Anne Boleyn was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and execution by beheading for treason, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that marked the start of the English Reformation.
Jane Seymour was Queen of England as the third wife of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 30 May 1536 until her death the next year. She became queen following the execution of Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn, who was accused by King Henry VIII of adultery after failing to produce the male heir he so desperately desired. Jane, however, died of postnatal complications less than two weeks after the birth of her only child, the future King Edward VI. She was the only wife of Henry to receive a queen's funeral; and he was later buried alongside her remains in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.
Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wiltshire, 1st Earl of Ormond, 1st Viscount RochfordKGKB, of Hever Castle in Kent, was an English diplomat and politician who was the father of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII, and was thus the maternal grandfather of Queen Elizabeth I. By Henry VIII he was made a knight of the Garter in 1523 and was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Rochford in 1525 and in 1529 was further ennobled as Earl of Wiltshire and Earl of Ormond.
Hever Castle is located in the village of Hever, Kent, near Edenbridge, 30 miles (48 km) south-east of London, England. It began as a country house, built in the 13th century. From 1462 to 1539, it was the seat of the Boleyn family.
In common parlance, the wives of Henry VIII were the six queens consort of King Henry VIII of England between 1509 and his death in 1547. In legal terms, Henry had only three wives, because three of his marriages were annulled by the Church of England. He was never granted an annulment by the Pope, as he desired, however, for Catherine of Aragon, his first wife. Annulments declare that a true marriage never took place, unlike a divorce, in which a married couple end their union. Along with his six wives, Henry took several mistresses.
The Other Boleyn Girl is a 2008 historical romantic drama film directed by Justin Chadwick. The screenplay by Peter Morgan was adapted from Philippa Gregory’s 2001 novel of the same name. It is a fictionalised account of the lives of 16th-century aristocrats Mary Boleyn, one-time mistress of King Henry VIII, and her sister, Anne, who became the monarch's ill-fated second wife.
Henry VIII is a two-part British television serial produced principally by Granada Television for ITV from 12 to 19 October 2003. It chronicles the life of Henry VIII of England from the disintegration of his first marriage to an aging Spanish princess until his death following a stroke in 1547, by which time he had married for the sixth time. Additional production funding was provided by WGBH Boston, Powercorp and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Sir William Boleyn, KB of Blickling Hall in Norfolk and Hever Castle in Kent, was a wealthy and powerful landowner who served as Sheriff of Kent in 1489 and as Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk in 1500. He was the father of Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, whose daughter was Queen Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII.
Lady Margaret Boleyn was an Irish noblewoman, the daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond. She married Sir William Boleyn and through her eldest son Sir Thomas Boleyn, was the paternal grandmother of Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII of England, and great-grandmother of Anne and Henry's daughter, Elizabeth I of England.
Sir Geoffrey Boleyn was an English merchant and politician who served as Lord Mayor of London from 1457 to 1458. He purchased the manor of Blickling, near Aylsham, in Norfolk from Sir John Fastolf in 1452, and Hever Castle in Kent in 1462. He was the great-grandfather of Queen Anne Boleyn, the mother of Queen Elizabeth I. Sir Geoffrey built the domestic, mercantile and civic fortunes of the Boleyn family, and raised its status from the provincial gentry, as his brother Thomas Boleyn made a career of distinction in church and university, together building the family's wealth, influence and reputation.
Anne, Lady Shelton née Boleyn was a sister of Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, and one of the aunts of his daughter, Queen Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII.
Sir John Shelton of Shelton in Norfolk, England, was a courtier to King Henry VIII. Through his marriage to Anne Boleyn, a sister and co-heiress of Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire of Blickling Hall in Norfolk, he became an uncle of Queen Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII. He was appointed comptroller of the joint household of Princesses Mary and Elizabeth, the King's daughters, and together with his wife was Governor to the King's children.
Mary Boleyn, also known as Lady Mary, was the sister of English queen consort Anne Boleyn, whose family enjoyed considerable influence during the reign of King Henry VIII.
Elizabeth Tilney, Countess of Surrey was an English heiress who became the first wife of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk. She served successively as a lady-in-waiting to two Queen consorts, namely Elizabeth Woodville, wife of King Edward IV, and later as Lady of the Bedchamber to that Queen's daughter, Elizabeth of York, the wife of King Henry VII. She stood as joint godmother to Princess Margaret Tudor at her baptism.
Catherine Howard, also spelt Katheryn Howard, was Queen of England from 1540 until 1541 as the fifth wife of King Henry VIII. She was the daughter of Lord Edmund Howard and Joyce Culpeper, a cousin to Anne Boleyn, and the niece of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. Thomas Howard was a prominent politician at Henry's court, and he secured her a place in the household of Henry's fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, where she caught the King's interest. She married him on 28 July 1540 at Oatlands Palace in Surrey, just 19 days after the annulment of his marriage to Anne. He was 49, and she was between 15 and 21 years old, though it is widely accepted that she was 17 at the time of her marriage to Henry VIII.
Elizabeth Norton is a British historian specialising in the queens of England and the Tudor period. She obtained a Master of Arts in archaeology and anthropology from the University of Cambridge, being awarded a Double First Class degree, and a master's degree in European archaeology from the University of Oxford. She is the author of thirteen non-fiction books.
Claire Ridgway is a British historian and author of books about the Tudor dynasty, with a particular focus on the life of the Boleyn family. Since 2009 she has run the websites TheAnneBoleynFiles.com and Elizabethfiles.com. In 2014, Claire founded The Tudor Society.
Lauren Mackay is an Australian historian, author, and lecturer specialising in the Tudor period and the broader early modern world.
The coronation of Anne Boleyn as Queen of England took place at Westminster Abbey, London, England, on 1 June 1533. The new queen was King Henry VIII's second wife, following the annulment of his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
Tudor Royal Progresses were an important way to for the Tudor monarchs to consolidate their rule throughout England. Following his victory at the Battle of Bosworth in August 1485, the first Tudor monarch, Henry VII, ensured his coronation, called a parliament, married Elizabeth of York – all in London before embarking on his first Royal Progress in March 1486. The last Tudor Royal Progress took place in summer 1602, as Elizabeth I, the last Tudor monarch died in March 1603.
