Hidden detail found in Anne Boleyn portrait was ‘witchcraft rebuttal’, say historians | Monarchy

Anne Boleyn’s portrait of Hever “Rose” is one of the most iconic faces in history, with her “B” necklace, French hood, dark eyes and red rose in her right hand. A secret that has been hidden for nearly 500 years has now been revealed under layers of paint.

Scholarly analysis of the painting from Hever Castle, his childhood home in Kent, has led to the discovery by an Elizabethan artist of Henry VIII. He revealed evidence that Henry tried to “visually disprove” his unfortunate wife’s claim that she was a witch with a sixth finger on her right hand.

While dendrochronological, or tree-ring, analysis dated the oak panel to about 1583 (around the reign of Anne’s daughter, Elizabeth I), infrared technology revealed a dramatic underline.

The discarded triangular form under Anne’s right arm is thought to record the exact moment when the artist departed from an inherited design and decided instead to show Anne holding a red rose, with her hands and fingers clearly visible.

In the 16th century, artists used “patterns” taken from life in short sessions to consistently reproduce royal portraits. These were distributed among the workshops as approved counterparts.

Hever’s “Rose” underdrawing shows that the artist initially used the so-called “B” pattern, usually focusing on Anne’s head and shoulders, then adapted it as a lie “to refute the slander of the day.”

Hever’s assistant curator, Dr. Owen Emmerson said: “By clearly displaying the figure five in each hand, the portrait serves as a visual rebuttal to hostile rumors and a defense of the legitimacy of Anne Boleyn and by extension her daughter Elizabeth.”

Anne was imprisoned for adultery in the Tower of London in 1536. Although he denied the charges, he was found guilty of treason and beheaded. Her only crime was that she did not give Henry VIII a son.

The king had divorced Catherine of Aragon, the first of his six wives, to marry Anne; this marriage caused him to break away from the Catholic church and lead to the English Reformation. Henry VIII removed all traces of Anne from the royal palaces, and no portraits painted during her lifetime are thought to survive.

From the final analysis, the Hever team concluded that their portrait was the earliest scientifically dated panel portrait of Anne currently known; This portrait was created as Elizabeth I’s image was being consciously re-examined during her reign at a time of intense political and religious anxieties.

In her 2025 book The Many Faces of Anne Boleyn, Helene Harrison suggested that Anne’s hands were prominently displayed in the Hever Rose portrait to counter the claims of Nicholas Sanders, the 16th-century writer and activist who campaigned for the restoration of Roman Catholicism in England. He attempted to undermine Elizabeth I’s legitimacy by writing that Anne had “six fingers on her right hand.” When told about the new evidence, Harrison said he was surprised to find that the analysis supported his theory.

Kate McCaffrey, who is also assistant curator at Hever, said: “This is really exciting. This is very strong evidence that a very specific myth of witchcraft and six fingers has been visually debunked, which is really quite extraordinary. The scientific analysis extends this to a very specific political moment in time.”

“This is Elizabeth’s way of not only reclaiming her own legitimacy and lineage, but also her mother’s. It is impossible to say that Elizabeth herself commissioned this portrait, but it certainly seems a coincidence that it was not painted in response to rumors circulating at the time.”

Dendrochronology was undertaken by an independent expert, Ian Tyers, while infrared reflectance and materials analysis was carried out at the Hamilton Kerr Institute at the University of Cambridge.

The portrait will feature in the upcoming exhibition Capturing a Queen: The Image of Anne Boleyn at Hever. It will explore how Anne’s image was “created, deliberately altered and used politically.”

For their contemporaries, beauty was in the eye of the beholder. Venetian ambassador Francesco Sanuto described her as “not one of the most handsome women in the world”, while German humanist Simon Grynaeus thought she was “handsome”.

McCaffrey said: “Her appeal lay in her intelligence, her confidence and her charisma. That’s what caught Henry’s eye and heart.”

To Capture a Queen: The Image of Anne Boleyn opens It will continue until February 11 January 2, 2027.