Henry decided the answer would be to take another wife and he didn’t cast his net wide: Anne was Catherine’s beautiful lady-in-waiting and he moved heaven and earth to make him his bride.
When the Pope refused to grant him an annulment to his first marriage, Henry broke away from Rome and created his own religion where his second marriage was, somewhat unsurprisingly, completely legal.
The marriage was short-lived.
Anne gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth, nine months after her wedding day in September 1533, miscarried the following year and her son, who she gave birth to in January 1536 was tragically stillborn.
Hever Castle viewed from the grounds during summer.
We know we shouldn’t have favourites when it comes to something as let’s be honest cool as castles, but we do have a soft spot for Hever Castle. It may not be as sprawling as the captivating Leeds Castle, or have the smouldering menace and wartime credentials of its coastal cousin, Dover, but what it does have is history, majesty and beauty.
Hever Castle is the epicentre of Tudor history outside London, a home counties Hampton Court, if you will. It boasts the tagline ‘childhood home of Anne Boleyn’, and Henry VIII visited many times. It was later owned by his fourth, brief wife, Anne of Cleves for the final 17 years of her life, her residence at Hever outliving their six-month marriage many times over.
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