ENGLAND.] ANNE BOLEYN. of her life, she is supposed to have bestowed not less than 14,000l. in charitable donations; besides engaging in several noble and public designs. Her partiality to the new religion also contributed greatly to this popularity among the reformers, who ascribed the rapid increase of their followers to her influence with the King; but it exposed her to the resentment and enmity of a still powerful and bigotted party, who lamented her triumph over the weaker piety of Katharine, and eagerly watched every indiscretion that could lead to her destruction. But it is probable that all their efforts would have been unavailing, if she had not been fated to experience the decay of the King's affection, and the usual caprice of his temper. The love which had subsisted and increased under so many difficulties, had no sooner obtained secure possession of its object, when it languished from satiety, and Henry's heart was apparently estranged from his consort. The enemies of Anne soon perceived the fatal change, and they hastened to widen the breach, when, from the King's indifference, they found they incurred no danger by interposing in such delicate concerns. She had been delivered of a dead son, and Henry's extreme fondness for male issue being thus disappointed, his violent temper, and the superstitious turn of his mind, which made him conclude that his second marriage was as unpleasing to God as the first, determined him to make the innocent mother answerable for the misfortune. He was still more inflamed by the jealous suspicions which the enemies of the Queen took care to instil into his mind. Anne, though she appears to have been entirely innocent, and strictly virtuous in her conduct, yet possessed a certain gaiety, if not levity, of conduct, that frequently betrayed her into acts of imprudence; which, though in themselves nothing, were highly dangerous in her critical situation. That freedom of manner which she imported from France, was considered as evidence of a dissolute life, and was certainly incompatible with the strict, and sometimes gloomy ceremonial, which prevailed in the court of Henry. Less haughty than vain, she was pleased with the general admiration which her beauty excited; and too frequently indulged herself in familiar conversation with persons who were formerly her equals, and who, perhaps, might sometimes forget the awful distance which afterwards separated them. The dignity of the King was hurt by these popular manners, and though their novelty, and the grace with which they were accompanied, had pleased and dazzled the observation of the lover, they could not, when indiscriminately directed, escape the discernment and disapprobation of the husband. The most malignant interpretations were given to the harmless liberties of the Queen-the most odious insinuations were daily poured into the King's ear-particularly by the Viscountess Rochford, whose profligate character, though the wife of the Queen's brother, had occasioned a breach between the two sisters-in-law. In revenge, she and her emissaries poisoned every action of the Queen, and represented every instance of favour which she conferred, as a mark of affection. They indirectly accused her of a criminal correspondence with several gentlemen of the bed-chamber, and even with her own brother!-so lost was the infamous Rochford to shame, so regardless was she of decency, truth, and humanity, that she could willingly sacrifice her own husband, provided the innocent object of her hatred and enmity, also suffered with him. The King believed all, because he wished to be convinced:-His love was transferred to ENGLAND.]. ANNE BOLEYN. another object. The charms of Jane Seymour, maid of honour to the Queen, had completely captivated him; and as he appears to have had little idea of other connection than that of marriage, he now thought of nothing but the means of raising her to his bed and throne. We have already noticed this peculiarity in his disposition, proceeding either from indolence, or an aversion to 'gallantry, which involved him in crimes of a blacker dye than those he sought to avoid. Before he could marry Jane, it was necessary that he should get rid of his once beloved Anne, now, unfortunately for her, become an obstacle in the way of his felicity. The first open indication of the King's jealousy, and of her own destruction, appeared in a tilting match at Greenwich, where the accidental circumstance of dropping her handkerchief was interpreted, by Henry, into a concerted signal for one of her lovers. He retired, frowning and displeased;-sent her word to confine herself within her apartment, and gave orders for immediately arresting the Lord Rochford, her brother, Norris, Weston, Brereton, and Smeton, upon whom his suspicions principally fell. The next day the unfortunate Queen was sent to the Tower. Astonished and confounded by so sudden a reverse of fortune, her innocent mind could not suggest to her a single incident in which she had seriously offended her cruel husband; but when she began to reflect upon his obdurate and unforgiving temper, it is said, that she immediately prepared herself for the fate which, she was convinced, awaited her. When informed of the crimes laid to her charge, she made the Upon en most earnest protestations of her innocence. tering her prison, she fell on her knees, and prayed to God so to help her, as she was unconscious of the sins im puted to her; and sank into hysterical convulsions, which lasted a considerable time. When she recovered, in her eagerness to acquit herself of serious guilt, she acknowledged some expressions of familiarity and gaiety, which her good-humour and careless levity had betrayed her into, in various conversations with her attendants.Norris, Weston, and Smeton were observed to be much in her favour, and they served her with a zeal and attachment, which, though chiefly derived from gratitude and respect, might, not improbably, be mixed with tender admiration of so amiable a woman. The innocent tendency of these confessions, and the artless sincerity with which she made them, deserved, and should have obtained, implicit credit; but by the barbarous jealousy and eager impatience of the King, they were considered as certain evidences of more serious and substantial guilt. The Queen and her brother were tried by a jury of peers; her uncle, the pliant and ambitious Norfolk, presiding as high steward. The evidence of the horrible accusation of incest amounted to no more than this,that the Lord Rochford had been observed to lean on her bed before some company. Another charge, was, that she had affirmed the King had never possessed her heart; and had declared to each of her supposed paramours, that she loved him better than Henry, which was to the slander of the issue begotten between the King and her. By this strained interpretation, her guilt was brought within the meaning of the Act of Parliament, which declared it criminal to throw any slander upon the King, Queen, or their issue. By such palpable absurdities was this innocent Queen sacrificed to the cruel violence of Henry. She defended herself ENGLAND.] ANNE BOLEYN. with dignity and presence of mind; and no doubt of her innocence remained with the unprejudiced spectators.But sentence of death was passed upon her, and her brother and she was condemned to be burned, or beheaded at the King's pleasure. When she heard the dreadful annunciation of the fate which awaited her, she was more surprised than terrified, and, lifting up her hands to heaven, exclaimed, "O Father! O Creator! thou who art the way, the truth, and the life, thou knowest that I have not deserved this fate!" and turning to her judges, continued to make the most earnest protestations of her innocence. She then prepared to suffer the death to which she was sentenced, and if any argument were necessary to convince us of her innocence, her serenity and even cheerfulness while under confinement, ought undoubtedly to have their weight, as they are, perhaps, unexampled in a woman, and could not well be the associates of guilt. "Never prince," says she, in a letter to Henry, "had a wife more loyal in all duty and affection, than you have found in Anne Boleyn, with which name and place I could willingly have contented myself, if God and your Grace had been so pleased; neither did I, at any time, so far forget myself in my exaltation and received queenship, but that I always looked for such an alteration as I now find; for the ground of my preferment being on no other foundation than your Grace's fancy, the least alteration, I knew, was fit and sufficient to draw that fancy to some other object." In another letter, to the King, she says, "You have raised me from a private Gentlewoman to a Marchioness-from a Marchioness to a Queen ;—and since you can exalt me no higher in this world, you are resolved to send me to heaven that I may |