A
Princess is Born
On the 7th of September 1533 at
approximately 3 o’clock in the afternoon Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry
VIII, gave birth to a baby girl at Greenwich. Perhaps Anne and Henry had
decided that Anne should give birth at Greenwich as it had been the very place
that Henry had been born forty two years previously. This was Anne’s first
pregnancy and she had retired to her chambers only thirteen days before her
daughter was born. It was customary of the time that a Queen should retire to
her chambers several weeks before the believed due date so perhaps the doctors
or Anne miscalculated the baby’s due date or the child was born early.
According to Starkey the chambers in which Anne
Boleyn retired to deliver her child had ‘a false roof in the Queen’s Bedchamber
for to seal it and hang it with cloth of arrars. They also constructed a
cupboard of state… for the Queen’s plate to stand on in the Bedchamber,
together with an alter, a platform and a stool where the Queen could sit during
her devotions. Finally, they erected a great bed of state in her Presence
Chamber, or Throne Room.’ (Starkey 2004 p. 505).
Anne Boleyn’s labour was reported to be without
great difficulty and he little girl she bore had the facial features of her
mother but her father’s classic Tudor red hair. Elizabeth was reported to be a
strong and healthy baby and was probably named after both Henry and Anne’s
mothers. Both Henry and the astrologers and physicians of the day had predicted
that the child would be a boy - a prince and heir to continue on the Tudor
dynasty, unfortunately the child had been a girl.
Letters that were to be dispatched to foreign
dignitaries and King’s which had already been written up were quickly altered,
from Prince to Princess. Also the celebratory jousts that had been scheduled to
rejoice the birth of a son were cancelled. Yet despite this Elizabeth’s birth
and the declaration of Henry VIII’s first legitimate child were celebrated and Te
Deum was sung at the Chapel Royal.
It has often been reported that Henry was greatly
disappointed at the birth of a daughter and it was right from this early stage
that his and Anne Boleyn’s marriage began to crumble. This however is not
exactly the truth. Certainly both Henry and Anne were disappointed but not as
much as many believed. Elizabeth was strong and healthy and Anne fallen
pregnant shortly after she began to sleep with Henry. Her pregnancy and labour
were reported to be fairly easy (for the time that is) and there was still time
and hope that Anne’s next pregnancy would be quick and this time she would
deliver the son Henry VIII so desperately desired. It is also reported that
when Henry went to visit Anne after the birth he told her that ‘You and I are
both young… and by God’s grace, boys will follow’ (Weir 1991 p. 258). If indeed
Henry said this I can only imagine how Anne must have felt.
Henry’s disappointment also cannot have been that
great as before Elizabeth was even a year old he had ‘caused an Act of
Succession to be passed in her favour, which made her his heir in place of Mary’
(Weir 2008 p. 6). Mary being the daughter born to Henry’s first
wife Catherine of Aragon.
Unfortunately despite the birth of a healthy
daughter Anne Boleyn was still under pressure. She had achieved her desire to
marry Henry and been crowned Queen of England but she still had to fulfil her
role. It was believed of women at the time that it was not only their duty to
serve their husbands but to give them healthy sons. Anne was under even more
pressure as not only did she need to give her husband, the King a son, she
needed to give England a healthy male heir. If only she and Henry knew the powerful ruler
that Elizabeth would grow up to be, reigning over England for forty four years
in a time known as the ‘Golden Age’.
Natalie Dormer as Anne Boleyn with baby 'Elizabeth' from the Showtime series The Tudors
Sources
Ives,
E 2009, The Life and Death of Anne
Boleyn, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford.
Starkey, D 2004, Six Wives The Queens
of Henry VIII, Vintage, London.
Weir, A 1991, The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Grove Press, New York.
Weir, A 2008, The
Children of Henry VIII, Ballantine Books, New York.
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