Just ten days ago I was paying my respects to Queen Anne Boleyn at the Tower of London on the anniversary of her execution and now I’m writing about what must have been a happy and exciting time for Anne. Just three years separated these anniversaries.
After around six years of waiting, Anne Boleyn was preparing for her coronation and she was pregnant with her first child. Not only that, but the previous day Archbishop Thomas Cranmer had proclaimed the validity of her marriage to Henry VIII. She was the rightful Queen of England!
On 29th May 1533, the celebrations for Anne Boleyn’s coronation kicked off with a spectacular river pageant on the Thames. The procession of barges began at Billingsgate and the queen was picked up at Greenwich and escorted to the Tower of London, where she would reside before her coronation procession on 31st May. The pageant must have been a wonderful sight as it comprised over 300 barges, a fire-breathing dragon, monsters and wild men, and a representation of Anne’s falcon badge.
Picture: Anne Boleyn’s falcon badge, copyright The Anne Boleyn Files. This was recreated from the badge depicted in a manuscript prepared for Anne by her brother George.
