ANNE BOLEYN’S B NECKLACE | Anne Boleyn’s jewellery | Famous Tudor jewels | Six wives documentary

hi history lovers and welcome or welcome back to the channel where i bring you new videos every week on all aspects of the past today on history calling we're going to look at one of the most famous tudor jewels ever and certainly one of the most recognizable ann berlin's b necklace this necklace was initially made famous through its appearance in numerous portraits of henry viii second wife but has been kept famous and introduced to many who are new to tudor history by the presence of copies of it around the necks of many of the actresses who have portrayed anne on screen it has also become a cultural phenomenon with variations of its design appearing in tv shows that ostensibly have nothing to do with anne and around the necks of models both on and off the catwalk how much do we know about the real necklace though and is there any truth to the rumors that it was inherited by anne's daughter elizabeth the first and that parts of it ended up in the english later british crown jewels where they still reside today [Music] [Music] remember to give this video a thumbs up and hit the channel subscribe button if you switch on all notifications youtube will make sure you never miss one of my uploads if you like my channel's content and wish to support me further you can also make a one-off donation via the thanks button underneath this or indeed any of my other videos for this you'll need to be signed into your gmail account and donation amounts will appear in your local currency you'll receive a special one-time animation over the top of my video and the ability to post a personalized brightly colored comment underneath it which will stand out from the other comments there is of course absolutely no expectation or pressure to do this and boleyn's b necklace which i would argue is one of the best known pieces of personal jewelry ever worn by a queen consort of england and probably more recognizable to many of you than some of the modern british crown jewels was actually a very simple item though its exact construction is admittedly not clear from the images of it it appears to have been a rope of rounded pearls all more or less the same size looped around her neck to form a choker with the lower part of the necklace then coming down the front of her neck and decolletage in two parallel strands and disappearing into the neckline of her dress suspended from the choker section of the necklace was a golden pendant in the shape of a letter b though whether it was permanently attached to the necklace or could be quickly hooked on and off once the pearls were in the desired position is unclear if you look carefully at different images of it they show it connected to the choker in slightly different ways sometimes with one attachment sometimes two the bee then had three teardrop pearls suspended from its lower bar no clasp is evident and it is possible that we are actually looking at two separate pearl necklaces one a choker and one a long string which have been worn together either way the pearls are augmented by a separate sheen comprised of small gold links the necklace appears in a number of portraits of anne which all follow the same pattern often known as the b pattern in honor of this piece of jewelry the best known of these are the two versions held in the national portrait gallery in london one of which you're seeing here on the far left the other one is pretty cartoonish looking in its quality and has anne with a lazy eye which no one ever suggested she had there's also an all but identical copy to what you're seeing here in the national portrait gallery in ireland then there are two versions at anne's childhood home heaver castle in kent as you can see one of these has her holding a rose the other is dated 1534. finally there is a miniature by the artist john hoskins which you see on the far right as i said these are just the best known of the b pattern portraits there are others which i don't have time to go through here and which wouldn't add anything to my discussion of the necklace the b pattern always shows on wearing the necklace with a black square neck dress and a black french style hood over a gold coiff the neckline of the dress and the abilities of her hood are both trimmed in pearls which match the rope she is wearing the dress also has golden arches around the neckline which complement her gold chain none of the portraits are known to be contemporary to her lifetime and they are thought to be copies of a lost original supporting this conclusion is the fact that the british national portrait gallery has had dendrochronology tests conducted on the wooden panel the version you see here is painted on which shows that it cannot date to any earlier than 1584. as for the miniature john hoskins wasn't even born until around 1590 and his earliest miniatures date to 1615. his portrait of anne specifically says on its back though that it was copied quote from an ancient original we know that in 1590 there was a full-length portrait of her in the possession of lord lumley and that it still existed in a cut down form in 1773 so it's possible that this was the basis for the b pattern portraits heaver castle has floated the idea that its rose picture which has until now been dated to about 1550 based on the style in which it was painted just might be contemporaneous with anne however i'd like to see the results of dendrochronology tests on it before i consider committing to that idea do check out the youtube channel of dr owen emerson though who is a curator at the castle for a very enjoyable and well researched video on this portraits history he also puts paid to the idea that the portrait might be of henry viii sister mary tudor who married first king louis xii of france and second charles brandon duke of suffolk correctly noting that she was described as having had fair hair by those who saw her and that any initial jewelry she wore to mark her second marriage would have used the letter s for suffolk not the letter b for brandon i would also add that the lady in the heaven rose portrait is not wearing a wedding ring which does not fit with it being mary brandon suffolk during her second marriage i am therefore confident that this is intended to be an image of andolin though there are other images known or purported to be a van the necklace does not appear in them and crucially there is no documentary evidence describing it either if it wasn't for the b pattern portraits we wouldn't know it had ever existed nor do we know where or when she got it or what age she was when she presumably sat for the original portrait upon which the b pattern copies are beast the british national portrait gallery claims that its painting is based on an original created during anne's queenship of 1533-36 but there is no source given to prove the state range hever castle's rose portrait is the only one to show her hands and as noted she is not wearing a wedding ring which might suggest that the original portrait and by extension her ownership of the necklace ii predated her marriage however she is holding a red rose symbolizing the royal house of lancaster this would seem a strange thing to do if she wasn't wed to the king yet but perhaps the original picture dated to their courtship putting it somewhere between 1526 and 1533 and this is why she chose to hold this symbol of henry's family it's also possible particularly given that heaver's version is the only one which includes this detail that the rose wasn't in the original picture and was added in by whoever copied it then of course we have the fact that their 1534 portrait purports to show her when she was married but doesn't show her hands so that we can't see if there's a ring or not that said i don't know when that copy was painted or at what point the inscription with the year was added so the presence of 1534 on it may signify nothing as it could have been put on much later the upshot of all this conflicting evidence is that the b pattern portraits don't help us to narrow down when or how anne acquired the necklace however we can conjecture from the fact that she opted to wear it in a formal painting that she liked this piece of jewelry and was keen to showcase her berlin heritage i'm also confident that we are looking at a real piece of jewelry rather than something invented just for the painting because we have records indicating that anne liked and wore other pieces of monogrammed jewelry too some of these records come from famed court painter hans holbein who was employed by anne and indeed henry to do more than just draw and paint pictures of them he also designed jewelry and other ornamental items and we have drawings he made which show jewels he planned and perhaps even created for the couple on the left we can see one example of such a piece which seems to have been a brooch or pendant with the initials h and a for henry and anne and a spot for a precious stone to be placed over the top on the right we see a and h again this time on a shield and joined together by lover's knots inventories of king henry's possessions taken in the second half of 1537 also list jewels with clear references to anne despite the fact that she was by then dead and again in the interest of giving credit where credit's due i first heard about these drawings and inventories from dr emerson's video though of course i did then go and look up the original sources myself the inventories included two rings set with diamonds and the letters each a while another list mentioned 10 boxes of jewels quote some having the letters each a upon them and one approach having the letters r a in diamonds this would have stood for regina anna or queen anne and can only have belonged to the woman herself as henry's initials would have been hr in a similar vein the only undisputed contemporary image of anne to survive also shows a version of her regal initials this is a portrait medal dating to 1534 when she was expecting her second child a baby she tragically lost that summer see my video on whether she had a pseudo pregnancy for more information it includes the initials ar for anne the queen a b necklace and indeed the holding of a rose to indicate her connection to henry are therefore very much in line with what we know of anne's wider interest in jewelry and the symbolism she liked to have included in images of her having established that she almost certainly owned and liked the bee necklace though we have come to the end of that item's known history and now i enter the realms of speculation have a look around the internet and you'll come across all kinds of stories about the necklace one of the most prevalent is that it was kept for anne's daughter elizabeth who later wore it in portraits but with a different pendant attached this image painted when elizabeth was about 12 or 13 is often cited as possibly showing a refashioned b necklace though the pearls in this case are interspersed with gold beads meaning a lot of the pearls would have been removed bear in mind though that as this style of necklace is very simple at its core being just a string of pearls and a pendant it's easily replicated and there's not really any reason to suppose that we're looking at the exact same pearls in each portrait it's not impossible though and the pendant elizabeth wares clearly has three teardrop pearls beneath it just as her mother's beaded some internet conspiracy theorists and people who haven't bothered to do any research therefore go further and say that these cm3 pearls were repurposed by elizabeth and added into the english crown jewels where they remain today as part of the imperial state crown in fact you can see one of them in this image of that item there's zero evidence for this and it completely ignores the fact that virtually all of the jewels were destroyed or sold by oliver cromwell in the mid 17th century and there's practically nothing left that elizabeth would have used for more information about the imperial state crime see my video on the cullinan diamond part of which the crown actually does include i'll leave it linked on screen and below for you another slightly earlier portrait of elizabeth is called the family of henry viii it dates to about 1545 making elizabeth around 11 and shows her alongside her father brother edward sister mary and long since deceased stepmother gian seymour as opposed to her then current stepmother catherine parr who had no children and so was not featured in this picture if we zoom in and i know it's blurry sorry about that we can see that elizabeth is again wearing a string of pearls this time with an a pendant hanging from them some have claimed that the necklace must have belonged to anne and that elizabeth was making a reference to her mother by wearing it author allison weir wrote in her book the lady in the tar that elizabeth is quote wearing astonishingly one of anne boleyn's initial pendants proclaiming to all posterity that she was her mother's daughter given that this is mere supposition i would rather that weir had not phrased it as an undisputed fact especially as she effectively gives no source for her information the paragraph goes on to discuss the famous checkers ring which was owned by elizabeth in later life and which opens to show tiny portraits of her and a woman assumed by many to be anne it contains only one citation however right at the end which is to a book written by writer gian dunn not only is this not a primary source where also fails to give any page number within this citation leaving her reader with the prospect of having to wade through dunn's entire book to try to find the intended reference bear in mind too that that reference may well cover only the information regarding the checkers ring rather than saying anything about the necklace elizabeth wears in the family of henry viii portrait writing on her website historian susanna lipscombe was a little more circumspect in her treatment of the portrait musing only that elizabeth appears to be wearing a pendant a as if in memory of her mother in other blog entries i read i find people claiming that perhaps it was a religious symbol and stood for auspice maria meaning under the protection of mary personally i don't dispute that elizabeth is wearing an a pendant here and it's certainly possible that the most obvious answer is the correct one namely that it was inherited from anne and was worn in reference to her however we simply don't know how to properly interpret it and there are problems with both the explanations i've discussed here auspis maria seems a strange sentiment for a girl being raised as a protestant to express while drawing attention to her disgraced mother in a family portrait with her father the man who had had anne killed and who had only just restored elizabeth to the succession seems like a dangerous strategy with nuclear benefit for his younger daughter furthermore had elizabeth been trying to snub henry for some reason he could have just had the pendant painted out of the picture the fact that it is still there suggests that either it didn't stand for anne or that henry didn't mind her wearing it for some reason weir notes that too by the way that henry's permission would have been needed whatever the story behind this necklace is the pendant clearly isn't the same as anne's b necklace it also has only one pearl beneath it and there's no way of telling whether the generic looking string of pearls around elizabeth's neck is the same as that worn by anne this portrait doesn't further our knowledge of the bee necklace so much for the known and supposed history of the necklace what about its appearance or rather the appearance of copies of it in screen portrayals of anne what can they tell us about its historical significance having looked back at numerous portrayals of her on the big and small screens not all of which i have time to go through here unfortunately the popularity of the necklace is quickly apparent early screen portrayals of her show how famous it already was for actresses merle oberon genevieve bushold and charlotte rampling are shown wearing it in 1933 1969 and 1972 respectively this suggests that long before the internet and the rash of tv shows and documentaries we now have about anne and when people would only have known what she supposedly looked like by reading books about her or visiting a location which held a portrait of her the necklace was already an established part of her lore and her image in the popular consciousness its theme has continued unabated and it is rare to find an actress portraying her who doesn't wear a duplicate of this necklace sometimes to excess in my opinion natalie dormer wore it in the tudors but it was used fairly sparingly and as the story progressed and anne became the king's mistress then the queen thereby gaining access to a much wider array of jewels she was seen wearing them instead which made sense to me by contrast judy turner smith wore it so much in channel 5 show and berlin that one could have been forgiven for thinking that the queen had almost no other jewelry even after having been married to henry for three years because this show is set in the first months of 1536 natalie portman similarly wore it a little too often for my taste in the other berlin girl she was still wearing it in the execution scene for instance again bellying the fact that anne had an extensive collection of personal jewels as well as access to the official consort jewels different productions have also taken a different approach to the necklace's appearance the most important aspect of it is always the pearl chugger with the b pendant but the additional lines of pearls falling down into her dress and the accompanying gold sheen only appears sometimes and charlotte rampling's necklace despite being the closest to the original of those shown here has had golden beads interspersed with the pearls in much the same fashion as we saw in elizabeth's solo portrait even the sugar and pendant are tweaked sometimes the teardrop pearls underneath genevieve bushold's bee are set at different lengths for instance rather than being in a straight line and judy turner smith's bee has no pearls and instead ends in three golden drops indeed the quality of the necklace can arguably be used as an indicator of the kind of budget productions had available to them and how that money was prioritized channel 5's production clearly had a much smaller budget available for wardrobe than other movies and tv shows this is demonstrated in my opinion not just by the very simplistic gowns and wears which are almost totally lacking in embellishments and which are no more ornate than anything her ladies and wedding are wearing but by the over-reliance on the b necklace as a piece of jewelry the small pearls used within it and the lack of pearls beneath the bee though natalie portman sports similarly small pearls in her necklace this seems to be more of a stylistic choice given that the overall richness of the costumes throughout the movie was much greater its appearance in the tutors 2 is interesting as that show was known for a wide array of beautiful but historically inaccurate costumes especially for its me and female characters however an almost perfect copy of the necklace appeared in promotional pictures though funnily enough the version which made it onto the screen and which you see here on the right was simplified consisting of just the choker and pendant the necklace has a life beyond anne and portrayals of her too it is so famous that it is not easy to buy duplicates of it or near duplicates which replace the initial b with your own at the time of creating this video for instance historic royal palaces sell a version of it with just the chugger and pendant while amazon have a selection of options to suit a variety of budgets i'll leave the link below for you actually in case you're interested it is clear that it is a popular piece of jewelry too and it has appeared around the necks of fictional characters and real women with no connection to anne in the tv show ugly betty the titular character played by america ferreira wears what is clearly a cheap copy of the necklace by showing that she is unable to afford an expensive version and instead wears a budget knockoff that looks low-end the necklace serves as a storytelling piece communicating to us the character's lack of wealth and fashion savvy this is a running joke because she works in fashion and emphasizing her supposed ugliness in contrast to her glamorous work colleagues i would argue though that it is also a nod to the much greater intelligence she possesses compared to them her jewelry suggests she is well enough versed in ann's history to know about the necklace and to connect herself to a woman who was renowned for her fashionable attire and intellect it's just unfortunate for betty that her attempt to make this connection is done rather clumsily in the earlier seasons by the show's end though it is styled in a more flattering manner as is she and is still present showing that while belly has grown as a character she hasn't lost herself along the way she's still the girl with the bee necklace modernized versions of this necklace have also been seen on the catwalk including in a balenciaga 2019 show where the bee was given a makeover in silver and presented on a metal chain rather than pearls this gave the look a much harder edge model bella hadid has been photographed wearing her own version of it in her day-to-day life too though she has gone for a more classic design which closely resembles the sugar and war she still layered it with an additional golden sheen though suggesting that she understands how the original was styled in each case the bee now stands for something other than berlin but the connection to anne and the continuing influence of this former queen and her most famous necklace on the fashion zeitgeist are clear i hope you've enjoyed this deep dive into anne boleyn's bee necklace and its historical and cultural significance let me know in the comments below what you think might have happened to it and don't forget to follow me on instagram there's a link for that in the description box if you'd like to learn more about anne or if historical fashion and or jewelry are your thing try one of these videos next i'll be back next week with a new offering and until then keep learning

Channel: History Calling

Views: 286,331

Keywords: Famous Tudor jewels, famous royal jewels, Six wives documentary Royal jewels documentary, anne boleyn's b necklace, anne boleyn's jewellery, anne boleyn's necklace, History Calling, Queen Anne Boleyn, King Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn’s possessions, Ugly Betty, Bella Hadid, Balenciaga 2019

Id: RrODYM4mRdM

Length: 22min 7sec (1327 seconds)

Published: Fri May 06 2022