Palace of Mechelen

In the 15^th and 16^th century, Mechelen was the capital of Burgundian Netherlands or the Low Countries (roughly present day Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg).

The Palace of Mechelen, built from 1507 as a residence for Margaret of Austria, Regent of the Netherlands, was home to a young Charles V who spent much of his youth here under the watchful eye of his aunt Margaret.

Palace of Mechelen

In 1513, Anne Boleyn was sent to the Hapsburg court in Mechelen as one of eighteen maids of honour. The position that Thomas Boleyn secured for his daughter during his first diplomatic posting in 1512 was vied for amongst the elite of Europe.

Here Anne would not only learn to speak and write French she would also learn about the culture of a Renaissance court and participate in dancing, hunting, tournaments and festivities. Anne would become adept at the ‘game’ of courtly love and learn all the rules and conventions. She would be drawn into a world of art and music.

The Palace itself is a late Gothic piece of architecture that has undergone many modifications over the years and encompasses designs from some other major styles. Although the southern face of the palace is still much as Anne would have known it in 1513 (Ives, p.23). Eric Ives states that:

To stand in the courtyard at Mechelen and face the southern range – an open arcade at ground level, now enclosed by flattened arches supported on a row of columns, the bricks laid to form a diamond pattern, rectangular windows with mullions and transoms over the prominent string course, with quoins of stone at all the angles, and dormer windows above a brick parapet making a third storey in the steep-pitched slate roof- this is to see much what Anne saw, a palace which would be recreated for her beside the Thames twenty years later. (Ives, pg. 23)

The court of Margaret of Austria had a supreme influence on Anne; the woman that she was becoming and the queen that she would one day be. Following in the footsteps of Anne Boleyn in the early years of her life is crucial to understanding her rapid rise to fame and her devastating fall.

The Palace today operates as the city’s law court.

For more information visit:

Visit Flanders

Sources

Ives, E. The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, 2004.

Wilkinson, J. The Early Loves of Anne Boleyn, 2009.