July 26 - Anne Boleyn and St Anne

Today, 26th July, is the feast day of St Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary and grandmother of Jesus Christ. Happy St Anne's Day to any Annes or Annas out there! Have a wonderful day!

 

St Anne was very important to Queen Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII and mother of Queen Elizabeth I, and a pageant at her coronation procession in 1533 took St Anne, combined with Anne Boleyn's falcon badge, as its theme.

 

Find out more about the pageant at Anne Boleyn's coronation, and why St Anne was chosen as the theme, in today's talk from Claire Ridgway, author of "The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown". You can see this podcast as a video at the following link:

https://youtu.be/LKTiqLj6Jz8

 

Also on this day in Tudor history, 26th July 1588, 4,000 men assembled at Tilbury Fort in an effort to prevent the Spanish Armada from travelling up the Thames and attacking London. Find out what had led up to this day in last year’s video - https://youtu.be/N89PDhKj3Bk