Music Book Written For Anne Boleyn

A music manuscript written for Anne Boleyn, possibly by Mark Smeaton (although this view has been challenged) will be on display at the National Maritime Museum as part of the Royal River: Power, Pageantry & the Thames exhibition from 27 April to 9 September, 2012.

The book is a collection of thirty-nine Latin motets and five French chansons and is normally housed at the Royal College of Music, London where it is not on permanent display for the public to view but can be viewed by researchers, by appointment.

Anne Boleyn's Falcon Badge

In Music at the Court of Henry VIII by Peter Holman, it is stated that on page 4 an illuminated initial shows a falcon (Anne’s badge) pecking a pomegranate (Catherine of Aragon’s badge), although Eric Ives in his biography on Anne Boleyn cautiously adds the word ‘possibly’ (plate 26).

Although the book is undated, Ives states that the content is relevant to Anne’s situation in 1533 (p. 257).

‘A majority of the works are in praise of the Virgin Mary or prayers to female saints, and so are fully congruent with the persona Anne presented at her coronation.’

Two pieces by the French court composer, Jean Mouton, place a strong emphasis on child bearing. The first directly quotes the Old Testament prayer of rejoicing ‘uttered by Hannah (Anna) when her son was born’ and the second specifically mentions that name ‘Anne’ (Ives, p. 257).

The manuscript though is endorsed in a contemporary hand ‘Mistress A Bolleyne nowe thus’ and so according to Ives, makes the 1533 date impossible. What it does suggest is that the text was in existence before Thomas Boleyn’s promotion to an earldom in December 1529 (Ives, p. 257).

Close scrutiny of the letter ‘A’, the same ‘A’ that forms part of the ‘amat’ monogram found in Anne’s psalter and in King’s College Chapel, leads Eric Ives to believe that the manuscript must date to the period from 1527 (p.257). The theme of child bearing is also clearly relevant to this period of Anne’s life where she hoped for no delay in marrying the king and the prompt arrival of sons.

Who then compiled this collection?

The fact that the book is not of great quality, has led some to believe that the donor had to have been of ‘lower rank, with musical skill, court connections, and an acquaintance with Anne’s tastes in music’. Eric Ives lists the problems with the quality of the manuscript in his biography on Anne Boleyn.

‘paper rather than vellum, frequent corrections, and omissions in both text and score. Four illustrations per folio were intended, but only twenty sheets were completed (one in seven) and with a decidedly old-fashioned collection of fruit, foliage, grotesques and monsters, not by the best illustrators.’

Who then fits the bill more than Mark Smeaton, the musician who was accused with Anne in 1536?

It’s certainly possible, but the problem lies in the fact that in and before 1529 ‘Smeaton appears to have belonged to Wolsey’s household.’

The theory that Anne acquired the manuscript while in France seems unlikely due to the marital/child bearing references.

Ives puts forth the possibility that the manuscript might simply have been a draft, one that was abandoned due to the delay in Anne and Henry’s marriage.

To read more about the manuscript and its contents, please refer to pages 257-259 in Eric Ives’ The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn.

This is a great opportunity to see an artefact not normally displayed for public viewing and one that demonstrates Anne Boleyn’s keen interest in music.

Royal River: Power, Pageantry & the Thames

You can purchase a postcard of the Anne Boleyn manuscript from the RCM London Box office and they do post internationally!