A New Image of Anne Boleyn? Re-Creations of the Mysterious Image Under Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I

Hello everyone and welcome back to Royalty Now, where we bring you face to face with figures from the past. Today we have something a little different for you. This x-ray image of a woman, found hidden underneath a 1580s portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, has fascinated researchers and the public. It's led many to believe that this is a secret image of Elizabeth's disgraced mother, Anne Boleyn, and that Elizabeth had purposely painted over this image to preserve her mother's memory. But is this really an image of Anne Boleyn? And if it's not, who could it be? I'll reveal a recreation of this hidden woman, and then we'll do a little detective work. So let's go ahead and get started. Fifteen years ago, the National Portrait Gallery undertook some research for their Making Art in Tudor Britain project. The project revealed some unexpected characters underneath 16th century portraits, using infrared reflectography and x-rays. The project revealed a Virgin Marian child underneath the portrait of Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth I's spymaster. Ironic, given that his spies heavily operated against Catholics. It also revealed a devotional scene of Christ underneath the portrait of statesman Thomas Sackville. But the image that most interested the researchers was this portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, because it revealed what appeared to be a dark-haired, dark-eyed woman staring out from beneath the layers of paint. In 1536, when Elizabeth was just two years old, her mother, Anne Boleyn, was arrested by her father, King Henry VIII of England. After nearly ten years together and one daughter, Anne was abruptly accused of adultery and sentenced to death. Rumors circulated that she was a witch who had seduced Henry. Of course, it's commonly believed by historians that Anne was innocent of these accusations and crimes, and that Henry just wanted her out of the way so he could have a male heir with someone else. After her death, most portraits of Anne were immediately destroyed. It's the reason we hardly have any left for us today. The Tudor court tried to move on from her death as quickly and as quietly as possible. There was hardly a mention of the name Anne Boleyn for years after. It's hard to tell just how much of an impact this had on her daughter Elizabeth. During her life, Elizabeth rarely spoke of Anne, but we see physical evidence everywhere that Anne had a special place in her daughter's heart. Elizabeth acquired the very bed that Anne had given birth to her in. She decorated her home with the City of Ladies tapestries, the very same ones that Anne would have grown up around. She also wore the checkers ring, a double portrait ring showing both Anne and herself side by side. Anne Boleyn's falcon symbol was featured in Elizabeth's palaces and also added to her very tomb in Westminster Abbey. Painting panels were commonly reused in Tudor times. They were valuable commodities. So was there a hidden or personal meaning behind the reuse of this specific panel? Could Elizabeth have purposely been trying to preserve an image of her mother since so many were destroyed? Let's first take a look at the image we see today. This portrait of Queen Elizabeth was painted in the 1580s, and we can tell it's been altered in multiple layers. Infrared revealed that the bunch of flowers on her hand were painted over what she was originally holding, which was a snake. Snakes can be emblems of wisdom, but in the religious environment the Tudors lived in, it seems like the artist thought it would be confused for a sign of the devil. So as a result, it was painted over in the later stages of the portrait. This was another curious detail that connects the portrait to Anne Boleyn, who was famously accused of witchcraft. When looking under the layers of Elizabeth's painting, the researchers could immediately see that this hidden portrait was painted by someone highly skilled, but it appeared to be unfinished. Only the head and some of the shoulders had been painted. They could make out a French hood in the image, which is a style that Anne Boleyn was famous for wearing. I'm going to reveal my recreation of this mystery woman's face, and then we'll see if it looks like the paintings we have of Anne Boleyn. So let's take a look at the face of this mystery We can really only see the right side of her face, so I had to somewhat invent the jaw line and the ear. While her eyes and hair look dark, it was technically impossible to tell the hair or eye color. Because of the nature of radiography like this, it will always be in black and white. There is certainly some resemblance to Anne Boleyn. I see it especially in this Hever Castle version of her portrait. However, there are quite a few good reasons why this is not a portrait of Anne. Upon closer inspection, the style of her clothing is a little too late to be the fashion of Anne's time. This type of French hood was worn in the 1570s and 80s. Another piece that's barely visible is what appears to be a ruff, another fashion from about 40 years after Anne's death. The best evidence to get would be to date the panel using dendrochronology, so that's what the researchers did next. They ultimately found that the wood came from a tree that was cut down between 1572 and 1582, which means that the panel was reused by Elizabeth only a few years after it was made. Another reason is more emotional. As I said, Elizabeth already celebrated Anne with her possessions. She had a portrait of her mother on her own finger in the checkers ring, so did she really need to hide an image of her mother or keep it a secret by this point in England? So unless this is a portrait commissioned later of Anne Boleyn wearing 1580s attire, which would be really rare, it's not her. But then who could it be? It's reasonable to assume she's someone of high nobility, wealthy enough to have a portrait painted by a skilled painter, and important enough for Queen Elizabeth I to use the panel. So I thought, what better use of my time than looking through every wife of every peer of England in the 1570s who would have appeared at court or been one of the Queen's ladies between 1572 and 1582? Unfortunately, many women's portraits have been lost to time or simply exist as poor quality images for us to view today. So it's very possible this is one of the dozens of noblewomen at the time whose portrait no longer exists. But I did quite a bit of comparing to women whose portraits we do have. I couldn't find an immediate match among the most well-known of the Queen's ladies. Bess of Hardwick, Cat Ashley, Catherine Carey, and Frances Walsingham. They were all eliminated based on being too young or too old to be the portrait sitter. Cat Ashley had actually already passed away by the time this portrait was painted. I considered Lutece Knowles, which would have been an extremely spicy match since she was a rival of Elizabeth's, the wife of Elizabeth's favorite, Robert Dudley. She would be the correct age to sit for this portrait and was around court during these years, but to me her face doesn't quite match. Here are some other comparisons. These women were all in Elizabeth's service and the right age to pose for this portrait. We have Margaret Russell, Mary Radcliffe, Elizabeth Brockporton, Frances Sidney, and Helena Snakenburg. But to me none of these ring true. The only person I could think of who actually looked like this was Catherine Howard and I'm shocked at the resemblance. But this doesn't make sense because she died 30 years earlier. It could possibly be a previous draft of a portrait of Elizabeth that was scrapped, although to me the features don't quite match there either. The best match I did find during my research was with Frances Newton, the Baroness Cobham. She would have been in her 30s during the time this portrait was painted and she was a lady of the bedchamber and close friend of Elizabeth I. While not a perfect match, I do believe this is at least a contender. So do you have any theories about who this mystery woman might be? How do you feel about the resemblance to Anne Boleyn? Please let me know if I've missed any contenders in the comments below and if we find any more I'll make a community post with a comparison image. Thank you so much for tuning in.