I’ve just published a video of my chat with novelist Natalia Richards, author of The Falcon’s Rise and The Falcon’s Flight—two beautifully written novels exploring Anne Boleyn’s early life and rise to power.
In our chat, Natalia shares how she transitioned from the world of music (yes, Kate Bush really did ask her to be a backing singer at 18!) to historical fiction, and why Anne Boleyn has captivated her imagination for so many years.
[Read More...]
On this day in Tudor history, 27th October, Anne Boleyn, Marquess of Pembroke, made a dramatic entrance to the great banquet held by Henry VIII in Calais in honour of Francis I of France; and the extremely talented Mary Herbert (née Sidney), Countess of Pembroke, writer and literary patron, was born at Tickenhall, near Bewdley in Worcestershire…
[Read More...]
On this day in Tudor history, 1st September, Henry VIII elevated Anne Boleyn to the peerage, making her Marquess of Pembroke; and Elizabethan actor and theatre entrepreneur Edward Alleyn was born…
[Read More...]
On this day in Tudor history, Queen Anne Boleyn took to her chamber to prepare for the birth of her first child, and Mary I and her husband, Philip II of Spain, rode through London before his departure for the Low Countries…
[Read More...]
On this day in Tudor history, 26th July, courtier and solder George Talbot, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury, died; and 4,000 men gathered at Tilbury Fort to defend England against the Spanish Armada. It’s also the feast day of St Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary…
[Read More...]
On this day in Tudor history, 1st June, a heavily pregnant Queen Anne Boleyn was crowned queen at Westminster Abbey; and an inquest into the death of playwright Christopher Marlowe ruled that he had been stabbed in self-defence…
[Read More...]
On this day in Tudor history, 5th May, Sir Thomas Wyatt and Richard Page were arrested in the fall of Anne Boleyn; Agnes Tilney, Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, was pardoned and released following the fall of her step-granddaughter, Catherine Howard; a religious radical was executed in Calais; and Lord Deputy of Ireland Sir Henry Sidney died…
[Read More...]
On this day in Tudor history, 29th April, William Dacre, the only man to be acquitted in Henry VIII’s reign, was born; Queen Anne Boleyn had an altercation with groom of the Stool Sir Henry Norris; Lady Jean Gordon started divorce proceedings against the Earl of Bothwell; and Sir Dru Drury died…
[Read More...]
On this day in Tudor history, 18th April, imperial ambassador had an encounter with Queen Anne Boleyn; Thomas Cromwell was made Earl of Essex just three months before his execution; and famous martyrologist John Foxe died aged around seventy…
[Read More...]
On this day in Tudor history, 12th April, Anne Boleyn attended Easter Sunday mass as queen, causing quite a stir, and courtier and poet Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, was born…
[Read More...]
On this day in Tudor history, 11th April, Henry VIII ordered his council to recognise Anne Boleyn as queen; Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger was executed by beheading after his failed rebellion against Mary I; and conspirator, patron and collector John Lumley, 1st Baron Lumley, died…
[Read More...]
On this day in Tudor history, 28th March, the Renaissance artist Raphael was born; Anne Boleyn’s former chaplain and almoner John Skip, Bishop of Hereford, died; and five Protestants were burnt at the stake for heresy…
[Read More...]
On this day in Tudor history, 1st June 1533, Whitsunday, Henry VIII’s second wife, Anne Boleyn, was crowned queen at Westminster Abbey.
You can find out more about Anne Boleyn’s coronation in the video below, but here are a few facts:
Anne was 6 months pregnant.
She wore ermine-trimmed purple velvet coronation robes.
Her train was carried by her step-grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk.
On this day in Tudor history, 19th May 1536, Henry VIII’s second wife, Queen Anne Boleyn, was executed at the Tower of London.
Anne had been found guilty of treason for seducing five courtiers, including her brother, George Boleyn, Lord Rochford, and the king’s friend and groom of the stool, Henry Norris, and plotting with them to kill the king. The men were executed on Tower Hill on 17th May 1536.
[Read More...]
On this day in Tudor history, 18th May 1536, Queen Anne Boleyn, who was all prepared for her execution that day, was informed by Sir William Kingston, the Constable of the Tower, that her execution had been postponed until the following day.
After Kingston told her, Anne replied, “I thought to be dead by this time, and past my pain”.
[Read More...]
On this day in Tudor history, 15th May 1536, the trials of Queen Anne Boleyn and her brother, George Boleyn, Lord Rochford, took place at the Tower of London.
Unsurprisingly, they were both found guilty of committing incest and plotting to kill the king, and sentenced to death – see video below. But there was some humiliation for the king when George was handed a note about his sister talking to his wife, Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford, about the king’s lack of sexual prowess.
[Read More...]
On this day in Tudor history, 13th May 1536, in the reign of King Henry VIII, Queen Anne Boleyn’s royal household was broken up and her staff discharged.
The king’s second wife, who was imprisoned in the Tower of London at the time, hadn’t even been tried yet. However, Sir Francis Weston, William Brereton, Sir Henry Norris and Mark Smeaton had been found guilty of high treason, for sleeping with her and conspiring to kill the king with her, so she had no chance of being found innocent.
[Read More...]
On this day in Tudor history, 2nd May 1536, Queen Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII, received a message informing her that members of the king’s council required her presence in the council chamber of Greenwich Palace. There, Anne was told that she was being accused of having sexual relations with musician Mark Smeaton, groom of the stool Henry Norris and an unnamed man. She was also told that Smeaton and Norris had confessed.
Anne denied the charges but the council ordered her arrest. Later that afternoon, after the tide had turned, she was rowed to the Tower of London. She was imprisoned in the queen’s apartments of the royal palace.
George Boleyn, Lord Rochford, Anne’s brother, was arrested on the same day and also taken to the Tower.
[Read More...]
On this day in Tudor history, 27th April 1536, John Stokesley, Bishop of London, was approached to see if Henry VIII could “abandon” his second wife, Anne Boleyn.
Eustace Chapuys, the imperial ambassador, recorded that Stokesley replied that he would only give his opinion to the king himself, and that before doing so he needed to be clear what the king wanted. He certainly didn’t want to endanger himself by offending the king or the queen.
[Read More...]
A few weeks ago, my father and I were able to get away for a morning to visit Hever Castle in Kent. It’s somewhere that you may have been to before, and it’s a castle that is very close to our hearts – we LOVE the way the grounds are kept and how the castle evokes the history of the Boleyn family, the time Anne of Cleves spent there AND, more recently, how the Astor family lived and renovated the whole area.
For a long time, Hever castle was quite static in its displays – not much changed, which was fine if you’d never visited before, but since we had visited so many times, it was rare to see anything new. That’s no longer the case.
[Read More...]
On this day in Tudor history, 12th April 1533, Anne Boleyn caused quite a stir by attending mass wearing cloth of gold and the richest jewels, and attended by sixty ladies.
Why the stir?
Well, because her marriage to Henry VIII was still a secret. The royal council had only just been informed.
[Read More...]
It’s Friday, so time to share a Tudor history goody from our archives. This week, we have this wonderful talk from Natalie Grueninger, author of the forthcoming book “The Final Year of Anne Boleyn”. Natalie’s talk is on Anne Boleyn’s early life…
[Read More...]
This past week has been the anniversary of the execution of Queen Anne Boleyn on 19th May 1536, so I thought we’d pay tribute to Anne by testing your knowledge of Henry VIII’s second wife.
[Read More...]On this day in Tudor history, 17th May 1521, Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, was executed for treason on Tower Hill.
He’d served King Henry VII and King Henry VIII loyally for many years, so what led to this nobleman being condemned for high treason?
[Read More...]
On this day in Tudor history, 15th May 1537, Thomas Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy de Darcy, and his cousin, John Hussey, 1st Baron Hussey of Sleaford, were tried for treason at Westminster after being implicated in the Pilgrimage of Grace rebellion.
Both men may have been sympathetic to the rebel cause, but there was no actual evidence that they conspired against the king. Poor men!
Find out more about them and how they ended up being branded rebels, and what happened next…
[Read More...]
On this day in history, 29th April 1617, Sir Dru Drury died at the age of around 85 at his home, Riddlesworth Hall in Norfolk.
Drury may have died in the Stuart period, but he was a prominent Elizabethan. And he’s a man that went from being a prisoner to being Lieutenant of the Tower of London! Find out more about him…
[Read More...]
On this day in Tudor history, 18th April 1540, just three months before his execution, Thomas Cromwell was given two rewards by King Henry VIII.
Find out more about these rewards…
[Read More...]
On this day in Tudor history, 11th April 1554, in the reign of the Catholic Queen Mary I, Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger, son of poet and diplomat Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder, was beheaded on Tower Hill after being found guilty of high treason.
Wyatt had led a rebellion which sought to depose the queen and to replace her with her half-sister Elizabeth, but he refused to implicate Elizabeth in the plot. He went to his death asserting her innocence.
Find out more about what happened and hear his final speech…
[Read More...]