Anne Boleyn

Perhaps, ever since the 2008 movie, The Other Boleyn Girl, the saga of Anne Boleyn has fascinated me.  Without Anne, would there be an Anglican Protestant Church?  Without Anne, would Henry VIII be a simple footnote in the long history of British royalty?  Certainly, Henry's and Anne's daughter, Elizabeth, was a more substantial monarch than her father.

Henry had Anne, his second wife, executed in 1536. Six years later he executed Catherine Howard his fifth wife.  My opinion of Henry:  a**hole.

Shakespeare's play about Henry a piece I have never read, unlike Henry IV, one of my favorites with its character of Falstaff.

But I stray from my admiration of Anne. My Christmas present to myself ordered tonight:

https://www.target.com/p/the-life-and-death-of-anne-boleyn-by-eric-ives-paperback/-/A-81400043#lnk=sametab

Anne's lovely poem before her death:

O Death Rock Me Asleep

Death, rock me asleep,
Bring me to quiet rest,
Let pass my weary guiltless ghost
Out of my careful breast.
Toll on, thou passing bell;
Ring out my doleful knell;
Let thy sound my death tell.
Death doth draw nigh;
There is no remedy.

My pains who can express?
Alas, they are so strong;
My dolour will not suffer strength
My life for to prolong.
Toll on, thou passing bell;
Ring out my doleful knell;
Let thy sound my death tell.
Death doth draw nigh;
There is no remedy.

Alone in prison strong
I wait my destiny.
Woe worth this cruel hap that I
Should taste this misery!
Toll on, thou passing bell;
Ring out my doleful knell;
Let thy sound my death tell.
Death doth draw nigh;
There is no remedy.

Farewell, my pleasures past,
Welcome, my present pain!
I feel my torments so increase
That life cannot remain.
Cease now, thou passing bell;
Rung is my doleful knell;
For the sound my death doth tell.
Death doth draw nigh;
There is no remedy.