Queen Anne Boleyn (~1507-1536) failed to meet social norms during her time as Queen Consort to Henry VIII (1491-1548). By tracing concepts of queenship through the works of Chrétien de Troyes, Andreas Capellanus, Thomas Malory, and Juan Luis Vives this thesis demonstrates how Anne united the office of queen and mistress to bring her downfall and introduce a new construct of queenship.

Henry VIII (28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547) served as King of England from 1509 until his death in 1547. A melancholic character, Henry was known for his many marriages, his temper, his bouts of tyranny, and his break with the Catholic Church. Most authors, even those writing contemporary accounts, portray Henry as a villain. Hilary Mantel paints Henry differently. In Wolf Hall and Bringing up the Bodies, the King is as he has always been; argumentative, sardonic, and excessive. However, Mantel chooses to augment these parts of his character with some of his better traits, giving the King a softer edge that is often lost to his actions and infamy. An analysis of Mantel’s writing, as compared to the historical record, sheds new light on Henry VIII and invites readers, through the joy of historical fiction, to be more open in their interpretation of the King.

Writers and historians from earlier centuries imagined Anne Boleyn as a villain; a forward and evil woman intent on destroying Henry VII and his image. Modern accounts have been more accommodating, offering that she was misunderstood due to the constraints of the times. In an attempt to discover the historical Anne, I will be comparing and contrasting how she has been perceived in fiction and non-fiction literature, and will examine how the perception of Anne has shifted through time.

The intention of this thesis is to describe the process of putting together a performance of a lecture recital on the song cycle Try Me, Good King: Last words of the wives of Henry VIII by modern composer Libby Larsen, and to conduct an in depth exploration of the characters of the first five wives of King Henry VIII of England. Each wife’s character will be investigated in relation to their roles in this song cycle which draws its’ text from the final words of these five women. Each wife’s character will be investigated from three perspectives, that of history, that of Libby Larsen, my own perspective (Morgan Tingle). The ultimate result will be a solid developed character for each wife that is the culmination of my studies portrayed by myself, soprano Morgan Tingle, in the final lecture recital.

There have been many publications written about Henry VIII. It was his private life, because of which he primarily went down in history. Henry inherited the royal throne at a very young age. The Tudor dynasty ascended the English throne just for one generation. Henry's father ended the long−standing civil war. However, the fear of its continuation still remained. The most important task for the young king was to stabilize the position of the dynasty and to protect the throne against other pretenders. His whole life Henry lived in fear, that without a male heir, his family would be brought down. Catherine of Aragon became Henry's wife. There were many benefits from this union for England. The island kingdom was actively involved in continental policy. Nevertheless, Catherine was not able to give birth to an heir to England and fell into disgrace. Her nephew, Holy Roman Emperor, was the most powerfull ruler of the Christian Europe. Although he tried to prevent the annulment of their marriage by various means, he failed. Throughout his reign Charles was in a war conflict with the French king. He needed England like an ally against France even at the cost of his aunt's repudiation, which would remain without retaliation.

Before the reformation and the schism of the Catholic Church, it had always been the duty of the Church and not of the state, to undertake the seven corporal works of mercy; feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, visit the sick, visit the prisoner, and bury the dead.¹ By dissolving these institutions, Henry had unwittingly created what would become a social disaster of biblical proportions. In essence, this act was rendering thousands of the poor and elderly without a home or shelter, it denied the country of much of the medical aid that has been offered by the church, it denied future generations of thousands of volumes of books and scriptures from the monastic libraries, as well as denied many an education who would have otherwise never received one without the help of the Church. The ultimate goal of my thesis is to prove my hypothesis that the dissolution of the monasteries by King Henry VIII was not merely a contributory factor in the need for the creation of poor laws, but the deciding factor (in a myriad of societal issues) for their creation. Footnote 1: Matthew 25 vv. 32-46.