Claire | July 8, 2022
On this day in Tudor history, on 8th July 1503, Thomas Boleyn, father of Anne Boleyn, left Collyweston in Northamptonshire to undertake an important job for King Henry VII. Thomas Boleyn had been appointed to serve in a retinue escorting Princess Margaret Tudor, the king’s eldest daughter, to Scotland. Margaret was travelling there for her […]
Claire | July 2, 2022
On this day in Tudor history, 2nd July 1536, Master Secretary, Thomas Cromwell, the king’s chief advisor, was formally appointed Lord Privy Seal. The previous holder, Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wiltshire and Ormond, had been stripped of the office following the falls and executions of two of his children, Queen Anne Boleyn and George Boleyn, […]
Claire | June 22, 2022
On the night of 22nd June 1509, during the celebrations for the forthcoming coronation of King Henry VIII and Queen Catherine of Aragon, the king rewarded twenty-six men for their loyal service to the crown by making them Knights of the Bath. One of these men was Thomas Boleyn, father of Anne Boleyn, the woman […]
Joel | March 12, 2022
On this day in Tudor history, 12th March 1537, Cistercian monk William Haydock of Whalley Abbey, Lancashire, was hanged for treason at Whalley. Haydock’s abbey had been implicated in the 1536 Pilgrimage of Grace Rebellion, so Henry VIII wanted the abbey punished. Find out more about Whalley Abbey’s part in the rebellion, how Haydock and […]
Claire | February 18, 2022
One of my very favourite books on the Boleyns is Dr Lauren Mackay’s “Among the Wolves of Court”, a dual biography of Thomas Boleyn and George Boleyn, so I’m very excited to have Lauren as a speaker at my “Anne Boleyn, the Woman who Changed England” online event. REGISTER TODAY DOORS CLOSE 25th FEBRUARY Here’s […]
Claire | January 27, 2022
“How did Thomas Boleyn feel sitting in judgement on his children?” is a question that I was asked recently, and it’s one I’ve been asked before. But did Thomas Boleyn even sit on the jury that tried Queen Anne Boleyn and her brother, George Boleyn, Lord Rochford? Find out what history tells us about the […]
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 | March 12, 2021
On this day in history, 12th March 1539, at the Boleyn family home, Hever Castle, Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wiltshire and Ormonde, died. His servant, Robert Cranwell, wrote to Thomas Cromwell the following day to give him news of Wiltshire’s death, writing: “My good lord and master is dead. He made the end of a […]
