A Gold Girdle Book and its Connection with Anne Boleyn

Abstract

The miniature prayer book with the shelfmark Stowe MS. 956 has long attracted attention because of a story associating it with Anne Boleyn. According to an oft-repeated account, this tiny girdle book with a gold metalwork binding was handed by Anne to one of her maids of honour on the scaffold at her execution in 1536. Through examination of eighteenth and nineteenth century sources, this article demonstrates how the story originated. In the process, it untangles the history of the manuscript from that of another sixteenth-century gold girdle book, an heirloom of the Wyatt family. The findings clearly disprove the connection with Anne Boleyn, while alternative evidence suggests a more probable original owner for the volume.