then the reasons behind her execution become infinitely more sinister – at 28, Anne Boleyn was still undeniably in her childbearing years. Yes, she would have been at the tail-end of them by Tudor standards, but she would have had at least four or five more years before she was considered infertile, and so the idea that it was just her "failure" to produce a son which led to her death in 1536 suddenly becomes a good deal less convincing and the idea that it was her husband who orchestrated her monstrously unfair death becomes infinitely more likely. However, if she was 35, then she was a
lready practically middle-aged by Tudor standards and it becomes far more likely that the entire reason for her destruction was politics pure and simple, with Anne – and to some extent, perhaps, maybe even her husband – being victims of a savagely brilliant process of character assassination, lies, manufactured hysteria and a ruthless palace coup organised by the King's chief adviser, Thomas Cromwell."1
So, what's the evidence for each suggested birth date?
1501
Those who believe that Anne Boleyn was born in 1501 put forward the following arguments and pieces of evidence:
• Anne Boleyn's father's letter to Cromwell, dated July 1536.2 In this letter, Thomas Boleyn refers to the financial hardship of the early years of his marriage, writing that his wife "brought me every year a child." If we consider that the Boleyns married ca.1498/1499, then surely all five Boleyn children (Mary, Anne, George, Thomas and Henry) were born before 1505? Also, Thomas Boleyn became a wealthy man on the death of his father in 1505, so he must have been referring to Elizabeth's pregnancies pre-1505.
• Anne Boleyn's letter to her father in 1513. Art historian Hugh Paget3 examined an early letter from Anne Boleyn to her father, Thomas, and concluded that it was written in 1513 and sent from La Vure, the royal park in Brussels (the location of Margaret of Austria's summer palace and hunting lodge). Paget also wrote of how we know from correspondence between the Emperor and Margaret that the appropriate age for a "demoiselle d'honneur" at Margaret's court was around thirteen or fourteen. A 1507 birth date would make Anne six years of age in 1513, so Paget concluded that Anne was born in 1501, making her a year younger than the usual age. Historians such as Eric Ives note that the "formed hand"4 of the letter belongs to a twelve year-old, rather than a six year-old.
• Anne Boleyn's fall. A birth date of 1501 would make Anne around thirty-five years of age at her execution and it may explain why Henry VIII was worried that Anne could not give him a male heir and why he was so ready to replace her with the younger Jane Seymour. At thirty-five, Anne was past her prime in Tudor terms. Jane Seymour is thought to have been born in around 1508, so if Anne was born in 1507, why would Henry replace her with someone just a year or so younger?
• Going into the service of Catherine of Aragon. Lord Herbert of Cherbury writes that Anne Boleyn was "about the twentieth year of her age"5 when she became one of Catherine of Aragon's ladies. We know that Anne returned from France around Christmas 1521, so that would give a birth date of 1501. Interestingly, though, Lord Herbert concludes that Anne was born around 1498. He arrives at this conclusion because he believes her to have been around fifteen when she was appointed to serve Mary Tudor in 1514.6
• Going into the service of Mary Tudor. Nicholas Sander, author of Rise and Growth of the Anglican Schism (1585), writes, "It is hardly credible that Anne Boleyn - supposing her to have been born, as Camden says, in 1507 - was one of the ladies in attendance on queen Mary of France in 1514, and to have been the only one allowed to remain when the king dismissed the Englishwomen in attendance on Mary."7 Later in the book, Sander describes how Anne was sent to France at the age of fifteen, putting her date of birth around 1499.8 Although Sander's book has many inaccuracies, we know for a fact that in 1514 Thomas Boleyn asked Margaret of Austria to release Anne from her care so that Anne could return to England to accompany Henry VIII's sister on her journey to France to marry Louis XII.9 We don't know whether Anne did travel to England or whether she ended up going directly to France, but we do know that she was one of the ladies that Louis allowed Mary to keep with her in France and not one of the ones sent back to England. A seven year-old would surely not be chosen to serve a Queen of France.
1507
The arguments for a 1507 birth date include:
• W.Camden's marginal note in his Annales.10 This says "Anne Bolena nata M.D. VII.", i.e. 1507. Gareth Russell11 states that Camden started writing his account of Anne Boleyn's life in the late 16th century, in the reign of Anne's daughter Elizabeth I, "with the backing of the English government"; and that he had access to William Cecil's personal papers and state archives. Russell believes, therefore, that Camden would have got Anne's year of birth right.
• Thomas Boleyn's reference to Anne as "la petite Boulaine" in his letter to Margaret of Austria in 1514. Historian Retha Warnicke argues that Thomas would not refer to a thirteen year-old girl in this way.12
• Margaret of Austria's comment in a letter to Thomas Boleyn. Margaret wrote that Anne was "so pleasant for her young age that I am more beholden to you for sending her, than you are to me."13
• John Weever's Ancient funerall monuments, published in 1631. Warnicke writes of how Weever recorded that Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII had fallen in love when she was twenty-eight and he was thirty-eight. Henry VIII was thirty-eight in 1529, so for Anne to be twenty-two 1529, she must have been born in 1507.
• The birth of Elizabeth I in 1533. Retha Warnicke comments that if we take 1501 as Anne's date of birth, then it would make her thirty-two when Elizabeth was born, which would have been rather old by Tudor standards. Warnicke believes that 17th century historians would have picked up on this detail.
• The evidence of Jane Dormer, Duchess of Feria. In his biography of Jane Dormer, her chaplain Henry Clifford wrote that when Anne Boleyn was executed in May 1536, she "was not twenty-nine years of age,"14 meaning that she hadn't yet turned twenty-nine. Jane Dormer was one of Mary I's ladies, so some historians argue that although Jane was not born until 1538 she would have known from Mary how old Anne was.
• Anne being a resident at Margaret of Austria's palace, not a maid-of-honour. Retha Warnicke15 argues that Anne was sent to Margaret of Austria not to serve her, but to be educated together with Margaret's nephews and nieces. Warnicke backs this up with Anne's words in the letter to her father when she refers to the teaching techniques of of her tutor: "Semmonet dictates the letter to me and leaves me to write it myself".
• Anne's chaperone. Gareth Russell16 points out that Anne was escorted from Hever to Brussels by a man, Claude Bouton, and not a female chaperone which would surely have been more appropriate if Anne was only twelve years of age.
• The fact that Anne was still unmarried in 1526. Gareth Russell points out that a birth date of 1501 would have made Anne twenty-five in 1526, close to an "unmarriageable age" by Tudor standards.
• Anne's suitability as queen. Gareth Russell comments that in all of the objections cited during Henry's struggle for divorce and his quest to marry Anne, nobody mentioned that Anne might possibly be too old to give Henry a son and heir. If she had been in her late twenties or early thirties, this would surely have arisen.
Although the arguments of Retha Warnicke and Gareth Russell did sway me for a while towards 1507, I have come to believe that Anne was born in 1501. Even if Margaret of Austria had done Thomas Boleyn a favour by allowing his daughter to come to Mechelen at the age of six to be educated, I cannot imagine a seven year-old being appointed to serve Mary Tudor in France or being chosen to stay on in France and serve Queen Claude. Both queens would have been in need of a lady to serve them, not a child to keep an eye on, and why would Thomas Boleyn's daughter have been chosen to join the French royal nursery? Besides, the imperial ambassadors who reported Anne's return to England wrote of her being "in the service of the French queen",17 and Renée of France, Duchess of Ferrara and sister of Queen Claude, referred to Anne as a maid-of-honour to her sister, not as a fellow member of the schoolroom or nursery.18
I realise that one of the main arguments for 1507 is the evidence of Jane Dormer, who may have heard of Anne's age from Mary I, but then Mary I also stated on a few occasions that Mark Smeaton fathered Elizabeth I. As far as Thomas Boleyn's "la petite Boulain" comment, that could just have been his pet name for his youngest daughter and nothing more. Unfortunately, unless more evidence comes to light, Anne's birth date will always be a puzzle and a bone of contention between authors and historians.
Notes and Sources
<
br /> 1 Russell, "The Age of Anne Boleyn."
2 "Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 11: July-December 1536," n. 17.
3 Paget, "The Youth of Anne Boleyn."
4 Ives, The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, 15.
5 Herbert, The Life and Raigne of King Henry the Eighth., 257.
6 Ibid., 259.
7 Sander, Rise and Growth of the Anglican Schism, xlvi.
8 Ibid., 25.
9 The Manuscripts of J. Eliot Hodgkin, Fifteenth Report: Appendix, Part II:30.
10 Camden, Annales Rerum Anglicarum et Hibernicarum, Regnante Elizabetha Ad Annum Salutis M.D. LXXXIX.
11 Russell, "The Age of Anne Boleyn."
12 Warnicke, "Anne Boleyn's Childhood and Adolescence."
13 Ives, The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, 19.
14 Clifford, The Life of Jane Dormer, Duchess of Feria, 80.
15 Warnicke, "Anne Boleyn's Childhood and Adolescence."
16 Russell, "The Age of Anne Boleyn."
17 "Calendar of State Papers, Spain: Further Supplement to Volumes 1 and 2," 30.
18 "Calendar of State Papers Foreign, Elizabeth, Volume 3: 1560-1561," 489–90.
The Anne Boleyn Collection II: Anne Boleyn & the Boleyn Family Page 2