BECOMING ANNE BOLEYN

In May 1513, a young English girl stood on the deck of a ship cresting the waves of the English Channel. She may have been as old as 12, or as young as seven, but Anne Boleyn already understood that she had an important international role to play. As the daughter of a leading diplomat to the court of Henry VIII, her father’s connections had offered her an opportunity that was both thrilling and terrifying for one so young. She had left behind Hever Castle, her home set amid the rolling Kentish countryside, in favour of the perilous seas, and a new mistress and court in a distant land. As it happened, this would be the making of her.

It is often assumed that we know little about the years Anne spent in the courts of the Netherlands and France, between 1513 and 1521. Yet this is not entirely the case. Sources do exist that make it possible to follow her trail and understand the influences that contributed to her allure. Those eight long years coincided with the formative period of her adolescence and education: Anne left England as a child and returned as the polished, sophisticated europhile who captured the