In 1558, Elizabeth—Anne’s daughter—succeeded Mary and ruled with good counsel. She went on to stabilise a kingdom fraught with religious animosity and divide, and ruled for 44 years. King Henry might have snubbed his daughter from Anne. But it was that very daughter who brought glory to the Tudor Dynasty. Elizabeth’s reign is, to this day, known as ‘The Golden Age’.
The Hampton Court Palace had originally belonged to Cardinal Wolsey, the Bishop of York, and a trusted advisor to King Henry. When Wolsey fell out of favour with the king, on account of his failure to have the first marriage annulled, he gifted the palace to Henry. The king and Anne had great many plans for Hampton Court; they immediately started renovating the place to accommodate Anne’s apartments. Today, the gatehouse, which once led to the cardinal’s apartments, still contains the entwined initials of Henry and Anne. It’s even called ‘Anne Boleyn’s Gate’. And when I saw that a portrait of Anne—whom the cardinal is said to have despised—now hangs in one of the rooms that had once been Wolsey’s, I couldn’t help but smile rather vindictively.
Clearly, King Henry’s marriage to Anne marked a shift in power dynamics, not only in the affairs of the state but also of England’s Christendom. I found it only fitting that Anne lives on in spirit, despite Henry’s attempt to have all traces of her removed from the palace. She lives on in those initials, she lives on in her portrait, she lives on in her daughter’s legacy. To me, Hampton Court Palace is a reminder of Anne’s significance, not only in King Henry’s life as a wife, but also as a shrewd and bold queen of England, whose name couldn’t be forgotten easily.