Anne of The Thousand Days - Historical Accuracy

Historical Accuracy

• Historians dispute King Henry VIII's paternity of one or both of Mary Boleyn's children. Henry VIII: The King and His Court, by Alison Weir, questions the paternity of Henry Carey; Dr. G.W. Bernard (The King's Reformation) and Joanna Denny (Anne Boleyn: A New Life of England's Tragic Queen) argue that Henry VIII was their father.

• Anne Boleyn might not have been eighteen years old in 1527; her birth date is unrecorded.

• Most histories of the period say nothing about Anne pressuring Henry to have More executed.

• The meeting between Anne and Henry shortly before her execution is fictional, and even if such a meeting had taken place, some details of their discussion are implausible. Anne's marriage was annulled anyway, and she was never offered a deal which would have given her her freedom. Elizabeth and Mary were both declared illegitimate, but were nevertheless in the line of succession. At that point the chances of Elizabeth inheriting the crown probably seemed rather low.

• Henry did not intervene in Anne's trial; she was disallowed the right to question the witnesses against her. She and the King met last at a joust the day before her arrest.

• Anne of the Thousand Days depicts Anne as innocent of the charges; considered historically correct, per the biographies by Eric W. Ives, Retha Warnicke, Joanna Denny, and Tudor historian David Starkey which all state her innocence of adultery, incest, and witchcraft.