Today we have a guest post by Emily Pooley, creator of Anne Boleyn’s beautiful wax work that is currently on display at Hever Castle. Emily kindly agreed to write an article about her interest in Anne Boleyn and how this wonderful wax figure was made. Enjoy!

Le temps viendra.

– by Emily Pooley, technical and special effects artist for television, film and live events.

At this moment, I am sipping a cup of tea looking out of my parent’s office window to the bottom of garden where I would sit for hours with my best friend Holly, patiently carving sticks into stakes -ready for our first encounter with vampires on our next trip to the woods down the road. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was an idol of ours you see – 6:30pm, BBC2, telly on full volume for the intro music. We would train for hours, using the swing as an assault course, passing levels that we would invent.. preparing ourselves. When we created a sufficiently sharp point.. off we went. Deep into the woods.

What, I hear you cry, has this got to do with Anne Boleyn? Buffy was my first encounter with a strong and independent female role model. We were inspired and empowered enough to come face-to-face with a pointy-toothed demon and fight to the death. Of course, there was never any real threat and I have since been dragged kicking and screaming into the serious world of adulthood.. and I found myself looking to a real lady for inspiration, with an incredibly powerful story.

When our GCSE exams were over (finding that miraculously my method of cramming in as much research into the night before actually worked) it was time to plan ahead – what on earth was I going to do!? Like a large number of girls my age, my first port of call was: Vet. But after spending a long week of work experience at a veterinary clinic, clearing up ‘presents’ from the animals as they called it, the reality of work really set in. Don’t worry, Anne is near – ‘le temps viendra’ people!

I sat at home flicking through prospectuses for colleges deflated and racking my brains. This was interrupted by my weekly unmissable dose of Doctor Who. Again, full volume for the intro. Next came Doctor Who confidential on BBC Three courtesy of our brand new digibox, where Neill Gorton talked through the creation of one of his prosthetic monster make-ups. It suddenly dawned on me that people actually made a living out of making these things! This would be the programme that would set me on a path to a career in special effects in television and film.

So off I trotted to Art College and then on to Wimbledon University of Art for my degree in Technical Arts and Special effects.

In cometh Anne Boleyn.

It was shortly after I had completed my second year that Anne Boleyn and I became good friends. We had been acquaintances for a number of years as Hever was my place of choice to visit when my parents were looking for a way to entertain my brother and I without covering the house with PVA glue and tissue paper – as was the norm. We had also met briefly through the pages of the Horrible History books (the new CBBC series is a hilarious watch may I add!) History has also fascinated me, the clothing, the rituals, the drama. Third year rolled around and we were finally permitted to create a project of our own choice. Without a doubt, there was only one person who would be joining me.

I looked for yet more inspiration with another great historical female figure. Marie Tussaud had a mix of rich history with breathtakingly detailed technical and special effects – just the thing I was after. My ambitious aim, albeit it made naively when considering the technicalities, was now to create my own life sized waxwork of my beloved Anne Boleyn.

As with any model, before you can touch any clay you must know and more importantly understand your subject. Especially when a well-known personality or historical figure is concerned. This meant living with my old friend Anne Boleyn for the summer, making her a new outfit to keep her on side. I read as many books as I could but having always struggled with reading (I can read a page without taking any of it in) I only focused on Anne’s coronation with most books.. not due to lack of interest, but rather a complete fascination with the beginning of her story. This is what I knew I wanted to portray with my model. I watched every movie and television adaptation or documentary on Anne that I could find – Degree’s can be such hard work – and used this research to begin my 5000 word dissertation describing the positive and negative portrayals of her throughout the decades.

Next, I had to decide my own take on her. Although I have always been an avid Boleynian I wanted to stay quite neutral in my representation of her, and instead use my figure to tell her story through symbols and props a technique that old Tudor portrait artists had mastered. Once a design and maquette was created, I was to look for a life model to work from. My friend Laura worked next to me at university and bared an uncanny resemblance to my absolute favourite depiction of Anne’s image – Holbien’s sketch. Once I had cornered her and badgered her into sitting for me, I began recording her details.

This process involves drawing a large number dots on the face at keys points like the tip of the nose and tragus (the little sticky out bit above your earlobe.) Photographs are taken of the model from 360 degrees and the points on the face are measured and recorded using calipers. These are all extremely useful reference materials when sculpting and ensure that you can get an accurate a likeness as possible, especially when you don’t have the model to work from.

When sculpting, you need a strong and sturdy armature frame to support your clay. This meant welding – my nemesis. Once the armature is bent into position, finally, the sculpting can begin. This is the process I love the most. Since a kid, I have always had the desire to shape clay into objects and creatures. Luckily enough, I came across a natural clay pit whilst out staking vampires. This meant an endless supply of creatures, props and pots turned up in the house of my poor unsuspecting parents. Much to their delight of course.

Over a number of weeks, the body is built up – constantly referring to the reference material and measurements. Measuring has always been my weakness, so at one point – I had to operate on Anne and give her a leg extension, cutting them off and hoisting the armature up. The ruler changes length every time I swear! The body and head are roughly built up together, until the stage where the head needs to be refined.

This meant the amusing task of removing Anne’s head – a process that caused a number of opportunistic comical photos with myself and my classmates. I apologized to Anne, and lopped through her neck with a cheese cutter (clay wire to the pro’s.) I shuddered, thinking of the actual day of Anne’s execution, and that night watched a docudrama by the BBC called ‘The Execution of Anne Boleyn’. The horror of her final days struck right through me as I remembered my reasoning for the creation of my model: to tell her incredible story and to somehow do her justice by bringing her back to life. I became a lot more serious about her after this day. I worked on her head at home, spending whole days locked in my room, often forgetting to eat. As payback for making fun of her – she made my life very difficult. At this point I was juggling my dissertation with a few days until the deadline, with the impending day of finishing and moulding her head. She also decided to fall over a week after I got her body out of the mould – splitting the resin cast along the seams and causing a number of repairs. We didn’t talk for days.

But alas, the sculpt had been finished and moulding was complete – the hands were the only section of the model that I had life cast, a technique that Madame Tussaud’s also follow. A plaster waste mould was used for the body and a fiberglass resin cast was pulled out. For the head, I used a flexible silicone jacket mould, which meant pulling a delicate wax cast out would be a lot easier.

I decided to give Anne her infamous 6th finger.. not to make fun or to create a monster (I didn’t want to fall out with her again) but to describe the attacks on her image shortly after her death. Of course, the extra finger most likely did not exist, but I wanted to stir up a bit of debate amongst people who saw her – get people talking about her story again. It was great to hear a conversation at my show on this exact subject: ‘Look she has an extra finger!’ ‘Yes, but she didn’t actually have an extra finger.. it was made up by the Catholics’… ‘But I heard it was a friend that gave a description of it?’… bingo. Of course, Hever had me remove it – much to my pleasure.

Finally, Anne and I had made it to the final hurdle. Once the eyes had been burned into the wax, and the eyebrow hair punched in – I repositioned her head. She looked at me approvingly. All had been forgiven.

Painting her was more of a relaxation process than anything… all of the hard work was completed, now it was time to make her pretty and get her ready for her first party. Finally, I popped her new shift and corset on that I had won her over with the previous summer and fitted her wig. I left her hair down, as she did – a fashionable one was our Anne!

Success! After a year long friendship, with ups and downs and a hell of a lot of hard graft, patience and may I add £1000 in material – I finally stood next to the infamous Anne Boleyn. I had placed her in front of a mirror so that her reflection mimicked many of her alleged portraits – Holbein’s sketch included. I stood beside her and read the words surrounding the frame: ‘Le Temps Viendra’ – the time will come. The infamous words written by Anne in her copy of the Book of Hours that I had read on tip-toes through a pain of glass at Hever as a girl. These words had stuck with me constantly throughout the project. The time will come when all my hard work would pay off and I could relax and show her off to industry professionals and my long suffering friends and family at the show…. The time would come also when I had to say goodbye, and let her go home.

I had been so wrapped up in her story and so concerned with actually finishing her for the show, that I hadn’t given a second thought to what I would do with her once she was here! She spent many weeks in my bed at my family home.. she always won when I came to visit – I got the couch. I began contacting castles to see if she could come and live with them, not once thinking that Hever would be remotely interested. Chance would have it though, that my mum had a close friend who worked at Hever and passed on my details. Next thing I knew it, I was walking with Anne’s head tucked neatly in a box under my arm, walking through the back corridors of the offices at Hever. I whispered to her so that the Lady I was following didn’t here.. ‘welcome home.’

It feels very strange to talk about her again after so long. So much has happened since I parted with her last year. I have been very lucky to land a full time job doing what I love, two days after I took my degree show down and recently worked on the Churchill dog for the insurance commercials. I have a lot to owe her.

I would like to thank the people who have taken the time out of their busy lives to contact me about my waxwork and indeed to read my mad babblings – congratulations if you made it this far! It is such a joy to talk to people about the stuff you love, and for an artist it is the best feeling in the world to know that someone else enjoys your work. It is also great to keep tabs on how Anne is getting on on her own. We were reunited when the exhibition opened – it was such a strange feeling to stand in front of her, wearing an absolutely stunning outfit that someone has made for her (feeling slightly jealous of their relationship). But it is great to see her living her own life.

I feel so privileged to have had the time with her and be able to bring Anne Boleyn home. Please say hello from me if you get a chance to meet her!

]]> http://www.anne-boleyn.com/eng/le-temps-viendra-by-emily-pooley-the-creator-of-anne-boleyns-waxwork/feed/ 1 http://www.anne-boleyn.com/eng/anne-boleyn-and-witchcraft/ http://www.anne-boleyn.com/eng/anne-boleyn-and-witchcraft/#comments Tue, 10 Apr 2012 11:30:07 +0000 Sylwia http://www.anne-boleyn.com/eng/?p=175

Helena Bonham Carter as Anne Boleyn

The anniversary of Anne Boleyn’s death is approaching so I’ve decided to take a closer look on events that occurred before Anne’s death. One of the most popular myths about Henry VIII’s second wife is her alleged involvement with witchcraft.

It all started with Imperial ambassador’s report. Eustace Chapuys, always ready to report anything that about Anne Boleyn, wrote that Henry VIII told one of his courtiers that he;

‘made this marriage seduced and constrained by sortileges and for this reason he held the said marriage void and that God had demonstrated this in not allowing them to have male heirs and that he considered that he could take another.’

How Chapuys did come to such knowledge? Henry VIII’s  first cousin,  Marquis of Exeter who was in touch with ambassador, reported that the king confided this information in one of his courtiers. What was the meaning of the king’s words? It is all dependant if we are reading it in original language in which Chapuys reported them. Eric Ives wonders;

“Thus, did Henry use the term ‘sortilege’, or was the word provided en route? Even if Henry did use the noun, since its primary English meaning was ‘divination’ and since Henry spoke in the same breath of male heirs, the simple construction is that he was referring to the premarital predictions that union with Anne would produce sons”. (p. 298)

Professor Ives also adds that the word ‘sortilege’ could meant also occult practices, but ;

“in usual parlance ‘bewitched’ meant no more than ‘deceived’ – as in Tyndale’s 1526 New Testament: ‘Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?” (p. 298)

But did the word ‘bewitched’ indicate that Anne Boleyn dabbled into witchcraft? The word ‘bewitched’ could offer two possible meanings; ‘fascinated’ or ‘enchanted’ in a supernatural way. Back in Anne Boleyn’s days, Eustace Chapuys used the word ‘enchanted’ to reflect how huge influence Anne had over Henry;

‘This accursed lady has so enchanted and bewitched him that he will not dare to do anything against her will.’

It is highly unlikely that Chapuys meant that Anne ‘bewitched’ Henry VIII in a supernatural way. He believed that she used her womanly charms to influence the king.

During Anne’s trial no accusations about her dabbling in witchcraft had been made. 50 years after her death, Nicolas Sander in his book “The Rise and Growth of Anglican Schism” wrote about Anne’s abnormalities like sixth finger, moles, huge wen under her chin and projecting tooth. But he wrote also that back in January 1536 Anne miscarried a deformed foetus.

Of course those are words of a recusant Catholic who blamed Anne Boleyn for the spread of reformation in England, but it were Sander’s untrue remarks that later spread across the world forming ‘the black legend of Anne Boleyn’ as I call it. Even today many people believe that Anne Boleyn really had six fingers, or that the child she lost in January 1536 was deformed. And people link those myths with witchcraft.  Abnormalities and deformed children were associated with God’s displeasure over certain person, or – that this person was dabbling into black arts. Witches were associated with deformities of their bodies, unnatural lustful behaviour, abominable sexual practices, or hurting other people by using evil ‘spells’. They could cause death, weather change or even impotence in males. But there is no evidence that Anne Boleyn was deformed in any way, or that she gave birth to a deformed baby. No such thing was mentioned during her trial or the trial of 5 men that were accused along her.

So, Anne Boleyn was never accused of witchcraft. When Henry VIII made a remark that he ‘made this marriage seduced and constrained by sortileges’ he probably exaggerated or merely meant that Anne promised him male heir and failed at this task. Whatever the king said or meant – Anne Boleyn certainly was no witch and witchcraft was not used against her during her trial.

]]> http://www.anne-boleyn.com/eng/anne-boleyn-and-witchcraft/feed/ 3 http://www.anne-boleyn.com/eng/anne-boleyn-the-glass-of-fashion/ http://www.anne-boleyn.com/eng/anne-boleyn-the-glass-of-fashion/#comments Fri, 02 Mar 2012 18:43:33 +0000 Sylwia http://www.anne-boleyn.com/eng/?p=127 “She was unrivalled in the gracefulness of her attire, and the fertility of her invention in devising new patterns, which were imitated by all the court belles, by whom she was regarded as the glass of fashion” / Nicolas Sander “The Rise and Growth of Anglican Schism”/

Although Nicolas Sander is the author of many myths about Anne Boleyn, he certainly was right when he described Anne Boleyn’s immaculate taste for fashion. Anne Boleyn  had olive skin and ‘black eyes’ – features not so popular in 16^th century England where pale skin, blonde hair and blue eyes were the most desirable traits in a woman.

Nicolas Sander, who was no contemporary witness of Anne’s life at court, wrote that she had many deformations like projecting tooth, six fingers on right hand and a large wen under her chin. But the next sentences are describing Anne as;

“(…) handsome to look at, with a pretty mouth, amusing in her ways, playing well on the lute, and was a good dancer. She was the model and the mirror of those who were at court, for she was always -well dressed, and every day made some change in the fashion of her garments.” (Nicolas Sander “The Rise and Growth of Anglican Schism” p. 25).

Although for centuries historians are echoing the statement of Agnes Strickland that:

“In Anne, the more powerful charms of genius, wit, and fascination triumphed over every defect which prevented her from being considered a perfect beauty, and rendered her the leading star of the English court” (“The Lives of the Queens of England”, p. 578)

I believe that Anne was a beautiful and charismatic young woman but her unconventional beauty did not make her the perfect courtly beauty. However she attracted attention with her intelligence, temper and something that today we call “sex appeal”.

French influence

There is no exaggeration in Sander’s words that ‘every day Anne made change in the fashion of her garments’. Agnes Strickland described Anne’s dress:

“While at the French court her costume was a cap of velvet, trimmed in points, a little gold bell hanging from each point; a vest of the same material with silver stars, a jacket of watered silk with large hanging sleeves that almost concealed her hands, and a skirt to match. Her feet were encased in blue velvet slippers, with a strap across the instep, fastened with a diamond star. Her hair fell in ringlets about her shoulders.” (p. 381)

Josephine Wilkinson in “Anne Boleyn: a young Queen to be” states that such a gown was probably designed for a special occasion, perhaps a pageant but it is also possible that Anne liked to experiment with her fashion.

Anne Boleyn was sent to France in 1515 and there she was observing how the fashion developed. When she returned from France in 1521/1522 she was considered to be more like a Frenchwoman than an Englishwoman. Anne was fond of French fashion and she manifested it almost all the time – she favoured French hoods rather than heavy and unflattering English gable hoods.

Before she became Queen

Before Anne Boleyn became Queen of England, she was Henry VIII’s fiancée and he often showered her with magnificent gifts. Henry’s Privy Purse accounts have survived for the years 1529-32 and they reveal what Henry was buying for Anne. Professor Eric Ives writes that “much of the expenditure went on clothes” (p. 156).

Those are only some of the expenses from king’s Privy Purse:

Holbein's 'Unknown Lady' with inscription 'Anna Bollein Queen'

December 1530 : ‘Itm the same day paid to Adington the skynner for furres & furrying of my Lady Anne’s gownes’

May 1531 : ‘Crymsin clothe of golde for my Lady Anne Rocheford’

June 1532 : ‘twelve yards of black satin for a night gowne for my Lady Anne’

Anne Boleyn and Henry enjoyed hunting and this activity required a special costume and accessories. Henry presented Anne with hunting gloves, dress and her own set of arrows.

In September 1532 Anne Boleyn was made Marquis of Pembroke in her own right. This was a magnificent ceremony and an occasion for Anne to shine:

“There, her hair about her shoulders and her ermine-trimmed crimson velvet hardly visible under the jewels” (Eric Ives, “The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn”, p. 158)

In 1532 Henry VIII purchased a beautiful black satin nightgown for Anne. Back then nightgowns had the role of modern day dressing gown and it was a common practice to receive guests in one’s nightgown. What is very interesting, one of Holbein’s drawings inscribed as “Anna Bollein Queen” shows a sitter in a nightgown, undercap and chemise. Although many historians dismissed the possibility that the sitter is indeed Anne Boleyn, there is still a little room for speculation.

Anne the Queen

Merle Oberon as Anne Boleyn

On her coronation day in June 1533 Anne Boleyn looked very beautiful:

“going under a rich canopy of cloth of gold, dressed in a kirtle of crimson velvet decorated with ermine, and a robe of purple velvet decorated with ermine over that, and a rich coronet with a cap of pearls and stones on her head; and the old duchess of Norfolk carrying her train in a robe of scarlet with a coronet of gold on her cap, and Lord Burgh, the queen’s Chamberlain, supporting the train in the middle.”

Although many documents from Anne’s time as Queen were destroyed, luckily there is an account of Anne Boleyn’s expenditure for clothes in period from January to April 1536. Professor Ives describes:

“This tells of Anne buying gowns in tawny velvet with black lambs’ fur, in velvet without fur, in damask, and in satin furred with miniver; a russet gown in caffa (heavy silk), two in black velvet, one in black damask, one in white satin and a second with crimson sleeves; a gown in purple cloth of gold lined with silver, and new carnation satin from Bruges to insert into the sleeves of a gown of tissue. There were eight nightgowns, two embroidered and another in russet trimmed with miniver; and three cloaks – of black Bruges satin, of embroidered tawny satin and of black cloth lined with black sarcenet – while Arnold the shoemaker had eight lots of black velvet to make shoes and slippers. Thirteen kirtles included white satin and white damask, black velvet embroidered and crimson satin ‘printed’, with matching sleeves.” (p. 252)

In Henry VIII’s inventory there were at least two pairs of sleeves for women (very important part of the gown) identified as belonging to Anne:

‘one of white satin embroidered over with purled gold acorns and honeysuckles tied with ten pairs of aiguilettes of gold’ and the other ‘of cloth of gold embroidered with a great trail of purled gold with honeysuckles tied with ten pairs of aiguilettes of gold’. (p. 253)

Anne’s gowns very often adorned with jewels:

“such as the nineteen diamonds set in trueloves of gold which Hayes supplied in January 1532, along with twenty-one rubies and twenty-one diamonds set in gold roses and hearts. Anne’s liking for French hoods was costly too, at £9 for the jewelled billament.” (p. 253)

Can you imagine Anne Boleyn in such sophisticated dresses?

Anne cared not only for her own fashionable look, but she also supplied her almost three year daughter Elizabeth with elaborate gowns. Professor Ives described how in three months period Anne supplied her daughter with:

“a gown of orange velvet, kirtles of russet velvet, of yellow satin, of white damask and of green satin, embroidered purple satin sleeves, a black muffler, white ribbon, Venice ribbon, a russet damask bedspread, a taffeta cap covered with a caul of gold. Anne, apparently, was especially fussy about her daughter’s caps: one made of purple satin required at least three journeys to Greenwich to get it right.” (p. 253)

Upon her death Elizabeth had a wardrobe of 2.000 gowns and she certainly shared her mother’s taste for fashion. Some sources claim that Elizabeth felt the need to buy herself new dresses because after her mother’s death, Elizabeth had to wear her old clothes – often the ones that she already grown up from.

Arrest, trial and execution: the meaning of Anne Boleyn’s attire

Anne's execution in "The Other Boleyn Girl"

Anne Boleyn certainly knew the rule ‘dress to impress’. Fashion was a part of demonstration of power and wealth. Anne knew that perfectly well. When on 2 May 1536 three men came to tell Anne that she was accused of adultery, she was allowed to return to her chambers for lunch. But the first thing she did after returning to her rooms was to get changed into a new dress. She was probably aware that she will be arrested and she wanted to look every inch a Queen. She chose a splendid gown of crimson velvet with a cloth of gold kirtle. 

On her trial Anne Boleyn wore “a gown of black velvet over a petticoat of scarlet damask and a small cap sporting a black-and-white feather” (Alison Weir, “The Lady in the Tower”, p. 270)

Even on the day of her execution Anne Boleyn looked immaculate in her black damask gown lined with fur, mantle trimmed with ermine and English gable hood. She wore also a crimson kirtle.

Every part of Anne’s gown had its meaning:

-          Although through her life Anne favoured French hoods, on 19^th of May she wore English gable hood; although many described her a “Frenchwoman rather than an Englishwoman” and she was famous for her pro-French views, on the last day of her earthly life she wanted to accent that after all she was wholly English, and the Queen till the end;

-          Ermine fur was reserved for the Royal family: Anne emphasized the fact that she was dying every inch a Queen;

-          Crimson kirtle probably had a meaning as well – crimson was associated with Christian martyrs and thus Anne used it to emphasize her innocence. Years later Mary Queen of Scots will do exactly the same thing by wearing a scarlet bodice and petticoat on the day of her execution.

We can certainly say that Anne Boleyn was ‘the glass of fashion’ and that she made a great impact on the whole English court.

This is a 3D reconstruction of Anne Boleyn's face, based on National Portrait Gallery

I’ve always wanted someone to do a 3D reconstruction of Anne Boleyn’s face, based on her famous NPG portrait. it never happened so I decided to become this ‘someone’. I learned how to use a program for 3D face reconstruction. This program gives a chance to make a 3D face reconstruction based on photographs. Well, obviously we do not have Anne Boleyn’s photographs so I used her portrait. It was quite hard to do such reconstruction. At my first reconstruction, many of you commented that Anne looked like Cher. I admit – I got too creative with first work. But my second reconstruction is successful – I worked on it for few days, and here it is!

I based Anne Boleyn’s 3D face reconstruction entirely on NPG portrait. It came out very realistic and reconstructed Anne looks a lot like on her portrait. What is even more interesting – I noticed that after reconstruction, Anne looks similar also to John Hoskins’ miniature, and this miniature is the most authentic likeness of Anne Boleyn.

For this montage I used Milara’s photograph based on NPG portrait of Anne Boleyn (I had to paste the reconstructed face). It wasn’t easy to find a real-life photograph based on Anne’s portrait, and I didn’t wanted to use any actresses pictures.

I think that Venetian ambassador’s comment about Anne Boleyn is entirely accurate ;

“Madame Anne is not the handsomest women in the world (…) her eyes, (…) are black and beautiful” /Francesco Sanuto, 1532/

]]> http://www.anne-boleyn.com/eng/3d-reconstruction-of-anne-boleyns-face/feed/ 2 http://www.anne-boleyn.com/eng/affair-of-the-necklace/ http://www.anne-boleyn.com/eng/affair-of-the-necklace/#comments Sat, 10 Dec 2011 20:15:35 +0000 Sylwia http://www.anne-boleyn.com/eng/?p=62

Miniature of Anne Boleyn by John Hoskins

Thanks to my friend, Maria who runs her own blog about Anne Boleyn, she shared with me an article that states that the ‘B’ necklace on Anne’s portraits stands for ‘Brandon’ and not ‘Boleyn’. Quite an interesting theory, isn’t it? I’ve decided to research this theory and I found few informations.

In her book ”The Feminine Dynamic in English Art, 1485-1603”  Susan James states that famous portrait of Anne Boleyn showing her with ‘B’ pendant is Mary Tudor Brandon.  Susan James writes ,;

“Although there were no firmly authenticated portraits of Jane Grey or Anne Boleyn known to copyists, a pool of portraits of unidentified women dating from the reign of Henry VIII still existed. As was common, these original paintings were not labelled and … the identities of the sitters were generally problematic. Yet for copyists in need of an image, clues within and without seem to have encouraged them to arrive at speculative identifications. The face pattern generally chosen for Jane Grey was Kateryn Parr and the face pattern chosen for Anne Boleyn was Mary Rose Tudor…”

What do we know about Mary Tudor Brandon’s appearance? Is there a chance she could be confused with Anne Boleyn? Well – if we will take only contemporary descriptions of both Anne and Mary, there is no chance that they were similar to each other. Mary Tudor Brandon was :

”Petite, poised and beautiful, with red-gold hair and the pale translucent complexion that usually accompanies it. She was the ideal picture of womanhood, certainly and the quintessence of Tudor beauty”. / Mary Boleyn: The True Story of Henry VIII’s Favourite Mistress /

According to contemporary sources, Anne Boleyn was quite the opposite ;

‘Madame Anne is not the handsomest women in the world , she is of middling statue, swarthy complexion, long neck, wide mouth, bosom not much raised, and (…) her eyes, which are black and beautiful’ /Venetian ambassador, 1532/

Sketch of Mary Tudor when she was Queen of France

She was also reffered by poet Sir Thomas Wyatt as a ‘Brunette’.

Susan James states that well known miniature by John Hoskins depicting Anne Boleyn is in fact, Mary Tudor Brandon and  ”jewelled “B” stood not for Boleyn but for Brandon and tha the portrait was not Henry VIII’s wife but his sister”. Susan James points out that ” It is the only picture in Charles I’s collection with Anne Boleyn’s name attached to it.”

In his book ‘The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn’ Eric Ives writes about Hoskins’ miniature ;

”Fortunately, the sequence also has the effect of corroborating a seventeenth-century miniature in thecollection of the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry. Charles I had this copied as ‘Anne Boleyn’ by John Hoskins the elder (c.1590–1664/5), and it is endorsed ‘from an ancient original’ . How ‘ancient’ it is impossible to say. Although the relationship to examples in the NPG pattern is evident, these were only thirty years old or perhaps less. It is more likely that Hoskins had access to an earlier image of the kind from which the NPG image originated. A full-length portrait of Anne was owned by Lord Lumley in 1590 and existed as late as 1773. Could it even be that Hoskins’ source was or was derived from a Holbein paintingnow lost?” /Eric Ives , ‘The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn’ /

Mary Tudor Brandon (left) and Anne Boleyn (right)

Hoskins’ miniature of Anne Boleyn depicts a woman with pointed chin, dark eyes, oval face, reddish hair and typical ‘B’ pendant on double strand of pearls. She may bear a certain resemblance to wedding portrait of Mary Tudor Brandon and Charles Brandon.

I think that there is no chance that ‘B’ on Anne’s portraits stands for ‘Brandon’ and not ‘Boleyn’. Here are the arguments :

-          Hoskins’ miniature was said to be  ‘don by Hoskins after an oweld pictur’ which means that this miniature was labelled as ‘Anne Boleyn’ from the very beggining ;

-          As professor Eric Ives pointed out, the miniature was endorsed ‘from an ancient original’ which means that it was probably copied from exisiting orginal portrait of Anne Boleyn, or copy of such portrait ;

-          There is plenty of portraits of Anne Boleyn, painted during Elizabeth Tudor’s reign, depicting Anne wearing a famous ‘B’ necklace ; and they are all labelled as ‘Anne Boleyn’  and not ‘Mary Tudor Brandon’

-          Mary Tudor Brandon had no reason to wear a ‘B’ pendant because in Tudor period noble men and women were known widely not by their surnames but titles ; so Charles Brandon was famous as Charles Suffolk, Duke of Suffolk, so it makes no sense why Mary Tudor Brandon would want to be portrayed with ‘B’ pendant ;

-          The similarity between portraits of Anne Boleyn and her daughter Elizabeth are astounding so it is hard to believe that the sitters is not Anne Boleyn ;

Sources :

”The Feminine Dynamic in English Art, 1485-1603”, Susan James

“The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn”, Eric Ives

 ”Mary Boleyn: The True Story of Henry VIII’s Favourite Mistress “, Josephine Wilkinson

Unknown woman underneath Elizabeth's portrait

Today I want to discuss about ‘Portraith with a serpent’ that depicts Queen Elizabeth Tudor. Underneath Elizabeth’s face there is a portrait of unknown woman.  She is facing opposite direction and in a higher position than the queen. According to National Portrait Gallery, :

 ”The  X-ray shows a female head  in a higher position, facing in the opposite direction to  the portrait of Elizabeth. The eyes and nose of the face  underneath can now be seen where paint has been lost  from Elizabeth’s forehead. The lips and headdress can also  be seen, as can the ruff which was positioned underneath  Elizabeth’s chin. The identity of the original sitter remains  a mystery but the unfinished portrait appears to have been  very competently painted, probably by a different artist.  The original sitter appears to have been wearing a French  hood of a type that was fashionable in the 1570s and 1580s,  suggesting that there may have been a period of a few years  before the panel was re-used.”

If you look closely, you can notice the similarity between unknown woman and … Anne Boleyn!  The oval face with dark dramatic eyes, high cheekbones and full lips bears resemblance to contemporary accounts on Anne Boleyn’s appearance. This portrait looks very similar to NPG and Hever portraits of Anne Boleyn.

The visible French hood may suggest the date of portrait of unknown woman as 1570s or 1580s, but if it is unfinished portrait, than maybe the French hood is as well unfinished?

The question is – why would Elizabeth paint her own portrait on Anne Boleyn’s portrait? There are few options :

-          Perhaps Elizabeth was afraid that later her mother’s portrait will be destroyed, and she found a clever way to hide it ;

-          Maybe Elizabeth wanted to have a portrait with her mother? It would have a highly symbolic meaning ; mother and daughter reunited.

The other interesting thing – Elizabeth was originally painted holding a serpent, but in the end, the serpent was replaced with bunch of roses. Why such a decision was made?

Well, while a serpent was a symbol of wisdom, it was also a symbol of Satan and the original sin. Perhaps Elizabeth realized, that a serpent would arose the question about her legitimacy, and this is why roses where painted instead.

Extraordinary similarity between unknown woman and portraits of Anne Boleyn

I’m curious what d YOU think about this hidden portrait and other portraits of Elizabeth that are similar to Anne? More about portraits here.

Acknowledgement : I wanted to thank Ellie Marianna Moxlex who reminded me about the portrait with a serpent  and showed me her great picture of Anne based on this portrait, and to Paul Cox from National Portrait Gallery.

Bibliography :

“The Subject of Elizabeth”, Louis Montrose

http://www.npg.org.uk/about/press/queen-elizabeth-i-press.php

]]> http://www.anne-boleyn.com/eng/anne-boleyns-face/feed/ 4 http://www.anne-boleyn.com/eng/anne-boleyn-the-rival-of-venus/ http://www.anne-boleyn.com/eng/anne-boleyn-the-rival-of-venus/#comments Fri, 14 Oct 2011 19:49:57 +0000 Sylwia http://www.anne-boleyn.com/eng/?p=40

Detail from Boticelli's 'Birth of Venus'

We can certainly say that Anne Boleyn was not considered beautiful in her times. Typical beauty at Tudor court had blonde hair, pale skin and blue eyes, and Anne had dark complexion, dark hair and enchanting ‘black eyes’. She certainly was not a typical ‘English Rose’ but she was different and interesting. In her book ‘Six Wives of Henry VIII’ Alison Weir states that ;

‘Even King Francis was smitten by the fascinating Anne, and wrote :

Venus était blonde, on m’a dit:

L’on voit bien, qu’elle est brunette.’[1]

‘Venus was blonde, I’ve been told: Now I see that she’s a brunette!’  I was always very curious about this quote, and I never came across the information that Francis I was actually referring to Anne Boleyn.  Dr. Susan Bordo’s recent article made me question this quote once again and I decided to immerse myself into the primary sources and books, to find out whether King Francis was referring to Anne Boleyn when speaking about Venus.

In her book Alison Weir does not cite the reference so it is really hard to get to primary sources. Weir only gives us a hint:

‘For the duration of her stay in France, see Herbert, and also Emmanuel von Meteren’s Histoire des Pays Bas: Crispin, Lord of Milherve’s Metrical History (1618) ; Epistre contenant le process criminal fait a lencontre de la Royne Boullant d’Angleterre by Lancelot de Carles, Clement Marot, and Crispin de Milherve (1545 ; included in La Grande Bretagne devant l’Opinion Francaise by G.Ascoli, Paris, 1927), Histoire de la Royne Anne de Boullant (MS. In the Biblioteque Nationale, Paris, before 1550) ; and Charles de Bourgevilles Les Recherches et Antiquites de la Province de Neustrie’ (1583).’[2]

In her book ‘Anne Boleyn: a young Queen to be’ Josephine Wilkinson states that :

‘In matters of dress her tastes were said to have been adopted by other ladies, although, we are assured, none looked so well as Anne, who was described as the rival of Venus’ [3]

The Birth of Venus, Boticelli

Unfortunately Josephine Wilkinson does not cite her reference. She moves on and quotes Agnes Strickland’s description of Anne Boleyn’s costume, so I immediately thought that I will find more information about Venus in Agnes Strickland’s ‘Lives of the queens of England’ but unfortunately there is no mention about Francis I’s quote.

For me personally the best source of informations about Anne Boleyn is her biography by professor Eric Ives : ‘The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn’. Prof. Ives does not refer to French king’s alleged quote about Anne Boleyn as Venus. However in Ives’s biography we found few connections between Anne Boleyn and Venus ;

-          In George Cavendish’s ‘The Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey’ Cavendish writes about Anne ;

‘Thus passed the cardinal his life and time, from day to day, and year to year, in such great wealth, joy, and triumph, and glory, having always on his side the king’s especial favour; until Fortune, of whose favour no man is longer assured than she is disposed, began to wax something wroth with his pro- sperous estate, thought she would devise a mean to abate his high port; wherefore she procured Venus, the insatiate goddess, to be her instrument. To work her purpose, she brought the king in love with a gentlewoman, that, after she perceived and felt the king‟s good will towards her, and how diligent he was both to please her, and to grant all her requests, she wrought the cardinal much displeasure; as hereafter shall be more at large declared. This gentlewoman, the daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn, being at that time but only a bachelor knight, the which after, for the love of his daughter, was promoted to higher dignities.’ [4]

-          During Anne Boleyn’s coronation there appeared a figure of Venus :

‘A child then capped what Paris had said by announcing that there was another reward prepared for Anne, the crown imperial, and hailing the queen as a demonstration of divine providence. The parting song to Anne concluded with the stanza:

The golden ball

Of price but small,

Have Venus shall,

The fair goddess,

Because it was

Too low and bare

For your good grace

And worthiness.’[5]

In Francis I’s quote about Venus, he says ‘Venus was blonde, I’ve been told: Now I see that she’s a brunette!’  . Although Anne Boleyn’s hair color is a matter of dispute, her admirer, Sir Thomas Wyatt wrote in one of his sonnets about mysterious ‘Brunet’. In her book ‘She Wolves: The Notorious Queens of England’ Elizabeth Norton states :

‘This Brunet is obviously Anne Boleyn and Wyatt’s original final line for this poem refers to ‘Her that did set our country in a rore’. There is no doubt that this refers to Anne.’[6]

Also professor Eric Ives thinks that ‘Brunet’ must be Anne Boleyn.

Thomas Wyatt referred to Anne Boleyn as a 'Brunet'

So perhaps Francis I’s was referring to Anne Boleyn when he spoke about Venus being a ‘brunette’ but there is no evidence to back up this theory.  Perhaps he was referring to some other lady he was in love with, maybe he was speaking about one of his many mistresses?

Another possibility is that Francis I was referring to actress who played Venus in 1520 ;

‘Then in 1520 came the entry into Cognac of Queen Claude, with Anne Boleyn almost certainly in attendance. Claude was met by Mercury, who declared that the gods had come down to greet her, and her cavalcade encountered first Diana and her nymphs, and then Apollo, before being arrested by flames issuing from the forge of Vulcan. Next Venus arrived, followed by Saturn, Jupiter and Mars. At the city’s river bridge, Neptune appeared, escorted by dolphins, and when dusk fell, Pluto, Cerberus, Charon and the Furies.’[7]

I will ‘dig’ more about this matter and keep you updated, so stay tunes.

Modern interpretation of Anne Boleyn by Alexandre Jubran

Anne Boleyn was accused of adultery, incest, treason and plotting to kill a king. But among charges against her, also witchcraft was brought up. Why was Anne accused of witchcraft? Did she had something in common with ‘dark powers’?

In her book ‘The Lady in the Tower : the Fall of Anne Boleyn’ , Alison Weir states that ;

‘At that time witchcraft was not an indictable offence; it was not until 1542 that an act was passed under Henry Viiii making it a secular crime, and it did not become a capital offence until 1563, under Elizabeth I. Prior to that, the penalty for witchcraft had been determined according to evidence of actual criminality, which proof of evil deed being necessary to obtain a conviction; in the cases of persons of high rank, there was often a suspicion of treason against the Crown’.[1]

In England, Scotland and Ireland, between 1542 and 1735 a series of Witchcraft Acts enshrined into law the punishment (often with death, sometimes with incarceration) of individuals practising, or claiming to practice witchcraft and magic. [2] Witchcraft was the alleged use of magical or supernatural powers to harm people or their property. It was also widely believed that witches were in league with Devil. During the times when people did not know how to explain unexplained, they tend to believe in dark powers.

Effigies of Joan of Navarre and Henry IV

But Anne Boleyn was not the first great lady ever accused of witchcraft. First was Joan of Navarre. She was Duchess consort of Brittany and Queen consort of England. She was not very popular among English people, mainly because she was a foreigner. In 1419 Joan of Navarre was imprisoned on trumped-up charges of sorcery. She was released in 1422. In ‘She Wolves: The Notorious Queen of England’ Elizabeth Norton states ;

‘During the reign of her stepson, Henry V, her reputation took a dramatic turn for the worse when she was accused of plotting to murder the king through sorcery and spent several years in prison. Little evidence was ever presented to explain Joan’s arrest and, as the example of Joan’s stepdaughter-in-law Eleanor Cobham shows, an accusation of witchcraft was a covenient way of attacking a royal woman in the fiteenth century. Joan was certainly no witch but, as a foreigner in a troubled period, she was an easy target, just as her predecessors, such as Eleanor of Provence and Isabella of France had found’.

The penance of Eleanor Cobham : she had to walk barefoot and barheaded and carrzing a candle weighing two pounds

Another example was Eleanor Cobham, wife of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, Henry V’s youngest brother and Henry VI’s uncle and heir apparent. She was arrested in 1441 and accused of using potions supplied by famous ‘Witch of Eye’ Margery Jourdemayne, to make Gloucester fall in love with and marry her. Eleanor also asked the atrologers, Thomas Southwell and Roger Bolingbroke, if her husband would suceed the king. In his book ‘Elizabeth Woodville: Mother of Prnces in the Tower’, David Baldwin states that ;

‘The three magicians had apparently made a wax image which the prosecution alleged was of the King and design to procure his death (by melting it)m but which Eleanor said represented a baby and was intended only to help her bear a child.’[4]

In the end Eleanor’s marriage was dissolved ‘on the premise that , by using witchcraft, she had interfered with Duke Humphrey’s freedom of choice.’[5] Margarey Jourdemayne was sentenced to death by burning at Smithfield, Thomas Southwell died in prison, and Roger Bolingbroke was hanged, drawn and quartered. What about Eleanor Cobham? She had to do a public penance in London, and was condemned to life inprisonment on the Isle of Man.

Depiction of first meeting between Elizabeth Woodville and Edward IV

Edward IV’s Queen consort, beautiful Elizabeth Woodville, was also accused of witchcraft. She was the first commoner (the second one was Anne Boleyn) to become Queen consort of England. Elizabeth was considered beautiful so it is no wonder that king Edward IV fell in love with her. The tradition says that Elizabeth heard that the king was hunting in Whittelwood Forest ans she waited under the Oak tree with her two sons from first marriage. After her husband’s death Elizabeth found herself in a difficult financial position so her goal was to ask king for help. And when he rode by she threw herself at his feet and Edward fell in love with her.

In the beggining Edward IV did not plan to marry Elizabeth Woodville. He wanted her simply as his mistress. But she did not agreed and the king married her in a great secret.

‘To many of her contemporaries it was unthinkable that the king would have freely chosen to marry a woman so far beneath him and there were rumours of witchcraft and seduction which marred Elizabeth’s reputation both during her lifetime and afterwards. Elizabeth’s detractors were simply unable to believe that the couple could have been motivated only by love and this critisism of Elizabeth was something that her greatest enemy, Richard III, was happy to publicise during his reign’.[6]

Also Elizabeth’s mother, Jacquetta of Luxembourg, was accused of using sorcery to help her daughter. Certainly neither Elizabeth nor her mother were guilty of witchcraft ; such an accusation was a powerful tool in hands of their political enemies.

And what about Anne Boleyn? Henry VIII claimed that he was ‘bewitched’ by her and this is the reason why they married. We can easily assume, that people did not had an explanation why did Henry VIII married Anne Boleyn ; today we know that he fell in love with her, but in times when kings always married for political reasons, they would find in witchcraft an explanation of why Henry had turned his back from Catherine of Aragon and married Anne Boleyn.

The only ‘proof’ of Anne Boleyn’s witchcraft might be a story about deformed foetus. In January 1536, Anne Boleyn miscarried a child, imperial ambassador Chapuys wrote that it was ‘ a male about three months and a half old’. [7] Eric Ives statest that ;

‘Some sixteenth-century moralists did associate witches with monstrous births, so fantasizing about a ‘deformed foetus’ has led to historians speculating about a link between Anne’s fall and an accusation of witchcraft.’[8]

It was Nicolas Sander, author of theories about Anne’s six fingers, moles and projecting tooth, who wrote that in January 1536  she miscarried a ‘shapeless mass of flesh’ but yet we have no eveidence from Anne’s contemporaries who knew much about queen’s miscarriage.

Anne Boleyn, Hever Castle

‘No deformed foetus was mentioned  at the time or later in Henry’s reign, despite Anne’s disgrace. In Mary’s reign, when there was every motive and opportunity to blacken Anne, the substantial anti-Boleyn material which appeared in England said nothing. Nor was any such report known to the more raffish European Catholic sources nor to William Thomas, a Protestant writer hostile to Anne. Lacking all corroboration, the appearance of the story forty years after the event must be dismissed as a Sander promotion designed to support his description of Anne as a misshapen monster. It is as little worthy of credence as his assertion that Henry VIII was Anne’s father.’[9]

What exactly did Henry VIII meant when he said that he was ‘bewitched’ by Anne? Eric Ives argues that he perhaps meant that he was ‘deceived’  by her. Eric Ives wrote very important thing ;

‘In any case, alleging witchcraft was a commonplace excuse for foolish male behaviour.’[10]

Henry VIII could not admit that he was wrong about woman he so passionately fought for almost 7 years. The easiest way was to blame her and and tell everyone that she ‘bewitched’ him although Henry might not think about being ‘bewitched’ in a magical sense. Chapuys wrote in 1533 that ‘this accursed lady has so enchanted and bewitched him that he will not dare to do anything against her will’ [11] and he meant that Henry was so madly in love with Anne rather than accusing Anne of being a witch. The most probable explanation is that Henry wanted to blame Anne and that is why he though he was ‘bewitched’ but, as professor Ives points out, he might meant that he was ‘deceived’ by Anne.

Anne’s alleged sexual offences were also connected with accusations of witchcraft. It was a common believe that witches used spells and charms to entice men into marriage, that they had a power to cause impotence (and Anne was said to speak to Lady Rochford about Henry’s sexual problems) and that they were lustful. But Anne Boleyn was certainly not a witch – the accusations against her were false, and her fall was very much about the fall of the whole Boleyn faction.

Women that I have described in this article have few things in common – they were misunderstood and slandered in their times, because with their beauty and inteligence they were noticed by powerful men. The example of Elizabeth Woodville and Anne Boleyn proves that a man in love risk everything just to get woman he wanted. In times when kings were married for politics, Edward IV and Henry VIII married for love, putting their country in chaos. And then the rumours started – but not rumours about king’s behaviour, but against a woman who ‘enchanted’ him. The accusations of witchcraft were very convenient way of accusing a royal lady – how else could they explain that the king married a simple woman with no political agenda, forgetting about consequences and common sense?

Why do you think women are blamed for men’s foolishness? It looks like in history it was a common practice.