St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1909-12-25
HENRY The EIGHTH
And HIS anne
BOLEYN
Story Of EngIand's Great King
and His Many Wives Briefly
ToId-Penchant for His
Maids of Honor.

A girl who was SO beautiful that
people overlooked the deformity Of
her having two thumbs on each hand
changed the religion and history Of
England BY means Of a silly Irritation.
The girl with the double set Of thumbs
was Anne Boleyn, daughter of a six
teenth century politician. The man
with whom she undertook to firt was
his more or less gracious majesty
King HenrT VII. of England.
Henry was a great-grandson of
Owen Tudor. He found England a
t~hird-rate European power. By his
personal genius and statecraft he
made it one Of the foremost nations
Of the earth. As a mere boy he had
been married, for reasons of state,
to his elder brothers widow, Gather
Inc Of Aragon. She was man years
older than he, and was an invalid and
Of d melancholy, pious nature. Henry
was athetIic, jolly and not mach
given to piety. There was nothing
about such d woman as Catherine to
interest him. Moreover, they had no
living children except one sickly
daughter. Mary. And Henry lonaad
for a son to carry on his fame. Yet
be probably would have remained
true to Catherine to the end Of her
days il he had not CHANGED to meet
Anne Boleyn.
Anne was one Of GATHERINGS maids
Of honor. She managed to attract
Hanry'a attention and started VIC
lent Irritation with him. That she
1T first dared expect the affair to 20
further il doubtful But Henry Who
hitherto had aid little deed e such
temptations, fsH Violently ID love
with her. She had the beauty, youth
and gayety his wife lacked. Anne
quite easily Won him from the poor,
gentle old queen. The latter had no
charms WhereWith to combat the
younger Honan'a art.
A soon as she saw that Henry
seriously interested In her Anne set
all her wits to work to make herself
queen. The upshot Of the matter
was that he decided to get rid Of
Catherine of Aragon. But this was
not easily done. The Catholic Church
did not recognize divorce. Moreover,
GATHERINGS nephew, Charles V. of
Germany, was too powerful q SOW
ereign for the pope TO offend. Henry
solved the problem by Wrenehing
England away from its Catholic al
legianee and proclaiming himself the
head Of the English church. In his
new capacity he arranged that the
marriage With his brothers widow be
pronounced null and void. Then,
freed from Catherine, he at once
married Anne. The wedding occur
red early in 1888. Anne, who had
earlier received from the king the
title of countess Of Pembroke, was
soIemnly crowned queen Of England.
Her ambition was at last gratiied.
She had turned Henry's heart from
his faithful old wife and had raised
herself to the highest position ii the
land. Incidently, she had changed
England's creed, and in 50 doing
started an almost endless chain Of
religious persecution, murders, exc
cutions. etc. Not that this troubled
her at all. For three years she and
Henry governed England together.
They had one daughter. Elizabeth,
who was destined one day to become
her country grea est queen. Anne
herself showed little gift for ruling.
At the end of three years Henry
tickle fancy wandered from Anne to
one Of her young maids Of honor,
Jane Seymour. Here retribation set
III. Anne was made to pay bitterly
for her past misdaeds. As she, while
maid Of honor, had stolen Henry
love from his first wife, 50 now the
younger prettier Jane eyrnoar won
Henry from Anne, and BIZ much the
same methods. Henry infatuated
with Jane. discovered shat be was
heartily tired Of Anne. Those double
thumbs 1t last began to outweigh
her good looks. He sought satne