Thank you so much to my dear friend and co-author Dr Owen Emmmerson of Hever Castle for the reminder that today is World Book Day. It’s the perfect excuse for me to spend the rest of the day reading, don’t you think?
In celebration of World Book Day, I thought I’d share this video of a day in my life that I will never ever forget – the day that Hever Castle kindly allowed me to hold and view Anne Boleyn’s books of hours. It was so special and I was incredibly excited and moved. These were books that Anne would have used several times of day for prayer. They were special to her. A big thank you to Hever Castle, Alison Palmer and Owen for making my dream come true, and also Owen for answering my questions.
Here’s the video:
Oh, and if you’re like me and you adore Hever Castle, you can get lots of special inside information by joining the Inside Hever Castle Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/InsideHeverCastle. I’m a member and I love it!
It really is a delight seeing these exquisite books of hours that once belonged to Anne Boleyn, the beautiful illustrations adorned with fruits and flowers all painted in the most gorgeous colours, the precious writings of Anne in them, all the more so because there are so few documents of her that have survived, I particularly love the illustration of Christ suffering on the cross where Henry V111 had written to Anne of his love, the picture of Christ’s torment reflects his own, Anne had written in French La temps viendra,( that is probably spelt wrong), which translated in English means ‘ the time will come’, she must have been thinking when she becomes queen at last, she also wrote to Henry she would be loving and kind, these two books of hours are housed at Hever Castle Anne’s family home, and it is a mystery how they came to be in her possession, only very wealthy people owned books like these and it is thought they were a gift, possibly when she was in France, how lucky we are they have survived, Claire you are blessed indeed to be able to actually hold them in your hands, one can see Anne herself sitting in the window seat in the oak panelled drawing room, flicking through the pages, I bet you cannot wait to visit Hever again.