What did Elizabeth I think of her mother, Anne Boleyn?

 Did Elizabeth I and her mother, Anne Boleyn, have much of a relationship? Anne was executed when Elizabeth was just a young girl – but that didn't mean Elizabeth just forgot about her. So what did she think about her mother?


On 19 May 1536, Queen Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII, was executed by beheading within the confines of the Tower of London. She had been queen for just three years.

Elizabeth was two years and eight months old when her mother was beheaded on 19 May 1536, four months after Catherine of Aragon's death from natural causes. Elizabeth was declared illegitimate and deprived of her place in the royal succession.Eleven days after Anne Boleyn's execution, Henry married Jane Seymour. Elizabeth was placed in his household and carried the chrisom, or baptismal cloth, at his christening

Anne and Henry’s daughter, Elizabeth – who became Queen Elizabeth  in 1558 – was just a small child at the time of her mother’s death. So how did Elizabeth I view Anne as she grew up?

“The popular misconception is that Elizabeth didn’t really regard her mother at all; she only mentioned twice in her life. In fact, Elizabeth mentioned her a good deal more than that.

“But you can see why Elizabeth didn’t make a song and dance about her mother. She would have been upsetting swathes of the population by aligning herself to a woman who’d gone down as a scandal (as the ‘great whore’, as she was known). So Elizabeth had to be careful not to associate too closely with her.

Elizabeth expressed her loyalty in subtle ways. She promoted her Boleyn relatives at court and she wore Anne's jewellery

“That said, Elizabeth expressed her loyalty in subtle ways. She promoted her Boleyn relatives at court and she wore Anne’s jewellery. For example, she had a locket ring that contained two portraits, one of Elizabeth and the other of Anne.

“That locket ring was kept in a locked casket by Elizabeth until the day she died. It was clearly one of her most treasured possessions.”

Commentaires

Enregistrer un commentaire

Posts les plus consultés de ce blog

Thomas Boleyn: why Anne Boleyn’s father was more than a grasping courtier

  In the wake of such grisly events, the Boleyn name seemed to offer a moral lesson in what could happen to those whose ambition enticed them to rise ‘above their station’. History has relegated the story of the Boleyns to a soap opera – and Anne’s father, Thomas, is often the villain of the piece, widely derided as a callous, grasping courtier who would stop at nothing to advance his own interests. Such accusations were first levelled at Thomas during his own lifetime, put about by supporters of  Henry VIII ’s first queen,  Catherine of Aragon , who despised Anne. And those accusations stuck. One modern historian famously remarked that, on his way to an earl dom, Thomas “slipped, or appears to have slipped, two daughters in succession into the king’s bed”. (The other daughter was Anne’s sister,  Mary Boleyn , who was  Henry VIII’s mistress , and may have borne him two children). But of all the barbs directed at Thomas, perhaps the most damaging is the one that he blithely accepted the
Lire la suite

WHY WAS IVAN SO TERRIBLE?

  Today, the word ‘terrible’ can be used to describe anything from a particularly bad meal to a natural disaster that kills millions of people. Back in the 16th Century when it was a nickname bestowed on   the Russian ruler Ivan IV,   it specifically meant ‘awe-inspiring’, ‘powerful’ and ‘formidable’. However, if we examine the reign of one of the most paranoid, bloodthirsty and unpredictable men who has ever ruled the country, maybe the modern definition of ‘extremely bad’ isn’t so wide of the mark after all? So, what exactly made Ivan so terrible? The seeds of the dreadful human being Ivan would become were sewn in his miserable childhood. His father, Vasili the Grand Prince of Moscow, died when Ivan was just three years old and his mother passed away when he was eight. The young prince then became the object of power struggles between various members of the nobility, in particular, the powerful Shuisky and Belesky families. While the royal court descended into a dangerous chaos of m
Lire la suite

George and Anne Boleyn: their real relationship explored

Image
  Brother to the ill-fated Anne Boleyn, second queen of Henry VIII, George Boleyn is best-known for his arrest and subsequent execution for treason. But how close was he to his royal sister, really?  George Boleyn remains elusive through the distant mirror of the centuries, often pushed to the sidelines. For 500 years he has lived in the shadows of his more glamorous sisters, Anne and Mary Boleyn – and, until his arrest for treason in the spring of 1536, he did exactly the same in his own lifetime. As a young man, George sought to carve out a career as a diplomat – with help, no doubt, from his father, Thomas Boleyn – but struggled to be taken seriously. Every advance he made in his career was attributed, not to his own merits, but the influence of his royal sister, Anne Boleyn. In fact, George was an intelligent, literate and artistic young man with a flair for languages and a charismatic personality. He loved jousting and hawking, and cultivated a reputation for being a skilled sport
Lire la suite