Well, this is my last blog of 2009 and of the decade, and what a year it has been!
I started The Anne Boleyn Files on the 17th February 2009 after having a dream about Anne Boleyn. I woke up in the middle of the night, shook my husband awake and announced that I was starting The Anne Boleyn Files. It was to be a blog in which I would share my journey into finding out the truth about Anne Boleyn. The reason for calling it “The Anne Boleyn Files”? Well, I saw my mission as being a but like one of Mulder and Scully’s missions from The X Files, a tricky mission but “the Truth is out there”!
I saw my journey to the truth as a personal one initially because I just didn’t realise that there were so many others who were also pursuing the truth about Anne Boleyn. I had no idea that my little blog would be found by others and that it would finish 2009 being a community of likeminded Tudor history fans. 2009 has been a fantastic year for me – I’ve made so many friends (you guys!), had brilliant debates about history, been able to immerse myself in history books and primary sources with a valid excuse, and have organised my dream holiday “The Anne Boleyn Experience 2010”! Wow!
I am truly humbled by the support you’ve all given to the site and I am dying to meet some of you in 2010. I’m looking forward to another year of Tudormania!
2010 at The Anne Boleyn Files
Over the next few weeks, I plan to continue looking at the men who were implicated in the fall of Anne Boleyn, men like Francis Bryan and Thomas Wyatt. I’d also like to explore the character of Thomas Cromwell and then go back to Anne, her family and re-examine her fall. Academic G W Bernard is publishing his book “Anne Boleyn: Fatal Attractions” in 2010 in which he:
“offers a fresh portrait of one of England’s most captivating queens. Through a wide-ranging forensic examination of sixteenth-century sources, Bernard reconsiders Boleyn’s girlhood, her experience at the French court, the nature of her relationship with Henry, and the authenticity of her evangelical sympathies. He depicts Anne Boleyn as a captivating, intelligent, and highly sexual woman whose attractions Henry resisted for years until marriage could ensure legitimacy for their offspring. He shows that it was Henry, not Anne, who developed the ideas that led to the break with Rome. And, most radically, he argues that the allegations of adultery that led to Anne’s execution in the Tower could be close to the truth.” (Description from Amazon.co.uk)
It will be interesting to compare Bernard’s views with those of Eric Ives and to dig deep into Anne’s character and the charges levied against her in 1536. Click on the book cover to pre-order from Amazon US or click here for Amazon UK.
But, what else would you like to see on The Anne Boleyn Files?
I’d welcome your ideas for articles or products so please do share them as comments below. Would you like more on Henry VIII? The other fives wives? Tudor England?… Tell me! I promise I will listen to you!
January Stock Clearance
Daniela, our “The Tudors” jeweller, has some surplus jewellery which has built up over the year and she wants to make space in her workshop for the new items planned for 2010. We are therefore offering various jewellery items at a special clearance price. Anne Boleyn Files subscribers got to see the list and make orders first but there are still plenty of items left.
Click on the link below to download or view our list of clearance jewellery items and follow the instructions to order your jewellery:-
January Stock Clearance – Updated 3rd January
Happy New Year
Thank you for all the personal emails you have sent me wishing me a “Happy Chrismas and Happy New Year”. I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas, with lots of Tudor gifts, and may you have a very Happy New Year. At midnight tonight, I will be toasting Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth I (Anne’s wonderful legacy), you guys and 2010 with a glass of fine Spanish cava. Thank you for making 2009 one of the best years of my life (tear in eye!) and here’s to a fabulous 2010!
