Anne Boleyn – portrait on display at Hever Castle
BBC2’s Tudor Court Season of programmes starts tonight at 9pm with a documentary on the fall of Anne Boleyn called ‘The Last Days of Anne Boleyn‘.
Other documentaries to be screened over the next couple of weeks are:
- Henry VIII’s Enforcer: The Rise And Fall Of Thomas Cromwell – 24 May 9pm
- Henry VII: Winter King – 30 May 9pm
- Time Traveller’s Guide to Elizabethan England – 31 May 9pm
- The Most Dangerous Man In Tudor England (about William Tyndale and the reformation) – 6 June 9pm
Anne Boleyn was the first Queen in Britain to be executed and tonight’s programme explores the reasons why she had to die. Due to the fact that none of the evidence conclusively proves any of the theories this is a topic that continues to seriously divide opinion amongst historians. This documentary brings together prominent writers and historians like Susannah Lipscomb, Hilary Mantel and David Starkey who will each argue their case for the the 4 main theories on Anne’s downfall, which are:
1. that Anne was guilty
2. that Thomas Cromwell plotted her downfall
3. that Henry VIII wanted her out of the way
4. that her words, rather than her actions, made her appear guilty to Henry
Bringing all these historian’s together along with their different interpretations of the evidence should make for a really interesting documentary, especially as there is a mixture of historians and historical fiction writers who are bound to look at things differently. I’m wondering if it will change my own opinion on things, I certainly don’t think Anne’s guilty and am currently most swayed by theories 2 and 4 but we’ll have to see, I’ll be posting my views tomorrow!
