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 | August 18, 2021
Episode 1 of BBC Two’s new three-part series on the Boleyn family – The Boleyns: A Scandalous Family – aired on Friday 13th August, and episodes 2 and 3 have already been released on BBC iPlayer. It is a wonderful series and well worth watching because it introduces a very different Boleyn family. Gone are […]
Claire | July 19, 2021
On this day in Tudor history, 19th July 1543, in the reign of King Henry VIII, Mary Boleyn died. Mary Boleyn is known for being Henry VIII’s mistress at one point, and you can find out a bit more about her in this edition of #TudorHistoryShorts… Here is my Mary Boleyn playlist: There are also […]
Claire | February 4, 2021
Today is the anniversary of Mary Boleyn’s marriage to William Carey in the Chapel Royal at Greenwich Palace on 4th February 1520. Their wedding was attended by King Henry VIII and his wife, Queen Catherine of Aragon. To celebrate Mary’s wedding anniversary, I though I’d share with you some articles and videos on her. Let’s […]
Claire | November 7, 2020
In this latest edition of my Questions about Anne Boleyn series, I consider whether Anne Boleyn and her cousin, Catherine Howard, were pawns of their families and whether the Boleyns and Howards deserve to be blamed for their subsequent executions. Did Thomas and Elizabeth Boleyn, and Elizabeth’s brother, Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, force […]
Claire | June 22, 2020
As you know, I’m doing daily “on this day in Tudor history” videos for the Anne Boleyn & Tudor Society YouTube channel based on research I did for my book, On This Day in Tudor History. Today, 22nd June, has two Boleyn-related events, so I thought I’d share them with you here. On this day […]
Claire | February 4, 2020
On this day in history, 4th February 1520, so 500 years ago today, Mary Boleyn, sister of Anne Boleyn, got married to her first husband, William Carey. You can find out more in my “on this day” video below. By the way, I checked on the National Archives currency converter, which only goes up to […]
Claire | June 22, 2019
On 22nd June 1528, after eight years of marriage, Mary Boleyn, sister of Anne Boleyn, was widowed. Her husband, William Carey, died during the sweating sickness epidemic that hit the royal court that summer. Her first husband’s death had a major impact on Mary, who was left with two young children: Catherine, aged four, and […]
