Did Anne Boleyn have six fingers on one hand?

Rumours have always surrounded the life of Anne Boleyn, the young woman who became King Henry VIII’s second wife in 1533 only beheaded three years later. But among the many mysteries the queen, maybe the most odd one is the claim that she had six fingers on one of her hands. A book was written called the Catholic propagandist Nicholas Sander this is most likely to be the source of this rumour.  Nicholas Sander wrote a few decades after Boleyn’s death, he noted that the queen '' six fingers on her right hand.” Sander described Anne as quite an ugly woman, claiming she had an overhanging tooth and a cyst on the front of her neck

These stories slowly wormed their way into Anne Boleyn's reputation.  Sander never saw Boleyn in person.  A Lot of people argue that it’s unlikely that such a  ugly woman would have captured the eye of Henry VIII.  Also in the medieval era, moles and other bodily imperfections were often viewed as signs of devilry and witchcraft, so Sander may have painted an unflattering picture as a way of denigrating Anne Boleyn. 

Very few original paintings of Anne Boleyn exist today, but the ones that do exist show someone very far from the ugly described by Sander. Those who actually met her described her as “beautiful,” but no one referenced an extra finger. George Wyatt, a biographer, noted that she did have several moles and an extra nail on the little finger of her right hand, but no sixth digit. This matter was later investigated in the 19th century, when a doctor exhumed Anne Boleyn’s supposed burial site at the Tower of London. Of the several  bodies examined, none including the showed any sign of an additional finger.

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By Esther