Posted By Claire on July 26, 2017

Just a quick post to let you know that my 15 unit (18 video lessons) course “The Life of Anne Boleyn” is in the MedievalCourse.com summer flash sale at the moment and has 50% off until the end of 28th July.

Course blurb:

Anne Boleyn is the most popular and also the most divisive of Henry VIII’s six wives. Some view her as an ambitious, social climber and home-wrecker who played a game and ultimately lost, others see her as a tragic victim of an egotistical tyrant obsessed with having a son, and still others see her as a queen whose views and ideals led to her making enemies who moved against her and brought her down in a brutal manner.

Who was the real Anne Boleyn?

It’s impossible to know for sure, but this 15-unit course (plus introduction) will lead you through her life step-by-step, from her family background and beginnings to her tragic death in 1536 and her legacy. Each part of her life will be fleshed out in detail by Claire Ridgway, founder of The Anne Boleyn Files website and author of The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown, The Anne Boleyn Collection and co-author of George Boleyn: Tudor Poet, Courtier and Diplomat, and several other Tudor history books. Claire also includes a unit on the myths surrounding this executed queen and one on how to research Anne Boleyn yourself using primary and secondary sources.

Note: This is an online course of downloadable or streaming video and audio lectures (plus transcripts) which can be done in your own time and you have lifetime access to the course once you have signed up and paid. There is no set start or end date, you can do it at your own pace. It is open internationally.

Each course participant also receives a free download of the audio version of my book The Fall of Anne Boleyn.

You can find out more about the course and use coupon code SUMMERFLASH to save 50% at https://medievalcourses.com/overview/life-anne-boleyn-mc06/.

There are eight other courses on offer too, including Gareth Russell’s course on the Six Wives of Henry VIII, all with 50% off, so do have a browse at https://medievalcourses.com/overview/.

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Category: Anne Boleyn General, News
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Posted By Claire on July 25, 2017

With his letter written on the Feast of St James (25th July) 1535, to Nicolas Perrenot de Granvelle, who was Charles V’s advisor, Eustace Chapuys included an interesting post script. It was written in cipher, but said:

“P.S.—He the other day nearly murdered his own fool, a simple and innocent man, because he happened to speak well in his presence of the Queen and Princess, and called the concubine “ribaude” and her daughter “bastard.” He has now been banished from Court, and has gone to the Grand Esquire, who has sheltered and hidden him.”

Here, Chapuys, who was the imperial ambassador at the court of Henry VIII, is saying that the king’s fool, Will Somer (Summer), was nearly killed by the king for calling Queen Anne Boleyn “ribald” and saying that Princess Elizabeth was a bastard. Somer kept his head but Chapuys states that he was banished from the court and that he was sheltered by Sir Nicholas Carew, chief esquire of the king. The king was obviously furious.

Somer did manage to get back into the king’s good graces and went on to serve Edward VI and Mary I as court fool. Perhaps Elizabeth I didn’t know that he’d once called her a bastard, or perhaps she forgave him, because he attended her at her coronation in January 1559. Somer died on 15th June 1560.

Also on this day in history, 25th July 1554, Queen Mary I married Philip of Spain, son of Charles V, at Winchester Cathedral. Click here to read more.

Notes and Sources

• ‘Spain: July 1535, 1-31’, in Calendar of State Papers, Spain, Volume 5 Part 1, 1534-1535, ed. Pascual de Gayangos (London, 1886), pp. 507-523. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/spain/vol5/no1/pp507-523, 184.

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Category: Anne Queen Consort, Elizabeth I, Tudor Characters, Tudor Events
Tags: Court fool, court fool calls Anne Boleyn names, Henry VIII's fool, Will Somer, Will Sommers, Will Summers