ANNE BOLEYN,

SECOND QUEEN OF HENRY VIII.

THERE is no name in the annals of female royalty over which the enchantments of poetry and romance have cast such bewildering spells as that of Anne Boleyn. Her wit, her beauty, and the striking vicissi tudes of her fate, combined with the peculiar mobility of her character have invested her with an interest, not commonly excited by a woman, in whom vanity and ambition were the leading traits. Tacitus said of the empress Poppea, "that with her love was not an affair of the heart, but a matter of diplomacy; and this observation appears no less applicable to Anne Boleyn, affording, withal, a convincing reason that she never incurred the crimes for which she was brought to the block.

Sir Thomas Boleyn obtained for his wife the lady Elizabeth Howard, the daughter of the renowned earl of Surrey, afterwards duke of Norfolk, by his first wife Margaret Tylney. This noble alliance brought sir Thomas Boleyn into close connection with royalty, by the marriage of his wife's brother, the lord Thomas Howard, with the lady Anne Plantagenet, sister to Henry VII.'s queen.

No fairer spot than Blickling is to be seen in the county of Norfolk. Those magnificent arcaded avenues of stately oaks and giant chestnuttrees, whose majestic vistas stretch across the velvet verdure of the widely extended park, reminding us, as we walk beneath their solemn shades, of green cathedral aisles, were in their meridian glory three hun

dred and forty years ago, when Anne Boleyn first saw the light in the adjacent mansion.

The first years of Anne Boleyn's life were spent at Blickling with her sister Mary and her brother George, afterwards the unfortunate viscount Rochford.

After the death of lady Boleyn, Anne resided at Hever Castle, under the superintendence of a French governess, called Simonette, and other instructors, by whom she was very carefully educated, and acquired an early proficiency in music, needlework, and many other accomplishments. While her father was at court or elsewhere, Anne constantly corresponded with him. Her letters were fairly written by her own hand, both in her own language and in French.

These acquirements, which were rare indeed am ɔng ladies, in the early part of Henry VIII.'s reign, rendered Anne a desirable suivante to the princess Mary Tudor, Henry's youngest sister, when she was affianced to Louis XII. of France, in September 1514.

We give the sketch of Anne, transcribed from the then unpublished manuscripts of George Cavendish, gentleman-usher to cardinal Wolsey :

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"This gentlewoman being descended on the father's side from one of the heirs of the earl of Ormond, and on the mother's from the house of Norfolk, was from her childhood of that singular beauty and towardness that her parents took all possible care for her good education. Therefore, besides all the usual branches of virtuous instruction, they gave her teachers in playing on musical instruments, singing, and dancing, insomuch that, when she composed her hands to play and her voice to sing, it was joined with that sweetness of countenance that three harmonies concurred; likewise, when she danced, her rare proportions varied themselves into all the graces that belong either to rest or motion. Briefly, it seems that the most attractive perfections were evident in her. Yet did not our king love her at first sight, nor before she had lived some time in France, whither, in the train of the queen of France, and in company of a sister of the marquis of Dorset, she went A. D. 1514. After the death of Louis XII. she did not return with the dowager, but was received into a place of much honor with the other queen, and then with the duchess of Alençon, where she staid till some difference

grew betwixt our king and Francis; therefore, as saith Du Tillet, and our records, 'about the time when our students at Paris were remanded, she, likewisc, left Paris, her parents not thinking it fit for her to stay any longer.'"

With so many graces of person and manners as were possessed by the lovely Boleyn, it is remarkable that she had not previously disposed of both hand and heart to some noble cavalier in the gay and gallant court of France; but she appears to have been free from every sort of engagement when she returned to England. She was then, lord Herbert tells us, about twenty years of age, but according to the French historians, Rastal, a contemporary, and Leti (who all affirm that she was fifteen when she entered the service of Mary Tudor queen of France), she must have been two years older. The first time Henry saw her after her return to England was in her father's garden at Hever, where it is said he encountered her by accident, and admiring her beauty and graceful demeanor, he entered into conversation with her, when he was so much charmed with her sprightly wit, that on his return to Westminster he told Wolsey, "that he had been discoursing with a young lady who had the wit of an angel, and was worthy of a crown." "It is sufficient if your majesty finds her worthy of your love," was the shrewd rejoinder. Henry said, "that he feared she would never condescend in that way." "Great princes," observed Wolsey, "if they choose to play the lover, have that in their power which would mollify a heart of steel."

"Anne Boleyn was in stature rather tall and slender, with an oval face, black hair, and a complexion inclining to sallow; one of her upper teeth projected a little. She appeared at times to suffer from asthma. On her left hand a sixth finger might be perceived. On her throat there was a protuberance, which Chateaubriant describes as a disagreeably large mole, resembling a strawberry; this she carefully covered with an ornamented collar-band, a fashion which was blindly imitated by the rest of the maids of honor, though they had never before thought of wearing any thing of the kind. Her face and figure were in other respects symmetrical," continues Sanders; "beauty and sprightliness sat on her lips; in readiness of repartee, skill in the dance, and in playing on the lute. she was unsurpassed."

As for the fair Boleyn herself, at the very time when most surrounded with admirers, she appears to have been least sensible to the pride of conquest, having engaged herself in a romantic love affair with Henry lord Percy, the eldest son of the earl of Northumberland, regardless of the family arrangement by which she was pledged to become the wife of the heir of sir Piers Butler.

Percy, like a true lover, gloried in his passion, and made no secret of his engagement, which was at length whispered to the king by some envious busybody, who had, probably, observed that Henry was not insensible to the charms of Anne Boleyn. The pangs of jealousy occasioned by this intelligence, it is said, first awakened the monarch to the state of his own feelings towards his fair subject, in whose conversation he had always taken the liveliest pleasure, without being himself aware that he regarded her with emotions inconsistent with his duty as a married man.

As for the young lady herself, she appears to have been wholly unconscious of the impression she had made on her sovereign's heart. In fact, as her whole thoughts were employed in securing a far more desirable object, namely, her marriage with the heir of the illustrious and wealthy house of Percy, it is scarcely probable that she would incur the risk of alarming her honorable lover by coquetries with the king. Under these circumstances, we think Anne Boleyn must be acquitted of having purposely attracted the attention of Henry in the first instance. On the contrary, she must, at this peculiar crisis, have regarded his passion as the greatest misfortune that could have befallen her, as it was the means of preventing her marriage with the only man whom we have the slightest reason to believe she ever loved.

If Anne, however, regarded the king with indifference, his feelings towards her were such that he could not brook the thought of seeing her the wife of another, though aware that it was not in his power to marry her himself. With the characteristic selfishness of his nature, he determined to separate the lovers.

Percy was banished the court, and not only commanded to avoid mistress Anne's company, but compelled to fulfil in all haste the hitherto unratified contract, which his father had made for him in his.

boyhood with lady Mary Talbot, one of the earl of Shrewsbury's daughters.

Anne Boleyn, whom Henry chose to punish for the preference she had manifested for young Percy, was discharged from queen Katharine's service, and dismissed to her father's house. "Whereat," says Cavendish, "mistress Anne was greatly displeased, promising that if ever it lay in her power she would be revenged on the cardinal, and yet he was not altogether to be blamed, as he acted by the king's command."

After a period sufficient to allow for the subsiding of ordinary feel-. ings of displeasure had elapsed, the king paid an unexpected visit to Hever Castle. But Anne was either too indignant to offer her homage to the tyrant, whose royal caprice had deprived her of her affianced husband, or her father, having already felt the evil of having the reputation of one lovely daughter blighted by the attentions of the king, would not suffer her to appear, for she took to her chamber, under pretence of disposition, on Henry's arrival at the castle, and never left it till after his departure.

There is not any trace of Anne Boleyn's appearance at court till the year 1527. Having been injuriously dismissed from the service of the queen, she appears to have manifested a persevering resentment, for the affront she had received, by refusing to return when she had reason to believe her presence was desired by the jealous tyrant who had prevented her marriage with Percy.

It is scarcely probable that Anne continued unconscious of the king's passion, when he followed up all the favors conferred on her family by presenting a costly offering of jewels to herself. But when Henry proceeded to avow his love, she recoiled from his lawless addresses with the natural abhorrence of a virtuous woman, and falling on her knees she made this reply:

"I think, most noble and worthy king, your majesty speaks these words in mirth, to prove me, without intent of degrading your princely self. Therefore, to ease you of the labor of asking me any such question hereafter, I beseech your highness, most earnestly, to desist and take this my answer (which I speak from the depth of my soul), in good part. Most noble king, I will rather lose my life than my virtue, which