Part 14

See M. Maksymilian Gumplowicz, _Zur Geschichte Polens im Mittelalter_ (Innsbruck, 1898); W.P. Augerstein, _Der Konflikt des polnischen Konigs Boleslaw II. mit dem Bischof Stanislaus_ (Thorn, 1895).

BOLESLAUS III., king of Poland (1086-1139), the son of Wladislaus I. and Judith of Bohemia, was born on the 23rd of December 1086 and succeeded his father in 1102. His earlier years were troubled continually by the intrigues of his natural half-brother Zbigniew, who till he was imprisoned and blinded involved Boleslaus in frequent contests with Bohemia and the emperor Henry V. The first of the German wars began in 1109, when Henry, materially assisted by the Bohemians, invaded Silesia. It was mainly a war of sieges, Henry sitting down before Lubusz, Glogau and Breslau, all of which he failed to take. The Poles avoided an encounter in the open field, but harried the Germans so successfully around Breslau that the plain was covered with corpses, which Henry had to leave to the dogs on his disastrous retreat; hence the scene of the

## action was known as "the field of dogs." The chief political result of

this disaster was the complete independence of Poland for the next quarter of a century. It was during this respite that Boleslaus devoted himself to the main business of his life--the subjugation of Pomerania (i.e. the maritime province) with the view of gaining access to the sea. Pomerania, protected on the south by virgin forests and almost impenetrable morasses, was in those days inhabited by a valiant and savage Slavonic race akin to the Wends, who clung to paganism with unconquerable obstinacy. The possession of a seaboard enabled them to maintain fleets and build relatively large towns such as Stettin and Kolberg, whilst they ravaged at will the territories of their southern neighbours the Poles. In self-defence Boleslaus was obliged to subdue them. The struggle began in 1109, when Boleslaus inflicted a terrible defeat on the Pomeranians at Nackel which compelled their temporary submission. In 1120-1124 the rebellion of his vassal Prince Warceslaus of Stettin again brought Boleslaus into the country, but the resistance was as stout as ever, and only after 18,000 of his followers had fallen and 8000 more had been expatriated did Warceslaus submit to his conqueror. The obstinacy of the resistance convinced Boleslaus that Pomerania must be christianized before it could be completely subdued; and this important work was partially accomplished by St Otto, bishop of Bamberg, an old friend of Boleslaus's father, who knew the Slavonic languages. In 1124 the southern portions of the land were converted by St Otto, but it was only under the threat of extermination if they persisted in their evil ways that the people of Stettin accepted the faith in the following year. In 1128, at the council of Usedom, St Otto appointed his disciple Boniface bishop of Julin, the first Pomeranian diocese, and the foundation of a better order of things was laid. In his later years Boleslaus waged an unsuccessful war with Hungary and Bohemia, and was forced to claim the mediation of the emperor Lothair, to whom he did homage for Pomerania and Rugen at the diet of Merseburg in 1135. He died in 1139.

See Gallus, _Chronicon_, ed. Finkal (Cracow, 1899); Maksymilian Gumplowicz, _Zur Geschichte Polens im Mittelalter_ (Innsbruck, 1898).

BOLETUS, a well-marked genus of fungi (order _Polyporeae_), characterized by the central stem, the cap or pileus, the soft, fleshy tissue, and the vertical, closely-packed tubes or pores which cover the under surface of the pileus and are easily detachable. The species all grow on the ground, in woods or under trees, in the early autumn. They are brown, red or yellow in colour; the pores also vary in colour from pure white to brown, red, yellow or green, and are from one or two lines to nearly an inch long. A few are poisonous; several are good for eating. One of the greatest favourites for the table is _Boletus edulis_, recognized by its brown cap and white pores which become green when old. It is the _ceps_ of the continental European markets. There are forty-nine British species of _Boletus_.

BOLEYN (or BULLEN), ANNE (c. 1507-1536), queen of Henry VIII. of England, daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn, afterwards earl of Wiltshire and Ormonde, and of Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Howard, earl of Surrey, afterwards duke of Norfolk, was born, according to Camden, in 1507, but her birth has been ascribed, though not conclusively, to an earlier date (to 1502 or 1501) by some later writers.[1] In 1514 she accompanied Mary Tudor to France on the marriage of the princess to Louis XII., remained there after the king's death, and became one of the women in waiting to Queen Claude, wife of Francis I. She returned in 1521 or 1522 to England, where she had many admirers and suitors. Among the former was the poet Sir Thomas Wyatt,[2] and among the latter, Henry Percy, heir of the earl of Northumberland, a marriage with whom, however, was stopped by the king and another match provided for her in the person of Sir James Butler. Anne Boleyn, however, remained unmarried, and a series of grants and favours bestowed by Henry on her father between 1522 and 1525 have been taken, though very doubtfully, as a symptom of the king's affections. Unlike her sister Mary, who had fallen a victim to Henry's solicitations,[3] Anne had no intention of being the king's mistress; she meant to be his queen, and her conduct seems to have been governed entirely by motives of ambition. The exact period of the beginning of Anne's relations with Henry is not known. They have been surmised as originating as early as 1523; but there is nothing to prove that Henry's passion was anterior to the proceedings taken for the divorce in May 1527, the celebrated love letters being undated. Her name is first openly connected with the king's as a possible wife in the event of Catherine's divorce, in a letter of Mendoza, the imperial ambassador, to Charles V. of the 16th of August 1527,[4] during the absence in France of Wolsey, who, not blinded by passion like Henry, naturally opposed the undesirable alliance, and was negotiating a marriage with Renee, daughter of Louis XII. Henry meanwhile, however, had sent William Knight, his secretary, on a separate mission to Rome to obtain facilities for his marriage with Anne; and on the cardinal's return in August he found her installed as the king's companion and proposed successor to Catherine of Aragon. After the king's final separation from his wife in July 1531, Anne's position was still more marked, and in 1532 she accompanied Henry on the visit to Francis I., while Catherine was left at home neglected and practically a prisoner. Soon after their return Anne was found to be pregnant, and in consequence Henry married her about the 25th of January 1533[5] (the exact date is unknown), their union not being made public till the following Easter. Subsequently, on the 23rd of May, their marriage was declared valid and that with Catherine null, and in June Anne was crowned with great state in Westminster Abbey. Anne Boleyn had now reached the zenith of her hopes. A weak, giddy woman of no stability of character, her success turned her head and caused her to behave with insolence and impropriety, in strong contrast with Catherine's quiet dignity under her misfortunes. She, and not the king, probably was the author of the petty persecutions inflicted upon Catherine and upon the princess Mary, and her jealousy of the latter showed itself in spiteful malice. Mary was to be forced into the position of a humble attendant upon Anne's infant, and her ears were to be boxed if she proved recalcitrant. She urged that both should be brought to trial under the new statute of succession passed in 1534, which declared her own children the lawful heirs to the throne. She was reported as saying that when the king gave opportunity by leaving England, she would put Mary to death even if she were burnt or flayed alive for it.[6] She incurred the remonstrances of the privy council and alienated her own friends and relations. Her uncle, the duke of Norfolk, whom she was reported to have treated "worse than a dog," reviled her, calling her a "grande putaine." But her day of triumph was destined to be even shorter than that of her predecessor. There were soon signs that Henry's affection, which had before been a genuine passion, had cooled or ceased. He resented her arrogance, and a few months after the marriage he gave her cause for jealousy, and disputes arose. A strange and mysterious fate had prepared for Anne the same domestic griefs that had vexed and ruined Catherine and caused her abandonment. In September 1533 the birth of a daughter, afterwards Queen Elizabeth, instead of the long-hoped-for son, was a heavy disappointment; next year there was a miscarriage, and on the 29th of January 1536, the day of Catherine's funeral, she gave birth to a dead male child.

On the 1st of May following the king suddenly broke up a tournament at Greenwich, leaving the company in bewilderment and consternation. The cause was soon known. Inquiries had been made on reports of the queen's ill-conduct, and several of her reputed lovers had been arrested. On the 2nd Anne herself was committed to the Tower on a charge of adultery with various persons, including her own brother, Lord Rochford. On the 12th Sir Francis Weston, Henry Norris, William Brereton and Mark Smeaton were declared guilty of high treason, while Anne herself and Lord Rochford were condemned unanimously by an assembly of twenty-six peers on the 15th. Her uncle, the duke of Norfolk, presided as lord steward, and gave sentence, weeping, that his niece was to be burned or beheaded as pleased the king. Her former lover, the earl of Northumberland, left the court seized with sudden illness. Her father, who was excused attendance, had, however, been present at the trial of the other offenders, and had there declared his conviction of his daughter's guilt. On the 16th, hoping probably to save herself by these means, she informed Cranmer of a certain supposed impediment to her marriage with the king--according to some accounts a previous marriage with Northumberland, though the latter solemnly and positively denied it--which was never disclosed, but which, having been considered by the archbishop and a committee of ecclesiastical lawyers, was pronounced, on the 17th, sufficient to invalidate her marriage. The same day all her reputed lovers were executed; and on the 19th she herself suffered death on Tower Green, her head being struck off with a sword by the executioner of Calais brought to England for the purpose.[7] She had regarded the prospect of death with courage and almost with levity, laughing heartily as she put her hands about her "little neck" and recalled the skill of the executioner. "I have seen many men" (wrote Sir William Kingston, governor of the Tower) "and also women executed, and all they have been in great sorrow, and to my knowledge this lady has much joy and pleasure in death." On the following day Henry was betrothed to Jane Seymour.

Amidst the vituperations of the adherents of the papacy and the later Elizabethan eulogies, and in the absence of the records on which her sentence was pronounced, Anne Boleyn's guilt remains unproved. To Sir William Kingston she protested her entire innocence, and on the scaffold while expressing her submission she made no confession.[8] Smeaton alone of her supposed lovers made a full confession, and it is possible that his statement was drawn from him by threats of torture or hopes of pardon. Norris, according to one account,[9] also confessed, but subsequently declared that he had been betrayed into making his statement. The others were all said to have "confessed in a manner" on the scaffold, but much weight cannot be placed on these general confessions, which were, according to the custom of the time, a declaration of submission to the king's will and of general repentance rather than acknowledgment of the special crime. "I pray God save the king," Anne herself is reported to have said on the scaffold, "and send him long to reign over you, for a gentler nor a more merciful prince was there never; and to me he was ever a good, a gentle and sovereign lord." A principal witness for the charge of incest was Rochford's own wife, a woman of infamous character, afterwards executed for complicity in the intrigues of Catherine Howard. The discovery of Anne's misdeeds coincided in an extraordinary manner with Henry's disappointment in not obtaining by her a male heir, while the king's despotic power and the universal unpopularity of Anne both tended to hinder the administration of pure justice. Nevertheless, though unproved, Anne's guilt is more than probable. It is almost incredible that two grand juries, a petty jury, and a tribunal consisting of nearly all the lay peers of England, with the evidence before them which we do not now possess, should have all unanimously passed a sentence of guilt contrary to the facts and their convictions, and that such a sentence should have been supported by Anne's own father and uncle. Every year since her marriage Anne had given birth to a child, and Henry had no reason to despair of more; while, if Henry's state of health was such as was reported, the desire for children, which Anne shared with him, may be urged as an argument for her guilt. Sir Francis Weston in a letter to his family almost acknowledges his guilt in praying for pardon, especially for offences against his wife;[10] Anne's own conduct and character almost prepare us for some catastrophe. Whether innocent or guilty, however, her fate caused no regrets and her misfortunes did not raise a single champion or defender. The sordid incidents of her rise, and the insolence with which she used her triumph, had alienated all hearts from the unhappy woman. Among the people she had always been intensely disliked; the love of justice, and the fear of trade losses imminent upon a breach with Charles V., combined to render her unpopular. She appealed to the king's less refined instincts, and Henry's deterioration of character may be dated from his connexion with her. She is described as "not one of the handsomest women in the world; she is of a middling stature, swarthy complexion, long neck, wide mouth, bosom not much raised, and in fact has nothing but the English king's great appetite, and her eyes which are black and beautiful, and take great effect."[11] Cranmer admired her--"sitting in her hair" (i.e. with her hair falling over her shoulders, which seems to have been her custom on great occasions), "upon a horse litter, richly apparelled," at her coronation.[12]

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Art. in the _Dict. of Nat. Biography_ and authorities cited; _Henry VIII._ by A.F. Pollard (1905); _Anne Boleyn_, by P. Friedman (1884); _The Early Life of Anne Boleyn_, by J.H. Round (1886); _The Divorce of Catherine of Aragon_, by J.A. Froude (1891); "Der Ursprung der Ehescheidung Konig Heinrichs VIII." and "Der Sturz des Cardinals Wolsey," by W. Busch (_Historisches Taschenbuch_, vi. Folge viii. 273 and ix. 41, 1889 and 1890); _Lives_, by Miss E.O. Benger (1821); and Miss A. Strickland, _Lives of the Queens of England_ (1851), vol. ii.; _Notices of Historic Persons Buried in the Tower of London_, by D.C. Bell (1877); _The Wives of Henry VIII._ by M.A.S. Hume (1905); _Excerpta Historica_, by N.H. Nicolas (1831), p. 260; _Spanish Chronicle of Henry VIII._ tr. by M.A.S. Hume (1889); _Records of the Reformation_, by N. Pocock (1870); _Harleian Miscellany_ (1808), iii. 47 (the love letters); _Archaeologia_, xxiii. 64 (memorial of G. Constantyne); _Eng. Hist. Rev._ v. 544, viii. 53, 299, x. 104; _State Trials_, i. 410; _History of Henry VIII._ by Lord Herbert of Cherbury; E. Hall's _Chronicle: Original Letters_, ed. by Sir H. Ellis, i. ser., ii. 37, 53 et seq., ii. ser., ii. 10; _Extracts from the Life of Queen Anne Boleigne_, by G. Wyat (1817); _The Negotiations of Thomas Wolsey_, by Sir W. Cavendish (1641, rep. Harleian Misc. 1810 v.); C. Wriothesley's _Chronicle_ (Camden Soc., 1875-1877); _Notes and Queries_, 8 ser., viii. 141, 189, 313, 350; _Il Successo de la Morte de la Regina de Inghilterra_ (1536); _The Maner of the Tryumphe of Caleys and Bullen_, and the _Noble Tryumphaunt Coronacyon of Queen Anne_ (1533, rep. 1884); _State Papers Henry VIII._; _Letters and Papers of Henry VIII._, by Brewer and Gardiner, esp. the prefaces; _Cal. of State Pap. England and Spain, Venetian and Foreign_ (1558-1559), p. 525 (an account full of obvious errors); _Colton MSS._ (Brit. Mus.), Otho C. 10; "Baga de secretis" in Rep. iii., App. ii. of Dep. Keeper of Public Records, p. 242; "Romische Dokumente," v., M.S. Ehses (_Gorres-gesellschaft_, Bd. ii., 1893). See also articles on CATHERINE OF ARAGON and HENRY VIII. (P. C. Y.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See _Anne Boleyn_, by P. Friedman; _The Early Life of Anne Boleyn_, by J.H. Round; and J. Gairdner in _Eng. Hist. Review_, viii. 53, 299, and x. 104.

[2] According to the _Chronicle of King Henry VIII._, tr. by M.A.S. Hume, p. 68, she was his mistress.

[3] Of this there is no direct proof, but the statement rests upon contemporary belief and chiefly upon the extraordinary terms of the dispensation granted to Henry to marry Anne Boleyn, which included the suspension of all canons relating to impediments created by "affinity rising _ex illicito coitu_ in any degree even in the first." Froude rejects the whole story, _Divorce of Catherine of Aragon_, p. 54; and see Friedman's _Anne Boleyn_, ii. 323.

[4] _Cat. of St. Pap. England and Spain_, iii. pt. ii. p. 327.

[5] According to Cranmer, _Letters and Papers of Henry VIII._ vi. p. 300, the only authority; and Cranmer himself only knew of it a fortnight after. The marriage was commonly antedated to the 14th of November 1532.

[6] _Cat. of St. Pap. England and Spain_, v. 198.

[7] _Letters and Papers of Henry VIII._, x. pp. 374, 381, 385.

[8] According to the most trustworthy accounts, but see _Letters and Papers_, x. p. 382. The well-known letter to Henry VIII. attributed to her is now recognized as an Elizabethan forgery.

[9] _Archaeologia_, xxiii. 64.

[10] _Letters and Papers_, x. 358.

[11] "Sanuto Diaries," October 31, 1532, in _Cal. of St. Pap. Venetian_, iv. p. 365.

[12] _Original Letters_, ed. by Sir H. Ellis, 1 ser. ii. 37, and _Cal. of St. Pap. Venetian_, iv. 351, 418.

BOLGARI, or BOLGARY, a ruined town of Russia, in the government of Kazan, 4 m. from the left bank of the Volga, in 55 deg.N. lat. It is generally considered to have been the capital of the Bulgarians when they were established in that part of Europe (5th to 15th century). Ruins of the old walls and towers still survive, as well as numerous _kurgans_ or burial-mounds, with inscriptions, some in Arabic (1222-1341), others in Armenian (years 557, 984 and 986), and yet others in Turkic. Upon being opened these tombs were found to contain weapons, implements, utensils, and silver and copper coins, bearing inscriptions, some in ordinary Arabic, others in Kufic (a kind of epigraphic Arabic). These and other antiquities collected here (1722) are preserved in museums at Kazan, Moscow and St Petersburg. The ruins, which were practically discovered in the reign of Peter the Great, were visited and described by Pallas, Humboldt and others. The city of Bolgari was destroyed by the Mongols in 1238, and again by Tamerlane early in the following century, after which it served as the capital of the Khans (sovereign princes) of the Golden Horde of Mongols, and finally, in the second half of the 15th century it became a part of the principality of Kazan, and so eventually of Russia. The Arab geographer Ibn Haukal states that in his time, near the end of the 10th century, it was a place of 10,000 inhabitants.

See Ibn Fadhlan, _Nachrichten uber die Wolga Bulgaren_ (Ger. trans. by Frahn, St Petersburg, 1832).

BOLI, the chief town of a sanjak of the Kastamuni vilayet in Asia Minor, altitude 2500 ft., situated in a rich plain watered by the Boli Su, a tributary of the Filiyas Chai (_Billaeus_). Pop. (1894) 10,796 (Moslems, 9642; Greeks, 758; Armenians, 396). Cotton and leather are manufactured; the country around is fertile, and in the neighbourhood are large forests of oak, beech, elm, chestnut and pine, the timber of which is

## partly used locally and partly exported to Constantinople. Three miles

east of Boli, at Eskihissar, are the ruins of _Bithynium_, the birthplace of Antinous, also called _Antinoopolis_, and in Byzantine times _Claudiopolis_. In and around Boli are numerous marbles with Greek inscriptions, chiefly sepulchral, and architectural fragments. At Ilija, south of the town, are warm springs much prized for their medicinal properties.

BOLINGBROKE, HENRY ST JOHN, VISCOUNT (1678-1751), English statesman and writer, son of Sir Henry St John, Bart. (afterwards 1st Viscount St John, a member of a younger branch of the family of the earls of Bolingbroke and barons St John of Bletso), and of Lady Mary Rich, daughter of the 2nd earl of Warwick, was baptized on the 10th of October 1678, and was educated at Eton. He travelled abroad during 1698 and 1699 and acquired an exceptional knowledge of French. The dissipation and extravagance of his youth exceeded all limits and surprised his contemporaries. He spent weeks in riotous orgies and outdrank the most experienced drunkards. An informant of Goldsmith saw him once "run naked through the park in a state of intoxication." Throughout his career he desired, says Swift, his intimate friend, to be thought the Alcibiades or Petronius of his age, and to mix licentious orgies with the highest political responsibilities.[1] In 1700 he married Frances, daughter of Sir Henry Winchcombe, Bart., of Bucklebury, Berkshire, but matrimony while improving his fortune did not redeem his morals.