Of the six wives of Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn has always been the most memorable to me. After all, Henry divorced his first wife, Queen Catherine of Aragon, and turned his back on the Catholic Church in order to marry Anne. Three years later, she was dead, executed on trumped up charges of adultery so that Henry could marry wife number three.
During those whirlwind years of queenship, Anne managed to accomplish quite a bit. An ardent advocate of church reform, she helped resettle French religious refugees and lobbied King Henry to use funds from Catholic institutions for education reform and aid for the poor. She was close to Thomas Cromwell and worked with him to aid petitioners. Though her detractors—chief among them Eustace Chapuys, the Spanish ambassador—labeled her ‘la concubine’ and ‘the great whore,’ she often wielded her power for the common good.
Despite her short reign and horrific death, Anne’s legacy shines brighter than any of Henry’s other wives because she was the mother of Elizabeth I, a long-lived and legendary queen.
Yet one of the curiosities of Tudor history is the fact that not one confirmed portrait of Anne made during her lifetime survives. One of the myths surrounding this is the idea that Henry VIII ordered all images of her destroyed after he had her beheaded. But in my research on Anne Boleyn, I learned he was never recorded as having done so.
Still, any supporter of Anne’s with a sense of self-preservation would have hidden, painted over, or destroyed her images. After all, Henry married Jane Seymour just days after Anne’s execution. The Boleyns (aside from Anne’s brother George, who was executed along with four other men who were accused of adulterous behavior with her) were lucky to emerge from the gruesome drama of her downfall with their lives intact.
The images we know of Anne today are mostly copies of portraits that were not painted during her lifetime, so it’s unclear how true they are to her actual appearance. Perhaps the most famous of the existing portraits is held at England’s National Portrait Gallery, and several variations of it still survive.
Image credit: Wikimedia
Unknown artist,circa1570
There are several other images that may be of Anne, including a miniature painted in the 1520s before she married Henry, but the only confirmed image made in her lifetime is a commemorative medal struck in 1534, the year after her marriage to Henry and subsequent coronation.
Unfortunately, the medal is seriously damaged and Anne’s features are difficult to make out. However, I found a wonderful blog post by artist Lucy Churchill with a reconstruction of the medal here.
Not many written descriptions of Anne survive, either, and many of them were inked by her enemies. Unsurprisingly, her detractors found much to fault about her appearance, claiming she had a wart, a goiter, a projecting tooth, and an extra finger on one hand.
More kind assessments included French poet Lancelot de Carles’ description: “Beautiful and with an elegant figure.” Her long, lovely hair was a much-remarked upon feature of her coronation ceremony, but we don’t know for certain what color it was.
Perhaps the most famous description of Anne was written by a Venetian diplomat, Francesco Sanuto: “Not one of the handsomest women in the world; she is of middling stature, swarthy complexion, long neck, wide mouth, a bosom not much raised and eyes which are black and beautiful.”
Image: wikimedia commons
German artist Hans Holbein the Younger made many of the iconic images that survive from the early Tudor court. He originally spent time in London in 1526, when he painted a now-lost portrait of Thomas More and his family (some of the original drawings he made of the portrait still survive). After returning to London in 1532, he became the favored portrait artist for wealthy merchants, members of the Tudor court, and King Henry himself.
Sadly, no portrait of Anne Boleyn by Holbein survives, but two drawings exist that some historians believe depict her. One shows a woman in a fur-trimmed nightgown looking down with a pensive expression, and was labeled with her name by John Cheke. Anne was Cheke’s patron so he definitely knew what she looked like.
Image: wikimedia commons
In my next research post, I’ll delve deeper into other images that may depict Anne Boleyn, including one that was Elizabeth I’s cherished possession.
I’ll leave you with this final impression of Anne from all the research I’ve been doing for my next novel, an art mystery set in Tudor-era London:
Born in England and raised at Hever Castle (see banner image above), Anne spent her teen years in France as an attendant of Margaret of Austria and later French Queen Claude (first wife of François I). Anne was known for her intelligence, wit, fiery personality, fabulous dance moves, musical talents, and love of outdoor adventures. Her charisma attracted endless admirers. She was bold, she was highly educated, and she was ambitious.
For a woman in Tudor England, those were dangerous attributes.
(Main source: The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn by Eric Ives. I also referred to notes from Dr. Owen Emmerson’s Tudor art course, Six Queens in Art.)
