On this day in history, the Feast of the Conversion of St Paul, King Henry VIII finally married the woman whom he had been courting for the last six years, Anne Boleyn.
The marriage took place early in the morning of 25th January 1533 at Whitehall Palace, formerly York Place and the property that the couple had refurbished following the fall of Cardinal Wolsey, its previous owner. The ceremony was performed by Rowland Lee and was a low-key wedding with the king and queen being attended by Henry Norris and Thomas Heneage of the king’s privy chamber, and Anne Savage, Lady Berkeley.
The wedding was kept secret and Eustace Chapuys, the imperial ambassador, didn’t hear about it until about a month after it took place. Of course, Henry VIII’s first marriage had not been officially annulled yet.
