It’s the 1st December and that means that it’s time for our annual Anne Boleyn Files Advent Calendar [applause, party poppers, shouts of joy, gun salutes…]! Yay!
Each day, you will be able to open a new door on the advent calendar which you can access by either clicking on the header of this website, where it says “CLICK HERE FOR ADVENT CALENDAR”, or by clicking here – easy!
There are all kinds of treats for you to enjoy because we have contributions from historians, authors, bloggers and artists. I can’t promise chocolate, but I can promise Tudor history in abundance – will that do?
Check out number 1 now – you can simply click on the image in this post. Enjoy!
This message is to those who have never seen this Advent Calendar before. It’s definitely worth checking out. There are some wonderful goodies on this.
Thank you, Michael, that’s so kind of you to say!
Yes,thank you,Claire!I really enjoy them every year:)
I think the advent calendar is great and I like the pic of a grinning Henry V111 at the top of this page, since Santa is depicted as a fat jolly man with a white beard put one on Henry and dress him in a red suit, and he could almost be mistaken for Santa himself!
Hi, been trying to order the scoop tshirt, and it keeps getting declined. I live in Canada, I don’t know what the problem can be. I absolutely need this tshirt, do you know what the problem can be?
Hi Joan,
I’ll email this reply to you too. I’m so sorry to hear that your order is being declined. Our payment processing is done via Paypal and they don’t share any details with us as to why customer’s cards are declined, I’m afraid. Is it at that point that you’re having problems with your order? Do let me know as I can help if it’s before that point. My email is claire@theanneboleynfiles.com
Best Wishes,
Claire
A beautiful calendar as ever, well worth visiting. Thanks
This is my first year enjoying this Advent Calendar! I’m so excited! Thank you for this!
It’s my first time enjoying this Tudor themed advent calendar too and I find it delightful so far, thank you for making it!
I love today’s theme on Robert Dudley, he was a very handsome charismatic man and could well have been Englands King consort had Elizabeth married him, it was said she loved him like no other, the portraits are beautiful and though he aged with his hair turning white he still retained his athletic figure, I have always been intrigued by the love story between Elizabeth and Leicester and the possibility he could well have had his wife murdured so he could marry the queen, his father had been a ruthless ambitious man and Dudley could have inherited that streak, but Elizabeth never married him realising the folly of doing so, for she would be seen to have had a hand in her mysterious death, Cecil disliked and mistrusted him and quite possibly one of the reasons was that he feared his queens adoration for him, this man who was the son of a convicted traitor, he feared his control over Elizabeth, she gave him command of her armies in the Netherlands and he won a great victory there, but there were times when he displeased her, his secret marriage to one of her ladies and cousin, Lettice Knollys resulted in them being thrown in the Tower, and the latter was banished from court never to return, they had a lot in common, both losing a parent to the headsman and had known each other from childhood, they had been imprisoned in the Tower together and there is a tale they met in the grounds but there is no proof of this, one question that arises from their enduring love affair, did they consummate that love? Their bedchambers were next to each at court which is telling but did Elizabeth, having proclaimed to the world that she would live and die a virgin actually sleep with him, Elizabeth was a flirt and to me she had inherited this from her mother, the seductive Anne Boleyn who was skilled at playing the coquette, did she revel in the art of flirting preferring the promise to the actual deed, the consummation, she loved having suitors from around the world and having her beauty praised, flattery was everything to her as it was to her mother, Anne herself had kept her father at bay for seven years before deciding to sleep with him, one historian has the theory she could have been undersexed, was Elizabeth the same?, was the excitement for these two unusual women in the promise itself, wether Elizabeth did sleep with Leicester we will never know, it was something that kept the royal houses of Europe guessing for years as well as England and is something that intrigues us to this day.
Sunday 10th 2017 and the second Sunday of advent, I woke up to look out my window and saw a winter wonderland, my garden hasn’t looked like this in years everything covered in snow!
Where do you live, Christine? How lovely! I love snow when you don’t have to travel in it.
Yes, I live in Enfield north London.