She was the second wife of King Henry VIII and the mother of Queen Elizabeth I. She was convicted of adultery and beheaded. What was her name?

This famous queen consort was a central figure in the English Reformation. King Henry VIII's desperate desire to annul his long-standing marriage to Catherine of Aragon and marry her led him to break with the Catholic Church, a move that fundamentally reshaped English religion and politics. As his second wife, she gave birth not to the son Henry craved, but to a daughter who would one day become one of England's greatest monarchs: Queen Elizabeth I.

Her reign as queen, however, was brief, lasting just over a thousand days. After failing to produce a male heir and suffering several miscarriages, she fell from the king's favor. In 1536, she was arrested on politically motivated charges of adultery, incest, and treason, which historians largely agree were fabricated to allow Henry to marry his next wife, Jane Seymour. Convicted by a court of her peers, she was executed by beheading at the Tower of London.

Despite her tragic end, her legacy was ultimately secured through her daughter. The child Henry had once dismissed would go on to rule for over 44 years, overseeing a golden age of English culture and exploration and solidifying the Protestant faith her mother had helped introduce.