Anne Boleyn“The Most Happy
Hampton Court
Boleyn Origins
1457 Geoffrey Boleyn, lord mayor of London
1462 Geoffrey Boleyn converts Hever from a dilapidated castle to a late medieval manor
Son, William Boleyn, Blickling, Norfolk
Marries Margaret Butler, daughter of the duke of Ormond (Kilkenny, Ireland)
Blickling
• By 1459, Sold by Sir John Fastolf to Geoffrey Boleyn
• 1616 Rebuilt in Jacobean style
Hever Castle
Hever Castle, gatehouse
Hever castle Plan (Astor renovation)
HeverJohn Nash, 1849
Long Gallery
Courtyard
Boleyn Origins
Thomas Boleyn (1476-1539)
– 2nd son of William and Margaret
Marries Elizabeth Howard, daughter of duke of Norfolk
Mary (b. 1499-1500); Anne (b.1500-1501); George (b. 1504)
1510 Completes renovation of Hever
Royal Ancestry
Thomas Boleyn Service for Henry VIII
1509 Knight of Bath
Diplomat in maneuvers leading to alliance against France in 1513
1519 Ambassador to France
1525 Made Baron Rochford
1529 Earl of Wiltshire
1530 Part of mission to seek support for divorce
1539 On death, property goes to Henry VIII
Books of Hours, etc.
Inscription
Le temps viendra
Je Anne Boleyn
Court of Margaret of Austria(1512-13)
• Maid of honor
• Education through copying letters and then taking dictation
• Exposure to musicians, writers and artists and substantial library
Court positions
Maid of court/honor
• Usually young, unmarried
• Apprentice in court society
• Financially dependent
Lady in waiting
• Married or widowed
• Experienced
• Own finances
French Court
• 1514 Mary Tudor went to France for her marriage with Louis XII
– Accompanied by Mary Boleyn and Anne?
• Joins court of Louis XII’s successor Francis I and Queen Claude as translator
• 1522 Returns to England
Book of Hours (~1528)
“Remember me when you do pray,
That hope doth lead from day to day.
Anne Boleyn”
Book of HoursKing’s MS 9 66v, British Library
Be daly prove you shall me fynde
To be to you bothelovynge and kynde.’
Love Letters from Henry“wryttyn wt the hand off hym whyche I wolde weryours.”
“I will take you for my only mistress”
“ . . . henceforth my heart shall be dedicate to you alone, greatly desirous that so my body could be as well . . .”
Book of Hours
“If you remember my love in your prayers as strongly as I adore you, I shall hardly be forgotten, for I am yours.”
“Henry R. forever.”
British Library
Clock Boleyn Cup
Tyndale“The obedience of the Christian Man . . .”
Anne: “Worthy of the King’s knowledge”
Henry: “This Book is for me and all Kings to read.”
Boleyn and Reform
• Influenced by French humanist, Lefèvred’Etaples
• Influenced choices of four bishops
• Advocated use of monasteries for education
New Testament, Tyndale French trans., Lefèvre d’Etaples
Forbidden Works
Anne Boleyn: Obstetrical History
September 1533 Birth of a daughter, Elizabeth
July 1534 Miscarriage (~5 months)
June 1535 Miscarriage?
January 1536 Miscarriage (male, ~3 ½ months)
Henry VIII Health
• 1536 Reported fall during tournament– Reported unconscious for 2 hours
– [Growth hormone deficiency? “Hypothalamopituitary dysfunction following traumatic brain injury and aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage “]
– Recurrence of leg ulcers
• Kell blood group – McLeod syndrome
• Obesity: Waist: 1536 37” 1541 54”
• EDChalmers, C. R., and E. J. Chaloner. "500 years later: Henry VIII, leg ulcers and the course of history." Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 102.12 (2009): 514-517.
Ashrafian, Hutan. "Henry VIII’s obesity following traumatic brain injury." Endocrine 42.1 (2012): 218-219.
Catrina Banks Whitley and Kyra Kramer (2010). “A New Explanation For the Reproductive Woes and Midlife Decline of Henry Viii.” The Historical Journal, 53, pp 827-848
Aspects of the Fall
• Arguments over Henry’s mistresses and attention to Jane Seymour
• Henry’s doubts after miscarriages
• Cromwell’s pro-HRE stance vs. Anne’s pro-French stance
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