There can have been few Royal romances as notorious as that between Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII.

Now visitors to Hever Castle near Edenbridge will be able to gain an insight into the tempestuous love affair that changed the course of English history.

The castle has completed a year-long refurbishment of the Boleyn apartment - the suite of rooms that were lived in by the Boleyn family, and which, despite many renovations to the castle over the last 500 years, have remained largely structurally unaltered.

Long known as the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, recent research has revealed that Anne, the mother of Elizabeth I, spent much more time at Hever than previously thought.

It was to Hever that she retreated when the King’s attentions became too much and it was there that she finally decided to accept him.

The Tudor historian, Dr David Starkey, has been advising the castle team on the project. He said: “It’s Hever Castle where the royal love affair that shook the world reached its turning point; it’s the place, literally, where the English Reformation began.

“And, most astonishing of all, it still looks the same—outside and, where it matters, inside as well.

“Anne Boleyn would recognise it; she would even be able to find her way to the room where she slept.”

The discoveries started when Dr Simon Thurley, architectural historian of Tudor and Stuart England, was commissioned to write a scholarly architectural history of Hever Castle.

The result has transformed the understanding of the building’s history and use throughout its 600-year existence.

The living space at Hever Castle, paradoxically one of the smallest houses the Boleyns owned, has survived essentially intact from when they lived there, whereas all their other houses have been altered beyond recognition.

Hever’s location deep in the Kentish countryside and yet only one day’s ride from London made it ideal as a safe place to bring up the children of an ambitious courtier family.

And later, was a convenient refuge for Anne from the prying eyes and wagging tongues of her rivals and enemies at Henry VIII’s court.

The rooms of the Boleyn Apartment have been entirely refurnished, redecorated and rehung with textiles to suggest their appearance when Anne used them.

The display also tells the story of the social climbing of Anne’s ruthlessly ambitious family; her French education in the arts of courtly love; her winning the heart of Henry and the crown of England, and her brush with death along the way when she caught the dreaded sweating sickness but recovered—also at Hever.

There are no surviving contemporary inventories of Hever Castle. But the curatorial team has made a detailed study of comparable inventories which, together with Holbein’s paintings, have provided a scholarly foundation for the refurbishment.

Among the surprises is that in this era, carpets were generally placed on tables, not on the floor.

The castle tells the story of Anne’s journey to become Queen.

The refurbishment, with its use of tapestries, fabrics, rush-matting, friezes, and 16th-century furniture, helps visitors feel as though they are walking in the shoes of the woman whose influence would change the course of England’s history, monarchy and religion.

Similarly, the rooms become increasingly more opulent as you move through them, as Anne’s status increased over time.

The Parlour sets the scene for the rooms ahead. Then the visitor climbs the spiral staircase to the Nursery, which shows what life was like for Anne Boleyn and her siblings as children at Hever Castle.

Next comes the Great Chamber, which represents Anne’s return to Hever after her crucial years at the French court.

Artefacts such as lutes and other musical instruments, writing materials and books (including religious works) suggest both the multi-functional use of this room and the cultural influences Anne absorbed in France.

The ceiling, painted in deep blue and gold, is striking and a hand-painted frieze takes inspiration from painted decorations at other Tudor properties.

The Best Bedchamber is dressed with rich figurative tapestries—the most precious form of wall covering.

This is the location where Anne probably read Henry’s love letters (which survive in the Vatican Library) and wrote her now vanished replies as she sure-footedly negotiated her perilous rise.

The castle’s historian Kate McCaffrey said: “We are thrilled to unveil the Boleyn Apartment.

“We wanted to create a series of rooms that lets the visitor step back in time to the world of Anne Boleyn and her family – Hever’s most famous inhabitants.”