The Tudor Chest - The Podcast The Tudor Chest Podcast

Dr Estelle Paranque is a historian and Associate Professor at Northeastern University London. She joins me today for a discussion all about her latest book, Thorns, Lust and Glory - The Betrayal of Anne Boleyn. In this book, we see that Anne’s destruction was not so entirely determined by the machinations of Thomas Cromwell, but in part owing to the huge shifts in European power politics at the time. It is this, which Estelle discusses, that tells us how much greater the storm around Anne Boleyn actually was, and that in the end, she was betrayed not only by her husband, but by people from across Europe who had once been firm and trusted allies.

On the 1st June 1533 it finally happened - Anne Boleyn was crowned queen of England. This was the culmination of a seven year long legal battle to break King Henry VIII away from his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and in so doing make her former lady in waiting, Anne Boleyn, his second wife and queen. Anne’s coronation would turn out to be one of the most spectacular and ostentatious events of the entire tudor era, culminating in her crowning at Westminster Abbey. It was a four day bonanza of pageants, parties and pomp, but at its core, was a young woman, six months pregnant with the future Queen Elizabeth I, so what actually happened on this momentous day? What were the pageants, and why was Anne Boleyn given a singular honour not seen before or since - to be crowned with St Edwards crown, as if she were a monarch in her own right.

Jacquetta of Luxembourg, known more commonly as Jacquetta Woodville was a prominent, though often overlooked, figure in the Wars of the Roses as the mother of the first Yorkist queen, Elizabeth Woodville. Jacquetta’s story is fascinating in its own right, and she would become a central player in the period we now call the wars of the roses. Soon however, Jacquetta would be fighting for her life, when accusations of witchcraft were levied against her by those who wished to oust her from a position of influence, but how did it come to this in the first place? What was Jacquetta’s early life like, and why is her story one all but overlooked by history?

Perhaps the most significant and infamous period from Anne Boleyn’s life is of course her execution. When people think Anne Boleyn, they invariably go straight to the fact that she had her head cut off on her husbands orders. As such, it is natural that Anne’s execution is a staple part of any on screen depiction of the queen. Be it in film or television, Anne Boleyn's final moments on the scaffold have been portrayed many times, but do any of these depictions actually show the execution in an accurate light? Do any get it completely right, and which are way off the mark? As we are in May and just days after the anniversary of Anne’s execution, in this weeks episode of the Tudor Chest podcast, I will look at the many depictions of the most famous moment from Anne Boleyn's life, and ascertain whether any actually portray it as it happened on the faithful day, the 19th May 1536.

On the 19th May 1536 what should have been the unthinkable took place. A queen of England was executed, on the orders of a man who had once been obsessed with her, her own husband. The women was Anne Boleyn and her husband was, of course, King Henry VIII. In my last main episode I discussed Anne Boleyn’s trial, and in the last subscriber episode I discussed her arrest, and so today, I will discuss the final concluding chapter in the horrors of May 1536, when the Queen of England was beheaded.

On the 15th May 1536, Queen Anne Boleyn stood before a crowd of 2,000 spectators at the Tower of London, on trial for her life. Accused of adultery with five men, including her own brother, and plotting the death of the king, the charges could hardly have been more grave. To discuss what happened on this remarkable day in history, I am pleased to welcome historian, author and all round Anne Boleyn expert, Claire Ridgway onto the show. She joins me today to unpick what must surely be the most explosive court case ever held at the Tower of London, a case which would end with the queen of England suffering the ultimate punishment.