Anne Boleyn’s “B” Necklace: History, Mystery, and a Bit of Speculation

The Necklace That Still Turns Heads

Anne Boleyn wasn’t just Henry VIII’s second wife — she’s remembered as one of history’s most fascinating women. Bit of a history lesson: Henry, possibly thanks to a head injury, was known for being… well, a bit of a royal douchebag. Anne, by contrast, was intelligent, witty, and bold.

Henry wanted her badly enough that he broke with the Catholic Church — sparking the English Reformation — just so he could marry her. That’s a wild amount of drama behind a love story, and it’s one reason Anne still captures our imagination today.

What’s in a Letter?

Anne didn’t just have one initial necklace. Henry, at least before his moods turned dark, was a bit of a romantic. He had a piece made with an “H” and an “A” intertwined — his initial and hers together. But in most surviving portraits of Anne, you don’t see that necklace. Instead, you see the famous B necklace, the one that has become almost a logo for her name.

Here’s the twist: those portraits weren’t actually painted during Anne’s lifetime. They were made decades later, during the reign of her daughter, Queen Elizabeth I. Historians say they were copied from a lost original, but who’s to say the “B” wasn’t just a later invention? A handy shorthand to make sure viewers knew instantly: this is Anne Boleyn.

And honestly, if Henry was willing to upend an entire religion to marry her, would he really have been thrilled to see her flaunting a “B” for Boleyn instead of an “H” for Henry? The story doesn’t quite add up — and that mystery is part of the necklace’s allure.

The Fate of the Famous Necklace

If the “B” necklace really did exist, what happened to it? Such an iconic piece doesn’t just disappear, right?

When Henry turned on Anne and accused her of treason, she lost everything — not just her life, but her possessions too. All of her jewels, even her personal favourites, reverted to the crown. Call it Henry’s Hoard: everything she had became his property.

From there, the necklace likely didn’t survive intact. Jewellery was often broken down and reset into new designs, especially when its history was awkward. Some suggest that a few of Anne’s pieces were smuggled away and secretly given to her daughter, Elizabeth. Personally, I hope that’s true. Elizabeth was only two years old when “daddy dearest” had her mother’s head chopped off. Dysfunctional family dynamics, anyone? At least a necklace might have been a tiny way to remember her mum.

Why Initials Still Matter

Although Anne’s “B” necklace is iconic, she wasn’t the only one in her era to wear letters. Lesser nobility often sported their initials — a Y for York, for example — as a sign of identity and status.

Fast forward to today, and initial necklaces are still popular. Why? Who knows. Maybe it’s a way of feeling important. Maybe it’s our way of saying, “No one else in the whole wide world has these exact initials.” It’s an easy, stylish way to claim your name. Which, if you think about it too hard, doesn’t make much sense — but then again, jewellery rarely does when you really start to scrutinize it. But that’s a topic for another day.