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KF5JRV > TODAY 19.05.19 15:02l 131 Lines 6064 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 36621_KF5JRV
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Subj: Today in History - May 19
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Sent: 190519/1251Z 36621@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.18
On this day in 1536, Anne Boleyn, the infamous second wife of King Henry
VIII, is executed on charges including adultery, incest and conspiracy
against the king.
CATHERINE OF ARAGON
King Henry had become enamored of Anne Boleyn in the mid-1520s, when she
returned from serving in the French court and became a lady-in-waiting
to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.
Dark-haired, with an olive complexion and a long, elegant neck, Anne was
not said to be a great beauty, but she clearly captivated the king. As
Catherine had failed to produce a male heir, Henry transferred his hopes
for the future continuation of his royal line to Anne, and set about
getting a divorce or annulment so he could marry her.
For six years, while his advisers worked on what became known as “the
King’s great matter,ö Henry and Anne courted first discreetly, then
openly—angering Catherine and her powerful allies, including her nephew,
Emperor Charles V.
In 1532, the savvy and ruthless Thomas Cromwell won control of the
king’s council and engineered a daring revolution—a break with the
Catholic Church, and Henry’s installation as supreme head of the Church
of England. Many unhappy Britons blamed Anne, whose sympathies lay with
England’s Protestant reformers even before the Church’s steadfast
opposition turned her against it.
JANE SEYMOUR
At Queen Anne’s coronation in June 1533, she was nearly six months
pregnant, and in September she gave birth to a girl, Elizabeth, rather
than the much-longed-for male heir. She later had two stillborn
children, and suffered a miscarriage in January 1536; the fetus appeared
to be male.
By that time, Anne’s relationship with Henry had soured, and he had his
eye on her lady-in-waiting, the demure Jane Seymour.
After Anne’s latest miscarriage, and the death of Catherine that same
month, rumors began flying that Henry wanted to get rid of Anne so he
could marry Jane. (Had he attempted to annul his second marriage while
Catherine was still alive, it would have raised speculation that his
first marriage was valid after all.)
Henry had apparently convinced himself that Anne had seduced him by
witchcraft, and also told Cromwell (Anne’s former ally, now her rival
for power in Henry’s court) that he wanted to take steps towards
repairing relations with Emperor Charles.
ARREST AND IMPRISONMENT
Seeing Anne’s weak position, her many enemies jumped at the chance to
bring about the downfall of “the Concubine,ö and launched an
investigation that compiled evidence against her.
After Mark Smeaton, a court musician, confessed (possibly under torture)
that he had committed adultery with the queen, the drama was set in
motion at the May Day celebration at the king’s riverside palace at
Greenwich.
King Henry left suddenly in the middle of the day’s jousting tournament,
which featured Anne’s brother George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford, and Sir
Henry Norris, one of the king’s closest friends and a royal officer in
his household. He gave no explanation for his departure to Queen Anne,
whom he would never see again.
In quick succession, Norris and Rochford were both arrested on charges
of adultery with the queen (incest, in Rochford’s case) and plotting
with her against her husband. Sir Frances Weston and Sir William
Brereton were arrested in the following days on similar charges, while
Queen Anne herself was taken into custody at Greenwich on May 2.
DUKE OF NORFOLK
Led before the investigators (chief among them her own uncle, the Duke
of Norfolk) to hear the charges of “evil behaviorö against her, she was
subsequently imprisoned in the Tower of London.
The trial of Smeaton, Weston, Brereton and Norris took place in
Westminster Hall on May 12. At the conclusion of the trial, the court
sentenced all four men to be hanged, drawn and quartered. Three days
later, Anne and her brother, Lord Rochford, went on trial in the Great
Hall of the Tower of London.
The Duke of Norfolk presided over the trial as lord high steward,
representing the king. The most damning evidence against Rochford was
the testimony of his own jealous wife, who claimed “undue familiarityö
between him and his sister.
TRIAL OF ANNE BOLEYN
As for Anne, most historians agree she was almost certainly not guilty
of the charges against her. She never admitted to any wrongdoing, the
evidence against her was weak and it seems highly unlikely she would
have endangered her position by adultery or conspiring to harm the king,
whose favor she depended upon so greatly.
Still, Anne and Rochford were found guilty as charged, and Norfolk
pronounced the sentence: Both were to be burnt or executed according to
the king’s wishes.
On May 17, the five condemned men were executed on Tower Hill, but Henry
showed mercy to his queen, calling in the “hangman of Calaisö so that
she could be beheaded with the sword rather than the axe.
ANNE BOELYN EXECUTION
On the morning of May 19, a small crowd gathered on Tower Green as Anne
Boleyn—clad in a dark grey gown and ermine mantle, her hair covered by a
headdress over a white linen coif—approached her final fate.
After begging to be allowed to address the crowd, Anne spoke simply:
“Masters, I here humbly submit me to the law as the law hath judged me,
and as for mine offences, I here accuse no man. God knoweth them; I
remit them to God, beseeching Him to have mercy on my soul.ö Finally,
she asked Jesus Christ to “save my sovereign and master the King, the
most godly, noble and gentle Prince that is, and long to reign over
you.ö
With a swift blow from the executioner’s sword, Anne Boleyn was dead.
Less than 24 hours later, Henry was formally betrothed to Jane Seymour;
they married some 10 days after the execution.
While Queen Jane did give birth to the long-awaited son, who would
succeed Henry as King Edward VI at the tender age of nine, it would be
his daughter with Anne Boleyn who would go on to rule England for more
than 40 years as the most celebrated Tudor monarch: Queen Elizabeth I.
73 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
email: KF5JRV@GMAIL.COM
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