Why did Anne Boleyn have six fingers on her right hand?

Queen Anne Boleyn of England is one of history’s most scandalous and misunderstood figures. Anne Boleyn was the mistress and later wife of King Henry VIII. Her marriage to King Henry ignited numerous conflicts within England and across Europe. King Henry’s decision to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, in favor of Anne set the stage for the infamous English Schism in which the King declared himself head of the Church of England. Anne Boleyn was despised by nobility and commoner alike and her failure to produce a male heir led her husband to order her execution. Nonetheless her legacy lived on through her only child, Queen Elizabeth I. Now how does this all relate to number of fingers on Anne Boleyn’s right hand? Well Anne Boleyn’s sixth finger was crucial part of malicious plot to ruin her reputation.

Due to a lack of records the exact date of Anne Boleyn’s birth is unknown. It widely believed she was born in Norfolk, England between 1501 and 1507. Anne’s parents were Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wiltshire and Ormond, and Lady Elizabeth Howard. Thomas Boleyn was a close friend of King Henry VII and a key diplomat allowing Anne to spend most of her youth abroad in Holland and France. During her time abroad Anne acted as a maid for Margaret of Austria, the Hapsburg regent for the Netherlands, and Queen Mary of France, the sister of England’s newly crowned King Henry VIII.  In 1522 Anne Boleyn returned to England and became a maid for Henry’s wife, Catherine of Aragon, widow of Henry’s older brother Arthur, and daughter of Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabel of Columbus fame. In short order Anne Boleyn’s court role began to unfold like a soap opera script.

King Henry VIII was unhappy in his marriage. Although Catherine had been of great service to the English monarchy, most notably she led a successful English counterattack to a Scottish invasion in 1513 while Henry was away in France, she did not produce a male heir. Consequently Henry began pursuing an affair with Catherine’s maid, Anne Boleyn. By 1533 Henry had decided he wanted to marry Anne. However he had one problem, it was against Catholic religious doctrine to get a divorce and the Pope Clement VII a close ally of Spanish monarchy refused to grant an annulment. So Henry decided to make himself head of the Church of England, personally annul his marriage to Catherine, and validate his marriage to Anne. These actions created mass upheaval throughout Europe and made Anne Boleyn the continent’s most hated women. The situation grew direr for Anne when after three years of marriage she still had not produced a male heir. Henry began pursuing another affair this time with Jane Seymour, who had replaced Anne as Catherine’s maid once the latter found out about the former’s affair with Henry. When Anne confronted Henry, he charged her with treason and ordered her execution.

In the aftermath of Anne Boleyn’s execution the King and his supporters spread salacious rumors about the late Queen including one about an extra finger. This rumor was exceedingly ruinous because at the time an extra finger was considered a mark of the devil. In reality if Anne had any physical deformity she would not have been deemed a worthy royal mistress let alone a Queen.

Anne Boleyn had six fingers because her enemies wanted to ruin her reputation. Although Anne’s life was most certainly scandalous, many of her actions are misunderstood. The only sin she committed was that she was complicit in the vicious actions of King Henry VIII.