Her Majesty, Queen Anne Boleyn, enjoys the stately steps of the mid-afternoon Court Dance, held near the Captain's Pub Gazebo. King Henry VIII can be seen dancing with another lady of the Royal Court just beyond the courtier bowing low to Her Majesty.

Yet another Noble couple of King Henry's Court steps through the slow measures of the Court Dance that afternoon. It was well the weather was most pleasant that weekend. Otherwise, all that velvet, gold braid and brocade would have made for beautiful, sumptuous -- but HOT!-- costuming.

Unfortunately, even Royal marriages can have their tense moments. Rather than descending into a yelling, screaming, knockdown catfight, however, King Henry and Queen Anne settled their domestic differences in a far more sophisticated and civilized manner -- with a Living Chess Match! In this photo (left), male and female members of the Royal Court face off individually across the chessboard as living pawns in this game between the Royal Couple.

Although outwardly confident in this photo (left), King Henry and the surviving male members of the Royal Court are in a most vulnerable position at this time. Queen Anne and her ladies have swept away all of the King's pawns with few losses! King Henry's side rallied at that point, but in the end it was the King and Queen themselves who confronted each other in the center of the board. Fortunately, all's well that ends well. They managed to settle their dispute with a royal kiss and departed to live happily ever after...or, at least, until their next marital disagreement!

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This page created 2 May 2000