Believe it or not, we are not entirely certain how many pregnancies Anne Boleyn had. The historiography surrounding her pregnancies is rather divided on the matter. Marie Louise Bruce suggests that “during the first six months of 1534 she appears to have had one miscarriage after the other,” indicating multiple losses in a short span.¹ But does the primary evidence agree with this? More on that later.

Frederick Chamberlin offers a slightly different perspective, writing that “in 1534, in the second year of their married life, Anne had a miscarriage, and in the beginning of 1536 she gave birth to a stillborn infant.² He also speculates that Anne “had a miscarriage and had recovered from it” in June 1535.³

Including Anne’s successful pregnancy with Elizabeth, Chamberlin suggests Anne had four pregnancies in total:

1. First Pregnancy [1533]: Successful, resulting in Elizabeth’s birth.
2. Second Pregnancy [1534]: Ended in a miscarriage.
3. Third Pregnancy [1535]: Another miscarriage.
4. Fourth Pregnancy [1536]: Ended in what Chamberlin refers to as an abortion.

Chamberlin makes an important distinction between a miscarriage and an abortion. He explains: “the general practice among medical writers appears to be to call an abortion the expulsion of the foetus before the fifth month. Between the end of the fourth month and the beginning of the eighth month an expulsion is a miscarriage.”⁴ By this definition, Anne’s final pregnancy in January would have lasted less than twenty weeks – consistent with the observations of contemporary sources. Both Eustace Chapuys and Charles Wriothesley noted that Anne was approximately 3½ months (or fifteen weeks, as Wriothesley recorded) into her pregnancy when she suffered her loss. You can read more about Anne’s final pregnancy here.

Chapuys’ and Wriothesley’s reports provide the perfect segue into exploring primary sources relating to Anne’s pregnancy. This is everything that we know in chronological order:

1533: Elizabeth’s Birth

On the 7th of September 1533, Anne Boleyn gave birth to Elizabeth. This was Anne’s first pregnancy and the only one that went full-term. Elizabeth’s birth was a monumental moment for Anne as she demonstrated her ability to bear healthy children. However, it would have also created more pressure for her to produce a male heir.

1534: A Likely Miscarriage

On the 28th of January 1534, Eustace Chapuys reported that “Anne Boleyn is now pregnant and in condition to have more children.”⁵ This pregnancy appears to have been a promising one, with the King and court anticipating another royal child. Anne’s condition was even cited as a reason to postpone a meeting between Henry VIII and Francis I. In July 1534, Lord Rochford, Anne’s brother, was dispatched to France with the explanation that Anne was “so far gone with child, she could not cross the sea with the King, and she would be deprived of his Highness’s presence when it was most necessary.”⁶

However, there are no existing records of Anne taking to her chamber to prepare for childbirth, as was customary for queens before delivery. This suggests that Anne likely suffered a miscarriage, though we have no definitive evidence of what happened.

1535: A Questionable Pregnancy

On the 24th of June 1535, Sir William Kingston wrote to Lord Lisle: “The King and Queen are well, and her Grace has a fair belly as I have seen.”⁷ This comment implies that Anne may have been pregnant during the summer of 1535. However, no other contemporary sources corroborate this claim, and there is no further mention of a pregnancy that year. As such, I believe this pregnancy is speculative at best.

1536: The Final Miscarriage

On the 29th of January 1536, Anne suffered a tragic miscarriage. This is the only pregnancy loss we can conclusively verify using primary sources. Chapuys recorded: “On the day of the interment the Concubine had an abortion which seemed to be a male child which she had not borne 3½ months, at which the King has shown great distress.”⁸ Similarly, Wriothesley wrote: “three daies before Candlemas, Queene Anne was brought a bedd and delivered of a man chield, as it was said, afore her tyme, for she said that she had reckoned herself at that tyme but fiftene weekes gone with chield.”⁹

These accounts confirm that Anne was around 3½ months pregnant at the time of her miscarriage. This particular pregnancy is often viewed as a turning point in Anne’s relationship with Henry VIII.

So, How Many Pregnancies Did Anne Have?

Looking at the primary source material, the exact number of pregnancies Anne experienced remains uncertain. What we do know with absolute certainty is that she had at least three: 

• 1533: The successful birth of Elizabeth.
• 1534: A likely miscarriage.
• 1536: A miscarriage at around 3½ months.

As for the 1535 pregnancy, I believe it is purely speculative. While Sir William Kingston’s observation is intriguing, the lack of further evidence makes it impossible to confirm.

Anne’s reproductive history, like so much of her life, remains a mystery to us. The discrepancies between primary and secondary sources demonstrate how challenging it is to piece together the intimate details of her life. What is certain, however, is that Anne’s ability – or inability – to produce a male heir played a pivotal role in shaping her destiny.

1. Bruce, Marie Louise. Anne Boleyn, p. 251 ↩︎
2. Chamberlin, Frederick Carleton, 1932, p. 27 ↩︎
3. Chamberlin, Frederick Carleton, 1932, p. 162 ↩︎
4. Chamberlin, Frederick Carleton, 1932, p. 161 ↩︎
5. ‘Henry VIII: January 1534, 26-31’, in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 7, 1534. Edited by James Gairdner (London, 1883), British History Online, https://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol7/pp38-61. ↩︎
6. ‘Henry VIII: July 1534, 6-10’, in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 7, 1534. Edited by James Gairdner (London, 1883), British History Online, https://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol7/pp363-373. ↩︎
7. ‘Henry VIII: June 1535, 22-30’, in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 8, January-July 1535. Edited by James Gairdner (London, 1885), British History Online, https://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol8/pp356-379. ↩︎
8. ‘Henry VIII: February 1536, 6-10’, in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 10, January-June 1536. Edited by James Gairdner (London, 1887), British History Online, https://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol10/pp98-108. ↩︎
9. Wriothesley, Charles. A chronicle of England during the reigns of the Tudors, from A.D. 1485 to 1559, p33 ↩︎