Sexual Accusations and Rumour as Instruments of Anne Boleyn's Execution in HilaryMantel's Bring Up the Bodies

This paper examines how sexual accusation and rumour function as decisive instruments in Anne Boleyn’s execution in Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies. Rather than presenting Anne’s fall as the result of proven guilt, the study argues that Mantel depicts it as a socially constructed outcome shaped by circulating suspicion, interpretive exaggeration, and collective storytelling within the Tudor court. Drawing on Rumour Theory alongside feminist-historicist perspectives, the paper analyzes how gossip thrives in conditions of high political stakes and limited reliable information. Mantel portrays the court as an environment of surveillance and fragmented knowledge, where casual remarks and ambiguous gestures gradually acquire the authority of truth. Sexual allegations gain particular force through patriarchal anxieties surrounding women’s morality and visibility. The study further shows how Thomas Cromwell institutionalizes these narratives, transforming informal talk into sanctioned judgment. Ultimately, the paper reveals how perception replaces evidence, exposing Mantel’s critique of gendered power, reputational politics, and the social construction of truth.