Anne Boleyn attributed to John Hoskins
A reader recently wrote in to ask whether I knew what had happened to Anne Boleyn’s famous pearl necklace and I thought I’d post a response here so that others have an opportunity to add information as well.
There is much speculation as to what actually happened to Anne’s famous necklace with the gold B. Some people believe that it was passed down to Elizabeth and others that it went back to the Crown after her downfall. I have even heard that some of the pearls are in the crown of Elizabeth II!
Unfortunately, there is no definitive answer to the question of Anne’s jewellery. I have read many Anne biographies and have only ever come across theories. I think if we consider that in 1532 Henry reset much of the royal jewellery for Anne then it is likely that when she fell from favour he did the same for his next queen. In Eric Ives’ biography on Anne he states that Henry went about, “setting aside many of the best stones for Anne, as in the case of four bracelets, which yielded her no fewer than eighteen tabled rubies.” (Ives, pg. 158)
Interestingly enough, he not only reset the royal jewellery he also stripped Catherine of her own jewels, this obviously did not please the former queen and she responded by saying that it would be a sin for her jewels to adorn ‘the scandal of Christendom’ (Ives, pg. 158).
If Catherine of Aragon, after 26 years of marriage, was ordered by Henry VIII to return her jewels then I think that Anne’s jewels would have suffered a similar fate.
In saying that, some of Anne’s belongings, like her two Book of hours, survived the ‘coup’ and so there is hope that her ‘B’ necklace was also saved by a loyal Boleyn supporter and kept safe until the reign of her daughter, Elizabeth I.
I certainly hope so.
Ives, E. The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, 2004.
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