Elizabeth I

On 22 February 1533 the door to Anne Boleyn's private apartments opened and out she stepped into the crowded hall, a medium-sized woman in her late twenties, with a swarthy complexion, long neck, wide mouth, low bosom and eyes that were black and beautiful. "The Midnight Crow," her enemy Cardinal Wolsey had called her, and others had even more scurrilous names for her, not without cause. For seven years past King Henry VIII had been infatuated with her and, while his faithful wife Catherine of Aragon watched in horrified disbelief, he pursued this sophisticated, French-educated lady of hers, showering her with gifts and installing her in his palace. - p. 1.