Anne Boleyn

"Anne Boleyn (/ˈbʊlɪn/, /bəˈlɪn/ or /bʊˈlɪn/); (c. 1501 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 as the second wife of Henry VIII of England and Marquess of Pembroke in her own right.

Henry's marriage to Anne, and her subsequent execution, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that was the start of the English Reformation. Anne was the daughter of Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Howard, and was educated in the Netherlands and France, largely as a maid of honour to Claude of France. She returned to England in early 1522, in order to marry her Irish cousin James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond; however, the marriage plans ended in failure and she secured a post at court as maid of honor to Henry VIII's queen consort, Catherine of Aragon."

On 2 May, the Queen herself was arrested at Greenwich and was informed of the charges against her: adultery, incest and plotting to murder the King. She was then taken to the Tower by barge along the same path she had traveled to prepare for her coronation just three years earlier. In fact, she was lodged in the same rooms she had held on that occasion. According to a letter from John Husee, Viscount Lisle's man of business in London, dated 24 May 1536, "the first accusers" against Queen Anne Boleyn were "the Lady Worcester, and Nan Cobham and one maid more". Lady Worcester was Elizabeth Browne, wife of the Earl of Worcester, but "Nan Cobham" is more difficult to identify. A letter written by Queen Anne to her long time firend, Bridget Wiltshire, lady Wingfield, was used as evidence in the trial of the Queen for adultery, incest and conspiring against the life of the King. As Bridget had died, she could not refute the interpretation the prosecution placed on the Queen's words:

           'I pray you as you love me, to give credence to my servant this bearer, touching your removing and any thing else that he shall tell you on my behalf; for I will desire you to do nothing but that shall be for your wealth. And, madam, though at all time I have not showed the love that I bear you as much as it was in deed, yet now I trust that you shall well prove that I loved you a great deal more than I fair for. And assuredly, next mine own mother I know no woman alive that I love better, and at length, with God's grace, you shall prove that it is unfeigned. And I trust you do know me for such a one that I will write nothing to comfort you in your trouble but I will abide by it as long as I live. And therefore I pray you leave your indiscreet trouble, both for displeasing of God and also for displeasing of me, that doth love you so entirely. And trusting in God that you will thus do, I make an end. With the ill hand of Your own assured friend during my life, Anne Rochford'

There were several more arrests. Sir Francis Weston and William Brereton were charged with adultery with the Queen. Sir Thomas Wyatt was also arrested, but later released. They were put on trial with Smeaton and Norreys at Westminster Hall on 12 May 1536. The men were not allowed to defend themselves, as was the case in charges of treason. They were found guilty and received the required punishment: they were to be hanged at Tyburn, cut down while still living and then disemboweled and quartered.

On Monday the 15th, the Queen and her brother were put on trial at the Great Hall of the Tower of London. It is estimated that some 2000 people attended. Anne conducted herself in a calm and dignified manner, denying all the charges against her. Her brother was tried next, with his own wife, Jane Parker, testifying against him (she got her due later in the scandal of Catherine Howard). Even though the evidence against them was scant, they were both found guilty, with the sentence being read by their uncle, Thomas Howard , the Duke of Norfolk. They were to be either burnt at the stake (which was the punishment for incest) or beheaded, at the discretion of the King.

On 17 May, George Boleyn was executed on Tower Hill. The other four men condemned with the Queen had their sentences commuted from the grisly fate at Tyburn to a simple beheading at the Tower with Lord Rochford.

Anne knew that her time would soon come and started to become hysterical, her behavior swinging from great levity to body- wracking sobs. She received news that an expert swordsman from Calais had been summoned, who would no doubt deliver a cleaner blow with a sharp sword than the traditional axe. It was then that she made the famous comment about her 'little neck'.

Interestingly, shortly before her execution on charges of adultery, the Queen's marriage to the King was dissolved and declared invalid. One would wonder then how she could have committed adultery if she had in fact never been married to the King, but this was overlooked, as were so many other lapses of logic in the charges against Anne.

They came for Anne on the morning of 19 May to take her to the Tower Green, where she was to be afforded the dignity of a private execution.

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other links:

http://www.britroyals.com/tudor.asp?id=anne_boleyn

http://englishhistory.net/tudor/monarchs/boleyn.html#Biography

http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/tudor_14.htm

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=1965

http://www.geneall.net/U/per_page.php?id=2648

http://histfam.familysearch.org/getperson.php?personID=I1425&tree=E...

http://histfam.familysearch.org/getperson.php?personID=I131&tree=Nixon

http://histfam.familysearch.org/getperson.php?personID=I260&tree=No...

http://histfam.familysearch.org/getperson.php?personID=I3788&tree=P...

http://histfam.familysearch.org/getperson.php?personID=I66662&tree=...

http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/anneboleyn.htm

http://www.nndb.com/people/900/000093621/

http://thepeerage.com/p10150.htm#i101493

http://tudorhistory.org/boleyn/

http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/aboutAnneBoleyn.htm

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