A goddess to fill the royal nursery with Tudor sons

King Henry VIII met Anne von Cleves privately on New Year’s Day 1540 at Rochester Abbey on her journey from Dover.  The king, accompanied by his few courtiers, arrived at the abbey with the intention to woo his bride with courtly love.  He went to Anne’s rooms disguised, so Anne,...

A New Tudor Royal Wedding less than two weeks after Anne Boleyn’s execution

On the 30th of May 1536, King Henry VIII of England and Lady Jane Seymour were married at Whitehall palace at the Queen’s Closet.  Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, who had married Jane’s predecessor, now dead Anne Boleyn, and the Tudor monarch in the winter of 1533, conducted the quiet...

Thomas Cranmer’s letter to Henry VIII in Anne Boleyn’s defense

Ah, Anne Boleyn… Our Anne… Back then in May, she was deserted by everyone, even by her own father.  However, she still had one friend – Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury.  Cranmer adored and admired Anne, and he proclaimed King Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon null and void. ...

Poems of Anne Boleyn’s feelings before and after her coronation

During the coronation procession as Anne sees the people’s gloomy faces What shall this day bring to me, June?  A brilliance with every summer hue:  The cloud-white dream of happiness, Shot with the primrose sunshine through… Or shall my coronation bring me pain, People do not want me, their stillness...

A Tudor Tragedy: death of Little Prince Hal

On the 22nd of February, 1511, Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, experienced a devastating loss. Their infant son – Henry, Duke of Cornwall – died, suddenly and expectedly, at the age of only fifty-two days at Richmond Palace. The cause of his death was not recorded....

A fatal love triangle: King Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, and Jane Seymour (part 4)

the links to part 1, part 2, and part 3 of the series “A fatal love triangle: King Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, and Jane Seymour After the arrests of Anne and George Boleyn, and her other alleged paramours, tension was rising in the air, and the royal court froze in anticipation of the appalling...

The End of the Tudor Dynasty: Death of Queen Elizabeth I

On the 24th March of 1603, Queen Elizabeth I, the daughter of King Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn, died at Richmond Palace. She ruled England for almost 45 years. Often called the Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the second queen regnant in England, one of England’s...