Thas A Fact?

“Oh George, take me home!  Take me to Blickling, not to Hever, for at Hever I should see the rose garden and think of him.  But take me to Blickling where we were together when we were very young….and where I never dreamed of being Queen of England.”

So wrote Jean Plaidy in her 1949 novel Murder Most Royal. Plaidy believed that Anne Boleyn was born at Blickling in the Tudor house that was there before the Jacobean mansion that we see today was built.

No one knows for certain where Anne Boleyn was born. Hever Castle in Kent and Blickling both have grounds for claiming her. But as research continues into the Tudor house that still lurks within Blickling Hall it is becoming easier to imagine that Blickling was a grand Tudor home, well-suited to the needs of the wealthy and ambitious Boleyn family.

If ‘The Tudors’ tickled your historical fancy, or if you have an interest in historical literature, then do we have a treat for you. Over the 17th – 20th may 2012, The Boleyn Festival – a four day feast of all things Anne Boleyn, will be held at Blickling Hall near Aylsham.

Historians, novelists, costumiers and musicians will gather in the glorious surroundings of Blickling Hall to remember the Norfolk-born woman whose marriage to Henry VIII caused uproar throughout Christendom. Confirmed speakers include Eric Ives, Alison Weir, Suzannah Dunn, Sarah Gristwood, David Loades, George Bernard, Neil Storey, Susannah Lipscomb and Harriet Castor. Wonderfully, they don’t all see eye to eye when discussing Anne’s religious fervour, her ambition, her intelligence or her fidelity. However, they do all agree that Anne was more likely to have been born at Blickling than anywhere else.

View the Festival Programme.

Aspects of the Festival that we’re most excited about include the public display of the Wycliffite Bible. This hugely important illuminated manuscript, never before shown to the general public, is inscribed “liber Iacobi Boolene manens in Blickling”, or “James Boleyn’s book dwelling in Blickling”. James was Anne’s Uncle and her Chancellor while she was Queen. Anne was known to have displayed an English bible in her rooms so that her ladies-in-waiting could read the gospel in their own language. It is possible that it was this very Bible.

In support of the Boleyn Festival at Blickling, Norfolk County Council Library & Information Service is delighted to announce that the Wycliffite Bible once owned by Anne’s Uncle James Boleyn of Blickling will be available to view in the Norfolk Heritage Centre on these dates and times: Wed 2 May 2-4, Fri 4 May 10-12, Sat 5 May 2-4, Tue 8 May 2-4, Wed 9 May 10-12, Thur 10 May 2-4, Tue 15 May 10-12, Wed 16 May 2-4, Mon 21 May 2-4, Wed 23 May 10-12.

Come along to find out more about this amazing manuscript volume, its history and connection with Anne Boleyn.

There will also be a complementary display of items relating to Anne and the Boleyn family from the Norfolk Heritage Centre’s collection, in the Heritage Centre at the Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library in The Forum during May.

Another noteworthy event taking place during the Festival is the traditional midnight vigil on Saturday 19th May (the anniversary of Anne Boleyn’s execution). The evening starts with prayers being said for Anne in St Andrew, the church on the Blickling Estate in a service led by Revd Marion Harrison. Costume historian Molly Housego will attend the prayers dressed as Anne Boleyn and afterwards will explain just how Anne would have dressed for a day at court. Later, historian and story-teller Neil Storey will tell spine-chilling tales of other Norfolk ghosts before leading the audience out to see if Anne’s headless ghost makes its way back to her place of birth. Not for the faint hearted…

For further details about The Boleyn Festival visit www.boleynfestival.co.uk.

To buy tickets email blickling@nationaltrust.org.uk or ring 01263 738030 or 0844 8004308. Buy a four-day pass to the Boleyn Festival for £90 – that’s 10% off the full ticket price.