Claire | March 17, 2023
Anne Boleyn’s Irish ancestry is often neglected and we just hear about the Boleyns and Howards, but Anne Boleyn’s father, Thomas Boleyn, was the grandson of Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond, an influential and wealthy man who was descended from a long line of men who’d served the crown in Ireland. Not only that, […]
Claire | August 25, 2022
On this day in history, 25th August 1554, in the reign of Queen Mary I, Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, died. This magnate, soldier and uncle of Queens Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard died of natural causes at his home of Kenninghall in Norfolk. He was buried at St Michael’s Church, Framlingham, Suffolk. Find […]
Claire | December 17, 2021
Thank you to those of you who have already booked tickets for “Anne Boleyn, the Woman who changed England” – yay! I’m so excited about bringing this event to you! We’re going to have such fun delving into what made Anne Boleyn the fascinating woman she became, the woman Henry VIII just had to possess. […]
Claire | October 13, 2021
It was wonderful to see my dear friend and co-author, Dr Owen Emmerson (Hever’s historian and assistant curator) and some familiar faces such as Anna Whitelock, Tracy Borman, Elizabeth Goldring and Nicola Tallis, featured in last night’s “Who Do You Think You Are?”, along with my happy place (Hever Castle), and other wonderful places such […]
Claire | May 20, 2015
Thank you to author and historian Marilyn Roberts for sharing her knowledge with us today… The Epworth Magna Carta 800th Society was founded in the autumn of 2014 with the joint aims of bringing together the local community to celebrate the anniversary of the original version of Magna Carta while at the same time raising […]
Claire | August 1, 2014
Last week I wrote about Anne Boleyn’s paternal family, the Boleyns and Butlers, so today I’m going to look at Anne’s maternal family, the Howards. Apologies for the long article, there were quite a few prominent Howards! The Howards were one of the premier families in England and were of royal blood, being descended from […]
Claire | July 24, 2014
In the second part of my series on Anne Boleyn’s life, I want to take a look at her family and extended family. I’m going to give some brief bios of some of the people she was related to with links to where you can find out more about them. Apologies for some repetition from […]
Claire | July 15, 2014
I’m kicking off our series about Anne Boleyn’s life with a look at her background and birth… Anne Boleyn was the daughter of Thomas Boleyn and Elizabeth Howard, who had married in around 1499. Her mother Elizabeth was the daughter of Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey and later, from 1514, 2nd Duke of Norfolk. The […]
