What did Anne Boleyn really look like? After Anne Boleyn’s death, her image was essentially erased from England. The palace walls which once held the initials, H and A, are struck. Her portraits are painted over or destroyed. What we have left of her image is through posthumous portraits - potential copies of copies of a lost original.

We do have one agreed-upon contemporary image, and that is a portrait medal, referred to as the “Moost Happi” medal, that was struck during her lifetime, probably to celebrate her second pregnancy and the upcoming birth of a son. We’ll compare each postulated portrait of Anne to the coin throughout the video to see which match the best.

Anne Boleyn’s body has never been officially exhumed. It was hastily buried at the chapel of St. Peter Ad Vincula, adjacent to the tower, in an old Elm box. Her exact burial spot, under the tiles of the chapel, is unknown. The bones were then examined by a Dr. Mouat. He confirmed that the skeleton was that of a woman between 25 and thirty, with a delicate frame. She was of slender proportions, with a small lower jaw. She also had particularly small vertebrae - Lending credence to the story that she had a “little Neck”, and small, tapered hands and feet. She was between five feet and five foot three. All of these findings match up with the physical descriptions we have of Anne, but there is a possibility the bones are not Anne’s but rather Lady Rochfords or Queen Catherine Howard’s, who were also buried hastily near the same spot.

We’ve created two brand new portraits - one from the proposed Holbein Sketch, and another from her National Portrait Gallery image, which is thought by many to be potentially the most accurate.