The Woman Who Ruled a King: Anne Boleyn

Curatorial Statement

My first year at college I took a class which focused on the differences between courtly love, love in fiction (i.e. books and movies), and modern love. In it, we briefly touched on the complex nature of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn’s romantic relationship. Due to this, I was drawn into Anne’s life and story. Through this exhibit, I am not only able to expand my understanding of her complex life, but share it with others as well. The paintings in the exhibit of her and Henry are beautifully executed and show their relationship as what it was like at the beginning. In many of the paintings one can see how Henry was captivated by Anne. Yet, she was gazing away from him for the most part. The end of the exhibit goes into detail on their daughter, Queen Elizabeth I. After the section on Elizabeth, there is information on the additional legacies Anne left behind inspiring future generations after her death.

In regards to their relationship, we can never know for certain whether what Henry and Anne shared together was lust, love, or merely a ploy for power. There was scheming on both their ends; Henry was using Anne to try and have a son, whereas Anne was making the best of a situation where a woman had no real power or choice. She was able to take a king’s fascination with her and turn it into a rise in political rank. There are accounts which say the king’s attention was unwanted by Anne and the opposite being she sought him out. The two books Anne Boleyn: Fatal Attractions and Divorced, Beheaded, Survived: A Feminist Reinterpretation of the Wives of Henry VIII show the contrast between Henry and Anne’s version of their “love” story. Through this relationship, and even after her passing, Anne was ridiculed for being a seductress. In some cases, Anne was even deemed a witch. The idea is that the only explanation for Henry being so enchanted with Anne, to the point he was willing to leave his first wife, is she must have used her “powers” on him. The fact Henry had six wives and even more mistresses, all who he treated horribly, I reason is evidence enough that perhaps Anne wasn’t the villain in this tale. It is clear throughout her life Anne was no saint, as highlighted in this exhibit. However, it could be discerned that she didn’t deserve the fate she was dealt.

Biography

Hello! My name is Savannah Jones and I am the curator of this exhibit. I am a senior at Northern Arizona University majoring in History with minors in Anthropology and Museum Studies. Currently, I am an intern at the Clara M. Lovett Art Museum in Flagstaff, AZ in collections management with a focus on cataloguing three dimensional objects and studying their maker marks.