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