Anne Boleyn (c.1501/1507 – 19 May 1536) is Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 as the second wife of Henry VIII of England and 1st Marquess of Pembroke in her own right for herself and her descendants.

Henry's marriage to Anne, and her subsequent execution, makes her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that is the start of the English Reformation.

The daughter of Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire and his wife, Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire, Anne is educated in the Netherlands and France, largely as a maid of honor to Claude of France.

She returns to England in early 1522, in order to marry her Irish cousin James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond; however, the marriage plans end in failure and she secures a post at court as maid of honor to Henry VIII's Queen consort, Catherine of Aragon.

In 1525, Henry VIII becomes enamored of Anne and begins pursuing her.

She resists all his attempts to seduce her, refusing to become his mistress as had her sister, Mary Boleyn.

It soon becomes the one absorbing object of Henry's desires to annul his marriage to Queen Catherine, so he would be free to marry Anne.

When it becomes clear that Pope Clement VII will not annul the marriage, the breaking of the power of the Catholic Church in England begins.

The Archbishop of York, Thomas Wolsey, is dismissed to his diocese, allegedly at Anne Boleyn's instigation.

(George Cavendish, Wolsey's chamberlain, records that the servants who waited on the king and Anne at dinner in 1529 in Grafton heard her to say that the dishonor that Wolsey had brought upon the realm would have cost any other Englishman his head.

Henry replied, "Why then I perceive...you are not the Cardinal's friend.")

Later the Boleyn family's chaplain, Thomas Cranmer, is appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury.

Henry and Anne marry on 25 January 1533.

On 23 May 1533, Cranmer declares Henry and Catherine's marriage null and void; five days later, he declares Henry and Anne's marriage to be good and valid.

Shortly afterwards, the Pope decrees sentences of excommunication against Henry and Cranmer.

As a result of this marriage and these excommunications, the first break between the Church of England and Rome takes place and the Church of England is brought under the King's control.

Anne is crowned Queen of England on 1 June 1533.

On 7 September, she gives birth to the future Elizabeth I of England.

To Henry's displeasure, however, she fails to produce a male heir.

Henry is not totally discouraged, for he says that he loves Elizabeth and that a son will surely follow.

Three miscarriages followedhowever, and by March 1536, Henry is courting Jane Seymour.

In April–May 1536, Henry hads Anne investigated for high treason.

On 2 May, she is arrested and sent to the Tower of London, where she is tried before a jury of peers and found guilty on 15 May.

She is beheaded four days later on Tower Green.

Modern historians view the charges against her, which included adultery and incest, as unconvincing.

Following the coronation of her daughter, Elizabeth, as queen, Anne was venerated as a martyr and heroine of the English Reformation, particularly through the works of John Foxe.

Over the centuries, she has inspired or been mentioned in numerous artistic and cultural works.

As a result, she has retained her hold on the popular imagination.