Hever Castle, South East, England

The medieval castle at Hever was first built in 1270, by William de Hever.  William was a descendant of a Norman family, who came to England during the Conquest.  He held the title of Sheriff of Kent in 1272.  Hever Castle then descended to the Cobham family who held it until 1362.  

Hever Castle then passed to the Scrope family, who were from the North of England and owned lands in Yorkshire and Northumberland.  Sir Stephen Scrope was the third son of Lord Richard Scrope, who had been one of Richard II’s ministers.  When Stephen died in 1408, Hever castle went to his widow Millicent, who later married Sir John Fastolf, of Shakespeare’s Henry IV.  Apparently not a likeable man, one of his servants wrote of him: ‘cruel and vengible he hath been ever, and for the most part without pity and mercy.’ Millicent and Stephen had had a son, he became Fastolf’s ward but was not allowed his inheritance. He instead left to join the French wars, to seek freedom from his stepfather.  Hever Castle was then sold to the Fiennes family. 

In 1462, Hever Castle was purchased by Geoffrey Boleyn. His son, Thomas Boleyn, married Elizabeth Howard and they had three children, George, Mary and Anne.  Hever was Anne Boleyn’s childhood home, but at the age of 13 she joined the household of Margaret of Austria, in the Netherlands. She returned to England and became a maid of house to Henry VIII’s sister, Mary Tudor, who was to marry King Louis XII.  Anne was then sent to become a maid of honour to Queen Claude of France, and stayed with her for nearly seven years.  In 1522, Anne returned to England, where her sister Mary had previously been sent home to Hever in disgrace, after she had had an affair with Francis I, King of France. Soon after Mary’s return to England, Mary became mistress of Henry VIII, for a short time.

Anne Boleyn was then appointed to be one of the ladies-in-waiting to Queen Catherine, where she caught the eye of King Henry VIII. In 1525, King Henry was desperate for a male heir.  When Anne returned to Hever the king made frequent visits, but Anne refused to be his mistress.  Henry tried to have the Pope annul his marriage to Queen Katherine, but for political reasons, the Pope refused.    King Henry then took actions which shocked Europe and declared himself head of the Church of England, and thereafter declared that his previous marriage to Katherine was invalid. 

King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn were married in secret, a marriage which lead to the complete destruction of all of the monastic communities of England and Wales.  Anne was crowned Queen in June of 1533 and their child Elizabeth was born in September.  The first disappointment was that the baby had been a girl, but Anne’s fate was sealed when the following two pregnancies ended in miscarriages.  Henry was moving on, and another lady by the name of Jane Seymour had caught his eye.  In May of 1536, Anne was a prisoner in the Tower of London, accused of incest with her brother, and adultery with several gentlemen of the court, as well as witchcraft and treason for good measure.  She had been Queen for only 1,000 days when she was beheaded on Tower Green. Her body lies in the Chapel of St. Peter and St. Vincula in the Tower of London.