Anne Boleyn (, or ) ( 1501 – 19 May 1536) was
Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 as the
second wife of
King Henry VIII, and
Marquess of Pembroke in her own right. Henry's marriage to Anne, and her subsequent execution by
beheading, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that was the start of the
English Reformation. Anne was the daughter of
Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, and his wife,
Lady Elizabeth Howard, and was educated in the
Netherlands and
France, largely as a
maid of honour to
Claude of France. She returned to England in early 1522, to marry her Irish cousin
James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond; the marriage plans were broken up by
Cardinal Wolsey, and instead she secured a post at court as maid of honour to Henry VIII's wife,
Catherine of Aragon.