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

Anne Boleyn’s Hever “Rose” portrait is one of history’s most iconic faces, with her “B” pendant, her French hood, her dark eyes and a red rose in her right hand. Now a secret that has remained hidden for nearly 500 years has been discovered beneath the layers of paint. Scientific analysis of the painting at Hever Castle, her childhood home in Kent, has uncovered evidence that an Elizabethan artist sought to create a “visual rebuttal” to claims that Henry VIII’s ill-fated wife was a witch with a sixth finger on her right hand. While dendrochronological or tree-ring analysis has dated the oak panel to about 1583 – within the reign of Anne’s daughter, Elizabeth I – infrared technology has uncovered a dramatic underdrawing. View image in fullscreen The Hever portrait of Anne Boleyn depicts the mother of Elizabeth I and is believed to have been painted during the latter’s reign. Photograph: Hever Castle A discarded triangular form beneath Anne’s right arm is thought to record the precise moment that the artist departed from an inherited design, deciding instead to show Anne holding a red rose, with her hands and fingers clearly visible. In the 16th century, artists used “patterns” drawn from life in brief sittings, so that they could reproduce royal portraits consistently. These were circulated between workshops as approved likenesses. The Hever “Rose” underdrawing shows that the artist initially used the so-called “B” pattern, which generally focused on Anne’s head and shoulders, before adapting it “to debunk the slander of the day” as a lie. Dr Owen Emmerson, an assistant curator at Hever, said: “By clearly displaying five digits on each hand, the portrait acts as a visual rebuttal to hostile rumours and as a defence of Anne Boleyn – and, by extension, of her daughter Elizabeth’s legitimacy.” Anne was imprisoned for adultery in the Tower of London in 1536. Although she denied the charges, she was found guilty of treason and beheaded. Her only crime had been her failure to give Henry VIII a son. The king had divorced the first of his six wives, Catherine of Aragon, to marry Anne – a marriage that led him to break with the Catholic church and brought about the English Reformation. Henry VIII removed all traces of Anne from the royal palaces and no portrait painted during her lifetime is thought to have survived. The Hever team conclude from the latest analysis that their portrait is the earliest scientifically dated panel portrait of Anne currently known, created when her image was being consciously re-examined during Elizabeth I’s reign, at a time of intense political and religious anxiety. View image in fullscreen The portrait undergoes scientific analysis at Hever Castle, Anne Boleyn’s childhood home. Photograph: Hever Castle 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 claims by Nicholas Sanders, a 16th-century writer and activist, who campaigned for the restoration of Roman Catholicism in England. He sought to undermine Elizabeth I’s legitimacy, writing that Anne had “on her right hand six fingers”. On being told of the new evidence, Harrison said it was amazing to find that the analysis supported her theory. Kate McCaffrey, who is also an assistant curator at Hever, said: “It’s really thrilling. This is very strong evidence of a visual rebuttal of a very specific myth of witchcraft and six fingers, which is really quite extraordinary. The scientific analysis extends this to a very specific political moment in time. “It’s Elizabeth’s way of not only reclaiming her own legitimacy and lineage, but also restoring the legitimacy of her mother. It’s impossible to say that Elizabeth herself commissioned this portrait, but it certainly seems too much of a coincidence for it not to be in response to rumours that were circulating at this time.” The dendrochronology was undertaken by Ian Tyers, an independent specialist, while infrared reflectography and material analysis were conducted at the Hamilton Kerr Institute, University of Cambridge. The portrait will feature in a forthcoming exhibition at Hever, titled Capturing a Queen: The Image of Anne Boleyn. It will explore how Anne’s image was “created, deliberately altered and politically deployed”. For her contemporaries, beauty was in the eye of the beholder. While the Venetian ambassador Francesco Sanuto described her as “not one of the handsomest women in the world”, the German humanist Simon Grynaeus thought she was “good-looking”. McCaffrey said: “Her appeal lay in her intelligence, confidence and charisma. That is what caught Henry’s eye and heart.” Capturing a Queen: The Image of Anne Boleyn opens on 11 February, running until 2 January 2027.