Reel Heraldry: Anne of the Thousand Days, Part 3

For our bit of heraldry to be found in the 1969 movie Anne of the Thousand Days, we see the marshaled arms of King Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, in a stained glass window in the background behind actress Irene Papas, who played Catherine in the movie.

As you will note, the windows also have the not terribly helpful "H" and "K" over the two coats of arms, for Henry and Katherine.

Alas, because it was in the background, the focus is not very good, and it is hard to make out Catherine's (or Henry's, for that matter) arms, even in a cropped and enlarged version.

At least with Henry's arms, you can visualize what you ought to be seeing here.

But on poor Catherine's, it is impossible to make out anything, much less identify what her arms are supposed to be.

Fortunately for us, we have a good, nearly contemporary version of her arms marshaled with Henry's, in a mid-16th century English armorial entitled Insignia Anglica, which can be found as item BBS-Hss Cod.Icon. 291 on the website of the Bavarian State Library in Munich, Germany.

Voilá!

So here we have the sorely needed clarity of Catherine's arms and her supporter falcon, of which this last is barely distinguishable in the window from the movie.

Does the window in the movie use Catherine of Aragon's actual arms? It is too indistinct to make out to be able to say either way.

Nonetheless, I will certainly give them an "A for effort" in this case. Because overall, the movie had a lot more good, that is to say, accurate, heraldry than not.