How true is the movie the other Boleyn girl?

Answer 1

Unfortunately, not very. Not very at all. Here's the facts:

Mary Boleyn had an affair with King Henry VIII after she was married. Her first two children were most likely his. He got bored with her, as he did with all his many mistresses, and she was sent back to her husband with some rewards for her services.

Later, Anne Boleyn went to court after having spent some time in France. Henry liked her, courted her, she played it cool and coy and he got hotter and hotter for her until he became basically obsessed. So he (almost literally) moved heaven and earth, did the unthinkable, and broke from the Church of England in order to marry her. Having his marriage to Katharine of Aragon annulled shouldn't have been that difficult (Popes were very understanding to the fact that kingdoms needed heirs whose claims could not be disputed, so things like that happened from time to time). However, Katharine's nephew's army had Rome under seige, so the Pope was unwilling to let Henry divorce his aunt Katharine. So Henry did it his way. Also, Anne had definite Protestant tendencies, so he may have come around to her way of thinking and truly felt that leaving the decidedly corrupt Catholic Church was a good decision anyway.

Anne Boleyn was not a crazy "witch." She was unwilling to ruin her reputation by having premarital sex. Henry definitely felt like God Himself had blighted their marriage, and took their lack of sons as a sign that he should divorce the aging Queen and marry someone who was still fertile.

The Other Boleyn Girl is a fictionalized account on the friction that may or may not have occurred between Mary Boleyn and Anne Boleyn. Anne wasn't a hussy who seduced him to get back at her sister; you couldn't say no to the King. If he liked you, that was that. And she said no more than any woman before her had. Also, they totally played around with the timing of his interest in Anne to make it seem like he left Mary for Anne. Not at all true.