She was born to be a Queen.

You Idiot.

Faceless shots of Tommy in season 1

— PEAKY BLINDERS

Under analysis, the case presented by the Crown in May 1536 collapses. But one decisive argument for innocence remains–the evidence the Crown was unable to produce. The queen would normally be attended, day and night. In no way could she pursue a liaison unaided. But where was Anne Boleyn’s accomplice? Here is ‘the dog that did not bark’. Anne could simply not have behaved as alleged.

Clearly informed by his friend Nicolas Bourbon, the French reformer Etienne Dolet published an epigram declaring Anne falsely condemned and beheaded for adultery. Chapuys did not believe her guilt–‘condemned on presumption not evidence, without any witness or valid confession’ was his conclusion. 

Innocent but a prisoner, guiltless but condemned, Anne awaited her fate. [S]he called for Kingston to hear mass with her soon after dawn on Thursday [18 May], It was then that, at the damnation of her immortal soul, she swore on the sacrament that she had never been unfaithful to the king. She did so twice–before and after receiving the body of Christ–and the constable duly passed on her oath, as she knew he would.

Queen Anne’s Women • The Female Family of Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn was, in the words of her biographer Eric Ives, “a woman taken on her own terms in a man’s world,” and popular culture often defines her by her relationships to men. There we see her as the daughter, sister, and niece of ambitious and cunning courtiers–the seductress/mistress/eventual wife of the king–the mother of a stillborn son.

Yet Anne was quite close to many of her female relatives as well. These women, and their significance to Anne, are frequently twisted, minimized, or even erased in popular depictions of her life–but they were as much a part of her inner circle as their male counterparts, serving as friends, confidantes, and supporters of her cause. Many of them lost not only a dear loved one but also an advocate at court when Anne was killed in 1536.

“She was a little, lively, sparkling brunette, with fascinating eyes and long black hair, which, contrary to the sombre fashion of those days, she wore coquettishly floating loosely down her back, interlaced with jewels”