Anne Boleyn's Ghost

by Archer, Liam

  The Difference between the Camera and the Eye

  Why couldn’t I see what my camera could at Hever Castle, that day in 2009? That might be partially explained by the difference between the camera and the eye. The cameras you and I are familiar with allow light to hit a light-sensitive, chemical-based surface that it then imprints the light on to and can be physically held as a tangible object. Digital cameras are slightly different as they use sensitive sensors and rely on computer chips to determine the colour and resolution of the image. This capacity to record light accurately is what makes photography so powerful; and it is this that has caused photography to become a worldwide phenomenon, as people now capture and share their images of the world around them, either digitally over the internet, or traditionally with prints and a few interested eyes.

  However, as lenses have become larger and more complex, computers have been built to assist camera operation, and shutter speeds have become mindboggling fast on consumer models, modern cameras can also see things our eyes cannot.

  The human eye is very complex and works much differently to how a camera works. For the human eye, light continually floods in until we blink or close the eyelid, which acts a bit like a camera’s shutter. The brain essentially records the light that passes through our eyes organically, and much is still unknown about how the human eye works, while cameras are better understood, because we can study all their various components in great detail, and because we created them.

  Cameras, as well as video cameras, are defined in part by what is technically known as frames per second (FPS). This is the speed at which a single image has been captured. For video cameras, it’s when a single image is immediately followed by another, combining them, and the speed at which it is happening – it’s a bit like a flick-book: if each page of the book represents a frame, the faster you flick through the pages, the faster the illustration appears to move and as if it was actually moving.

  Modern cameras, and the camera I was using at Hever Castle that day, are capable of seeing greater detail than what you or I are capable of seeing. And the level of detail between them can be, quite literally, universes apart. If you have ever seen a video of a real bullet moving in slow motion, it is not because you or I are capable of seeing a bullet move at walking pace – it’s because of high speed imaging. The cameras that are used to do this capture at speeds that are 1/1000 FPS (that’s one thousandth of a second) or faster. The fastest cameras in the world today are used for scientific research, and are capable of capturing light anywhere between two hundred million and one trillion frames per second. The camera I had with me at Hever Castle that day has a maximum of 1/2000 FPS; and although it is not to be compared with the cameras just mentioned it is, however, far superior to my eye when capturing and recording a scene in milliseconds.

  That’s not to say how the eye works is fundamentally inferior to how a camera works – as many cameras are quite basic instruments – so much as cameras are a tool to expand upon our own sight. But without the technological advancements in photography over the past two centuries, many myths would not have been settled, and our knowledge of the universe would be a fraction of what it is today.

  For instance in May 1952, photography identified the structure of DNA, when Raymond Gosling took a photograph using X-ray diffraction that revealed the double helix.

  In 1872 Eadweard Muybridge dispelled the myth as to whether all four feet of a horse came off the ground at the same time when trotting, proving by his photographic sequence that indeed all four feet left the ground together.

  And Harold Edgerton, a pioneer in electrical engineering and professor at MIT, shed light on the power of matter, showing us the first ever image of a bullet in mid-flight, the process of a nuclear explosion, and what lay at the depths of our oceans as well as what travels through our skies.

  Without photography, we wouldn’t have a window into our past or know what our planet looks like from outer space; nor would we be able to observe galaxies and planets where man could never step, the effects of black holes, and some of the most fascinating objects known to science.

  Anne’s Story

  Anne Boleyn was born at the beginning of the sixteenth century at either Blickling Hall or Hever Castle, and was the daughter of a Knight. Her father was Sir Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire and Ormond; and her mother was Elizabeth Howard, Countess of Wiltshire. She had two siblings, called Mary and George. Anne Boleyn was highly educated and had studied in both France and the Netherlands. She was brought up on traditional Latin writings, and in her later years studied evangelical texts she had obtained in French, as it was a crime to be seen reading anything other than orthodox scriptures. She was of medium height and was as beautiful in her looks as in dress. She had brown eyes and dark brown or (some say) black hair, and a long slender neck. Anne Boleyn was the Queen of England for three years, during one of the most turbulent periods in England’s history.

  Anne Boleyn

  She lived much of her life in France in the company of Queen Claude, wife of Francis the First, and the Duchess of Alencon, as a maid of honour, where she learned her sense of dress. As a result, she could speak French eloquently and with great ease. She sang, danced, and was a learned musician.

  Anne Boleyn has been branded a witch by some, mainly because of a rumoured deformity on her right hand, thought to have been a sixth finger. However, her coffin was exhumed in the mid to late nineteenth century when the chapel in which she was buried underwent restoration work: her skeleton was examined at the time and it showed no signs of any deformity on it; although many of her bones were found out of place, because her corpse was unceremoniously placed into her coffin (which was actually a small arrow chest) after she was executed. And then, of course, there is the simple truth that it would have been highly questionable, if not downright negligent, for the King to have been seen courting a woman who had anything about her appearance that might have been considered unusual or unpleasant on the eye, and certainly not someone who might have been thought to be … a witch …

  As a commoner, Anne Boleyn was not known by the public until her position in society was being elevated by King Henry the Eighth. She was not born into royalty, but knew it was possible for a woman of less privileged origin to achieve such status. When Henry the Eighth began to fall in love with her, he was married to Catherine of Aragon, and had been for almost twenty years. Catherine was a Spanish princess who had been betrothed to Henry’s older brother, Arthur; but after Arthur’s untimely death, Henry was next in line to marry her. During their marriage she gave birth to one son, whose life ended prematurely – causing Henry’s dream of patriarchal rule to shatter – and one daughter … one measly daughter called Mary. From that point on, Henry spent the rest of his life trying to restore his fractured dream.

  Determined to have Anne Boleyn as his lawful wife, Henry broke away from the Roman Catholic Church to secure the legitimacy of their marriage. The lengths he went to be married to Anne Boleyn were great, and his own ego as being one of the most powerful men in Christendom was the motivating force behind it all.

  How it Began

  At the beginning of 1522, Anne Boleyn returned to England from the Netherlands to marry James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond, who she had been betrothed to. For some unknown reason, their marriage never happened, and Anne soon found herself in need of a future husband.

  When she was installed as Maid of Honour to the Queen’s consort, and in daily presence of the royal family, Anne had quickly caught the King’s eye.

  The following year Anne Boleyn was secretly betrothed to Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland – a young military officer who had apparently fallen in love with her. The King was being informed weekly of every detail in Anne Boleyn’s daily life, and when this news reached him, he had an established member of his Privy Council, Thomas Wolsey, sent to influence the young officer to make him end his betrothal.

  Wolsey returned successful, and in 1526 Henry Percy married
a different woman whom he had been interested in for many years, called Mary Talbot.

  Towards the end of 1523, Henry made an informal visit to see Anne Boleyn at her home, Hever Castle. Her father implored Anne to remain upstairs during the King’s visit. This was because Henry had already had Mary Boleyn, Anne’s sister, as his mistress, which neither resulted in marriage or any betterment of status for the Boleyns’ – something her father sought earnestly, and saw his daughters as a means to achieve it (not that they had anything against their father’s wish, but may not have been as keen as he was to become so well acquainted with the King).

  Thomas withheld Henry from seeing Anne that day to subvert him, and to say in an offhand way: ‘If you want Anne, it will be on my terms …’

  Having roused the King’s determined mindset, Anne Boleyn would become his sole object to be attained. The years that followed Henry spent in lustful angst pursuing his new found love.

  Henry VIII

  Poem by Henry VIII

  Alas! What shall I do for love? For love, alas! What shall I do? Sith now so kind, I do you find, To keep you me unto. Alas!

  In summer of 1530, fifteen clerics and one proctor from Canterbury were prosecuted by the King’s council for adhering to Wolsey’s papal legacy on grounds of Praemunire: the offense of obeying a foreign power and not the sovereign. Henry wanted the title of ‘Sole protector and supreme head of the English church and clergy’. The trial was delayed for one year, and when it recommenced the clergy hammered out a deal with the King, and he would have the title he wished for … but not without compromise. After giving in to a one hundred thousand pound offer from the clergy (a colossal sum at the time, equivalent to a tenth of the church’s entire wealth), he dropped most of the charges and accepted the title with the small print: ‘as far as Christ’s laws allows,’ added to it.

  In autumn of 1531, a small mob attacked Anne Boleyn at a dinner party in a house situated along the River Thames. The mob, made up mostly of women, as well as some men, apparently wanted to harm or even kill her. Catherine of Aragon was still much loved by the people, and when word spread that the King was maneuvering to remove her, and that Anne Boleyn was the reason for it, tensions were bound to rise. Fortunately for Anne, she was hurried into a boat and rowed to the opposite side of the river before any harm could be done.

  The incident unsettled and angered her: she was never attacked before she met Henry, and now a group of complete strangers seemed bent on killing her. She thought, If indeed I am putting my life in danger by being seen with the King, why didn’t he send guards to protect me? Or am I of such little worth he could care less if I’m dead…?

  Perhaps it was an innocent mistake on his part; though he soon wished he hadn’t, as he got the full force of her upset when he next saw her.

  When she finally voiced her shaken sentiments emotively to the King, he felt somewhat perplexed by her unrestrained outburst at him, which produced a sense of unfamiliarity of being talked to in such a manner by his mistress; he, who expected nothing more from Anne than obedience, subservience, and a willingness to fulfill his will.

  As Anne and Henry spent more and more time in each others’ presence, Anne undoubtedly added to that sense of unfamiliarity by being reserved in the one thing that would have kept the King happy ... however, Anne Boleyn saw herself not as a mere mistress, that Henry could be cast to one side, once the flame of passion had lost its brightness – but as the future Queen of England, so she had to play her cards wisely.

  On September 1st 1532, at Windsor Castle, Henry took the first step to make Anne Boleyn ‘Queen’ with a ceremony to ennoble her. It was a taste of things to come, and it took place in front of the Imperial Ambassador, the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, and the Countess’ of Rutland and Sussex.

  England was a feudal country; rank and title belonged to those men who were willing and able to fight for the King. In order for Anne Boleyn’s status to rise, her father’s had to rise as well; so Thomas Boleyn duly became the Earl of Wiltshire, while Anne’s title became Marquis of Pembroke, accompanied by a yearly income of a thousand pounds that came from the new lands and manors she now owned.

  Henry had been wrestling with his marriage to Catherine of Aragon for some time. He wanted it ended and had been spending most of his energy devising a way out of it; universities throughout Europe were called on to give their opinion on the matter. Because Catherine was previously betrothed to Henry’s brother Arthur, Henry would refer to Leviticus and Deuteronomy to argue his marriage to her was unlawful. He sought papal recognition for what he saw as breaking Gods Laws by being married to her; even though he was not childless and had a healthy daughter born by her.

  But a daughter wasn’t what he had wished for … Nothing would do but a male heir to the throne.

  Catherine of Aragon

  Later that year, Anne Boleyn accompanied the King on a ship heading for France. Henry wanted to speak with Francis the First, and there were concerns whether Anne could be received with him, once there. The decision was made to stop in Calais – then English soil – and have her stay there until he returned.

  On Henry’s return to Calais, their journey back to England was postponed by a tempest. As they waited for the storm to subside, Anne finally gave in and admitted Henry to her bed.

  *

  Back in England, Anne and Henry were in the courtyard of Hever Castle, when Anne whispered in Henry’s ear she was pregnant. There was a twinkle in one of the King’s beetle-like eyes, and a small finch appeared out of nowhere and landed on one of his broad shoulders. Anne laughed as he failed to take notice and was instead looking dreamily into space, like a man lost in wonder.

  Unless they were officially married before the child’s birth, the baby would be deemed illegitimate and unable to inherit the throne. Henry quickly began to get everything in to place; and considering what obstacles he had in his way, there was no time to spare.

  The Vatican was informed, but the response was taking far too long to reach England. The wedding had to take place without the pope’s consent; and to do that, it had to take place in secret to avoid any public protest or retaliation from Spain, or Rome.

  Early in the day on January 25th 1533, the wedding took place at Whitehall. Members of the Boleyn family attended the secretive wedding, as well as members of the King’s Privy Council. It was not the most glamorous of weddings, both rushed and understated, coming at a time of necessity rather than convenience. However, attempts to keep the marriage a secret were successful, and for nearly a year after not a single person of authority or head of state knew anything about it.

  As the months grew and Anne found herself being treated better than she could ever remember, the secrecy of the marriage and pregnancy had been, ever so slightly, weighing on her.

  The Break from Rome

  On October 1st 1532, the letter had finally arrived from the Vatican and the Pope disapproved of Henry’s wish to marry Anne Boleyn. Included in the letter was a written order demanding Henry to stop seeing Anne, and to take back Catherine of Aragon. In an attempt to blackmail Henry, the Pope had then threatened to excommunicate him from the Roman Catholic Church if he failed to conform to the order. In effect, the Vatican had usurped its authority over England; and in turn, Henry would usurp his grip on power with ground-shaking results.

  This action and reaction acted like a slingshot: the bands having been tightened could no longer be pulled; all that could happen was for all that energy to be released in one, sudden, violent snap.

  In the same letter was a confirmation of Thomas Cranmer’s new title as Archbishop of Canterbury. Capitalizing on this confirmation of one of his men in to a position of power, Cranmer was made to give an oath of allegiance to the King, to God, but not to the Pope, if it involved breaking the law of the land, or going against the will of the King.

  He was publicly consecrated in St. Stephen’s Church on March 30th 1533.

  It became paramount to have Henry’s marri
age to Catherine annulled, and, as soon as possible, to have his marriage to Anne Boleyn recognized by all England. Cranmer was soon granted increased powers by Parliament. Everything was set. Anne Boleyn would be crowned Queen; but the road ahead was far from smooth.

  Francis the First was swiftly informed, while Catherine of Aragon was sent a signed order demanding her to give up the royal jewels, cease using the title of ‘Queen’, and to accept her new title as Dowager Princess of Wales.

  She refused to budge. Adamant all was being wrought by the so called Concubine, Catherine continued using her prestigious title and expected those who addressed her to do exactly the same.

  Outraged, Henry ordered his footmen to move her to a place where she would be of little annoyance, and restricted her from seeing her daughter, Mary, until she accepted his terms. Nothing dissuaded her; the title of Queen would prove too much to part with.

  Out in the desolate English country, deprived of her riches and her fame, she became delusional, increasingly sensational, and insisted that her few servants continue to embroider their new cloths with Henry’s and Catherine’s initials.

  May 10th 1533, the Blackfriars Court gave its verdict on Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon: they concluded he had never been married to Catherine, and, as a bachelor, he had married Anne Boleyn legally.

  Anne was now, in some sense, the Queen, and her child would be the rightful heir to the throne. All the trouble Henry had gone through to be with her, had paid off. And to make up for Anne’s lackluster wedding, he promised her coronation was going to be something extraordinary.