A Gift Fit for a King – Anne Boleyn’s New Year Gift to Henry VIII

| December 22, 2010

A Gift Fit for a King – Anne Boleyn’s New Year Gift to Henry VIII

Giving gifts at Christmas is a relatively modern phenomenon, even here in Spain the gifts come from the Three Kings on the eve of Epiphany rather than from Santa on Christmas Eve. In Tudor times, gifts were given at New Year and I thought you might be interested in the following:- January 1533 (the same […]

Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII’s Marriage: Doomed from the Start?

| December 14, 2010

Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII’s Marriage: Doomed from the Start?

As I said in my article “A Timeline of Anne Boleyn’s Relationship with Henry VIII – From 1528-1533”, Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII got married in a secret ceremony on the 25th January 1533, nearly 7 years after Henry declared his love for Anne at the 1526 Shrovetide joust. But what happened after they married? […]

A Timeline of Anne Boleyn’s Relationship with Henry VIII – From 1528-1533

| December 7, 2010

A Timeline of Anne Boleyn’s Relationship with Henry VIII – From 1528-1533

As I said in my post “Henry VIII Falls in Love with Anne Boleyn”, Eric Ives gives a very useful chronology of Anne and Henry’s relationship, from Shrovetide 1526 to August 1527 when it was decided that Henry should ask the Pope for a dispensation to allow him to marry Anne when he had already […]

St Erkenwald’s Day 1532 – The Marriage of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn?

| November 14, 2010

St Erkenwald’s Day 1532 – The Marriage of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn?

Although we know that Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn officially tied the knot at a secret wedding ceremony on the 25th January 1533, the Tudor chronicler, Edward Hall, records that the couple actually got married on Thursday 14th November 1532, St Erkenwald’s Day:- “The kyng, after his returne [from Calais] maried priuily[privily] the lady Anne […]

The Early Life of Anne Boleyn Part Five – The Boleyns and Butlers

| October 28, 2010

The Early Life of Anne Boleyn Part Five – The Boleyns and Butlers

In 1521, after spending 8 years on the continent, Anne Boleyn was recalled to England. Although Francis I, King of France, was worried that the recall of his wife’s lady-in-waiting and various English students in Paris “seemed to indicate an English intention to make war on France”1, Cardinal Wolsey assured the French King that Anne […]

George Boleyn, Religion and the Reformation

| April 16, 2010

George Boleyn, Religion and the Reformation

I’ve recently written about Anne Boleyn, her personal faith and her role in the Reformation, but let’s not forget her “partner in crime”, the man she bounced ideas off, the man she discussed theology and the new learning with, and the man who fell from grace when she did: George Boleyn, Lord Rochford. At this […]

A Secret Marriage

| January 25, 2010

A Secret Marriage

On this day in history, 25th January 1533, Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII tied the knot in a somewhat secret ceremony. Eric Ives, in “The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn”, writes of how in the autumn of 1532 (probably November) Henry finally “felt secure enough to consummate his relationship with Anne – and she, […]

Anne Boleyn – A Victim?

| August 4, 2009

Anne Boleyn – A Victim?

This post is part one of another series of three blogs that I’m going to do on the personality of Anne Boleyn. If you remember, a few weeks ago I did a series of three posts exploring Anne Boleyn The Witch, Anne Boleyn The Great Whore and Anne Boleyn The Martyr, well now I’ve been […]

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