On this day in history, Saturday 31st May 1533, the eve of her coronation, a pregnant Queen Anne Boleyn processed from the Tower of London to Westminster Hall.
This coronation procession must have been a wonderful sight for the people of London. Not only was it a huge procession of people dressed in fine clothes and horses in lavish trappings, there were stops for pageants, orations and music, and there was wine at a special wine fountain or flowing in the conduit in Fleet Street.
And, of course, there was England’s new queen.
Under a canopy of cloth of gold, decorated with gilt statues and silver bells, was Queen Anne with her hair loose and flowing. She was wearing a surcoat of white cloth of gold, an ermine-trimmed mantle of matching cloth of gold, and a coif with a circlet of “rich stones”.
For a timeline of the events of 1533, that led to Anne Boleyn going from queen-in-waiting to a crowned queen consort and mother, click here.
Picture: Apollo and the Muses on Parnassus by Hans Holbein the Younger, a design for a montage for Anne’s coronation procession.
