Patent granted to Anne Boleyn

On this day in history, 1^st September 1532, Anne Boleyn became Marquis of Pembroke. She was the first woman who ever held a hereditary peerage title in her own right.

6 years had passed since Henry VIII fell in love with Anne Boleyn ; 6 long years of fighting for a divorce with Katherine of Aragon. Katherine was still officially Henry’s wife and Queen. But in Henry’s heart Katherine was replaced with Anne. Henry planned a meeting with Francis I, and he wanted to present Anne as his future wife and queen. But Anne Boleyn was a former lady-in-waiting of French king’s first wife Claude (who died in 1524) and she did not had a royal title. With granting her a title of Marquis of Pembroke in her own right, Henry VIII presented Anne Boleyn as a woman who deserves to become his new Queen.

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