Join me as I uncover the romantic and symbolic love motif created by Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn!
In this fascinating video, I’ll explore how the couple intertwined their initials – H for Henry and A for Anne – with honeysuckles and acorns to decorate their personal artefacts.
From luxurious carpets and cushions at Hampton Court Palace to intricate valances, these symbols of devoted love and fertility are woven into their story. Discover the hidden meanings behind these motifs and see how they celebrated their bond…
An historians dream and those of us who are sympathetic to Anne Boleyn’s tragic story, that these pieces of embroidery with their own personal emblems the honeysuckle for Henry V111 and the acorn for Anne, survived her fall, unlike her paintings and her stone carved initials her falcon emblem, which were eroded from history, the honeysuckle represents spiritual symbolism, fidelity and sweet love and devotion , all of which we know he felt for her, and it is all the more bittersweet because like the honeysuckle that withers and dies, so did his feelings for her, the acorn which Anne chose represents fertility and new beginnings, and sadly her lack of fertility proved her undoing, there are still symbols of Henry V111’s love or obsession for Anne Boleyn in the crenellated towers that adorn the Tower of London, especially for her coronation, his love letters written at the height of his devotion to her, are stored in the Vatican, her pieces of jewellery he gifted to her were either destroyed or melted down, his signature in her book of hours, recently a relic carved with her falcon emblem was discovered, but none of these are so poignant as their own personal initials which they chose for each other, they exist in the beautiful pieces of embroidery that exist in the valance bed cover housed in a Scottish museum and beautiful gold and silver cushions,( it’s great that Tim printed of a copy of the valance so we can see for ourselves) it is good to know that the king must have found it sacrilege to destroy such beautiful works of art, they had been deftly fashioned by his seamstresses, so let them be left alone, but he must have had them hidden from his sight, surely an uncomfortable reminder of his second queen and for his future queens to, the language of flowers and herbs and trees I have always found interesting, so loved seeing this video, thank you once again Claire!