Anne Boleyn – the witch, the whore, the martyr, the saint, the victim, the Jezebel, the queen. These are a few among a variety of names attached to Queen Anne, a gentlewoman from Kent who dared to rise above her social stratum and compete in the most dangerous game in Europe.

In truth, Anne had relatively humble beginnings, though not to the extent that is generally implied. As the daughter of a successful and valued diplomat and niece to the Duke of Norfolk, Anne had an assured place in the world. She could not claim royal blood, but she possessed some consequence.

Long before meeting Henry VIII, she received an international education at the hands of four queens. Gifted at music, languages and decorous manners, Anne caught the attention of numerous high profile courtiers. Including lord Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland and the renowned poet Sir Thomas Wyatt. These love affairs would eventually fade as Anne would capture the attention of “Caesar.”

With skillful manipulation, Anne Boleyn bewitched King Henry VIII. Utilizing steely nerve, charisma, sex appeal, and what could only be described as ruthless ambition. She would devote six years of her life to marrying the king. Her trick? To keep the King dancing at arms length. She would exchange sex for a crown. Henry was a simple man.

Why did she do this? Did she desire to see her son on the throne? Was she a religious zealot anxious to promote the Protestant reformation? Was she simply a vain woman?

She was all that and more. Anne was desperate to see her child — male or female — on the throne. She was also a religious zealot, though not so outspoken as Katherine Parr. She read many books by banned Protestant authors, the most famous being "Obedience of a Christian Man." She also patronized various Protestant churches, poets, singers and the translators of the Bible in English. She even kept a copy of Tyndale’s Bible in her chamber. She gave very liberally to the poor, and had the love (despite common misconception) of the commons and merchant class in London, an increasingly Protestant city (this was revealed by Henry’s and Master Kingston’s fear of riots on behalf of Anne Boleyn during her coup). Despite Anne’s religious policies she was something of "good time girl" — enjoying more gowns, dances, and musicians than even Catherine Howard. She lived a luxurious, even extravagant, life style.

Anne’s personality is often put into a “saint” or “sinner complex.” While I love Anne Boleyn, I will be judicial in my analysis. Anne was capable of genuine cruelty, as with the teenage Lady Mary Tudor, and her indifference to Katherine of Aragon’s plight once Anne had won supreme.

She at times could also be a bit of a shrew with “inferiors” at court (as reflected in a conversation with Mark Smeaten). On the flip side, Anne often dined with merchants, had real compassion for the poor and bestowed generous sums of money to schools, hospitals and the arts.

She is often maligned as a bad sister, but that is a narrow-minded view. In truth, she was very generous with Mary. Despite popular fiction, Mary Boleyn’s stint as mistress to the king was not popular among her family, but Anne kept her close anyway as a lady in waiting. The popular attitude in that time would have been to outcast the unchaste sibling, but Anne restored her to her place. Even after Mary’s secret marriage, she sent her a gold cup to keep her in comfort and took her sister's as a ward to ensure that he was educated. While Anne was not perfect by any means, she was neither witch nor whore but a politician and a huntress, determined to catch her prey. It would turn out to be a bloodbath.

On May 19, 1536, Anne Boleyn was executed on the orders of her husband in a judicial murder, as a result of trumped-up charges Thomas Cromwell. Her execution took place at 9 a.m. on Tower Green. Her daughter Elizabeth I would triumph in the Spanish Armada and bring England into a Golden Age.

God save the queen.