From Medal to Memorial: A Queen’s Legacy Across Hever Castle and Church

Hever Castle is proud to highlight the extraordinary display of the “Moost Hapi Medal” as part of its Capturing a Queen exhibition, offering visitors a rare opportunity to get up close to the only undisputed, confirmed contemporary portrait of Anne Boleyn made during her lifetime.

On loan to Hever Castle from The British Museum in London, the 1534 lead commemorative medallion anchors the exhibition’s exploration of Anne Boleyn’s image, influence, and enduring cultural legacy. Its presence provides a rare material link to the Tudor court and the contested memory of one of England’s most consequential queens.

The exhibition has been designed to place this remarkable object at the heart of a wider interpretive narrative, allowing visitors to consider not only Anne Boleyn’s historical significance, but also how her identity has been shaped and reshaped across nearly five centuries.

What makes this moment particularly significant is the opportunity for visitors to experience the medal in direct dialogue with a living heritage initiative just a short distance away: the campaign to create a permanent memorial to Anne Boleyn at St Peter's Church, Hever.

Located within the Boleyn Chapel of the church, the proposed memorial will sit in a space already closely associated with the Boleyn family, alongside existing memorials to Anne’s father, Thomas Boleyn, and her infant brother, Henry. The project, designed by award-winning stonemason James Elliott and master stone carver Lucy Churchill, is currently seeking to raise £85,500 to bring the memorial to completion.

Together, the exhibition and the memorial campaign create a unique cultural moment: the opportunity to encounter Anne Boleyn’s legacy both through a rare surviving object and through a contemporary act of commemoration rooted in the landscape of her early life.

Dr Owen Emmerson, Assistant Curator at Hever Castle and social and cultural historian, said:

“The Moost Hapi Medal offers a powerful and tangible connection to how Anne Boleyn was perceived in her own time and how she has been remembered since. To have that object on display so close to the places that shaped her life creates a remarkable continuity between artefact, landscape, and memory.”

Church representatives and historians involved in the memorial campaign have noted that the proximity of the exhibition at Hever Castle to the church creates an unusually coherent visitor experience, linking object-based history with active heritage preservation.

Prof Tracy Borman, Chief Historian of Historic Royal Palaces, added:

“Anne Boleyn is often reduced to symbolism, but objects like this medal remind us of the real person behind the myth. The opportunity to connect that material history with a living memorial nearby is especially meaningful.”

The Capturing a Queen exhibition and the St Peter’s Church memorial campaign together offer visitors and supporters a rare dual perspective: one rooted in the surviving material culture of the Tudor period, and the other in the continuing effort to honour Anne Boleyn’s life in the place most closely associated with her upbringing.

Set within Anne Boleyn's childhood home, Capturing a Queen offers visitors the chance to examine the Moost Hapi medal up close. The exhibition is included with castle admission. For more information, visit www.hevercastle.co.uk.

To find out more about how to support the church memorial campaign, please visit the campaign website: https://anneboleynmemorial.co.uk/