de bene esse: Windsor Castle

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Tudor Talk

“By daily proof you shall me find To be to you both loving and kind.”
by Anne Boleyn. A message written to King Henry VIII in a book of prayers in response to an earlier message from the King. British Library Online

Shakespeare’s Henry VIII in which the ‘3^rd Gentleman’ describes the coronation of Queen Anne Boleyn:
At length her grace rose, and with modest paces
Came to the altar, where she kneel’d, and saint-like
Cast her fair eyes to heaven, and pray’d devoutly;
Then rose again and bow’d her to the people;
When by the archbishop of Canterbury
She had all the royal makings of a queen,
As holy oil, Edward Confessor’s crown,
The rod, and bird of peace, and all such emblems
Laid nobly on her. . . .

An ancient castle dated to the time of William the Conqueror - Windsor Castle does not immediately spark images of Anne Boleyn, as the Tower of London and Hever Castle do, but it is a place she visited on many occasions.

Windsor Castle

At Windsor Castle on 1^st September 1532, Anne Boleyn received the title of marquis of Pembroke. It was a lavish ceremony witnessed by many members of the nobility. Whether or not Henry conferred the title on Anne to increase her social status for her upcoming marriage to the King or simply as a ‘gift’ to Anne for having waited out the King’s long and painstaking divorce from Catherine of Aragon is not clear.

The following is an extract from Eric Ives’ The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn (2004):
If she was to meet him now (Francis I) as England’s intended queen, she needed status. This she was given at an impressive ceremony in Windsor Castle on the morning of Sunday, 1^st September. There, her hair about shoulders and her ermine-trimmed crimson velvet hardly visible under the jewels, Anne was conducted into the king’s presence by Garter King-at-Arms, with the countesses of Rutland and Derby, and her cousin Mary Howard, the Duke of Richmond’s prospective wife, carrying the crimson velvet mantle and gold coronet of a marquis. Henry was flanked by the dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk and surrounded by the court, with the officers at arms in their tabards and La Pommeraye as a guest of honour. Anne kneeled to the king, while Stephen Gardiner read out a patent conferring on her in her own right and on her offspring the title of marquis of Pembroke. Henry placed on her the mantle and coronet and handed her the patent of nobility, plus another granting lands worth 1000 pounds a year.

Windsor Castle

Another documented visit occurred in the summer of 1533 after Anne’s coronation when Henry refused to go on the usual summer progress due to Anne’s delicate condition and the newlyweds retired to Windsor where Henry could hunt and Anne could wait patiently for her confinement and the birth of her ‘son’.