After an unrequited courtship that largely involved her fending off the advances of King Henry VIII, the posthumously famous Anne Boleyn finally agreed to pursue her, culminating in marriage in 1533. Little did she know that this marriage would set off a series of events that would have disastrous consequences for the British monarchy, as it ushered in the period that is now known as the ‘ English Reformation ‘ , changing the history of the empire forever. Anne Boleyn is now in the news again for a rediscovered symbol of hers – an original heraldic ornament in the shape of a gilded oak bird, The Art Newspaper reports.
The emblem, a small white and yellow bird, wearing a crown, holding a scepter and perched uncomfortably on some Tudor roses, is almost unrecognizable under a coat of black paint and centuries of wax , dirt, soot and grime. It was auctioned as an ‘antique wooden bird’ to Paul Fitzsimmons of Marhamchurch Antiques for just $101 (or £75), estimated to be 2,700 times less than its actual value! It is now on long-term lease to Hampton Court Palace and went on display earlier this month, to mark the 500th anniversary of when Henry VIII first met her.
“I didn’t know straight away that it was Anne Boleyn’s coat of arms,” the Devon antiques dealer told The Guardian . The expert on early English oak added: “But I know that it has some connection to royalty because it has a crown and a scepter, and it is a royal bird.”
South facade of Hampton Court Palace, home of King Henry VIII. (Mark Percy / CC BY-SA 2.0 )
Anne Boleyn: Queen among queens?
Tracy Borman, a leading historian of the Tudor period and joint curator of the Royal Palaces of History, the charity that manages Hampton Court, said:
“The irony is that Anne Boleyn was the most popular of the six wives and she is perhaps the one with the least evidence of survival… because she was wiped out by Henry. So that makes this really quite special and obviously I’m very excited about it. When I realized how perfectly this matched the decor, I had a chilling moment.”
An early 20th century painting by Anne Boleyn, depicting her deer hunting with the king. (Public domain)
As his second wife, Anne Boleyn held a position secondary to Queen Catherine of Aragon, but when Catherine died prematurely in January 1536, an overjoyed Henry and Anne celebrated. These celebrations were cut short because later that month, Anne would miscarry a third child (the reason remains unclear), believed to be a male child, which sent Henry into a rage of despair. looking for a male heir.
On May 2, 1536, Anne was arrested on trumped-up charges of adultery, incest, and conspiracy, and was executed later that month. Her failure to bear the king a male heir was considered by Henry to be an unforgivable sin, although incidentally, her daughter, the future Queen Elizabeth I, would ascend the throne in 1558, until when she died in 1603, closing the chapter of the Tudor dynasty with her. . She was just over 2 years old when her mother was executed and she was declared illegitimate. Her father would marry four more times.
Anne Boleyn in the Tower’ by Édouard Cibot. (Public domain)
Boleyn’s historical importance cannot be underestimated – she not only became a legendary, cult figure after her death, but also a symbol of the corruption and utter indifference of the court England, but she also unintentionally caused the historical split between the English and Roman Churches. The Pope refused to annul Henry’s marriage to Catherine, causing the hot-tempered and short-sighted Tudor king to break off relations with Rome.
The Heraldic Falcon and its surviving legacy
Around the time Henry married Anne, she began using a coat of arms with a falcon perched on a rose. The reason she used this symbol is because her father, Thomas Boleyn, was heir to the Butlers, Earl of Ormonde, who used the falcon on their coat of arms, The Smithsonian reported. Bormans added that the symbolic bird was no different from other birds carved before Anne’s accession.
The Anne Boleyn falcon icon is one of many ’tilted’ around Hampton Court Palace. (Paul Fitzsimmons / Marhamchurch Antiques)
They perched, literally, on the ceiling of Hampton Court Great Hall, where they may have escaped Henry’s attention due to being blackened by black smoke. This symbol may have been in Anne’s private quarters, kept safe by one of the late Queen’s supporters. And there’s a significant difference between what’s on the ceiling and what’s in her private quarters, as Tracy Borman has noted.
“This person wears a royal crown. It was quite a nod to the fact that Henry now had imperial ambitions. He was trying to replace papal authority, promoting himself as some kind of emperor instead of just a king,” Borman explained. She has written in more detail in her forthcoming book, Crown & Scepter, a history of the British monarchy.
Sebastian Edwards, deputy curator at the Royal Palace of History, added that it may be years before a roof-height scaffolding can be set up to compare the work with living people. survivors, said to number 43 people. However, he is pleased with the current findings and optimistic about what the future holds.
“The evidence that emerged during our research gives great weight to the theory, especially that there is one less falcon than we would expect in the surviving decoration scheme. In any case, this is an extremely rare example of Tudor royal decoration, steeped in the legend of Henry’s most famous Queen,” he concluded.
