Step into the winter stillness of Hever Castle with me, the beloved home of the Boleyn family, and a place that witnessed far more than festive cheer.

In today’s Tudor Christmas Advent episode, I’m sharing Hever as you may never have seen it: dressed in its glowing Christmas finery and wrapped in the quiet magic of midwinter. But Hever is more than beautiful… it is the backdrop to a moment Dr Owen Emmerson and I believe changed the course of Tudor history.

During the Christmas season of 1526 into early 1527, something happened here, something that shifted Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn’s future, and with it, the future of England.

Anne was away from court, surrounded by family, and finally had the space to reflect on Henry’s increasingly urgent pursuit. What unfolded at Hever that Christmas would set the stage f ...