Is the NPG portrait of Anne Boleyn really based on a lost original?

I don't believe the portrait of Anne Boleyn, currently on display at the National Portrait Gallery in London, is based on a contemporary likeness of Anne.

Why? Hear me out.

There's a portrait of Queen Elizabeth I in the Compton Verney, Warwickshire, bearing a striking resemblance to the NPG portrait of Anne Boleyn. A natural likeness between a mother and daughter, one may say, but look closer:

There are exactly the same brushstrokes running from the nose towards the lips, brushstrokes under the nose and under lips.

Coincidence? I don't think so. It's been my view for years that the NPG portrait of Anne Boleyn was painted during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and was based on Elizabeth’s face. It’s not what Anne Boleyn would have looked like. The exact same brush strokes around the lower part of Elizabeth’s and Anne’s faces are not coincidental; Elizabeth’s face was probably used as pattern for Anne’s face.

What do you think?

The real history behind "Becoming Elizabeth": Episode 1: Katherine Parr & Thomas Seymour.

New eight-part drama "Becoming Elizabeth" tells the story of the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn before she became Queen Elizabeth I, as she navigated the reigns of her half-siblings, Edward VI and Mary I. But how accurate is the drama? I will discuss the real history behind "Becoming Elizabeth" in a series of blog posts over the coming weeks.

Early in the drama we see a sex scene between Thomas Seymour and Katherine Parr. While some viewers find it difficult to believe that Katherine was "some sex-starved woman who can barely keep her hands off Thomas Seymour", this is not an inaccurate depiction and I'll tell you why. 

Before she married Henry VIII, Katherine had fallen in love with Edward Seymour’s younger brother Thomas. Handsome, athletic and ambitious, Thomas reciprocated her feelings and proposed marriage within days of Henry VIII’s death. The thirty-five-year-old Dowager Queen was torn between duty and her own desires. After three marriages—her husbands were either mentally incapacitated or past their prime—she still had no offspring, although she yearned to have a child of her own. 

As a royal widow, she was expected to wait at least two years before marrying again, but she was not getting any younger, and Thomas urged her “to change the two years into two months”. Before she agreed, Katherine emphasized that her decision did not proceed from “any sudden motion or passion” because she was in love with Thomas before the King started courting her.  

Katherine could not resist Thomas’s charm, and the couple soon embarked in a love affair. YES, a love affair. Their secret marriage probably took place before 17 May 1547 since, in one of his love letters addressed to Katherine, Thomas referred to himself as her husband: “from him whom ye have bound to honour, love, and such in all lawful thing obey”. Katherine reciprocated, signing herself as “her that is and shall be your humble, true and loving wife during her life”.  The couple understood that their wedding was very hasty and could meet with opposition from the influential members of Edward VI’s circle since, as Dowager Queen, Katherine was expected not only to mourn her royal husband at least two years, but also obtain the Privy Council’s approval for remarriage. 

Such a hasty remarriage caused scandal and even Katherine Parr's friend, the Dowager Duchess of Suffolk, could not restrain herself from making a comment: She named a black stallion in her stable 'Seymour' and a bay mare 'Parr'. 

People believed that Katherine remarried to fulfil her repressed sexual desires. It was a common medieval belief, stemming from ancient Greek philosophers, that marriage could protect women from illnesses that usually afflicted those who abstained from sex. It was also a common belief that a woman’s judgement was clouded by her sexual urges. 

When Katherine Parr married Thomas Seymour within months after Henry VIII's death, she knew what she was doing. She was already in her mid-thirties and childless. She was in love and yearned to have a child of her own. She knew her remarriage would cause scandal and yet she remarried anyway. I call that taking things into her own hands. She was, finally, in a position to make her own decision. 

This blog post is based on my book "The Forgotten Tudor Women: Anne Seymour, Jane Dudley & Elisabeth Parr."

Did Anne Boleyn really play the role of Perseverance in the Chateau Vert pageant in 1522?

 

 In March 1522, Anne, that “fresh young demoiselle”, as she was dubbed by one observer, made a debut at court during the Chateau Vert pageant.[1] She was among the eight ladies impersonating qualities that a perfect mistress of chivalric tradition should possess. It is usually assumed that Anne played Perseverance, a role that is historically appropriate for the story of Anne’s rise. Contemporary chronicler Edward Hall listed the roles noblewomen played in the Chateau Vert pageant but did not specify who played who. Hall lists: Beauty, Honour, Perseverance, Kindness, Constancy, Bounty, Mercy and Pity.[2] 

A list of ladies who received costumes they wore as mementoes after the pageant appears to be the source of who played whom:

“These things remain with the French queen, the countess of Devonshire, Mistress Anne Boleyn, Mistress Karre, Mistress Parker, Mistress Browne, Mistress Danet and Mistress [blank].”[3]

Someone has apparently merged these two accounts together, resulting in the assumption that Beauty was played by Mary Tudor (Henry VIII’s sister); Honour played by Gertrude Courtenay, Countess of Devonshire; Perseverance played by Anne Boleyn; Kindness played by Mary Carey (Anne Boleyn’s sister); Constancy played by Jane Parker (soon to become Anne Boleyn’s sister-in-law); Bounty played by Mistress Browne; Mercy played by Mistress Danet; and Pity played by an unknown woman. It would not have been impossible for these women to play these exact roles; Mary Tudor, for instance, was praised for her physical attractiveness, so the role of Beauty seems apt. She was also the former queen consort of France and highest in rank; the role of Beauty would have been assigned to her as she was the other women’s social superior. Ultimately, however, we cannot be sure who played whom. 

The ladies wore satin gowns cut in Italian fashion, close-fitting golden cauls and bejewelled Milan bonnets. Each woman’s role was sewn onto her costume for everyone to see.

---

[1] William Dunn Macray, The History of Grisild the Second, p. 53.

[2] Edward Hall, Hall's Chronicle, p. 631.

[3] Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, Volume 3, 1519-1523.

 

       

Myth-buster: Did Katharine of Aragon really die in the arms of Maria de Salinas, Lady Willoughby?

One of the most persistent myths about Katharine of Aragon’s last hours is that she died in the arms of her Spanish lady-in-waiting and friend Maria de Salinas, Lady Willoughby.[i] Maria “who has faithfully served her [Katharine of Aragon], and who has always comforted her in her hours of trial”, had received letters patent of denization and married William Willoughby, Baron Willoughby de Eresby, in 1516.[ii] Katharine of Aragon and Henry VIII had financed Lady Willoughby’s marriage, giving her a dowry worth eleven hundred marks. She was so much favoured by Katharine that it was said that the Queen loved her “more than any other mortal”.[iii] In July 1534, Maria, whose only daughter married Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, was forced to leave Katharine’s service. Distressed, Chapuys recorded this fact, writing that “even a Spanish lady who has remained with her all her life, and has served her at her own expense, is forbidden to see her”.[iv]

“I heard say that my mistress is very sore sick again”, Maria wrote in a letter to Secretary Thomas Cromwell on 30 December 1535. She desired to see Katharine, but she needed a special licence from the King. “I pray you remember me of your goodness”, she urged Cromwell, “for you did promise me to labour the King’s Grace to get me licence to go to her Grace afore God send for her; for, as I am informed, there is no other likelihood but it shall be shortly”.[v] Maria feared that she would be unable to see Katharine for the last time, but Cromwell was unmoved and failed to reply.

Maria decided to defy both Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII, and on 1 January 1536, she travelled on horseback through snowy weather to the remote Kimbolton Castle, Katharine of Aragon’s residence. She reached her destination at six o’clock in the afternoon and knocked at the castle’s doors. Katharine of Aragon’s servants were dismayed to see Maria, whom they did not expect. Maria claimed she had a fall from her horse while travelling. She was distressed and, in a bid for sympathy, told Katharine’s chamberlain that “she thought never to have seen the Princess Dowager again by reason of such tidings as she had heard of her”. But the chamberlain demanded to see the licence, which Maria did not have. “It was ready to be showed”, she replied, but when she left Kimbolton after seeing Katharine for the last time, the chamberlain wrote on 5 January that “since that time we never saw her” nor “any letters of her licence hither to repair”.[vi] Katharine of Aragon died two days later, on 7 January 1536.

 

---

[i] I found that the earliest reference to this myth comes from the 1962 biography Catherine, Duchess of Suffolk: A Portrait by Evelyn Read. It was repeated in subsequent biographies including the 1970 A Crown for Elizabeth by Mary M. Luke, 1977 Women of Action in Tudor England by Pearl Hogrefe and 1996 The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser.

[ii] Calendar of State Papers, Spain, Volume 2, n. 238.

[iii] Ibid., n. 201.

[iv] Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 7, n. 1013.

[v]  M.A. Everett Wood, Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies of Great Britain, Volume 2, pp. 208-9.

[vi] Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 10, n. 28.

My NEW book is out now! Medical Downfall of the Tudors

 I'm pleased to announce that my NEW book entitled Medical Downfall of the Tudors: Sex, Reproduction & Succession, is OUT today! You can buy a copy on Amazon now. It comes as Kindle & paperback.

Description:

The Tudor dynasty died out because there was no heir of Elizabeth I’s body to succeed her. Henry VIII, despite his six marriages, had produced no legitimate son who would live into old age. Three of the reigning Tudors (Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I) died without heirs apparent, the most tragic case being that of Mary Tudor, who went through two recorded cases of phantom pregnancy. If it were not for physical frailty and the lack of reproductive health among the Tudors, the course of history might have been different.

This book concentrates on the medical downfall of the Tudors, examining their gynaecological history and medical records.

• Did you know that an archival source suggests that Henry VIII may have suffered from venereal disease or a urinary tract infection?
  
  
• Did you know that overlooked pictorial evidence suggests that Katharine of Aragon may have suffered from prognathism, a trait that ran through her family?
  
  
• It is generally assumed that Katharine of Aragon went through menopause by 1524, but primary sources tell a different tale.
  
  
• Did Katharine of Aragon really die in the arms of her lady-in-waiting, Maria de Salinas, Lady Willoughby?
  
  
• Did you know that Jane Seymour’s coronation in 1537 was postponed and later cancelled because of the plague? She was originally to be crowned on 29 September 1536.
  
  
• Was Katherine Howard ever pregnant by Henry VIII?
  
  
• Did you know that available evidence suggests Mary I Tudor suffered from severe depression?
  
  
• Did you know that one of the maids of honour at the Tudor court had a C-section?
  
  
• How many pregnancies did Anne Boleyn have?
  
  
• Did you know that there is a hint in the primary sources that in 1534 Anne Boleyn had a stillbirth?
  
  
• Did you know that Henry VII didn't die in his bed?
  
  
• Was Katharine of Aragon's marriage to Prince Arthur consummated?
  
  
• How did Edward VI die?
  

My NEW BOOK is out NOW!

I'm happy to announce that my NEW BOOK entitled Women of the Wars of the Roses: Jacquetta Woodville, Margaret of Anjou & Cecily Neville is published today as Kindle and paperback. You can order it from Amazon.

Jacquetta Woodville, Margaret of Anjou and Cecily Neville are among the best-known female figures during the Wars of the Roses, a dynastic conflict that raged in England from 1455 to 1485. Jacquetta was the mother of Edward IV’s much-hated commoner queen, Elizabeth Woodville, and she is most prominent in this triple biography. Jacquetta’s story is inevitably linked to the lives of two other women: Margaret of Anjou, Henry VI’s queen, and Cecily Neville, Duchess of York, mother of Edward IV and Richard III.

Set against the rich background of fifteenth-century court life are the interwoven stories of these three women whose relationships were tested by the changing loyalties of their husbands, sons and daughters.

The Field of Cloth of Gold Virtual Summit

June 2020 marks 500 years since King Henry VIII and King Francis I of France hosted an elaborate festival known as the Field of Cloth of Gold to improve relations between the two countries. Sarah Morris from the Tudor Travel Guide is hosting a special virtual summit that you can attend! Here's what Sarah has to say:

"During a blustery 18 days in June 1520, an historic event took place in the Pale of Calais. Here King Henry VIII of England and King Francis I of France met in an ostentatious display of power, wealth and status. Masterminded by Thomas Wolsey, the aim was to join the two kingdoms in a pact of solidarity and friendship, notably against the insurgence of the Ottoman Empire, which was threatening Christian Europe at the time.

It was a spectacular event that became famous in its own lifetime. Now 500 years on, over the weekend of the 9-10 May 2020, The Tudor Travel Guide is celebrating this historic event by holding a FREE two-day virtual summit. You will hear from experts in their fields talking about a range of different aspects of the event: from the social, political and cultural context, to original research to locate Henry's celebrated temporary palace, clothing & textiles, food and more..."

Speaker line up:

Saturday 9 May:  

Professor Glenn Richardson: The Context and Aims of the Field of Cloth of Gold - The English Perspective.

Professor Maria Hayward - Clothes and Textiles at the Field.

Tracy Borman: All the King's Men - Influential Courtiers at the Field of Cloth of Gold.

Brigitte Webster: Food and Feasting at the Field of Cloth of Gold.

Sunday 10 May:

Professor Charles Giry-Deloison: The Context and Aims of the Field of Cloth of Gold - The French Perspective.

Tracy Borman: All the King's Men - Influential Courtiers at the Field of Cloth of Gold.

Julian Munby: Location Henry VIII’s Famous Temporary Palace at Guines.

Natalie Grueninger and Sarah Morris - Henry VIII and the Road to Calais.

One of the lucky participants will have a chance at winning a book bundle of books written by the speakers!

How to sign up:

This online summit is FREE attend. You simply need to register you name and email address. Don't worry if you can't make the dates and times advertised or are in a different time zone. All the videos will remain available to view until the 24 June 2020 to coincide with the final day of the actual event, 500 years ago. However only those registering for the event will have access to the videos.

To register:

Sign up will open on Thursday 9 April 2020 and will remain open until 48 hours before the event, i.e. Midnight on Weds 7 May 2020.

Follow this link to the sign-up page: https://thetudortravelguide.lpages.co/the-field-of-cloth-of-gold-500-register