Why Anne Wasn’t Like the Other Girls (At Court)
Discover how Anne Boleyn’s time in the courts of Margaret of Austria and Claude of France shaped her into one of the most influential women in Tudor history. From Renaissance humanism to French fashion and courtly charm, explore how Anne’s European education gave her the power to captivate a king—and change England forever.
Courtly Love 101: The Medieval Dating Manual That Shaped Anne Boleyn
Series One: How to Catch a King — Before Anne Boleyn, There Was Courtly Love
Before Anne Boleyn captivated Henry VIII, medieval courts were already obsessed with romantic performance.
Courtly love — shaped by figures like Eleanor of Aquitaine and immortalized in Arthurian legends — taught nobles how to desire. Knights proved devotion. Ladies remained distant. Power lived in restraint.
By the 1520s, this chivalric culture thrived in the Tudor court.
Anne didn’t invent the game.
She mastered it.