According to William Latymer, Anne was “never found without having some book in French in [her] hand.” Anne always made sure that her books looked splendid, and the king showered her with gifts of gilt, silver and velvet bindings. But her love of luxury didn’t end with her library, spectacular though it was. During her time in France, she often dolled herself up to suit the exacting standards of that most fashionable of courts. The French courtier Brantome wrote about Anne in his memoirs, remembering her as “the fairest and most bewitching of all the lovely dames of the French court, with a gracefulness that rivalled Venus.” On one occasion, she appeared in a dress covered with silver stars, with her little feet clad in velvet slippers, each adorned with a diamond star. On her head she wore a golden-coloured gauze halo, and her hair fell in ringlets about her shoulders. As one of her modern biographers notes, “Anne experimented as much with outfits and hair styles as she did with dance-steps.” She delighted in enhancing her gowns with jewels. Initial jewelry was popular at the Tudor court, and it seems that Anne was fond of jeweled letter pendants; in addition to her iconic “B” necklace, she owned a brooch with “RA”—meaning “Regina Anna”—spelt out in diamonds. She especially enjoyed wearing diamonds and rubies in her hair, often in fanciful shapes such as roses and hearts; as Susan Bordo observes, “Anne must have been quite a ravishing sight dancing at court, her thick, chestnut mane cascading down her back.” Ribbons could also be worn in the hair, and Anne’s inventory for March of 1536 states that she owned several “fine pieces of ribbon” for putting up her hair. Her penchant for ribbons was so great that she even decorated her clavichord with green ribbons. She famously craved apples during her first pregnancy, but her favorite fruits were fresh cherries and strawberries, and in 1532, she even sent a servant to London just to satisfy her cherry craving. (She tipped generously!) She was also known for her affinity for spiced wine. It seems probable that she had a sweet tooth; at her coronation, she was presented with a ‘heaping’ plate of sugarplums, and she loved gingerbread and marzipan. There is a story attached to her lady-in-waiting days alleging that she would often eat tiny cakes filled with almond custard and cream cheese. When the king found her snacking on cake one day, she offered to share, and Henry, who never met a dessert he didn’t like, was so smitten with Anne’s sweet pastries that he decreed that they should be reserved exclusively for the nobility. They are still known today as “maid of honour” cakes. Anne also used sachets filled with sweet rose petals and lavender to scent and refresh her sheets and clothes. Perfumes were widely used for the body as well, and for this purpose Anne used the services of her apothecary, Thomas Alsop. While we can’t say with absolute certainty what her favorite scent was, records indicate that she had a fondness for rosewater, and she owned “small flagons and glasses for rosewater” and a gold “casting glass,” a bottle used to sprinkle rosewater and other flower essences onto the body. In the words of Eric Ives, if Anne had lived, “her wardrobe might well have rivalled the 2000 costumes which tradition assigns to that most fashion-conscious of monarchs, her daughter Elizabeth. Anne [was the one who] certainly started her child on that route.”
