Tuesday, May 19, 2026

It is the 19th of May 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

 

If I were to make a list of the most important marriages in the course of church history, I don’t think I could rank any one higher than that of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Two weeks ago, we did an English Reformation Weekend Edition- you can find the longer story of the Tudors and Stuarts there.

 

But it was the 1000 Day Queen, Anne Boleyn, whose story interests us today. [The 1000 Day Queen is a modern label, after the 1948 play, made into a movie in 1969 about Anne— it was nominated for 10 Academy Awards- Genevieve Bujold played Anne and Richard Burton was King Henry VIII].

 

Anne was born in the early 1500s, perhaps 1501, perhaps 1507, to Thomas Boleyn, a diplomat, and Elizabeth Howard, who was a descendant of the English King Edward I. She was given an excellent education and so impressed Margaret of Austria, Habsburg regent of the Netherlands, that she was offered a place in the royal household. By 1514, she was sent to France to be in the retinue of Mary Tudor, Henry VIII’s sister, who was the wife of the King of France. She then served under Claude, the Queen to Francis I, where she traveled in a circle of humanist scholars. Among them was Jacques Lefevre D’Etaples, whose 1512 commentary on the book of Romans would influence Luther. D’Etaples’ translation of the Bible into French also had an effect on later Reformers and the young Anne Boleyn, who found herself something of a disciple of the French Humanist. All the rest, and the more commonly known aspects of her life, are second to this evangelical bent she received in France and brought back to England, where she was a maid to Queen Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII.

 

Anne captivated the attention of many men around the English court in the 1520s- she was engaged to at least one man and perhaps planned to be to another. But as Henry’s marriage to Catherine- the widow of his late brother- turned sour, he was determined to court Anne. Anne’s sister, Mary (the other Boleyn girl- played by Scarlett Johansson in the 2008 film) was Henry’s mistress and the king wanted to take Anne to-, but she refused. She would only be satisfied with a proper wedding… and the “King's Great Matter” and his feud with the Pope over the annulment of the marriage to Catherine was on.

 

As the King pursued Anne, she began to introduce him to the ideas she picked up in France. Henry was, of course, an opponent of the Reformation and the ideas of Luther (the Pope had given Henry the title “Defender of the Faith”), but it was a book by William Tyndale- from Anne- which made its way into Henry’s hands. The Obedience of the Christian Man became a favorite of the King, not for its evangelical ideas but because in it Tyndale argued that the Christian owed his allegiance to the King, not the Pope.

 

Anne also had a copy of Tyndale’s English New Testament and would help to change Henry’s mind about the Bible in the vernacular (we discussed his “Great Bible” just recently).

 

Anne and Henry married in 1532, despite his being married to Catherine. Between January and June of 1533, they were married again, Henry’s marriage declared annulled by Thomas Cranmer, and the new queen Anne, crowned, also six months pregnant. But the child, born in September of that year, was not a male- it was, however, Elizabeth, the future queen.

 

As Queen, she helped elevate figures like Matthew Parker and William Latimer- the men who, along with Cranmer, would be the architects of the English Reformation and have the cover to do so because of Anne’s affinity for many of the tenets of the Reformation.

 

Unfortunately, she would have a series of miscarriages, and one that was reported to be a deformed fetus, which gave rise to the fear that she and Henry were cursed. In the meantime, Henry’s eyes wandered to Jane Seymour. To help facilitate that relationship, Henry had Anne arrested in May of 1536. Through confessions extracted under torture, Anne was held at the Tower of London, tried by her own uncle, and sentenced to death. And it was on this, the 19th of May in 1536 she was taken out on the Tower Green to be killed- she reportedly said "I am come hither to die, for according to the law, and by the law I am judged to die… I pray God save the King… Lord Jesu receive my soul” as a French sword struck her neck and she was no more. But Elizabeth would remain, and the evangelical ideas had already spread up through the ranks… the English Reformation was put in motion under the influence of Henry’s second wife- the famous Anne Boleyn, executed on this day.

 

 

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and a benediction from 1 Peter 4:

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 11 If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 19th of May 2026, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who always wondered how Black Widow was related to the English Reformation… he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man recording the last episode at the plush CHA studios today… Goodbye, old friend- down the road we go! I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.