Editing Anne of the Thousand Days (section)

==Historicity==
*[[Antonia Fraser]] has noted that the "beating heart at the center of the film" — that is, the unrequited passion of Henry for Anne, which undergoes a complete reversal by the end of the story — is entirely unhistorical. She observed that "Monster that Henry might have been, all six of his wives married him willingly" and that this depiction is "very far away from history — and the mentality of the sixteenth century." In short, "the real Anne Boleyn was delighted to receive the king's attentions".<ref>[[Antonia Fraser|Fraser, Antonia]], Entry, "Anne of the Thousand Days" [Review of the 1969 film], In: Carnes, Mark C., ed. (1995), ''Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies'', [[New York City|New York]]: [[Henry Holt and Company]] (Series: A Society of American Historians Book), pp 66-69.</ref>
* Historians dispute King Henry VIII's paternity of one or both of Mary Boleyn's children. ''Henry VIII: The King and His Court'' by [[Alison Weir]] questions the paternity of Henry Carey;<ref name="Weir-Henry&Court">{{cite book |last=Weir |title=Henry VIII: The King and His Court |pages=216}}</ref> Dr. G. W. Bernard (''The King's Reformation'') and Joanna Denny (''Anne Boleyn: A New Life of England's Tragic Queen'') argue that Henry VIII was their father.
* Anne Boleyn might not have been 18 years old in 1527; her birth date is unrecorded. Most historians today believe that she was in her early to mid 20s in 1527.
* There is no proof that Henry VIII ordered the breaking of Henry Percy and Anne Boleyn's engagement because he wanted Anne for himself. Percy's family, the Northumberlands, were one of the leading families in the North of England, and they always wanted Henry Percy to marry Mary Talbot, a rich heiress from the same region, and not a girl from a comparatively lower status family. They might have asked for the king's and Cardinal Wolsey's intervention when the engagement was made public. In fact, in order to have no impediment for Henry VIII's and Anne's marriage, all parties always denied that any engagement had taken place.
* Most histories of the period say nothing about Anne's pressuring Henry to have More executed.
* Catherine of Aragon's daughter, Mary, was not present at the time of Catherine's final illness and death; they were being kept apart forcibly.
* Catherine of Aragon's depiction by Irene Papas was wrong in terms of appearance; it is well documented that the queen had auburn hair and a very pale complexion, and that she had become fat by the time she was in her middle thirties. Papas was chosen as she has a stereotypical Mediterranean appearance, matching false popular assumptions on how a 'Spanish' noble would look.{{citation needed|date=December 2017}} The same goes for Jane Seymour: here depicted as a brunette, she was in fact a blonde.
* The meeting between Anne and Henry shortly before her execution is fictional, and even if such a meeting had taken place, some details of their discussion are implausible. Anne's marriage was annulled anyway, and she never was offered a deal that would have given her her freedom. Elizabeth and Mary were both declared illegitimate, but were nevertheless in the line of succession, but not until after Anne's death. Thus, at that point, the chance of Elizabeth's inheriting the crown must have seemed small.
* Henry did not intervene in Anne's trial; she was disallowed the right to question the witnesses against her. She and the king met last at a joust the day before her arrest.
* ''Anne of the Thousand Days'' depicts Anne as innocent of the charges laid against her, and this is considered historically correct in the biographies by Eric W. Ives, [[Retha Warnicke]], Joanna Denny, and [[David Starkey]], which all assert her innocence of adultery, incest, and witchcraft.