**View of Hever Castle, Anne Boleyn’s childhood home from its grounds (Personal photo, 2025).**

Editor’s Note: This blog was produced for Emily’s MA Public History project Period Dramas: Site and Screen. The blogs utilized on its interactive map use Hidden Histories as its host platform.

Key Locations:

📍Hever Castle

For someone who so desperately wanted a male heir, Henry VIII’s reign was, ironically, defined by women. As a six-time husband and father to two of the most famous queens to ever sit upon the English throne, there is no separating Henry from his female family members. One of the most recognizable of these is Anne Boleyn, the woman for whom he broke from the Catholic church to marry in the 1530s. Anne was his second queen and mother to the future Elizabeth I, one of the most glorified English monarchs in history.

As a native Englishwoman, Anne had significant ties to both the political and physical landscape of England in the Tudor period. Both came to a head at Hever Castle, Anne Boleyn’s childhood home and where she spent much of her time during Henry VIII’s courtship. While it is a peaceful day-out for visitors to the Kentish countryside today, tranquil Hever saw the impassioned foundations of a marriage that would change the trajectory of British history.

Many of those events directly pertain to Anne and her unconventional personality for the period. Anne has received significant reconsideration in the centuries following her execution, with several historians giving her credit as a politician and feminist icon in her own right, yet several question how it was that Anne sustained Henry VIII’s attention in the first place. After all, her own sister, Mary, had been mistress to Henry and had fallen out of favor by the time Anne came on the scene. While her physical and personal charms certainly contributed to Henry’s interest, Henry’s relationship to another woman could be key in understanding why Anne was so appealing to him: that woman is Elizabeth of York, Henry VIII’s beloved mother.

Elizabeth: The White Rose of York

Elizabeth of York was heiress to one of the two conflicting royal houses during the Wars of the Roses (1455-1485). When Lancastrian Henry Tudor won the crown at the Battle of Bosworth (1485), his marriage to Elizabeth was quickly arranged in order to unite the two bloodlines and end the infighting. While Elizabeth may appear to have been among the losing party, submitting herself instead as a docile queen at her husband’s side, she exerted her influence in many—albeit subtler—ways. This was primarily done through the education of her children, an education that would go on to influence Henry VIII’s values during his kingship that Anne appealed to.

**Flowers blooming in Hever Castle’s gardens (Personal photo, 2025).**

As Henry VIII was originally the second son, his education fell under Elizabeth’s direct jurisdiction, giving him extra contact with his mother compared to his older brother, Arthur. Elizabeth’s household was already a safe haven for former Yorkist servants (she had even appointed the same head of household for Arthur as her brother, the future Edward V, once had). Young Henry VIII was therefore surrounded by those who favored the Yorkist tradition of kingship, one that was much more extravagant and romantic than his father’s frugal management proved to be. These values were instilled in Henry at Elizabeth’s bidding. Elizabeth of York herself was known to be especially learned—having grown up a Yorkist princess—and ensured to include the arts and language in Henry’s curriculum. These were two of the shared interests between Henry and Anne Boleyn, interests that began under Elizabeth’s guidance.

The impact this education had on Henry was clear in his reign. Like Elizabeth of York’s father, Edward IV, Henry spent excessively on jousts and pageants to liven his court. He himself also composed and encouraged regular musical performances, some of which (like the famous “Greensleeves”) were likely written for Anne. From a governmental standpoint, several of his actions as king cited precedents set by Edward IV that were put in place during the height of Yorkist power in England. The extent of his exposure to these precedents is in large part due to Elizabeth, who ensured her family’s principles would be instilled wherever possible in her children’s tutelage. It was ultimately this Yorkist upbringing that Elizabeth of York fostered in Henry that may have endeared Anne’s unconventional personality to the king.

Like Mother, Like Daughter-in-Law?

While Elizabeth of York was known for her passivity and Anne for the opposite, connections between the two women could indicate why Henry became so invested in Anne. Both Elizabeth and Anne were praised for their cultured personalities. Elizabeth gained this exposure from a royal upbringing, which she then transferred to Henry. Anne, on the other hand, spent much of her youth in continental Europe, where she gained an appreciation for customs outside of England. As Anne was not known to be a typical beauty, it was her wit and intellect that caused her popularity at court. Henry, who had grown up with a mother with similar interests, may have found her refreshing and inline with the values he cultivated via Elizabeth of York.

Anne was also known to be adept at music, languages and dancing, all aspects Henry gravitated towards under Elizabeth of York’s education. Poignantly, it was at a pageant that Anne Boleyn first caught his eye. Given their similar interests and attributes, Anne would have embodied much of what Henry came to esteem in his court, which likely encouraged him to pursue her.

Anne was also a native Englishwoman, just as Elizabeth of York was. Like Elizabeth, Anne knew English courtiers and internal politics intimately, as she herself existed in that world. This insider knowledge of Henry’s government and court could have been seen as an asset of Anne’s. Henry grew up in the aftermath of a civil war that was resolved by the marriage of a king to an Englishwoman; his father, Henry VII, grew up in exile from England and relied heavily on Elizabeth’s knowledge to navigate courtly politics. Unlike Elizabeth of York, Henry’s first wife, Spanish-born Catherine of Aragon, initially relied on Henry to provide insight into the English court. Having an English queen who already knew the players—especially one whose opinion he trusted above most of his government officials—could have been appealing to Henry.

**View from the front of Hever Castle, where the “best bedroom” would have faced. It is likely Anne Boleyn stayed in that room during later trips to her countryside home. (Personal photo, 2025).**
***Editor’s Note: Each year on the anniversary of Anne’s death (May 19), Hever Castle opens her Book of Hours to the pages containing her inscriptions. It is well-worth the visit!***

Consequently, once seated on their thrones, both women used their position and knowledge to secure trust with their king and husband. Both Henry’s consulted their wives on an array of matters; whether or not Henry was fully aware of his parents’ dynamic growing up, he indirectly replicated something similar with Anne. Each woman used her unique set of charms to gain power with her husband: Elizabeth’s passivity and elegance gave her the trust she needed to dictate her household and the education of her children, while Anne used her passion and intellect to gain common ground with Henry to ultimately redefine the English theological system that was in place. While achieved in two vastly different manners, Anne inadvertently followed Elizabeth’s footsteps in becoming a vital confidant of her husband, the king, in a system where he had absolute power.

Family Ties

When Anne gave birth to her and Henry’s only surviving child, they named their daughter Elizabeth, harkening back to the child’s much-beloved grandmother. That they named their daughter after Elizabeth of York would have ensured some connection between the two women was not lost on Anne. While she never met Elizabeth of York, Anne likely understood the profound effect she had in shaping the king and man Henry VIII—her husband—became. What hindsight can reveal is just how much that upbringing influenced Henry’s attraction to, and subsequent promotion of, Anne Boleyn. Unfortunately for Anne, unlike Elizabeth of York, her impact on Henry soured with dire consequences.

Her family’s base at Hever Castle was a political tool Anne utilized, escaping there when Henry VIII’s pursuit proved too much or if she—as he accused her of—intentially put distance between them to increase his desire for her. That desire ultimately came to a screeching halt after charges of infidelity led to Anne’s downfall. Today, Hever Castle’s Long Gallery plays host to several portraits of Tudor royalty. Functioning as a timeline of sorts, visitors can physically trace the lineage of the Tudor court to Anne Boleyn, the Castle’s famous former inhabitant. While not directly linked in the display, it is a perfect setting to remember not just the time, but the more hidden influences, found between Elizabeth of York and Anne Boleyn’s time as Queen.

Like Mother, Like Daughter-in-Law? Hidden connections between Elizabeth of York and Anne Boleyn

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Like Mother, Like Daughter-in-Law? Hidden connections between Elizabeth of York and Anne Boleyn

Catherine Howard Revisited: Promiscuous Queen or Just Seventeen?

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