Some of Anne's pieces of jewellery - including her B necklace, A necklace and AB brooch - were passed on to her daughter Elizabeth, while others are thought to have been reclaimed by the crown and sold, or recut and used by Jane Seymour. Some people have suggested that the pearls from Anne's necklace are in the crown of Elizabeth II but I've been unable to find actual evidence of this claim. Others think that the jewels were sold and may have ended up belonging to members of the French aristicracy. Again, I cannot find any conclusive answers about what happened to them and I can only presume that they are lost.
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51 thoughts on “Where did Anne Boleyn’s B necklace go?”
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Where did you find that the necklaces and AB brooch passed on to Elizabeth?
if you look at most of elzabeth 1 portraits she has many pearls which could make a necklace and if you look at the crown you can see 3 identical to the necklace
So her daughter had her necklace then????
differently it would be possible if she wore it before her mather death
After Elizabeth 1 had her mother mother necklace where did Eilzabeth died did she with her mother’s necklace on
i think elizabeth possible wear it when she died
Was it worth today Anne Boleyn necklace
Elizabeth wore it when she died
I think it was in Alison Weir’s “Henry VIII: King and Court”. Weir is of the opinion that Anne Boleyn’s jewellery was passed on to Elizabeth and that Elizabeth is seen wearing the A necklace in the famous Whitehall family portrait (at Hampton Court Palace. I’m not sure whether it’s just a jewelled pendant – need a magnifying glass! I don’t think there’s any real evidence what happened to Anne’s jewellery but it was normal for personal items to go to family and for Henry to take back what he had given her as Queen, to “recycle” and pass on to his next Queen!
The neckles went around Claires neck. I do jest ,Claire but I see you wear it all the time it’s lovely!! Kind Regards Baronesss X
I believe I found the family portrait you mentioned Claire. There is a close up of Henry, Edward and Elizabeth. The Necklace she is wearing is just a jeweled pendant. Here is a link to the page, the detail is the third image down.
http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/henry8face4.htm
Wow! I saw the picture, you are so right I do belive…..
The woman next to Henry is however Jane seymour herys third wife and the mother of Edward not Elizabeth, she is standing on their right..
You can see a close up of Elizabeth in my article over at The Elizabeth Files – http://www.elizabethfiles.com/elizabeth-and-the-mystery-of-the-a-necklace/3846/ – but even in that close-up it is hard to tell that it is an A rather than a jewelled pendant. I have stood in front of that painting on a few occasions now and it is definitely an A, no question about it.
Actually Dani, the close-up is of Henry, Edward, and Jane Seymour, Henry’s third wife and Edward’s mother. Elizabeth is to Jane’s left.
I think Dani was just linking to the actual painting which is also on that page, not the close-up. You can see a close-up of Elizabeth, who is on the right of the painting as you look at it, at http://www.elizabethfiles.com/elizabeth-and-the-mystery-of-the-a-necklace/3846/
The famous “B” necklace in question is now being sported by actress America Ferarra on the ABC sitcom, “Ugly Betty”… Okay, maybe that’s just a reproduction.
The image you are talking of is not Elizabeth but Jane Seymour – it is really hard to Elizabeth in the portrait because she is smaller and far on the right
I’ve always hoped that the B necklace was passed down to Elizabeth, and that she wore the pearls but removed the pendant. Maybe it went unnoticed after she died, because it would just be a little golden “B” and another pearl strand.
Did the necklace even exist? Because arent all the portraits of her with it made posthumously and thus possibly just artistic renderings?
Hi Annie,
The famous NPG portrait of Anne wearing her B necklace has been analysed and dated to the 16th century, probably late 16th century so it was painted during living memory. People during Elizabethan times would know what Anne had looked like and the fact that there are so many portraits of her wearing a B necklace suggests that it was something she was known to wear. In her book “Henry VIII: King and Court”, Alison Weir writes of how popular personalised jewellery was at that time and states that “Anne Boleyn owned at least 3 initialed pendants: an AB and a B, which appear in portraits of her, and an A, which is worn by her daughter Elizabeth in the Whitehall family group.” I have actually stood in front of the painting of “The Family of Henry VIII” and Elizabeth is definitely wearing an A pendant so we can only assume that it was passed on to her.
I know it’s an old topic, but I’ll add away. Form what I understand is that on the crown owned by Elizabeth II there are three pearls on it said to be form a necklace owned by Elizabeth I. Maybe they came form Annes necklace? How knows, but that would be really cool.
There are 3 magnificent oriental pearls in the imperial crown, the court jewler records the pro inane of two of them and those are the two dangling from the left and right if the cross at its apex to have come from HM Queen Elizabeth I and to have been supplied to her by Her mother Ann.
What we do know is that pearls of this size were extraordinarily rare and it’s safe to assume a matched set such as these might have only been owned by few ladies in tutor England. I would suggest however that the court or England would not make a totally u substantiated claim.
I wish her necklace had been saved and was on display somewhere. Can you imagine how it would feel to be able to look at the original necklace she wore??
Yes, I would get on a plane to London just to see that!
Yes, me too!!
Yes that’d be just absolutley amazing Stephanie!
I am an avid historian and I too have studied this painting in great detail and Claire I am sorry to inform you but Elizabeth is wearing a similar necklace to that of Mary’s and Jane’s. It is thought that either Jane or Henry had the necklaces commissioned to make them look more like a family.
I’ve stood in front of it a few times at Hampton Court Palace and it looked like an A pendant to me, Katherine, and looked very different to those on Mary and Jane.
I hadn’t known that about the “A” necklace in the family portrait. It seems strange that Henry would have allowed her to wear it, and preserve her image that way, if it represented her mother. Interesting site!!!
The painting referred to was actually done after Jane seymore had died. She was never actually crowned queen. It is said that Elizabeth I wore the ‘B’ pendant in defiance to her father, who didn’t realise she was wearing it at the original sitting for the painting. It is also said that Elizabeth slept with a painting of her mother behind her bed!!
i dont think that henry would have allowed elizabeth to wear annes neclace around him an curtainly not in a portrait surely???
If Henry dared to burn Anne’s portraits, wouldn’t it make perfect sense if he had her jewellry destroyed?
Does anyone lend credence to the theory Elizabeth may be wearing the “B” necklace in her teenage portrait? http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7055/6850557715_b632e9f70c.jpg
In my opinion, the necklaces look suspiciously similar. Some differences, yes, but minor. Elizabeth wore her mother’s initial pendants in other portraits, so it wouldn’t have been unusual for her to wear one for this painting. Could the minor differences be due to the artist’s interpretation?
Since the painting of Anne Boleyn wearing it was likely done in Elizabeth’s day, it makes sense that the artist would have seen the necklace in Elizabeth’s possession, rather than painting it from memory. Or, if he was painting it from memory, could it be the real necklace looked like the one Elizabeth is wearing and he just remembered it as being “B” shaped?
The necklace in that portrait, when you see it from close up, is definitely not a B but a jewelled pendant. However, the pendant that the young Elizabeth wears in the family portrait is definitely an A – see http://www.elizabethfiles.com/elizabeth-and-the-mystery-of-the-a-necklace/3846/. Although it’s hard to see in photos of the portrait, I’ve stood close to it at Hampton Court and there’s no doubt that it’s the letter A. It makes you wonder if Anne’s B also got passed on to Elizabeth.
So there are no official documents or memos stating where the B necklace went? Was this necklace her property prior to her marriage to King Henry, when she was still a Boleyn? The Boleyn family had money, so maybe it went back to her family?
I was surprised to find this site with others having a similar interest in her necklace. I wish I could see the original…
Virtually all of the jewels of royalty in those days became the property of the new monarch, unless specific bequests were made by the dying royal person. The new monarch still had the power to break the will, however. (qv. Henry VIII’s will about his son, Edward’s guardianship and the proper plan of succession.)
If these pieces stayed with the royal collection, they would have been sold to the highest bidder when Cromwell broke up ALL the parapernalia. That is how some of the pieces got into the French collection. No English person would have purchased them, since such frivolity and ostentation was disallowed by the Puritan government. Charles II, at the Restoration in 1660, began the rebuilding of the collection along traditional styles, but with all new stones.
Queen Alexandra (consort of Edwad VII) and Queen Mary (consort of George V) are largely repsonsible for the size of the collection today. Winston Churchill once referred to Queen Mary’s amble bosom as “Tiffaney’s shelf”.
dude who cares who got the necklace as long as it’s in posetion of a family member, although it would be a good thing if elizabeth got it.
In the Elizabeth with Cate Blanchett, didn’t she where a the B necklace when she portrayed a young Elizabeth? Just found this site, totally obsessed. It’s been long a rumor in my family that an elderly member researched out family tree way back and Anne Boleyn’s name was in the book. I’ve always loved Elizabeth and since then, I’ve been practically obsessed.
Kelly, were any of your ancestors Sheltons? My mother’s family are direct descendants of the Sheltons, and Anne Boleyn’s aunt married into the family. Her father’s sister, also called Anne Boleyn, married Sir John Shelton.
Ann’s prayer book with her signature,displayed at Hever castle, fascinates me as much as anything I witnessed in England, also the ancient chapel outside of the Hever castle gates.The historic placard stated it had been a Norman church a 1000 years ago. Ann was also martyred for her faith, as she was used as a pawn for King Henry. When visiting The London Tower, I asked where the Ann Boleyn display was and was told there was none because she was a traitor. I had to remind myself I was not in America and maybe political speech is not necessarily protected in England, so I did not comment.
Shannon I found your comments very touching – she was definitely a pawn in a political and ruthless world, and what many people forget is that her family were ambitious in seeking power for themselves, so she was between a rock and a hard place! I love Hever Castle, her childhood home, and it’s interesting to see that this was her refuge from court life in the early days of her relationship with the King. In my opinion she was murdered by Henry simply because he, like a spoiled child, had found a better, more satisfying toy (Jane Seymour) and saw fit to throw his other toys out the pram. Cromwell was made to be part of the mess and then lost his own life some years later. Henry was a psychopath!! If you visit Hampton Court he is hailed as a hero, but I’ve no idea why as he was such a nasty piece of work who in fact stole the Palace from it’s previous owner, Wolsey and then had him murdered too. So …. I agree with you, Anne was no traitor and us Brits have a warped sense of the historical figures we honour.
I’m British myself and I can assure you we have complete freedom of speech, we don’t send people to the block for their opinions any more thankfully! Lol. The staff at the tower were absolutely correct there is no Anne Boleyn section because virtually everything of hers and everything related to her was destroyed. Henry viii systematically destroyed everything about Anne, because in his eyes she was a traitor. There simply isn’t enough historical artifacts to create a display.
just found this site i agree with Nikki Anne was a pawn and how Anna just got caught up in it all.But i feel that they all had a part in her murder.i hope someday her necklace will be found.i feel that its out there somewhere
http://queensjewelvault.blogspot.com/2012/05/the-imperial-state-crown.html?m=1
This article has a video where the queen herself states the 4 large pearls are from QEI so one may hope they origonate from Anne famous necklace.
The Queen actually says that they are thought to be from Elizabeth I, I don’t think it’s known for sure unfortunately. Elizabeth I wore a lot of pearls and you see lots sewn on her gowns in portrait. They symbolised purity and her virgin state.
Who is Claire
Do you mean me? I’m Claire Ridgway, owner of this website and the author of several Tudor history books.
Any one know where to buy an Anne Boleyn necklace for a doll?
Shannon, very shocked that anyone at The Tower of London would have replied to you that Anne Boleyn was a Traitor. The Beefeaters and Guides there are usually all very keen to be of help to tourists and would never be encouraged to voice an accusation like that. Whenever I have spoken about her to anyone there, she is referred to as a Queen of England and her memory is always treated with respect.
I always thought the 3 pearls and boleyn family symbolized “bloodline” to Christ’s royalty in Europe at the time. If you read the expected one it kinda clears up the symbolism