Paulus Jansz. Moreelse, 1571-1638

Paulus Jansz. Moreelse, 1571-1638

A mother and child as Venus and Cupid, 1624, oil on panel, 73x58 cm

Private Collection

Claire Foy as Anne Boleyn in Wolf Hall (2015)

Jodie Turner-Smith and Mark Stanley as Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII in Anne Boleyn (2021)

My love. My Queen.

The Tudors vs. History:  20/?

William Peto, along with being the confessor of the Princess Mary, was “a friend of Thomas More”; in the future he would become a “one-time member of Reginald Pole’s Italian circle”. More about his sermon, here.

– source for “” quotes: Fires of Faith, Eamon Duffy

Two years after this sermon (which heavily implied Anne deserved the end of ‘Jezebel’, whom, in the parable, was murdered by a mob; by being pushed out of a high-storied window), Henry VIII passed an act that made the slander of his marriage to Anne Boleyn punishable by high treason.  Parliament the same year, also passed a decree that “in the event of the King dying before [Anne Boleyn], the latter is to be regent and absolute governess of her children and kingdom.” By November 1534, the Treasons Act was passed, which made it high treason to “maliciously wish, will or desire by words or writing, or by craft imagine, invent, practise, or attempt any bodily harm to be done or committed to […] the queen’s [person], or to deprive them of any of their dignity, title or name of their royal estates.”

(further requests in this series available upon commission/ ko-fi / tip jar*)  

Portrait of Elizabeth I so called “The Sieve Portrait” by Cornelius Ketel,  c. 1580-83