“What did Elizabeth I say about Anne Boleyn? Though the last Tudor monarch rarely mentioned her infamous mother, who was the second wife of Henry VIII, she did make the occasional reference to her, whether in word, in writing or in art. In this Tudor Queens documentary from History Calling I take you through all the references Elizabeth I made to Anne Boleyn that I’m aware of to try to build a picture of what she thought about her executed mother, who she had last seen at the age of two.

I’ll tell you about the daring reference to Anne which young Elizabeth Tudor seems to have made in her first ever portrait, known as The Family of Henry VIII, in which she appears alongside her father, siblings and stepmother Jane Seymour. You’ll hear about how Anne was represented in Elizabeth I’s coronation procession, the way in which Elizabeth asserted that Anne and Henry were lawfully married in documents, the famous Chequer’s Ring which probably shows mother and daughter together again and which Elizabeth owned and the ways in which Elizabeth favoured her Boleyn family members, Catherine Carey and Henry Carey (who may also have been the illegitimate children of Henry VIII). I’ll finish by discussing why Elizabeth I didn’t rebury Anne Boleyn in a grand tomb and instead left her under the floor of the Chapel of St Peter Ad Vincula in the Tower of London, where her remains had been placed after her execution on 19 May 1536 on charges of treason, adultery and incest, without so much as a proper coffin to hold her.

If you love a great Tudor history documentary, learning about the life of Elizabeth I, or the life and death of Anne Boleyn, this is the video for you.