Costuming in "The Tudors": Anne Boleyn, Season Two

So, Anne Boleyn. Again.

I can already feel the weight of this blog entry weighing on me as it is going to be my longest one and I have nearly eighty pictures here for your viewing pleasure and my dissecting torment (okay, torment is a bit strong but). However, I should point out that these outfits are some of the most strange and interesting in the whole show so you should really relish in this entry before we enter into the worlds of "plain Jane", "short-lived, foreign Anne", "pretty, pretty princess Catherine", and "simple and practical Catherine." Not everything Anne Boleyn wears is something you'd want to wear, but it is darn captivating to look at.

So I said that there were differences between Anne in season one and Anne in season two. In season one, Anne's clothes had a tendency to be interesting variations on the basic silhouette of the times that showed she had status but was not royalty. In season two, she still sometimes wears things like this but they appear to be upgraded from last season in the same way as that cream and gold dress that I speculated was a gift from Henry. Purple becomes a staple in her wardrobe to show her status as queen without needing to change her style much but even so she does start wearing things like puffed sleeves, lace standing collars, and coat dresses to give an image of power. She also acquires a collection of maternity clothes, two outfits for being crowned, and a wedding dress. Oh, and don't forget the execution dress.

I know I missed a couple of dresses as I do with every entry but cut me some slack. I got the vast majority.

Anyway, enough of my blabbing.


Season 2, Episode 1

The season finale ending with Henry and Anne boning in the woods so what is the logical way to start season two? In church repenting of course. What's also great about this scene is that is shows Catherine of Aragon praying on her own in her chambers immediately after without all the pomp.

This is Anne's church dress. You may recall that Catherine of Aragon had one of these too but hers looked a lot like her regular clothes with just an added black veil and occasionally did slip into every day outfits when worn with a more festive overcoat. Anne's church dress does not leave church or "alms to the poor" duties and you can kind of see why. It's dowdy (for an expensive church outfit) and looks nothing like her usual clothes. It's practically a parody of a pious queen. Anne is only as religious as anyone else. She's no Catherine of Aragon. She's no Mary Tudor. She needs a separate costume for religious duties. She needs these huge shiny sleeves and weird collar in order to put her in this frame of mind and project this image to others.

Henry walks into Anne's room while she's reading and says a bunch of things to her including, "I have to possess you utterly." Charming. Then he tells her that he has been made head of the Church of England and wants her to stay in a tower all queens stay in before their coronation. Anne's father is hiding behind the door and enters after telling her that all is not as well as Henry seems to think and they discuss complications.

Anne is in a lot of nightgowns in this season, some that have meaning and some that don't. This one, not so much. I mean, it's the next scene with her after the church scene and Henry does seem to be thinking of her as virginal and pure after that, since you know, he thinks she's a virgin. The illusion is scattered of course by the planning that occurs with her father right after. The only really peculiar thing I found here is that she is wearing strings of pearls in her hair which is good to note for when you see her coronation dress.

In this scene, Anne meets her old lover Thomas Wyatt and the violinist, Mark Smeaton.

This outfit is close to Anne's clothes from last season but it certainly is a new dress. There's the split sleeves and the patterned fabrics that show signs that she has recently gotten it as an upgrade to her old image. A lot of her clothes from last season are made to look nice with embroidery and jewels while her newer outfits are more about expensive fabric doing all the design work. I should also point out that Anne's ladies-in-waiting wear actual identical uniforms unlike Catherine's did and that in this scene, Anne's dress is similar in color to theirs. She has not yet risen so far above her own maids.

Anne goes through court in another new dress and on the way out she finds out that Catherine still makes Henry's shirts. She then goes to yell at Henry about it and, as with all guys, Henry does not get why this is a big deal.

This outfit is stylistically between season one Anne and season two. Same shape but with puffed sleeves. Shades of blue has always been a thing with her but now the blue is expensive and bright. Not much else to say here except, that headpiece is really interesting for a design perspective and not an analysis one. It's not often that you see stones like that over jewels on her head.

Henry invites Anne to go hunting with him, saying that when they return Catherine will be out of the castle.

This scene is supposed to call back to a scene not long before it where Catherine was also in her nightgown with a red covering. The scenes reflect each other even though Catherine is getting kicked out so Anne can move in more comfortably. And of course, the styles are different. Anne has a youthful red vest where Catherine had an old red coat.

 Anne and Henry get ready to go on their trip.

For the reference, her skirt is black and the camera wouldn't let me show you. Anne seems to wear a lot of black and white in her riding outfits with a hat with a long feather and here is no different. The hairnet is new and probably very practical for traveling. The last time she wore a veil (also with a riding outfit), they were having trouble but with a possible breakthrough. Here she seems a lot happier with the white and jewels front and center and the black on the bottom. Her hat is like a feminine version of Henry's so she's really playing the part for the hunting trip.

Over dinner, Anne sees Henry beat a servant who delivered the news that Catherine was sad Henry didn't say goodbye. Anne is both nervous about his temper and pleased with his sign of devotion.

Another case of, old style, new fabrics. This exact dress gets a more queenly upgrade later on this season. Otherwise, it doesn't mean much.

All this lack of meaning is Anne's frequent appearance's fault. Not mine.


Season 2, Episode 2

Christmas time. Not much to say here except that there is a purple outer covering because purple is now her thing to show her "royalty" and the red dress underneath was in one of the promo pictures I posted in the last entry. Even with the covering, it's still kind of skanky looking, particularly for a Christmas dress, with how much boob is visible.

Henry mentions the rumors surrounding Anne and her former lover, Thomas Wyatt, and they agree that they are nonesense. Henry then brings up that the French ambassador is coming to visit to establish a piece treaty and that he wants to arrange a trip to France to present her formally as his wife and queen.

I think a lot of people remember this outfit just because of how fluffy it is. And I think the fluffiness is the point here. Everything is so fluffy and pure and pretty for them right now. Also, since they are talking about the French and her connection with the French, it's time for her to be as fashionable as possible.

But did you see the dress she has on underneath?

Anne discovers the death threat to her in her chambers.

Another old style dress but with better fabric and more elaborate sleeves. However, remember the last time she wore a brown shade? She was in court feeling humbled after Catherine tore her down and threatened her and then her brother showed her a sketch of her family crest attacking Catherine's and she had shouted that this is not a game and it's dangerous. Brown is the color Anne wears when there is a threat against her, plaguing her mind. Here's the danger with another threat although this one is in artistic form instead of verbal and a very serious one indeed.

During a sermon, the preacher goes on a rant about how Henry is sinning for his divorce and he is dragged off the pulpit.

Anne is in black and a veil because she's in church but here she is not supposed to look like this virtuous queen of last episode. The preacher compares her to Jezebel so she has to look less pious than before. This is also a holy day of some sort so she may be trying to dress more stylishly than she had before.

While in a court party, Anne introduces Henry to Mark Smeaton, the musician. They talk about the rumors  a bit again and Anne assures him that they are not true. This is also the scene when Henry says he has a surprise for her in France.

Anne last wore this dress when she met with both her former lover, Thomas Wyatt, and Mark Smeaton and this dress is calling back to that as Mark appears again and the discussion of the Wyatt is brought up. The surprise he has for her is that he is going to make her marquess of Pembroke so how convenient that she is already wearing a crown.

 Anne is cworned marquess of Pembroke, a title to be passed down to any sons she bears.

Clearly Anne went all out for her knighting. Why wouldn't you? This is easily the most expensive looking thing she's ever worn with all the sparkling detail and the rick red fabric and that necklace is really intense too. If I call back a theme from season two, when Anne wore red it meant a significant advance for her family and their goals, this would apply as well. She now holds a royal title in her own right that would be passed down to her descendents. Also, I think she wanted to match the crown. She's the kind of meticulous person who would do that.

Anne packs with Henry for their trip to France and he presents her with the queen's jewels. She gives him a hand job. History!
(When I went to Hampton Court there were actors there who did this scene only they did it in the courtyard with George Boleyn and Lady Rochford there. I don't recall a hand job. Maybe that happened after.)

Anyway, the jewels actually arrived in a purple lined box so they pretty much match her purple, jewel encrusted suit dress. This dress also is the start of her moving into more mature looks that she adopts after she is crowned. Puffed sleeves? Check. Collar? Check. Rich fabrics? Check.

While in France, Anne performs a little masquerade dance. Then she has a talk with the French ambassador about how he should be careful not to disclose things about the part of her life that she spent there to the king. Also, he gives her advice on roles and says that he would not chose to be king if he had not been born into it.

She's keeping secrets so she's in a mask and there's talk of roles so she's in a costume. She is playing a queen. She is keeping a face hidden.

While sitting at her desk, an assassin takes aim but is not given a chance to shoot before Henry comes in.

There are brown touches in her robe that call back to the scene of her discovering the threat although they are minimal in the robe because Anne has put it to the back of her mind right now and she does not realize that she is presently in danger.


Season 2, Episode 3

Anne comes in and tells Wyatt that she has a craving for apples that could mean she's pregnant. It seems that some secret has passed between them.

The last time Anne wore this dress the main thing about it was that she was matching her father in shades of blue. Here she is obviously matching Wyatt as something passes between them. She is even wearing her shades of blue crown, the dark jewels matching Wyatt's clothes very closely.

Anne Boleyn definitely has the worst wedding dress of all the wives. Somehow, this is a skanky wedding dress. It's something about the buttons or how low it is or something. Is it because they had sex before getting married? Is it because the marriage is doomed? Is it because the marriage itself is questionable? I think it's all of these things.

Anne meets with her sister Mary and they talk about her pregnancy and all the designs for the coronation procession. Anne starts crying.

This is one of Anne's maternity dresses. She has a few of them: two casual and one more formal. I don't really make much of this color unless you want to speculate that she is crying because she is nervous about the prophecy and what could go wrong at the coronation. This would be a valid argument since a shooter actually was in attendance but he failed again, killing a man behind her.

And Anne breaks out another ridiculously fancy dress for her coronation as queen, made to accommodate her pregnancy. Nothing to dissect here.

Anne gives very strict instructions to her uniformly dressed male and female servants in another maternity dress. This one is in a drab color like the other one although not dissimilar from the color of her lady-in-waiting dress. She is now in the opposite role. Although it doesn't look too nice, there is the strange and interesting detail of the sleeves being detached and held together with a silver cord. To allow a cool breeze in the summer? 


Season 2, Episode 4

Anne is wearing her queen's jewels dress when Elizabeth is delivered to her after her baptism. The queen has a new jewel?

Henry comes to see Anne and tells her that she can't breastfeed her own daughter and that Mary Tudor will be looking after Elizabeth. Anne is nervous about this and tells Henry to come to her bed soon so she may bare him a son.

This is a mother outfit, a housecoat if you will. Anne wants to be the caring mother but she isn't allowed to take care of her own daughter. Also, unrelated to the outfit but check out how this screenshot looks like Anne is judging the woman Henry is sleeping with. She definitely knows.

A magically slimmed down Anne at another Christmas celebration as she presents a gift to Henry and then tells him she's pregnant again. She also tells George to get rid of the mistress.

She's in purple like she was last year although this time it's an all purple dress. Her position is secure.

Anne is woken from a nap by a bunch of giggling maids reading some of Wyatt's poetry. After telling them they should be reading the Bible instead, her father comes in and asks about her situation. Anne tells him that Henry took a mistress when she was last pregnant and she is worried that he will again. Her father tells her that she must choose a mistress for him that they can control so her position will not be jeopardized. Later in this same outfit, Anne tells Henry that she had to dismiss his mistress because she "stole something precious from me" and gives him a picture of Elizabeth delivered by Madge, her mistress pick for him.

This one is obvious. Red "family power" coat and a meeting with her father where he speaks of Anne's position as "their" position.

Anne goes to visit Elizabeth. Before she leaves, she sees Mary Tudor and promises to put her back in court and reconcile her with her father if she will recognize her as queen. Mary says she recognizes no queen but her mother and says that if the king's mistress would like to put in a word for her, she would be grateful. BURN.

This is a conflict dress as are many of her more "queenly" outfits. It is clear that she had plans to talk to Mary just from how she dressed. There's the lining on the collar of the dress that is an addition, not a feature of the dress itself. There's the large headpiece. There's the fact that she chose a dress that is covered in jewels. This isn't a "going to see your daughter" dress so much as it is a dress to show authority over your stepdaughter.

Anne tells Madge that the king is interested in her and that she gives Madge her blessing to be his mistress. She explains her situation of needing him to have a mistress she can trust and Madge understands.

Anne's robe is either a dark purple or black. I think dark purple (if it is possible to be mildly colorblind, I am). Either way, although she is saying all of this to Madge in a friendly, accepting way, she is not happy that she must do this and she shrouds herself in dark color. The last scene of Anne is this episode is of her crying in bed.


Season 2, Episode 5

This is Anne's formal pregnancy dress. It's purple like so many of her clothes and has the same ribbing on the front as the brown casual maternity dress. Obviously this is for when she is not pregnant enough to be on permanent lock-down but when she is still very pregnant and has to walk through court.

Anne's father comes in to yell at her for losing the baby and says that they must all be careful, especially her. He warns her to not lose the king's love.

She has on this protective shawl over her nightgown that really plays up how weak and sick she seems. She is sick both physically from the loss of the child and now mentally from what her father has reminded her of.

Mary Boleyn comes to visit her sister and father and she is very pregnant. She tells them she got married to a serving soldier with "little standing and no fortune". Mary gets berated by her father for not marrying higher in society and her allowance is cut off. Mary tries to appeal to Anne, saying that she loves him and that she didn't think she would ever find a good man after being known as "the great prostitute." Anne says she is mad Mary didn't ask her permission and banishes her from court.

Anne hasn't worn this outfit since before she got knighted so it seems odd to show up at this time. I think the dress is supposed to provide a contrast with her father's insistence that they are royalty now since she wore this dress when she was nothing but the king's fiancee. Anne did what she was expected to do to her sister but in her heart she didn't want to; she knows what's really important but has to follow her father for their safety.

Anne hangs out at court with her new BFF, Mark Smeaton, and complains that no one else understands her while looking at Henry.

The last time she wore this dress she fought with Henry over Catherine still making his shirts and he didn't understand why it was a big deal to her. This dress is about Henry not understanding Anne.

Sitting in her evil light, Anne tells George that she is worried about Mary Tudor usurping Elizabeth. The stress being put on her throughout this episode finally gets to her.

She's in brown, her color of threats. This time it isn't so much a threat against her as it is a threat against her daughter but it is still plaguing her mind.


Season 2, Episode 6

Over dinner, Anne brings up how some people still question Elizabeth's legitimacy and suggests that she be betrothed to a French royal so her status is less ambiguous.

This is a business suit. Anne plays off the betrothal as a business transaction, not unlike the way Henry had given out betrothals to Mary as a political tool in season one. However, note the red lining of the jacket. Underneath the calm exterior, she is thinking about her family's status. It also helps that the conversation ends with her asking Henry if he will come to her bed tonight which is clearly now more of a matter of business than genuine want but she needs that son to secure her favor with him like her father has told her.

This is the dress that Anne wears to George's wedding to Jane Parker. She went with a simple style without too much detail so as not to upstage the bride or her brother on their "special day" (the quotes are there for those of you who know anything about this marriage) but she has to still dress like a queen somehow so, purple and a little crown.

Henry and Anne watch a play mocking the Catholic church with a lot of groundling humor. Henry tells Anne that the betrothal of their daughter is being arranged. Henry asks Brandon to arrange the meeting and Anne mentions that her father would be a better choice. Henry scolds her for insulting Brandon.

Anne is in full on queen mode here: standing collar, puffed sleeves, a hat since she's outside, a purple dress underneath. Since plays were open to anyone at this time, she needed to dress in a way to make sure that everyone knows why she gets to sit during the show. There's also the fact that this play is criticizing the institution that tried to keep her from power so this is a safe place for her to let her royalty flag fly.

George comes to visit Anne and she tells him that she is sure Henry is having more affairs and that she suspects he has a harem. She then tells him about the prophecy that a queen of England will be burned and admits to how afraid she is that she will not be able to give the king a son.

Meetings with Anne's brother are always a relief after meetings with Anne's father. Her father will scold her for the things she is doing wrong and then she will go tell her brother of her concerns. Her concerns are the same usual ones that could put their family and her place in danger so she's in red. However, what's different about this scene is that her gown is also red which is not only uncommon for anyone on this show but this is not the kind of thing one would wear when seeing their brother. I think the gown is intentional for providing the illusion that there is more to her relationship with her brother than there is.

This is not a spoiler and if you think it is, you fail history class. This is just a fantasy of one of her haters (it's hard to tell brunette white guys apparent sometimes) as she is walking through court.

Now, this dress is odd but it is only confusing for one reason: she is actually wearing this dress. This dress is not a fabrication of the fantasy. I have no idea what this garment is. It somehow looks too nice to be a nightgown but not nice enough to be a regular outfit. If you think of it purely as a fabrication in the mind of the haters, it is an outfit a whore would wear who thinks she's queen and this would fit perfectly with their image of her. But the show implies that she is actually wearing this. So again, I ask: what is this? Why did she leave the house wearing it? This just doesn't feel in character.

Anne rants to Smeaton that the French don't seem to care about her and that she heard the king is bringing beautiful women to court. She even shouts out, "With me! The queen of England!"

That line sums up this outfit. She only dresses like this when she is trying to throw her queen status around or use it as an explanation for things.

At the party with the French, Anne is too (drunk and) distracted by watching Henry flirt to really care what else is going on. Later they talk about Henry's infidelity and he pretty much tells her that he could bring her down as fast as he raised her and that the betrothal won't happen because the French and everyone else agrees that Elizabeth is a bastard and she is not his real wife.

At parties and events Anne seems to favor the basic silhouette. It is mostly in private that she brings out the over-the-top queen outfits. This is also probably the first time when she has been meeting with the French and hasn't tried to look distinctly French influenced. She doesn't care about the event but she is trying to maintain Henry's attention in the cheapest way possible, by being covered in shiny things. This dress is also the beginning of the end. Remember that.

Henry tells Brandon that he regrets what happened to Thomas More and that whenever he thought of pardoning him, Anne convinced him not to. Then he glares at her across the courtyard.

She's in the threat color, and specifically the death threat dress. If the last dress signified the end of Henry believing in their marriage, this dress is the foreshadowing of her coming death, not at the hands of an assassin but at the hands of Henry.


Season 2, Episode 7

The episode starts with Anne having a dream where Wyatt tries to give her an apple (I still don't get this inside joke), and she encounters an old woman and her father. She then is in a plain red dress, is captured and put in a wooden, see-through casket that a crowned Mary Tudor sets on fire.

When Anne is in black outside of church or church duties it is ALWAYS a bad thing. This outfit is a dream fabrication so it doesn't really exist but it certainly calls back to real outfits she has including the black and cream dress from last season when she almost died and the clothes she was wearing when the preacher publicly called her out for being a manipulative whore.

It is appropriate however that when she is actually burned in the dream, she is wearing a red dress. Family encouragement is what would have lead her here and in the dream right before she seems to pass out and awaken in the red dress, her father seems to be literally leading her somewhere.

A suitor for Madge shows up but spends a weird amount of time praising Anne for her religious charity. Then George comes in and she tells him about her dream and she breaks into hysterics. George tells her, "You're the queen of England! Act like it!" and asks her to be more like Catherine of Aragon.

The last time Anne wore this dress was when she went to tell Mary she would let her back to court if she accepted her as queen and Mary said she would only accept her mother as queen. This dress fits perfectly with that because she is thinking about the dangers Mary poses her and because her own brother holds Catherine up as what a queen should act like in the same way Mary did. It's also appropriate how the last time she wore this she had on some kind of collar and a nice headdress but here she's not put together at all, intimidating to no one.

At dinner with Henry Anne asks if he will try to arrange the marriage of their daughter again and he says he may try a different royal. She is mad because it is what Catherine would approve of and he tells her he is thinking of the country, not her. He then says that he understands her concern for their daughter but she shouldn't be concerned with politics.

It's the "Henry misunderstands" dress. He really doesn't get the half of her concerns in this scene and the ones he does, he dismisses.

This is the first time Anne has looked happy in a really long time. She gets to see Elizabeth and spend some time with her while hiding her tears.

The first time she wore this was in season two, episode one before the death threats and long before any of the other messy stuff. The last time she wore this dress and shrug was when she was planning Elizabeth's betrothal. This dress calls back to better times and connects her with her concerns for her daughter.

Anne is having a party in her chambers when Henry shows up and they dance and then have sex in a manner that is more violent than anything.

Red is her family power color of course but here it reads more as just passionate or violent; kind of like he is the bull and she is the matador. You can still see the family power thing from the scene if you are thinking about how this is the first time they have had sex in a long time and she even talks about wanting to conceive a son for him. The dress also has a lot of pink in it which is her actual passion color that she doesn't wear often at all. In the last season she had a pink dress she wore when she broke up with Wyatt and often when she would read Henry's letters. Here the two colors mix along with her mental state to get a frothing mix of crazy.

Anne goes to visit the king but finds that he has gone hunting with Brandon without telling her.

If you have been reading what I write, seeing this dress should have provoked a reaction. This is the dress she wore frequently last season, the one I thought might have been a gift from Henry and the first dress that moved her in the direction towards richer fabrics and more queen-like clothes. The fact that she is wearing it again after so long really sends the message that she thinks everything has been fixed with last night. The passion they once had is back and he understands her now. But alas, she is wrong. Nothing has changed.

Anne talks to Thomas Cromwell about the religious changes he has made. She critisizes the fact that Cromwell is taking money from monastaries and putting it into the king's pockets instead of donating it to charities. He says it was the king's idea and she says that she suspects that it is his scheme and threatens him.

She's got her queen uniform on with a collar and rolled sleeves and she is throwing her weight around.

"We are on the edge of a golden world!"

At a May Day party, Anne's father yells at Anne for criticizing Cromwell and she points out that she did not get the crown solely because of the men around her but because of herself. She then cackles with laughter and says that there is good news because Catherine is dead and she is pregnant.

Anne is trying her best to resemble the sun here. Although she says everything is good now, there is nothing really about her attitude to indicate that she truly believes it. Maybe it's just because she seems a bit mad. She hasn't worn this bright a yellow since season one when she found out that Henry wanted to marry her and she probably sees this moment as the next biggest thing to happen to her. In that scene, she wasn't totally happy either.
Also, on a small side note, Elizabeth is wearing a dress of the same color.


Season 2, Episode 8

Anne meets Jane Seymour and swears her in as her lady-in-waiting. Anne clearly knows why Jane has been invited there and she is not pleased.

Anne has on her brown maternity dress. Jane is already a threat and she knows it.

Anne puts on her super pious queen outfit to give alms and wash feet on Maundy Thursday now with a sparkly headdress so she is easily seen by the crowds.

Anne talks to her father about the Seymour family and how they may bring them down.

This isn't really a matter of family power and this conversation doesn't really have to do with Anne feeling threatened so much as comforted that she won't be threatened. However, she's not feeling so great so she has some bleak colors on. She actually does throughout this entire episode.

Anne finds out that Henry is going to be okay after the jousting accident. Her father tells her to seclude herself so as to protect the fetus she carries. She's thinking more about Jane Seymour though.

Threat dress. That thinking about Jane more than the baby will be a big problem soon.

It's a dinner in court. Anne is pregnant. Hence, purple pregnancy formal dress. That's all.

Anne walks in on Jane Seymour sitting on Henry's lap and flips a shit.

Black dress outside of church means really bad stuff is going down. It's not just the affair though but also the fact that she loses the baby most likely because of her hysteria that her father warned her about.


Season 2, Episode 9

Anne has on one of her stereotypical queen outfits to intimidate Jane Seymour. She discovers the locket Henry gave her and throws it on the floor in anger. She then goes to Cromwell and again criticizes how he is taking things from the church to give to the king. Then she asks him if he has given his private rooms to the Seymours and realizes that Cromwell is plotting against her. She also has another, "I am the queen of England" moment as she usually does when dressed like this.

At a gathering in her apartments, Jane confides in Anne about how her brother is cruel to her and does not treat her like the king treats her. She shouts that the king could never satisfy a woman and leaves, not helping Jane in the slightest.

"Henry misunderstands" dress. Although whether she is claiming he doesn't understand how to satisfy a woman out of spite or truth, who knows?

The last discussion Anne has with her father about how he thinks she should act to maintain their position with him obviously tense after the miscarriage as she is about that plus everything else.

Red "family power" color.

At her next appearance in court, she has on some queenly robes to go to church and Anne can sense that something strange is going on when Eustace disappears. This robe is important.

Anne tries to entertain foreign ambassadors in a lot of eccentric patterns and jewels. She goes on and on about how much the French suck, all sense of decorum completely gone. I think the clothes are both meant to look foreign so she fits in with the eccentric Italians and to look a little over-the-top because her mind is so unhinged right now. This is also the scene when rumors of Anne's infidelity get to the king. That doesn't really have to do with the clothes but it is an important fact.

George comes to see Anne and tells her that her meeting with the French has been postponed and that Mark Smeaton has been arrested. Anne drinks a lot. She also accuses Henry Norris of being interested in her.

I think this is Anne's drinking dress since she wore this last time she was really drunk. Like the last time, she is trying to forget her problems by bringing up other less important things and trying to be a part of a party.

Now finally knowing what's going on, Anne grabs Elizabeth and goes to Henry to beg for mercy insisting that she loves him and that she was never unfaithful and that he has to think of their daughter.

This is a mother robe like the other one she wore. She probably figured this kind of robe would be the most sympathetic. But alas, Henry has already made up his mind and no amount of love he may have for her or their daughter can change it.

Anne is arrested and taken to the Tower without giving her a chance to pack or change. The whole time she is being led out, she is insisting to her guard that she is innocent.

The fact that she is not given any time is probably why she is in just a normal, sitting around the house outfit with only enough time to grab a matching cloak. It is fitting though that she is in a shade of blue, one of her main colors. Also, that necklace really, really draws attention to her neck in a way none of her other necklaces have done. Holy foreshadowing.


Season 2, Episode 10

While in the Tower Anne is in the clothes she was arrested in without the jewels she had until it is time for her death. When she has her confession, she has on a necklace with a cross on it.

I have a theory about Anne's execution dress that seems to be supported by the show. It is the same dress she was arrested in that has been redone by tailors in the Tower. You even see someone sewing the collar on while she is getting ready. The changes include: the addition of the collar, the lace on the sleeves has been removed and a darker fur lining has been added, the front panel of the skirt has been replaced by a different, simpler fabric, and the front of the bodice has been elongated and given the additional front detail.

The fact is, Anne wanted to go out as nicely as she could. The interesting thing about the end result of her dress is that it is similar to the outfits she usually wears but that it is not so much nicer than what she used to wear in season one. If she were to die knowingly in season one and had some money to burn on dying in style, she would probably still look the same. The only thing that is in any way indicative of her former status really is the cape (which she was wearing when she first noticed that something odd was going on) and she has to take that off with her jewelry. The jewels she wears are nice but again, nothing more special than anything she has always worn. She probably wouldn't even be allowed to wear a headdress because it would make the process of preparing for the blade longer and there's no way in hell she could wear a crown either.

The point I'm making here is that Anne Boleyn dies looking like herself. She walks out of the Tower trying her best to look like a queen but when the blade decapitates her, she looks like Anne Boleyn. Just Anne Boleyn.


Season 4, Episode 10

Anne's last appearance, like Catherine's and Jane's is in the form of a ghost that Henry imagines. Also, like Catherine and Jane, she comes to talk about her child and how Henry has treated her. The ghost of Anne says that she is sad she didn't spend more time with her daughter in life because she was always focused on giving Henry a son but that now she is so proud of her and that she is like her but not intemperate. Henry admits that he wishes he could love Elizabeth more but sometimes she reminds him of her. Anne says she is innocent and also vouches for Catherine Howard.

Like all the ghost wives, this isn't a dress she actually owned but it looks like something she might have worn in a dark color. Except that crown. That actually she did wear a lot, usually with the "Henry misunderstands" dress. It's appropriate since she is telling him about how her innocence and their daughter who he doesn't spend enough time with. But again, this is an Anne Boleyn dress. Even with her eclectic style, this is clearly something that only Anne would have worn. It's a shade of blue. It has the usual shape of her old dresses. It's got a pattern that would honestly look weird on any of the other wives. Henry remembers her accurately.


And now I am halfway done.

Probably more since I have a lot fewer pictures for the last four wives.

I also finished this a few days earlier than I planned.

Next week: the boring but kind Jane Seymour.