Elizabeth I: Anne Boleyn's legacy

Sira Barbeito
22 hours ago
7 min read

The Rainbow Portrait, c.1600 © Hatfield House

It is 1533. Summer’s hot breath caresses a brunette’s face while she writes, serious but with a dreamer’s little smile. She seems confident in her stance, as if she owns the place and the fates. She looks like she has everything under control and every single part of her life has turned out just the way she wanted to. That’s why she is already writing the letters that will carry the big news all around her country to the manors and mansions and castles of lords and politicians. She proudly announces the arrival of her baby boy, of her husband’s heir, of the nation’s long-awaited prince. But she is doing so with one hand on the desk and the other atop of her still swollen belly. She is still pregnant but that is a minor detail at this point. Everyone has assured her, assured them, that the kid will be a strong male and an even better ruler. Every doctor, every astrologist, every specialist that has been called to check on her has agreed: Henry will finally have his princely son and she will be able to relax and let go control, completely secure in her position as Queen.

Her slender neck and her big dark eyes are captivating as she touches her stomach, feeling for her saviour’s movements. The baby responds to her and she rests assured of his health. So many responsibilities lay already on those small shoulders forming inside her. Her whole situation at court depends on his wellbeing as well as her relationship with his father. There are those who want Katherine back beside Henry with Lady Mary as their rightful heir. They accuse her of destroying their marriage and England’s stability. They accuse her of Henry’s decision to break up with Rome and the Papacy. As if anyone could move his thoughts. As if he was not reckless and strongheaded. As if he could be leashed.

But this baby will change everything. It is her biggest pride and hope. Her best accessory on the coronation day.

This baby is Henry’s confirmation sent from up above that his last marriage has been unlawful to God and he has done right by Him marrying Anne. The fact that she has conceived so soon after their consummation reaffirms his beliefs. If they have already sired an heir, many more will surely follow to secure their position internationally and avoid another decades-long war.

So, when the 7th of September comes around, two weeks after Anne’s confinement, the couple expects to hold their desperately awaited baby prince. The jousts are ready, the cannon works prepared, the mailmen set to deliver the aforementioned letters… when a loud baby wail breaks the female-busy bedroom. The maids and nurses attending to the Queen look at each other in an uncomfortable manner that leaves her feeling uneasy, asking to see her son.

They slowly show her the baby and she quickly scans over him to check for any malformations or defects that could have caused their weird reactions but sees none of those things. Ten fingers. Two eyes. One beautiful rounded nose. All of his tiny nails in place.

Confused, she looks up at them. That’s when they inform her of the news.

Somewhere out there, her husband is being fed the same words she’s hearing.

Their baby prince is not a prince but a princess.

The letters are hurriedly edited, adding a deformed s to each prince written. Jousts are cancelled. Celebrations dulled.

Anne has failed Henry. Just like Katherine had done all those years before.

They try to look at the bright side, though. They fell pregnant fast and they are still young enough. Surely many more children will follow, including the needed prince.

Anne looks at her baby girl and knows she has even more now on her shoulders than before, when everyone assumed she was a boy. She will now have to make herself worthier than any male. She will have to redeem herself over and over in Henry's eyes for the unforgivable mistake of not being his heir.

There will be no room for disobedience, errors, or uselessness.

Not for her.

Only for her future brothers.

Even as she grows to look the most like Henry VIII out of all his offspring.

Baby Elizabeth might be a liability for her father but not to her mother. Anne will have less than three years of motherhood but she will dote lavishly on her precious daughter. Nothing will be spared to make her strong, smart, and ready to be a Tudor princess.

Sadly, no brothers followed her birth.

Anne miscarried her last pregnancy sometime after Katherine of Aragon’s passing. People said it was a boy which destroyed every last chance of recovery between Henry and her. The King turned away from his wife and the witch haunt began ending with Anne’s killing in 1536 alongside her supposed lovers and co-conspirators, and Elizabeth’s repudiation.

Henry VIII did occasionally show love to his youngest daughter but that was forgotten after her mom’s demise. He quickly remarried and had his son, Edward, and Elizabeth was all but left behind, just like Mary had been before her.

It would take a few years for both her and her sister to be restored into the line of succession. By then David Starkey claims that Elizabeth “was very much her father’s daughter and he came to reciprocate by taking a warm, fatherly pride in her.”

But was Elizabeth really so different from the ideal monarch Henry so acutely wished to have as his heir?

Was she a bad ruler or was she Anne’s and Henry’s biggest accomplishment?

Let us see.

Allison Weir says the following: “(Elizabeth) seems to have modelled some of her speeches on his (Henry VIII).”

To which Tracy Borman added: “Her speeches would be littered with references to him as she endeavoured to overcome the weakness of her sex by reminding her people that she was a chip off the old block. She variously referred to herself as “my father’s daughter” or “the lion’s cub””.

But do not be fooled in thinking that she only took after his polished speeches; she also cursed colourfully just like him.

Her head was crowned by a mane of red hair just like the late King’s had been, and not by a dark tone like her mother’s even though she did inherit her mesmerising dark eyes.

Moreover, she had a bit of the old faith in her, just like Henry was not a hundred percent a reformist, which helped her survive during her sister’s very Catholic reign. Maybe that is why some attributed to her this famous quote written on an old window pane: "I would not open windows into men's souls". Whatever her true belief system was, she managed to remain alive during Mary’s reign, even after a couple of close calls that pointed at her as a traitor. She showed how cunning and calculated she could actually be in order to thrive. She did establish the proper Church of England after Mary’s death either way.

Elizabeth was also said to be able to speak up to five languages by eleven years old, including Spanish, Latin, and Welsh, which definitely came in handy in her later years when dealing with foreign mandataries and rulers, escaping from marriage proposals and avoiding war with everyone but Spain.

Where Mary lost Calais, Elizabeth remained strong against the legendary Spanish Armada, crying out her popular speech: “I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and a king of England, too, and think foul scorn that… any prince of Europe should dare to invade the borders of my realm. … I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field.”

She also survived smallpox and had somewhat of a strong health. She was made of steel when compared to her sickly siblings that died rather quickly.

Just like younger Henry VIII, Elizabeth became a patron of the arts, crafting what would go on to be known as England’s Golden Age. She was surrounded by Elizabeth’s Men (a royal troupe that attended court frequently to entertain her and everyone), Shakespeare, Marlowe, and other talented people.

One of her biggest flexes was carefully curating her public image in a manner that turned her into nothing short of a Goddess in her people’s eyes. A whole aesthetic and rhetoric that assisted her interests during those long years of fighting with the Parliament over the issue of her marriage and future heirs. She became firstly the wife of the nation and then went on to become their mom and grandmother. Untouchable, all powerful. Adored and bathed in constant attention. Untamed just like Henry VIII.

In spite of this, she could also be just as ruthless as her church-disintegrating father. When her cousin Mary Stewart crossed the Scottish border asking for aid to recover her stolen throne and became a threat to her own, she ordered her death in a shocking turn of events that marked her difference with Mary I, who chose not to dispose of Elizabeth. Then she proceeded to throw the blame to whomever was around her but alas, her position was safe and Mary was no more.

She reigned for more than four decades, making her one of the longest ruling monarchs of England ever, which kind of fulfils Henry’s wishes of stability for his dynasty (though no dynasty came out of her).

So, keeping all of this in mind, is it too bold of a statement to say she was indeed the heir Henry wanted?

He may have never got to know just how good of a Queen she actually was, but had he seen her in her Gloriana days, would Henry VIII be proud?

Would he regret all the times he didn’t appreciate his daughter just for the uncontrollable fact that she was not a man?

Was not being a man something that negatively affected her ruling?

Did being a woman make her a bad Queen?

To me, all in all, she possessed all the skills and abilities that Henry hoped Edward would inherit. She was fierce, strong-willed, mostly healthy, beautiful, a master manipulator and a professional puppeteer. She ate her enemies for breakfast and smiled politely before leaving the bloody banquet, maintaining a difficult balance between many factions of a country that had been internally broken too many times, divided in too many faiths, teams, ideals, conflicts, laws.

Anne Boleyn really gave him what he asked, just in a different font.

Elizabeth’s reign solidified England after decades of cruel wars and paved the way for the later unification of the whole of the United Kingdom as we know it.

As much as we like to paint her as her mother’s revenge, she was also her father’s daughter, his strongest cub.

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Elizabeth I: Anne Boleyn's legacy

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