Who was Anne Boleyn?

     Anne Boleyn is perhaps most well known for her tragic execution at the hands of her husband, King Henry VIII. After giving birth to a daughter and a few following miscarriages, Anne was accused of high treason and adultery for not providing the king with a male heir. She was his fifth wife in his long attempt to secure a male heir for the English throne, a goal in which he never succeeded. 

     Anne Boleyn was beheaded on May 19, 1536 outside of the Tower of London where she had been held prisoner. The execution of an English Queen under such circumstances was quite unprecedented for this time, and thus she was quietly killed away from the public eye. Following her death, King Henry VIII had all images and portraits of her destroyed as a way to further remove her from history. However, the king underestimated his and Anne’s daughter, future Queen Elizabeth I, and how much she loved her mother. While he certainly could not foresee that their daughter would become one of the most famous monarchs in English history, he also likely did not realize that she would have the desire or means to recreate her mother’s image.

     The oldest surviving painting of Anne was painted during Elizabeth’s reign. This means that it was likely created from living memory of someone who had known her. In the portrait, Anne wears a particular necklace that has become synonymous with her legacy. The famous necklace featured a gold ‘B’ shaped pendant with three drop pearls dangling from the bottom of the letter, and the top was attached to two pearls from a double layered string of pearls worn around the neck. The ‘B’ most likely stood for Boleyn, as she was proud of her family name. However, we do not know anything about the necklace itself, such as: when, where, and who made it. We also do not know when Anne received the necklace and under what circumstances. One theory is that it may have been gifted to her from a family member as a reminder that she is forever part of the Boleyn lineage.

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The mystery of the ‘B’ necklace…

     The uncertainty surrounding the ‘B’ necklace is particularly interesting because there have never been any confirmed traces of it throughout history. We also do not know if it even existed at all… but, despite the lack of physical evidence of the necklace, there are many signs that point to the possibility of it being real. For example, because the painting was created during the reign of her daughter Elizabeth I, people would have remembered what Anne looked like as well as what jewelry she was known to wear. Conversely, if she had never worn such a necklace, people could have corrected this from memory, but there is no evidence of this. Another reason why we can assume that the ‘B’ necklace actually existed is because it was a common style of jewelry for that period. Pendants shaped into initials became trendy in the 1520s, peaking in popularity in the 1530s and 1540s amongst both men and women. Here is an example of a drawing for a potential initial piece of jewelry from the 1600s featuring the letter ‘A’ and similar drop pearls to the one in Anne’s portrait. It is possible that this piece and others like it could have been inspired by her necklace because, although it was already a popular style, it is her portrait that had become most associated with the initial pendant.

     Sadly, much like Anne Boleyn herself, there are no surviving traces of the original necklace. The king did everything in his power to try and erase Anne and even married one of her ladies in waiting, Lady Jane Seymour, merely 11 days after her death. It is obviously impossible to tell what exactly happened to Anne’s things after she was killed, but because she was claimed to be a traitor, all of her personal possessions would have technically belonged to the Crown. There are a few working theories as to what could have happened to her things once they were taken by the king. First is the most wishful thinking, and that is that some of her precious jewels may have been saved for the young princess Elizabeth for when she became older. Here is a portrait of the later Queen Elizabeth I and some of the pearls she is wearing could possibly have belonged to her mother. However, this is unfortunately the lowest possibility out of all the potential outcomes. Another more plausible theory is that her possessions were destroyed and sold off in pieces. This is not something we can either confirm nor deny proof of, but there is one more theory that seems to be a better fit based on some actual evidence. 

     Unfortunately, the likeliest outcome of the necklace is that based on documentation between King Henry VIII’s previous wives which suggests that his new queen would often inherit the possessions of the queen before. This was the case no matter if the previous wife was alive or not, and thus we can assume that this was also the fate of the ‘B’ necklace. This means that Jane Semour would have been its official owner. However, if Jane decided to keep the necklace, she likely had the gold ‘B’ pendant melted down and turned into something else and used the pearls in another piece of jewelry or decoration. She would not have wanted to keep any reminder of Anne since was in such a crucial position to please the king, specifically in all the ways that Anne could not.