12 Facts About Anne Gainsford

Anne Gainsford, Lady Zouche was a close friend and lady-in-waiting to Queen consort Anne Boleyn.

Anne Gainsford was in the household of Anne Boleyn, as early as 1528 before the latter became the second wife of Henry VIII of England five years later.

Anne Gainsford served Anne Boleyn before and after her own marriage to Sir George Zouche of Codnor.

However, being that Anne Gainsford died years before the writer was born this can hardly be true.

Anne Gainsford served as Anne Boleyn's waiting-woman, and was referred to by her mistress as Nan, which was the popular diminutive of the name Anne in the 16th century.

In 1528, according to biographer George Wyatt, an incident occurred at Court in which Anne Gainsford Boleyn lent Anne Gainsford her copy of William Tyndale's The Obedience of a Christian Man, a book that Cardinal Wolsey had proscribed.

Anne Gainsford described it as a book "for me and all kings to read".

Whereas Anne Gainsford Boleyn, according to Anne Gainsford, dismissed the book as a bauble.

In 1533, Anne Gainsford's mistress became Queen of England and she remained a part of Anne Gainsford Boleyn's household as one of her ladies-in-waiting.

Three years later in 1536 Queen Anne Gainsford was charged with High Treason and adultery.

Research of Anne Boleyn's female household by Sylvia Barbara Soberton proves that Weller Singer was wrong in his identification of Wyatt's informant because Anne Gainsford died before George Wyatt was even born.

Sylvia Barbara Soberton argues that Weller Singer's identification of the maid serving Anne Boleyn as Anne Gainsford was influenced by Wyatt's description of an incident with a woman of Anne's household reading a banned book that ended up on Cardinal Wolsey's desk.