Let's take a closer look into the appearance of Anne Boleyn - the woman whose charms captivated the King to such an extent that he changed the monarchy and religious landscape of England forever.
For a woman who caught the eye of Henry VIII, and as a result, contributed to England's break with the Roman Catholic Church, the question of what Anne Boleyn looked like has always been a hotly debated topic.
Henry VIII was married to his first wife, Katherine of Aragon, at the time he met Anne Boleyn in 1522. Just over 10 years after meeting Anne, Henry had divorced his wife, was excommunicated by the Pope, had married Anne, and was paving the way to make himself Supreme Head of the brand new English Church. However, only a few short years after they were married in 1533, Anne was executed on the orders of Henry VIII.
Unlike Katherine of Aragon, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves and Katherine Parr, we do not have a contemporary painting of Anne Boleyn. This may seem strange, as Anne championed the renowned painter Hans Holbein the Younger, who was at court while Anne was Queen. However, it is highly likely that Henry VIII ordered all portraits of Anne to be destroyed after her execution, just as he ordered all traces of Anne's coat of arms and initials at Hampton Court Palace to be erased. Luckily for us, workmen didn't manage to erase all the traces of Anne, and many of these reminders of her can still be seen in the Great Hall at Hampton Court, in the gateway under Clock Tower, and on the roof of the palace.
Today, we often are presented with the idea that Anne wasn't the most beautiful woman at court, her wit and intellect making up for her underwhelming physical appearance. However, do contemporary sources justify this claim, and what do they say about her appearance?
Did Anne Boleyn have a sixth finger?
Anne's dizzying rise and catastrophic fall from power affected how people described Anne's appearance. From a sixth finger to a wen (swelling of the skin), many myths about Anne have been perpetuated since her death in 1536.
Where did the sixth finger reference come from? This can be traced back to Nicholas Sander's publication in 1585, which said this of Anne's appearance:
Anne Boleyn was rather tall of stature, with black hair, and an oval face of a sallow complexion, as if troubled with jaundice. She had a projecting tooth under the upper lip, and on her right hand six fingers.
There was a large wen under her chin, and therefore to hide its ugliness she wore a high dress covering her throat... She was handsome to look at, with a pretty mouth.(1)
His account of Anne is unflattering at best, in spite of his contradictory last sentence. However, a large reason to doubt his testimony is that he was a Catholic in a time when England had become a fully-fledged Protestant nation, under the reign of Elizabeth I. Many Catholics, such as Nicholas, were extremely unhappy about this change in religion and refused to conform to Protestantism and were persecuted and fined as a result.
Nicholas may have been attacking Anne's appearance and memory as a way to indirectly attack her daughter, Elizabeth I. Beyond Nicholas' religious affiliations, he was only 6 years old when Anne was executed, and he was writing this decades after her death, which doesn't make him the most reliable of witnesses.
It's safe to say, Nicholas hated what England had become, and despised Elizabeth for it. A very large pinch (or bucket) of salt is needed when reading his description of Anne.
However (yes, there's always a however), George Wyatt, a descendant of Thomas Wyatt who supposedly fell in love with Anne before she met Henry, described Anne's 'sixth finger' as follows:
'there was found... upon the side of her nail, upon one of her fingers some little show of a nail, which yet was so small, by the report of those that have seen her, as the work master seemed to leave it an occasion of greater grace to her hand, which, with the tip of one of her other fingers might be, and was usually by her hidden without any blemish to it.'(2)
It could be said then, that Anne had some sort of growth on one of her fingers. However, if it did indeed exist, it would need to be incredibly small and unnoticeable as her contemporaries did not mention it at the time. George, like Nicholas, was also writing about a woman he never met many, many years after she had died.
Contemporary Written Evidence of Anne's Appearance
What do written contemporary sources tell us about what Anne Boleyn looked like? Unlike the previous sources, these people lived at the same time as Anne and many would have seen her.
On the 10th of February in 1528, a Venetian diplomat commenting on what he had heard about Anne, described her as,
'Sir Thomas Boleyn's daughter, who is very beautiful' (3)
Lancelot de Carles, who was a French poet and diplomat, was in London in 1536 and witnessed Anne's trial and execution. He described Anne as,
'beautiful...with an elegant figure' (4)
On the 31st of October in 1532, Francesco Sanuto, a Venetian diplomat, stated that,
'Madam Anne is not one of the handsomest women in the world; she is of middling stature, swarthy complexion, long neck, wide mouth, bosom not much raised, and in fact has nothing but the English King's great appetite, and her eyes, which are black and beautiful'(5)
A cleric, John Barlow, described Anne as,
'reasonably good looking' (6)
All of these descriptions of Anne are from people who were alive during her lifetime, and many would have met her. Of course, beauty is subjective but from the evidence above Anne was hardly ugly or deformed as Nicholas Sander would have us believe.
From the written evidence, Anne had a slightly darker complexion (perhaps skin with yellow undertones), a full mouth, and very dark brown eyes.
Portraits of Anne Boleyn
What about the visual evidence for what Anne looked like? Sadly, we don't have a Holbein of Anne, or even a sketch or miniature which has been verified as Anne.
What we do have is a medal. The medal below is the only verified contemporary image we have of Anne. Made in 1534, a year after her coronation, it was supposedly made for the expected birth of her second child. Sadly, this pregnancy would result in a miscarriage. This is not the most detailed portrait, but the medal indicates Anne had high check bones, and an oval face.
The Chequers Ring is not a contemporary portrait of Anne, however we do know the ring was made around the 1570s. What makes the miniature portrait a convincing portrayal of Anne is that the ring was also owned and worn by Elizabeth I. Elizabeth would have known people who would have known Anne, and Elizabeth must have been convinced of this portrayal of her mother to have displayed it in this ring, which gives credit to the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) and Hever Castle portraits below as they follow the same pattern.
Image: The Chequers Ring. Property of The Chequers Trust. Accessed via The Telegraph (28 September 2021): https://www.telegraph.co.uk/art/what-to-see/elizabeth-versus-mary-queen-scots-royal-letter-rewrites-history/.
Holbein's Sketches
In the early 1530s Hans Holbein the Younger was at the court of Henry VIII and drew many, many portraits of those at court. Below are two sketches, drawn when Anne was Queen, which have been traditionally associated with Anne.
This sketch is now in the collection of the British Museum. The reason why people think this sketch depicts Anne Boleyn is the inscription to the left of the sketch.
It reads: “Anna Bullen de collata / Fuit Londini 19 May 1536”.
This sketch was identified as Anne Boleyn in the 17th century, however many now do not recognise this as a portrait of Anne.
Furthermore, the sitter's eyes are blue, and not black.
This sketch is in the collection of the Royal Collection Trust, and many state this is a more credible depiction of Anne.
Historians such as David Starkey, believe that Anne's 'wen' (double chin) in this sketch matches with Nicholas Sander's description of her. He also comments that her state of undress in the sketch shows her high status, as no other woman at court could take such liberties as to be sketched in this way. Holbein has also noted in the sketch that the woman is wearing a black nightgown, and Starkey believes that this is the black nightgown known to have been given to Anne by Henry.(7)
However, the inscription at the top of the paper is eighteenth century and not contemporary.
Paintings of Anne Boleyn
The paintings below were not painted during Anne's lifetime, however they may have been copied from a mysterious 'lost original' of Anne Boleyn. Supposedly, there was a verified portrait of Anne in the possession of Lord Lumley in 1590, which was in existence until 1773, until it vanishes off the record.
National Portrait Galley Portrait
This portrait, probably the most reproduced portrait of Anne Boleyn, is reportedly based on a lost original painting of the Queen from around 1533-1536.
Many support the credibility of this portrait because of Anne's french hood, which she was known to have worn. Also, the fact that many portraits, including the Chequers Ring, sport this depiction of the queen with her head turned to the left, wearing the french hood and wearing her 'B' necklace and black gown.
This painting has been dated to 1584.
Hever Castle Portrait
This portrait has many of the defining features of the NPG painting above, with a few alterations.
Anne is depicted as holding a rose, with a slightly different headdress and gown.
This portrait is 16th century, and has been tentatively dated to the 1550s.
It's similarities to the NPG and the Chequers Ring supports the argument they were all based on a lost original, and being painted within the living memory of Anne. This must have been a recognisable
depiction of Anne by those who
commissioned or purchased it afterward. Image: The Hever Rose Portrait of Anne Boleyn, © Hever Castle, Kent
Even if the Hever Rose portrait is the oldest painting we have of Anne, it certainly is not in the style of Holbein, which makes it probable Holbein painted the lost original of which the rest of Anne in a french hood are all copies.
Nidd Hall Portrait
This portrait is also supposedly from around the late 1500s.
Recently, due to facial recognition technology, this portrait has been identified as Anne Boleyn. Dr Roy Chowdhury, from the University of California, used 'The Most Happi' medal of 1534 as a foundation for Anne Boleyn's features, as the only verified contemporary portrait. The Nidd Hall painting matched these features displayed on the medal.(8)
Image: The Nidd Hall portrait, currently held at the
© Bradford Art Galleries and Museums
At a glance, apart from the lack of a cross necklace, the two do appear incredibly similar. Indeed, for the mould to be made for the medal, the designers must have had a sketch, or painting to work from.
Therefore, an existing portrait in 1534 may have shown Anne not in the famous french hood,
but in the English gable hood as shown in the Nidd Hall portrait.
John Hoskins Miniature
This seventeenth century miniature by John Hoskins the elder is also said to have been based on 'an ancient original' of Anne Boleyn. Was this the same lost painting the NPG portrait was based on?
It does follow the same pattern as the Hever Rose portrait, the NPG portrait, and the Chequers Ring, with some variations. Image: Anne Boleyn, John Hoskins,© Duke of Buccleuch & Queensberry KBE
Perhaps each artist picked and chose what elements of the lost portrait to keep, and which to dispose of.
Looking at the evidence, it is highly likely Anne was a brunette with very dark, almost black eyes. She was slim, and had an oval face with high cheekbones.
It is also highly likely the B necklace and French hood portrait was based on a lost original painted from life, potentially by Holbein. However, there may have also been another depiction of Anne wearing an English gable hood, like the Nidd Hall portrait.
Which of these portraits do you think has the closest resemblance to Anne?
Footnotes:
(1) Nicholas Saunders, 'Rise and Growth of the Anglican Schism', 1585, Chapter V, p. 25.
(2) Eric Ives, The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, 2004, p. 40.
(3) 'Venice: February 1528', in Calendar of State Papers Relating To English Affairs in the Archives of Venice, Volume 4, 1527-1533, ed. Rawdon Brown (London, 1871), pp. 118-125. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/venice/vol4/pp118-125 [accessed 30 April 2023].
(4) Eric Ives, The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, 2004, p. 40.
(5) Ibid.
(6) Ibid.
(7) An Old Tradition Reasserted: Holbein's Portrait of Queen Anne Boleyn Author(s): John Rowlands and David Starkey, The Burlington Magazine , Feb., 1983, Vol. 125, No. 959 (Feb., 1983), pp. 88-92.
(8) John von Radowitz, The Sydney Morning Herald, Feb 2015, https://www.smh.com.au/world/anne-boleyn-portrait-facial-recognition-technology-verifies-nidd-hall-image-20150216-13ftef.html [Accessed 01/05/2023].
Comments