Lincolnshire historian Tracy Borman discusses new book 'Anne & Elizabeth'

​A Lincolnshire historian tells all about her new book which discusses the relationship between two of England’s most famous queens.
Tracy Borman with her new book Anne & Elizabeth.Tracy Borman with her new book Anne & Elizabeth.
Tracy Borman with her new book Anne & Elizabeth.

​Tracy Borman has written more than a dozen best-selling books on the Tudor period, including 'The Private Lives of the Tudors’, ‘Henry VIII and the Men Who Made Him’, and critically, ‘Elizabeth's Women: The Hidden Story of the Virgin Queen’, which gave her the idea to explore the relationship between Elizabeth I and her famous – or infamous – mother, Anne Boleyn.

She explained: “These are two of the most fascinating women in history, I’ve always been obsessed with Elizabeth and when I wrote Elizabeth’s Women, I was looking at who the most influential women in her life were and her mother was the top of that list.”

Tracy said that the common myth is that as Elizabeth was not even three years old when her mother was executed on trumped-up charges of adultery, treason, and incest, that she had little influence over her life:

Elizabeth's famous Chequer’s ring which held a portrait of Anne Bolyen inside. Photo: Lion TelevisionElizabeth's famous Chequer’s ring which held a portrait of Anne Bolyen inside. Photo: Lion Television
Elizabeth's famous Chequer’s ring which held a portrait of Anne Bolyen inside. Photo: Lion Television

"It is actually the exact opposite,” she said, “My research into the archives has found so many finds that show Elizabeth spend her life rehabilitating her mother’s reputation, and that she wasn’t ‘the great whore’ that she was painted to be.”

Anne and Elizabeth were unable to spend too much time together sadly, as Elizabeth was given her own household when she was just an infant, which would have been hard for Anne as she had a strong maternal instinct and she showered her daughter with gifts

Anne famously tried to breastfeed her daughter herself, which caused quite the consternation as it was not the done thing for the aristocracy to do so, and Henry forbid her from feeding her from her own breast and made her use a wet nurse.

"In those days, breastfeeding was thought to affect fertility and after all, as queen her job was to produce sons and Henry was furious that she tried to breastfeed,” Tracy explained.

Elizabeth's famous Chequer’s ring which held a portrait of Anne Bolyen inside. Photo: Lion TelevisionElizabeth's famous Chequer’s ring which held a portrait of Anne Bolyen inside. Photo: Lion Television
Elizabeth's famous Chequer’s ring which held a portrait of Anne Bolyen inside. Photo: Lion Television

Clearly, the relationship between her mother and father had a great impact on Elizabeth’s life, as she had seen her father execute her mother, and Tracy said it’s little wonder Elizabeth swore she would never marry.

"She would have equated marriage and childbirth with death, as her mother had had three miscarriages and you don’t have to dig too deep to see that it’s inaccurate to see that Anne didn’t have an influence on her – Elizabeth was fascinated by her.”

Elizabeth surrounded herself by her Boleyn relatives when she became queen, Tracy said, and her tributes to her mother were done with actions, not words, as she knew her mother was a divisive figure and boldly speaking of her would have ruffled a great deal of feathers.

There were many mementos to her mother found during Tracy’s research, most crucially was the famous Chequer’s ring which was a locket, and held a portrait of her mother inside as well as one of her own.

Anne adored her daughter so much, that Tracy also discovered her accounts in the archives which show that she made arrangements to buy her daughter clothes just before she was executed.

"It’s very poignant as it shows she was thinking of her daughter to her last breath,” she said, “It also shatters the myth that they weren’t that close.

"This has been a journey of discovery learning about these two women, and now, if it’s possible, I admire and respect them both even more.”

As the country prepares for the Coronation of King Charles III next weekend, Tracy also found out much about Elizabeth’s Coronation which was another tribute to her mother as it was a carbon copy of Anne’s Coronation in 1533 – although this was famously a very lack-lustre affair due to the public’s reaction.

"Anne’s Coronation was the most splendid of its time as Henry really went all out to try to dazzle their subjects, but it backfired as people just didn’t want her as queen,” Tracy said.

"It went wrong as Henry had made banners along the procession with their initials H and A intertwined, but the public just laughed as it spelled HA Ha and they laughed!

"The people were very much Team Catherine [of Aragon]. It just goes to show – you can put on an amazing show but you can’t make people like you.”

But Elizabeth’s was much more successful as she was popular with the people, and she used the same designers as Anne did for her coronation – and even had a life-sized model of her mother along the route.

Tracy is currently on a book tour promoting ‘Anne & Elizabeth’, which is released on May 19 – the anniversary of Anne’s execution – and she will be coming to the Collection in Lincoln on July 27 to talk about her new book.

‘Anne & Elizabeth’ is available to by from May 19 from all retailers.