her father between 1522 and 1525
have been taken, though very doubtfully, as a symptom of the king's
affections. Unlike her sister Mary, who had fallen a victim to Henry's
solicitations,[3] Anne had no intention of being the king's mistress;
she meant to be his queen, and her conduct seems to have been governed
entirely by motives of ambition. The exact period of the beginning of
Anne's relations with Henry is not known. They have been surmised as
originating as early as 1523; but there is nothing to prove that Henry's
passion was anterior to the proceedings taken for the divorce in May
1527, the celebrated love letters being undated. Her name is first
openly connected with the king's as a possible wife in the event of
Catherine's divorce, in a letter of Mendoza, the imperial ambassador, to
Charles V. of the 16th of August 1527,[4] during the absence in France
of Wolsey, who, not blinded by passion like Henry, naturally opposed the
undesirable alliance, and was negotiating a marriage with Renee,
daughter of Louis XII. Henry meanwhile, however, had sent William
Knight, his secretary, on a separate mission to Rome to obtain
facilities for his marriage with Anne; and on the cardinal's return in
August he found her installed as the king's companion and proposed
successor to Catherine of Aragon. After the king's final separation from
his wife in July 1531, Anne's position was still more marked, and in
1532 she accompanied Henry on the visit to Francis I., while Catherine
was left at home neglected and practically a prisoner. Soon after their
return Anne was found to be pregnant, and in consequence Henry married
her about the 25th of January 1533[5] (the exact date is unknown), their
union not being made public till the following Easter. Subsequently, on
the 23rd of May, their marriage was declared valid and that with
Catherine null, and in June Anne was crowned with great state in
Westminster Abbey. Anne Boleyn had now reached the zenith of her hopes.
A weak, giddy woman of no stability of character, her success turned her
head and caused her to behave with insolence and impropriety, in strong
contrast with Catherine's quiet dignity under her misfortunes. She, and
not the king, probably was the author of the petty persecutions
inflicted upon Catherine and upon the princess Mary, and her jealousy of
the latter showed itself in spiteful malice. Mary was to be forced into
the position of a humble attendant upon Anne's infant, an