Why did Henry VIII have Anne Boleyn executed??
Yes. It’s quite a complicated question, and it’s fine if you go deeper into the reasons. Henry did have Anne beheaded because she didn’t give him a son. He’d already had his marriage to Katherine of Aragon annulled, and Katherine had been living out the end of her life banished to gloomy, damp castles, maintaining to the end of her life that she was Henry’s true wife. However, he was still married to her in the eyes of the catholic church, and Anne’s daughter, Elizabeth, suffered from the stigma of illegitimacy all her life. Henry had already spied Jane Seymour at court, and had decided that she was to be his next wife and the mother to his heir. To make it all absolutely legal, Anne couldn’t be another ex-wife in the background causing trouble; he had to wed Jane legally and their son had to be legitimate. The best way to do this was to have Anne executed for (trumped-up) charges of adultery (treason in a Queen, as it threw doubts on the succession), incest and witchcraft. Then he cou
