English queen Anne Boleyn was also a religious reformer
She became England’s most notorious queen when Henry VIII split from the Roman Catholic Church to marry her. Three years later he put her to death on charges of adultery, incest and treason.
Gossip and misinformation have accumulated around her ever since. But what rarely gets discussed is her evangelical upbringing, strong religious convictions, intelligence and determination in shaping how the Church of England would be remade, or how her faith was a factor in everything from why the king wanted to marry her to why he had her killed.
People often say the Anglican Church was created because Henry VIII wanted a divorce. What would be more accurate to say is that it was created because the woman he wanted to marry was a reformer.
Anne Boleyn was raised in two European courts – briefly that of Margaret of Austria and then for six formative years serving Queen Claude of France. Both courts emphasized women’s education, the importance of literacy, and engagement with cutting-edge philosophical and religious thought.
In Claude’s court Anne was encouraged to read the Bible, not in Latin, which had for so many centuries guarded who could access Scripture, but in the vernacular.
She was in the company of Marguerite d’Angoulême, Claude’s sister-in-law, a writer, scholar and politician, who called for making the Bible available to all people and for an end to church corruption. (Marguerite’s poem Le miroir de 1’âme pècheresse [The Mirror of the Sinful Soul] articulates a personal relationship with Jesus many judged heretical and that almost got her writing banned.)
Anne came back to England to secure a marriage, although she didn’t catch King Henry’s eye until at least six years later. Henry had been married to Catherine of Aragon for almost 20 years and only had one daughter (Mary I, later known as Bloody Mary).
The lack of a male heir was a political and personal problem, but for Henry it was most significantly a religious problem. He interpreted it as signalling God’s anger. Catherine was Henry’s brother’s widow, and Henry was aware of a law in Leviticus that forbade such a marriage.
The pope was reluctant to grant Henry his desired annulment from Catherine. It was Anne who brought Henry the contraband writing of William Tyndale. Tyndale argued against the centralized authority of the pope or that one person could be St. Peter’s successor.
It took six more years for Henry to split the English Church from Rome, and make Anne his wife and queen. At every step, Anne was not just helping Henry secure the Reformist theologians he needed, but also putting Reformers into high church offices, intervening on behalf of exiled Reformers and normalizing the idea of an English Bible.
About a month before her death, Anne locked horns publicly with Thomas Cromwell, who had risen in the king’s ranks by helping secure the break from Rome. He was a Reformer like Anne, but his vision was different.
In March 1536 a bill was introduced to dissolve the monasteries. Anne wanted some of the wealth to provide for the poor and to bolster universal access to education. But Cromwell – and the king – were unwilling to limit the Crown’s financial windfall.
There were still no sons three years into her marriage with Henry, making him suspect he still hadn’t fixed his relationship with God. Cromwell, and likely the king, moved against Anne. She was accused of adultery with five men, including her brother, and after a trial in which the outcome was all but assured, she was found guilty of high treason. She was beheaded on May 19, 1536 (leaving behind a daughter, the future Elizabeth I).
Anne was effective in putting Reformers into power, and in the year prior to her death an English Bible was translated, printed and began to circulate in England.
Anne had many enemies because of her polarizing religious views. There was also a cadre of Catholics who supported Cromwell and thought her death would lead toward a return to Rome. But Anne had been far too effective in putting Reformers into power, and in the year prior to her death an English Bible was finally translated, printed and began to circulate in England.
Her fingerprints can still be felt on the Protestant Church today. Her protégés Thomas Cranmer and Matthew Parker are among three theologians credited with shaping the distinctive Anglican theological ethos. Cranmer’s prayer book is still used by Protestants across the world.
Rev. Canon Martha Tatarnic is an Anglican priest in St. Catharines, Ont., a podcaster and author of Anne Boleyn: Reputation, Revolution, Religion and the Queen Who Changed History (Morehouse, 2026) and other books. Read more history at FaithToday.ca/HistoryLesson.