Claire | January 14, 2014
Earlier today, Susan Bordo, author of The Creation of Anne Boleyn, drew attention on her Facebook wall to a review of the RSC stage adaptations of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies.1 The review by Morning Star includes the comment “Lydia Leonard’s spitefully ambitious Anne Boleyn – a wife who one feels […]
Category: Anne Boleyn Personality, Anne Queen Consort, Mary I, Representations of Anne Boleyn |
61 Comments »
Tags: Anne Boleyn, Anne Boleyn and Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn and Marry Tudor, Anne Boleyn spiteful, Anne Boleyn threatens Mary, Anne Boleyn's personality, Bring Up the Bodies, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall
Claire | October 21, 2013
My old English literature teacher would be appalled by that question, not because she had any strong opinion about Anne but because she hated the word “nice” with a vengeance. She viewed it as weak and inadequate, a word that just didn’t describe anything properly. However, this question is one I get asked on a […]
Category: Anne Boleyn Personality, Representations of Anne Boleyn |
144 Comments »
Tags: Anne Boleyn's character, Anne Boleyn's personality
Claire | November 23, 2012
There is an enormous diversity of opinion when it comes to the characters of historical people. We take extant records, written nearly five-hundred years ago, often by those with a grudge, and try to establish what someone was like from sources which are often highly biased and prejudiced. Our opinions are sometimes formed by a […]
Category: Anne Boleyn Myths, Anne Boleyn Personality, Representations of Anne Boleyn, Tudor Characters |
13 Comments »
Tags: myths, representations
Claire | July 30, 2012
As I was tossing and turning last night, unable to sleep, it struck me that Anne Boleyn is a rather polarising figure. People seem to either love her or hate her (like marmite*), and she’s surrounded by contradictory labels and opinions. Anne Boleyn the Saint versus Anne Boleyn the Whore Home-wrecker versus victim of sexual […]
Category: Anne Boleyn Myths, Anne Boleyn Personality, Representations of Anne Boleyn |
36 Comments »
Tags: Anne Boleyn labels, Anne Boleyn myths, extreme views, stereotypes, the real Anne Boleyn
Claire | May 13, 2012
Happy Mother’s Day to those of you in countries celebrating it today. I hope that you get thoroughly pampered! Here is a photo of one of my Anne Boleyn roses for you to enjoy. These roses always seem to flower as I’m counting down to Anne Boleyn’s execution! See Anne Boleyn the Mother for a […]
Category: Anne Boleyn Personality |
9 Comments »
Tags: Anne Boleyn the mother, mother, mother's day
Claire | January 3, 2012
On this day in history, 3rd January 1521, Pope Leo X issued the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem excommunicating Reformer, German priest and professor of theology Martin Luther from the Catholic Church. The Pope had asked Luther to retract his Ninety-Five Theses (full name: The Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences or […]
Category: Anne Boleyn Personality, The Boleyns, The Reformation |
15 Comments »
Tags: Anne Boleyn's faith, Anne Boleyn's religion, faith, Martin Luther, Protestant, Protestantism, religion, The Reformation
Claire | December 1, 2011
What’s going on?! Recently my inbox has been full of emails, comments, contact forms etc. telling me, in no uncertain terms and sometimes not very politely, that Anne Boleyn was nothing but a home-wrecking, usurping, b***ch and whore who deserved everything she got for single-handedly wrecking Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon and making […]
Category: Anne Boleyn Myths, Anne Boleyn Personality, Representations of Anne Boleyn |
214 Comments »
Tags: Anne Boleyn
Claire | October 11, 2011
Apologies for the absence of Anne Boleyn articles recently but I’ve been busy immersing myself in Letters and Papers and the Calendar of State Papers for Spain trying to find something that has been bugging me for the past few weeks. When something bugs me, I’m like a dog with a bone and I just […]
Category: Anne Boleyn Myths, Anne Boleyn Personality, Early Life, Marriage, Myths and Legends, Representations of Anne Boleyn |
94 Comments »
Tags: Anne Boleyn, corruption, Early Life, France, Francis I, French court, myth, reputation