Who was Anne Boleyn? She rose to power in the early 1530s, having played a strategic game to secure position as King Henry VIII‘s second wife. Posthumously, after he had her framed for treason and beheaded, her legacy would live on, shapeshifting in the public imagination to become a witch, a martyr, and eventually a feminist icon. Over the centuries, Anne’s image has been a mirror to the times.

The ill-fated English queen’s many guises are the subject of a new exhibition at her childhood home of Hever Castle. “Capturing a Queen: The Image of Anne Boleyn” is the first exhibition of its kind, bringing together an unprecedented number of portraits and costumes from across history that reveal something of these changing perceptions.

One of the most prevalent myths that the exhibition tackles is that Anne’s real appearance remains a mystery. It has often been said that, after she was executed in 1536, Henry ordered the destruction of all her portraits so that Anne’s face would be forever lost to history.

The Hever “Rose” Portrait, dated 1583. Photo: © Hever Castle.

In recent years, however, there have been significant discoveries of rare, contemporaneous portraits of Anne. The exhibition includes, for example, a little-known woodcut from the 1530s depicting the queen with Henry. It is on loan from the British Library in London.

Other portraits of Anne that were made in her lifetime include the “Moost Happi” medal portrait at the British Museum and a drawing, probably by Hans Holbein the Younger, belonging to the Royal Collection. These images show Boleyn with much lighter, possibly auburn hair, in stark contrast to the dark hair she sports in some later portraits and in more recent cinematic portrayals.

Plenty more revelations have come to the fore in the research for “Capturing a Queen.”

Anne’s image is still largely defined by posthumous portraits, including one particularly famous example at London’s National Portrait Gallery. New historical research has, however, indicated that this famous portrait only shows Boleyn’s upper body. The face belongs to her daughter Elizabeth I. Was this deliberate? Curator Owen Emmerson has explained that it may well have been a tactic to “show a legitimate and God-ordained line of succession,” boosting Elizabeth’s claim to the throne.

The infrared analysis of another painting, the Hever “Rose” Portrait, dated 1583, showed that it had been reworked to include Anne’s hands. Why? The leading theory is that the artist hoped to defend the late Queen from vicious rumors started by the Catholic priest Nicholas Sander, who accused Anne of having been a witch. Her monstrous nature, he claimed, was nowhere more evident than in the myth that she had six fingers.

Costumes are arranged as part of the “Capturing a Queen: The Image of Anne Boleyn” exhibition at Hever Castle, 2026. Photo: © Hever Castle.

Can these findings get us any closer to understanding the woman behind the myth? One of the show’s curators, Kate McCaffrey, hopes that an appreciation for how Anne leveraged her social standing to navigate ruthless court politics may prompt us to reconsider our curiosity about her looks.

“We will be exploring why there is such a desire to capture Anne’s physical appearance, and if it even mattered what Anne might have looked like,” said McCaffrey. “She was far more famed for her charisma, wit, and intelligence.”

“Henry VIII was never drawn to [Anne] for her physical appearance as far as we know,” she told the BBC.

There is no more suitable location to reconsider Anne’s legacy than at Hever Castle, the palatial home where she lived as a child and would return in her twenties, when it became a welcome retreat from court life. The private apartment, including her bedroom, from which Anne seduced the King through the exchange of love letters, was recently reconstructed in the Tudor style. The opening of “Capturing a Queen” marks 500 years since their courtship began in 1526.

“Capturing a Queen: The Image of Anne Boleyn” is on view at Hever Castle, Hever Rd, Hever, Edenbridge, through January 2, 2027.