The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown
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Weston mentions living in "abomination", rather than being just a plain common and garden sinner, and this word has been used by some historians as evidence of homosexuality and illicit sexual acts. It is more likely that Weston is just referring to the fact that he, like everyone, was a sinner and that he had hoped to have had an opportunity to have put things right and to live a better life.
Weston then knelt at the bloodsoaked block and his life was taken.
"Ah! Weston, Weston, that pleasant was and young,
In active things who might with thee compare?
All words accept that thou diddest speak with tongue,
So well esteemed with each where thou diddest fare.
And we that now in court doth lead our life
Most part in mind doth thee lament and moan;
But that thy faults we daily hear so rife,
All we should weep that thou are dead and gone."
Thomas Wyatt
Sir William Brereton
Sir William Brereton was the fourth man to climb the scaffold. According to The Spanish Chronicle, he simply said, "I have offended God and the King; pray for me", but other reports have him repeating the phrase:
"I have deserved to dye if it were a thousande deethes. But the cause wherfore I dye, judge not. But yf ye judge, judge the best."11
Was Brereton simply exaggerating in his fear or do his words about deserving a thousand deaths suggest that he had led a criminal life and perhaps been involved in sodomy and illicit sexual acts? I cannot see any evidence for Retha Warnicke's view that all five men were libertines who committed sodomy on a regular basis, but it does appear that Brereton was a bit of a Tudor 'bad boy'. In his "Metrical Visions", George Cavendish, Wolsey's faithful servant and biographer, has Brereton lamenting the malicious streak which led to him causing the execution of John ap Griffith Eyton "by colour of justice".12
Norris's servant George Constantine wrote of how Brereton repeated "But if ye judge, judge the best" three or four times. Constantine felt that "If he were gyltie, I say therefore that he dyed worst of them all",13 meaning that if Brereton had been guilty then he would surely have confessed his guilt and asked God's forgiveness, rather than risking eternal damnation by dying with sins still unconfessed. Eric Ives14 points out that Brereton's wife, Elizabeth, certainly believed her husband to be innocent. The proof of this is that, at her death in 1545, she bequeathed a bracelet of "gold and Jasyndte stone"15 to her youngest son, Thomas, describing it as "the last token his father sent me".
"Brereton farewell, as one that least I knew.
Great was thy love with divers as I hear,
But common voice doth not so sore thee rue
As other twain that doth before appear;
But yet no doubt but they friends thee lament
And other hear their piteous cry and moan.
So doth each heart for thee likewise relent
That thou givest cause thus to be dead and gone."
Thomas Wyatt
Mark Smeaton
Mark Smeaton was the final man to be executed. How awful it must have been to stand by as the four men died such violent deaths in front of him, knowing that he himself had only minutes to live. He was lucky, however. As a man of lower class he could have ended his life in a much more brutal way by being hanged, drawn and quartered. The axe was preferable.
According to George Constantine, Smeaton addressed the crowd, saying:
"Masters I pray you all praye for me, for I have deserved the deeth"16
and then he was beheaded. He did not take the opportunity to retract his confession and when Anne Boleyn heard of this she said, "Did he not exonerate me... before he died, of the public infamy he laid on me? Alas! I fear his soul will suffer for it."17
"Ah! Mark, what moan should I for thee make more,
Since that thy death thou hast deserved best,
Save only that mine eye is forced sore
With piteous plaint to moan thee with the rest?
A time thou haddest above thy poor degree,
The fall whereof thy friends may well bemoan:
A rotten twig upon so high a tree
Hath slipped thy hold, and thou art dead and gone.
And thus farewell each one in hearty wise!"
Thomas Wyatt
Burials
Because they were commoners, Sir Henry Norris, Mark Smeaton, Sir William Brereton and Sir Francis Weston were buried in the churchyard of the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula. George Boleyn's head and body were taken inside the Chapel, however, and interred in the chancel area before the high altar. Just two days later, his sister's head and body would be joining him.
"And thus farewell each one in hearty wise!
The axe is home, your heads be in the street;
The trickling tears doth fall so from my eyes
I scarce may write, my paper is so wet.
But what can hope when death hath played his part,
Though nature's course will thus lament and moan?
Leave sobs therefore, and every Christian heart
Pray for the souls of those be dead and gone."
Thomas Wyatt
Was Anne Boleyn a Witness?
The men were executed on Tower Hill, outside the confines of the Tower of London, so it would have been impossible for Anne to witness their harrowing deaths from her lodgings in the royal palace. However, Gareth Russell18 points out that Anne may have asked Sir William Kingston to move her to either the Byward Tower or Bell Tower so that she could witness her brother's last moments. In his report to the Emperor, Chapuys, the imperial ambassador, recorded Anne witnessing the executions: "the Concubine saw them executed from the Tower, to aggravate her grief".19
A Marriage Destroyed
Also on 17th May 1536, at Lambeth, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, in the presence of Sir Thomas Audley, the Duke of Suffolk, the Earl of Oxford and others, declared that the marriage between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn was null and void.20 This sentence of "nullity" meant that it was as if the marriage had never happened and automatically rendered the couple's daughter, Elizabeth, illegitimate. The King could now forget the woman waiting for her death in the Tower and move on with his life and marry again.
We do not know the grounds for the annulment. The Archbishop simply said that it was "in consequence of certain just and lawful impediments which, it was said, were unknown at the time of the union, but had lately been confessed to the Archbishop by the lady herself."21 Charles Wriothesley22 took this to mean that the Queen confessed to a pre-contract with Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland. However, the Imperial ambassador, Eustace Chapuys, believed that "the said Archbishop had pronounced the marriage of the King and Concubine invalid on account of the King having had connection with her sister, and that, as both parties knew of this, the good faith of the parents cannot make the said bastard legitimate."23 Thus, the impediment referred to here was that of consanguinity. In other words, the marriage was deemed incestuous because the King had had a previous sexual relationship with Anne Boleyn's sister, Mary Boleyn.
18th May 1536 – Anne Prepares
On the night of 17th May 1536, while the carpenters built her scaffold within the grounds of the Tower of London, Anne Boleyn prepared herself for her execution, which was scheduled for 9am on the 18th. At 2am, her almoner, John Skip (some say her confessor Father Thirwell1), arrived to pray with her. She was still in prayer when Archbishop Cranmer arrived just after dawn to hear her final confession and to celebrate the Mass.
Anne Boleyn thought she would be dying in just a few hours, so she wanted the Sacrament. She asked for Sir William Kingston, the Constable of the Tower, to be present and he agreed. As Anne took the sacrament she swore on it twice, before and after receiving the body of Christ. She solemnly swore that she had not been unfaithful to the King, as Chapuys reported in a letter to Charles V:
"The lady who had charge of her has sent to tell me in great secresy that the Concubine, before and after
receiving the sacrament, affirmed to her, on the damnation of her soul, that she had never been unfaithful to the King."2
Anne obviously wanted Kingston to pass this information on to Thomas Cromwell and he did:
"for this mornynge she sent for me that I myght be with hyr at [such time] as she reysayved the gud Lord, to the intent I shuld here hy[r] s[peak as] towchyng hyr innosensy alway to be clere."3
It changed nothing. Anne could have sworn her innocence until she was blue in the face but the swordsman of Calais was on his way, the scaffold was being erected and her marriage had been annulled. Anne had been abandoned by Henry VIII and she was to suffer death.
Anne then made arrangements for the customary distribution of alms using the £20 given to her by the King for this purpose, and then she waited for 9am, the moment she thought she would take her final walk. She went back to her prayers.
When nothing happened at 9am, Anne sent for Kingston. She had heard that her execution had been postponed until noon:
"Mr. Kyngston, I h[ear say I shall] not dy affore none, and I am very sory therfore, for I thowt[h to] be dede [by this time], and past my payne."
Kingston knew full well that Anne was not being executed that day as he had received orders from Cromwell to clear the Tower of foreigners first, perhaps so that foreign diplomats could not send home sympathetic reports of Anne execution. Kingston kept Anne in the dark for a while longer and tried to comfort her by explaining that her execution would not be painful and that the blow was "so subtle". To this, Anne replied with characteristic black humour, "I heard say the executioner was very good, and I have a little neck", after which she put her hands around her throat and laughed heartily.4 Kingston was impressed with Anne Boleyn's composure, commenting to Cromwell that "thys lady hasse mech joy and plesure in dethe"5 and writing of how her almoner was with her continually.
Anne's black humour in those dark hours showed through as she joked with her ladies that the people would be able to give her the nickname "la Royne Anne Sans Tete" 6 or Queen Anne Lackhead, and then she laughed. Regardless, those hours of waiting and not knowing what was going on must have been pure hell for Anne, who had prepared herself to die that day.
She was finally put out of her misery when noon passed and Kingston informed her that her execution had been postponed until the next day, the 19th. According to Chapuys, "when the command came to put off the execution till today [19th], Anne appeared very sorry, praying the Captain of the Tower that for the honor of God he would beg the King that, since she was in good state and disposed for death, she might be dispatched immediately".7 Lanceleot de Carles has her adding that it was "not that she desired death, but thought herself prepared to die and feared that delay would weaken her". De Carles writes of how she then "consoled her ladies several times, telling them that was not a thing to be regretted by Christians, and she hoped to be quit of all unhappiness, with various other good counsels."8
There was nothing that Sir William Kingston could do to ease Anne's suffering; all Anne could do was return to prayer and wait.
Catherine's Tomb
Elsewhere on 18th May 1536, it was reported to Cromwell by a Frenchman that the wax tapers set around Catherine of Aragon's tomb in Peterborough Abbey "had been lighted of their own accord".9 Spooky!
19th May 1536 – The Execution of Queen Anne Boleyn
At dawn on 19th May 1536, Queen Anne Boleyn celebrated the Mass for the last time, receiving the Sacrament from her almoner, John Skip. She then ate breakfast and waited to hear Sir William Kingston's footsteps outside her door. At 8am, the Constable appeared, informing Anne that the hour of her death was near and that she should get herself ready. But Anne was already prepared. She had taken special care with her outfit – the ermine trim symbolised royalty and crimson, the colour of her kirtle, was associated with martyrdom. Her hood was the traditional English gable hood, rather than her usual stylish French hood.
Anne left the sumptuous royal palace for the last time, walking past the Great Hall, through Cole Harbour Gate and along the western side of the White Tower. There, ahead of her, was the newly erected black-draped scaffold.1 Kingston helped his prisoner up the scaffold steps and Anne stepped forward to address the crowd. The crowd fell silent as they gazed at their queen, a woman "with an untroubled countenance".2 Anne then delivered her final speech:
"Good Christian people, I have not come here to preach a sermon; I have come here to die. For according to the law and by the law I am judged to die, and therefore I will speak nothing against it. I am come hither to accuse no man, nor to speak of that whereof I am accused and condemned to die, but I pray God save the King and send him long to reign over you, for a gentler nor a more merciful prince was there never, and to me he was ever a good, a gentle, and sovereign lord. And if any person will meddle of my cause, I require them to judge the best. And thus I take my leave of the world and of you all, and I heartily desire you all to pray for me."
(The speech is corroborated by Edward Hall, George Wyatt, John Foxe and Lord Herbert of Cherbury)
Unlike her brother, Anne did not protest her innocence and preach to the crowd; she simply did what was expected of her. Executions were carefully choreographed, with a set format for execution speeches which Anne followed to to the letter. There was no way that she would risk her daughter's safety by defying the King and proclaiming her innocence. Elizabeth's safety and her future relationship with her father, the King, were paramount in Anne's mind as she prepared to meet her Maker.
Anne paid the "distressed"3 executioner who asked Anne's forgiveness. Her ladies then removed Anne's mantle and Anne lifted off her gable hood. "A young lady presented her with a linen cap, with which she covered her hair, and she knelt down, fastening her clothes about her feet, and one of the said ladies bandaged her eyes."4 The crowd, who would have been well used to executions by this time, were moved by the Queen's plight, many of them crying.5 As Anne sank to her knees in readiness, the crowd too sank to its knees, following the example of Sir John Aleyn, the Lord Mayor. Only Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, remained on their feet. 6
As Anne waited for the executioner to strike, she started praying, "O Lord have mercy on me, to God I commend my soul. To Jesus Christ I commend my soul; Lord Jesu receive my soul. "Eric Ives7 writes that her only show of fear was the way that she kept looking behind her to check that the executioner was not going to strike the fatal blow too soon. As Anne prayed, the executioner called out to his assistant to pass him his sword. As Anne moved her head to follow what the assistant was doing, the executioner came up unnoticed behind her and beheaded her with one stroke of his sword. It was over.
As the shocked crowd dispersed, Anne's ladies, who were described as "bereft of their souls, such was their weakness",8 wrapped her head and body in white cloth and took them to the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula for burial. No casket had been provided, so a yeoman warder fetched an old elm chest which had once contained bow staves from the Tower armoury.9 Anne Boleyn, Queen of England and mother of Elizabeth I, was then buried as a traitor in an unmarked grave. The Tower cannons fired to tell London that its Queen was dead.
Sir William Kingston was paid £100 by the Crown for Anne Boleyn's "jewels and apparel"10 and that was that. One queen was dead and another was about to take her place. Sir Francis Bryan took the news of Anne's death to her replacement, Jane Seymour; who knows what she thought of the bloody events of the past few days?
Scottish theologian Alexander Alesius had woken up in the early hours of 19th May from a nightmare about the Queen's severed neck in which he "could count the nerves, the veins, and the arteries". He went to visit his friend Archbishop Cranmer in his garden at Lambeth. Alesius was unaware of Anne's imminent execution, having remained at home since the day of Anne's imprisonment, but as he told the Archbishop of his dream, Cranmer "raised his eyes to heaven and said, 'She who has been the Queen of England upon earth will to-day become a Queen in heaven.' So grea
t was his grief that he could say nothing more, and then he burst into tears."11 The Archbishop who owed his rise to the patronage of the Queen and her family was a broken man, and perhaps he felt some guilt for his part in recent events. It is hard to imagine how he would have felt on hearing the cannons ring out over London, announcing the Queen's death.
Queen Anne Boleyn was gone, gone to a better place.
Anne Boleyn's Resting Place
Anne Boleyn's remains lay in peace in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula until 1876 when much-needed restoration work was carried out on the chapel. During the work, it was found that the pavement of the chancel area, where Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard and Lady Jane Grey were buried, was sinking. It was decided that proper foundations were needed so the chancel area was dug up and the remains exhumed.
In the area where Anne Boleyn was recorded to have been buried, the bones of a female were found at a depth of about two feet. The remains were examined by Dr Mouat who confirmed that they belonged to "a female of between twenty-five and thirty years of age, of a delicate frame of body, and who had been of slender and perfect proportions". He went on to say that "the forehead and lower jaw were small and especially well formed. The vertebrae were particularly small, especially one joint (the atlas), which was that next to the skull, and they bore witness to the Queen's 'lyttel neck'."1 Although the bones were mixed up, they had been heaped together in a small space and there were no further female remains at that spot. Dr Mouat's memorandum said of Anne Boleyn's remains:
"The bones found in the place where Queen Anne Boleyn is said to have been buried are certainly those of a female in the prime of life, all perfectly consolidated and symmetrical, and belong to the same person.
"The bones of the head indicate a well-formed round skull, with an intellectual forehead, straight orbital ridge, large eyes, oval face and rather square full chin. The remains of the vertebrae, and the bones of the lower limbs, indicate a well-formed woman of middle height, with a short and slender neck. The ribs show depth and roundness of chest. The hands and feet bones indicate delicate and well-shaped hands and feet, with tapering fingers and a narrow foot."2