The Virginia enterprise., 1909-12-03

people overlooked the deformity of
her having two thumbs on each hand
changed the religion and history of
England by means of silly Irritation
The girl with the double set of thumbs
was Anne Boleyn, daughter of six
teenth century politician. The man
with whom she undertook to flirt was
his (more or less) gracious majesty
King Henry VIII. of England.
Henry was great-grandson of Owen
Tudor. He found England third
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, Catherine of Aragon. She was
many years older than he, and was
In invalid and of melancholy, pious
nature. Henry was athletic, jolly and
not much given to piety. There was
nothing about such woman as Cath
crime to interest him. Moreover, they
had no living children except one sick
~ daughter, Mary. And Henry longed
for son to carry on his fame. Yet he
would probably have remained true to
Catherine to the end of her days if he
had not CHANGED to meet Anne Boleyn.
,..... Anne was one of
uu.,. y" H, GATHERINGS maids
""'e e' 7o"or' of honor. She
managed to attract Henry's attention
and started violent Irritation with
him. That she at first dared expect
the affair to 60 further is doubtful.
But Henry, who hitherto had paid lit
tie heed to such temptations, fell vio-
lentiy in 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 woman's art.
AS soon as she saw Henry was seri.
ously interested in her Anne set all
her wits to work to make herself
queen. The upshot of the matter was
that Henry decided to get rid of Cath
crime 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 sov-
ereign for the pope to offend. Henry
solved the problem by wrenching Eng.
land away from it's Catholic allegiance
and proclaiming himself the head of
the English church. In this new ca
pacity he arranged that the marriage
with his brothers widow be pro.
nounced null and void. Then. freed
from Catherine, he at once married
Anne. The wedding occurred early in
1888. Anne, who had earlier received
from the king the title of countess of
Pembroke, was solemnly crowned
queen Of England.
Her ambition was at last gratlfled.
She had turned Henry's heart from
his faithful old wife and had raised
herself to the highest position in the
land. Incidentally, she had changed
England's creed, and in so doing start.
ed an almost endless chain of religious
persecution, murders, executions, 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's great
est queen. Anne herself showed little
gift for ruling.
At the end of three years Henry's
1lckie fancy wandered from Anne to
one ct her young maids of honor, Jane
Seymour. Here retributicn set in.
Anne was made to pay bitterly for her
past raisdeeds. AS she, while maid of
honor, had stolen Henry's love from