Coronation of Anne Boleyn

• 1. Introduction

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  On the 1st of June 1533, Anne Boleyn was crowned Queen of England at Westminster Abbey. She was visibly pregnant. Every arrangement around her pressed a single point: the child she carried was the legitimate heir to the throne.

  The crown placed on her head was St Edward's Crown, reserved until that day for monarchs who ruled in their own right. Using it for a queen consort was a calculated statement. Henry VIII had spent years seeking an annulment of his first marriage, and had ultimately broken England from Rome, to reach this moment. Whether London agreed with his reasoning was a different question.

  Contemporary accounts leave little doubt that the general populace did not receive Anne warmly. The celebrations were elaborate and expensive. The people watching were not convinced. Who was Anne Boleyn, and how had a lady-in-waiting come to be crowned with a reigning monarch's own regalia? What had Henry sacrificed to bring her here, and what did it cost to stage the spectacle that surrounded her?

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• 2. The Break from Rome

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  After over two decades of marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII had produced only one legitimate child: Princess Mary. A daughter could not secure the Tudor dynasty in the way Henry required.

  Catherine had previously been married to Prince Arthur, Henry's deceased older brother. That prior union, Henry argued, made his own marriage to her invalid. Pope Clement VII refused the request. Clement was almost certainly acting under pressure from Emperor Charles V, who was holding him prisoner. Charles was Catherine's nephew.

  As the new Supreme Head of the Church of England, Henry could now dissolve his own marriage. Thomas Cranmer, installed as the new Archbishop of Canterbury, stripped Catherine of her title as queen consort on the 23rd of May 1533. Five days later, Cranmer declared valid the marriage Henry had secretly contracted with Anne. That marriage had been performed in Dover. Cranmer wrote in his own hand that Anne was married "aboute sainte Paules day last." At the coronation, he observed, she was "nowe sumwhat bygg with chylde." The Thames pageant that would open the coronation celebrations was now just one day away.

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• 3. On the Thames

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  On the 29th of May 1533, Anne Boleyn was rowed from Greenwich to the Tower of London along the River Thames. The waterborne pageant staged for her set the scale for everything that followed.

  An artificial dragon spouted wild fire from one of the boats that accompanied Anne's barge. Another vessel fired salutes. A third held a pageant of a mount with maiden musicians, displaying Anne's falcon badge. The imperial ambassador Eustache Chapuys reported that Anne's barge had been seized from Catherine of Aragon.

  Henry VIII kept himself out of sight throughout. He came before Anne secretly in a barge of his own, always ahead of her on the water. A sketch plan for the Westminster Hall banquet showed the same arrangement: Anne seated under a canopy; Henry positioned in a closet nearby. Whether Henry even entered Westminster Abbey during the coronation service is uncertain. The visible face of these days was Anne's alone. Two days later, a land procession would carry her through the streets of the city, with a pageant designed by Holbein among its sights.

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• 4. Through London's Streets

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  On the 31st of May 1533, Anne Boleyn was carried from the Tower of London in a litter draped with white cloth of gold. Her hair was loose, worn like a bride's. The procession was meant to start at two in the afternoon. It began three hours late.

  The route ran northwest from the Tower, arriving at Fenchurch Street. There, children dressed as English and French merchants greeted the queen. The procession most likely carried Anne past Tower Hill, where three years later her brother and her alleged lovers would be executed.

  Holbein designed a costly pageant for the route, sponsored by the merchants of the Steelyard. It depicted the Greek god Apollo surrounded by the Muses, each presenting gifts to the queen. At Leadenhall Street, another spectacle stood: a castle topped with a rose. Red and white roses sprang from it. A falcon descended and landed on a stump. An armoured angel then crowned the falcon, a direct reference to Anne's own badge. Everywhere along the route, the interlaced initials "HA," knotted together, had been painted.

  The following morning, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk would hold the train of Anne's robe as she walked into Westminster Abbey.

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• 5. The Coronation Ceremony

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  The Lord Mayor and his aldermen, dressed in crimson velvet, were due in Westminster Hall before eight. Anne appeared an hour later, dressed in robes of purple velvet and ermine fur. Her hair was loose, and she wore a circlet of gold and gems. She stood in the hall with the clergy, the religious, and men of the King's Chapel.

  The Marquis of Dorset and the Earl of Arundel walked ahead of Anne, carrying the sceptre and the rod of ivory. The Earl of Oxford followed, bearing the crown itself. Anne walked at the rear, barefoot. Four Lords of the Cinque Ports held her canopy. The Bishops of London and Winchester carried her robe, while the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk held her train.

  At the altar, Anne prostrated herself before it, a physically demanding act for a woman so far into her pregnancy. Archbishop Cranmer anointed and then crowned her. The Queen's sceptre with a dove had been refurbished that May by Cornelis Hayes. Anne received the rod in her left hand and the sceptre in her right.

  A Te Deum was sung. The heavy crown was replaced with a lighter one made specifically for Anne. Mass followed. Anne received the sacrament and made offerings at the shrine of Saint Edward the Confessor. She left the Abbey supported by her father and Lord Talbot. The child she carried was expected to be a son. Whether that expectation was met would determine whether the break with Rome had achieved its purpose.

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