On this day in 1536, Anne Boleyn was beheaded at Tower Green

On this day in 1536, Anne Boleyn was beheaded at Tower Green

Before she was beheaded Anne delivered a speech:“ Good L people, I am come hither 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

Anything 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. O Lord have mercy on me, to God I commend my soul."

Anne was beheaded with a single blow of the sword.

Here is the story in Details 

Anne was born in about 1500 (we don’t know exactly when). Her father, Sir Thomas Boleyn, was a respected courtier. Her mother, Elizabeth Howard, was the daughter of Sir Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, one of the most powerful men in the country. She spent her childhood at Hever Castle in Kent.

EARLY YEARS IN FRANCE

In 1513, Thomas Boleyn sent Anne to the court of Margaret of Austria, and then to the French court, originally as a companion to Henry VIII’s sister, Mary, who was married to Louis XII. After Louis’ death in 1515, Anne stayed in France for seven years in the household of Queen Claude, wife of the new king, Francis I.

For an ambitious family like the Boleyns, this was a wonderful opportunity for their daughter to learn all the skills and manners expected of a lady at court, and to form a close connection with the French and English royal families. Her French education made Anne stand out on her return to England: she could sing, play musical instruments and dance, and introduce new French fashions at court.

Anne Boleyn (c.1500-1536), second wife of Henry VIII, by an unknown artist, late 16th century. Impartial descriptions of Anne are hard to find: she appears to have had dark hair and eyes and a slender neck, but no undisputed portrait of her from her lifetime has survived.

HENRY AND ANNE'S COURTSHIP

In 1526, the King’s interest in Anne significantly upped the stakes. 

Henry VIII’s long marriage to Katherine of Aragon had produced only one surviving child, Princess Mary. Henry was becoming increasingly desperate for a legitimate son and heir to secure the future of the Tudor dynasty. 

Either driven by her own virtue or ambition or by her scheming relatives and aware of the King’s dynastic dilemma, Anne refused to become a royal mistress and held out for the possibility of marriage.

ANNE MARRIES HENRY VIII

Anne finally married Henry in January 1533, seven years after their courtship had begun. Henry's marriage to Anne was technically bigamous, as his marriage to Katherine was not annulled until May 1533. 

In May 1533, Anne was escorted by river to the Tower of London, where she prepared for her coronation in the royal apartments before riding to Westminster in a triumphant procession. Anne was crowned Queen in Westminster Abbey on 1 June, when she was six months pregnant. Henry and Anne’s first child, born on 7 September 1533, was a healthy daughter who would grow up to become Elizabeth I. 

The following year, Henry broke with the Roman Catholic Church, setting himself up instead as the Supreme Head of what would become the Church of England. This created shockwaves, which caused religious and political unrest in Britain for the next 200 years. 

ANNE'S DOWNFALL

After the birth of Princess Elizabeth, Anne and Henry had no more children. Miscarriages in 1534 and 1536 may have led Henry, always spiritually superstitious, to question whether he had made the right choice in marrying Anne. Henry and Anne’s relationship, built on passion and expectation, seems to have become more tempestuous, and Henry, again, began to look outside his marriage for solutions.

ANNE'S ENEMIES

A promising new foreign alliance with the Holy Roman Empire floundered because the Emperor, Charles V, refused to ratify Henry's marriage to Anne.

Hostile factions gathered in the wings, led by all those courtiers who had lost their influence during the Boleyn change of regime. 

Anne also fell out with her ally Thomas Cromwell, who had arranged for the proceeds from the sale of monastic property to end up in the royal (i.e., Henry’s) coffers rather than be made available for charitable purposes, as Anne had hoped. 

ANNE BOLEYN'S ARREST AND TRIAL

In 1536, Cromwell made a decisive move against Anne. Accusations of adultery and even of plotting against the King’s life were levelled against the Queen, her brother, and a small group of courtiers. 

Anne was arrested on 2 May 1536 and taken by barge to the Tower of London, arriving at the private postern gate (now the Byward Tower).

Henry VIII, notoriously prone to suspicion, and now besotted with one of Anne’s own ladies-in-waiting, Jane Seymour, ignored the Queen’s protestations of innocence.

A sham trial filled with Anne’s enemies found her guilty, and she found herself a prisoner at the Tower of London, in the same royal apartment where, just three years before, she had awaited her coronation.

ANNE'S IMPRISONMENT AT THE TOWER OF LONDON

On the eve of her execution, according to the Constable of the Tower, Anne joked “I heard say the executioner was very good, and I have a little neck” before putting her hands around it and laughing heartily. Henry had granted her the ‘small mercy’ of dying at the hands of a skilled swordsman rather than an executioner’s axe. 

The execution of a queen for treason was an unprecedented event, and Henry and Cromwell ensured that it was carefully stage managed within the walls of the Tower rather than at the public execution sites outside. There would still be a substantial crowd of courtiers and tower officials and inhabitants. 

EXECUTION AND BURIAL

On 19 May 1536, Anne was beheaded on Tower Green. She protested her innocence until the last, but her final reported words were uncontroversial, “I am come hither 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 pray God save the King … for a gentler nor a more merciful prince was there never.” Some may feel her words were laced with bitter irony, but Anne was probably considering the safety of her infant daughter Elizabeth. 

Anne was buried in the Chapel of St Peter and Vincula in the Tower. 

Henry married Jane Seymour, a mere 11 days after her execution.

AFTER ANNE'S DEATH

Anne’s brother George, Lord Rochford, had already been executed for his alleged involvement in Anne’s treasonable plot. Their father Thomas lost his position as Lord Privy Seal and died a few short years later. Anne’s sister Mary lived on in relative obscurity until 1543. 

Anne was effectively written out of the history books for the rest of Henry VIII’s reign. Her name was literally chiselled out of the fabric of Hampton Court, her badges and heraldry replaced by those of Jane Seymour. 

Katherine of Aragon’s daughter, Mary I, promoted the view of Anne as a heretical seductress who had destroyed her mother and corrupted her father away from the ‘true religion’ of Roman Catholicism. 

During the reign of her daughter, Elizabeth I, Anne’s reputation was partly rehabilitated, and a set of portraits created – which may or may not have been based on a lost original likeness – revealing a slender-necked young woman with dark, expressive eyes. 

At the same time, Anne’s credentials as a pious religious reformer were celebrated, but the question of her moral character left unchallen

ged: After all, Elizabeth I was the daughter of both Anne and Henry. 

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