" 
 :::I don't know of any modern historian who seriously believes Anne was actually guilty of any of the adulteries or acts of treason with which she was charged. All that was manufactured by Cromwell, as some of his co-conspirators later confirmed (including Chapuys, who was always eager to slander Anne). Anne can be seen as guilty of damaging Henry's public image, questioning his decisions (especially regarding the way the monasteries' confiscated wealth was spent), not producing a male heir, and generally being too self-confident. Her other mistake was simply being the wrong person in the wrong circumstances at a particular stage in Henry's life, and of being a victim (like Wolsey, More, and Cromwell) of his ""borderline"" personality. I don't regard her as a martyr; she was certainly intelligent, educated, and ambitious, she played the power game, and she eventually lost. But if she had produced a son who lived, it would have been a different story and Henry VIII almost certainly would have stopped at two wives.   "