Remembering Anne Boleyn, Katherine Howard and Others | A Memorial Fit for Royalty | Tower of London

From History Calling

BURIED AT THE TOWER OF LONDON, in the Chapel of St Peter Ad Vincula, are some of the most famous personages of Tudor history and beyond, but how have our ancestors and now we ourselves, gone about remembering Anne Boleyn, Katherine Howard and others who lost their lives to the executioner’s axe (or sword)? In this English history documentary from History Calling, I’ll take you through the various ways in which these Tudor Queens, along with the likes of Anne’s sister-in-law Jane Boleyn, Viscountess Rochford; Lady Jane Grey and Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury have been commemorated. We’ll look at the grave markers over their final resting places and the plaque on the wall of the Chapel which has a strange omission in the list of the dead. Using old and new photos and footage, we’ll also look at how these people have been commemorated outside the Chapel, from the plaques put up on the green by the Victorians to the current memorial at the Tower of London, which was unveiled in 2006 and which was created by Brian Catling. I’ll explain the layers of meaning behind the glass pillow and the poem which form the centre of this memorial, tell you why some historians feel that this effort directed at remembering those executed at the Tower of London has failed and explain why the issue of how Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard are commemorated, along with the others killed in the same place, is so contentious. We’ll also discuss where people were executed within the Tower, why the current (and past) memorials have been placed in the existing and in many ways, wrong location and what we know about why the site of an event as famous as the execution of Anne Boleyn has been recorded incorrectly by her memorial.