The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown

The Fall of
Anne Boleyn:
A Countdown

By
Claire Ridgway

First Kindle Edition, April 2012

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Dedication

For Tim, Christian, Verity and Joel, always xx

In memory of Queen Anne Boleyn, George Boleyn, Sir Henry Norris, Sir Francis Weston, Sir William Brereton and Mark Smeaton.

These bloody days have broken my heart.

Preface

Dressed in an ermine-trimmed, grey damask robe, with an English style gable hood and a crimson kirtle underneath, the slight, dark-haired woman took her final walk. She went out of the Queen's Lodgings, past the Great Hall, through Cole Harbour Gate, and along the western side of the White Tower to the black-draped scaffold. The Constable of the Tower of London, Sir William Kingston, helped her up the scaffold steps and she stepped forward to address the waiting crowd. Her coal-black eyes flitted over the crowd. As her gaze met those of her enemies - Thomas Cromwell, Charles Brandon, Henry Fitzroy and Thomas Audley – she didn't so much as flinch. The people fell silent as they gazed at their queen, Anne Boleyn, who one witness described as being "never so beautiful". The Queen took a deep breath and spoke:

"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."

Her ladies stepped forward to remove Anne's mantle and Anne doffed her hood, loosening those famous lustrous dark locks before tucking them into a cloth cap to keep them off her neck - that "little neck". As her ladies sobbed silently, Anne paid the executioner, the famous Sword of Calais, who begged her forgiveness for the deed he was about to commit. Even he was moved by the dignity of the woman who stood before him. She showed no fear. Then the eyes that Anne had always used so powerfully were hidden by a blindfold and she knelt, in the straw, praying all the while:

"O Lord have mercy on me, to God I commend my soul. To Jesus Christ I commend my soul; Lord Jesu receive my soul."

One by one, the crowd too sank to their knees out of respect for this woman whose courage and dignity spoke of her innocence. The Dukes of Suffolk and Richmond, stunned, watched the reaction of the crowd and refused to follow suit. Anne deserved this, in their opinion.

The silence was deafening as the crowd waited for the executioner to strike. The only sound was Anne whispering her prayers. The executioner, visibly shaken by the atmosphere and by Anne's courage, noticed that the Queen kept turning her head slightly, anticipating the blow, so he 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 behind her unnoticed and beheaded her with one stroke. Her ordeal was over. Her head may have been in the straw, her blood flowing freely across the scaffold, but Anne's soul was with her Father in Heaven.

Anne Boleyn was denied a proper burial with Christian service. Instead, her sobbing ladies gathered up her head and body, wrapped them in white cloth and took them to the Tower chapel, St Peter ad Vincula. Here, the Star of the Court was placed inside an old elm chest which had once contained bow staves. Anne Boleyn, the mother of the future Elizabeth I, was then laid to rest in an unmarked grave, buried as a traitor to the Crown.

It was the 19th May 1536 and a Queen of England had been executed.

Introduction

The fall of the Boleyns and the executions of Anne, George and members of the Boleyn faction cannot be put down to one single factor; the bloody events of 1536 can only be examined properly by looking at their context. A combination of factors all came into play that winter and spring.

In this guide to the fall of Anne Boleyn, I let the primary sources tell the story of spring 1536 because I believe that there is no better way to examine those events than through the eyes of people who were actually there. Obviously, we have to take into account the bias of those reporting the events and where they were getting their information from. Even so, they give us a unique insight into what was happening. This book is factual and is not a romantic retelling of Anne Boleyn's story. My mission has always been to get at the real truth about Anne Boleyn and to share it. This book is part of that mission. Full references are given, with guidance on how to find the sources named, so that you too can do further research if you wish. Warning: Digging into the 16th century is addictive!

I have chosen to look at the events chronologically and to take you through them a day at a time, so you can see exactly what led to Anne Boleyn's execution. Interspersed with some of the events are brief biographies of the people mentioned, so that you can see where they fit into Anne's story. I have also provided a "cast" list of those involved in the events. You will notice that the book is not written as a flowing biography or history book, but is written more like a journal or diary. My aim in writing it thus was to make it easy to find dates and events, and to allow you to follow Anne's final days, from start to brutal finish. It also makes it easier to digest.

The primary sources give us facts, but they do not give us the entire story. We do not know what Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII were thinking; we only know their actions and some of what they said. We can infer, we can hypothesise, but we will never know for sure exactly what happened in 1536. We can argue that Henry VIII was responsible for Anne's fall, we can argue that it was all down to Cromwell and that Henry was an innocent victim, we can argue that Anne was innocent, we can argue that she was guilty. We do not know the full story, merely partial truths. For this reason, I present here the evidence and my own thoughts based on MY reading of the evidence. You may think differently and I'm certainly not telling you what to think.

I hope you enjoy this journey back to 1536; hang on to your hats!

Note: In the Tudor times, there was no standardized spelling. All spellings in quotations are as they were in the contemporary sources.

The Cast 1535-1536

Henry VIII (1491-1547) – The King

Henry VIII was born on the 28th June 1491, the son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. Although the second son, he became King following Henry VII's death because his older brother, Prince Arthur, had died in 1502. Henry VIII married Arthur's widow, Catherine of Aragon, on 11th June 1509 but annulled his marriage to her in 1533. Henry VIII came to believe that their marriage was contrary to God's law because it was incestuous, in that she was his brother's widow, He believed that the lack of a living son was proof of this. Henry married his second wife, Anne Boleyn, in a secret ceremony on the 25th January 1533.

Henry is known for having six wives – Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr – and for executing two of them.

Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536)

Catherine of Aragon (Catalina de Aragón) was born on the night of 15th/16th December 1485. She was the daughter of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabel I of Castile, and was named after her maternal great-grandmother, Catalina de Castile or Catherine of Lancaster. On 14th November 1501, Catherine of Aragon married the heir to the English throne, Arthur, Prince of Wales, but was widowed just a few months later. She married Arthur's brother, Henry VIII, in June 1509 and the couple were married for over twenty-four years. Their only surviving child was a daughter, born in February 1516, who became Queen Mary I. It is thought that Catherine had at least five other pregnancies, which resulted in miscarriages, stillbirths or early infant death. Catherine died on 7th January 1536 at Kimbolton Castle.

Anne Boleyn (1501-1536)

Anne Boleyn was born in 1501 (some say 1507) and was the daughter of courtier and diplomat Thomas Boleyn and his wife Elizabeth Howard. Anne spent time at the courts of Margaret of Austria and Queen Claude of France before joining the English court in late 1521 to serve Catherine of Aragon as lady-in-waiting. It is thought that Henry VIII was in love with her by Shrovetide 1526 and in August 1527 he decided to ask the Pope for a dispensation to allow him to marry Anne. The King's Great Matter (Henry's struggle for an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon) ensued and Henry and Anne had to wait seven years to marry. Anne was crowned Queen on 1st June 1533 and gave birth to a daughter, the future Elizabeth I, on 7th September 1533. Anne experienced two other unsuccessful pregnancies. She was executed for treason on 19th May 1536, after being found guilty of adultery and plotting the King's death.

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