We all know the story of Anne Boleyn and we all definatly know what happened to her, she lost her head for not giving the King an male heir and for supposedly plotting the death of the said King. She was the second wife of Henry VIII and during the time that she was alive she would change the course of England forever. Little is known about the early life of Anne, its believed that she spend most of her childhood at Hever Castle with her parents, sister Mary and brother George. Anne was educated and spent her early years of womenhood in the French court before she was called home and became a lady in waiting to Cathrine of Aragon along side her sister Mary. It wasn't long before Henry's eyes started to wonder, but not to Anne, but to Mary. The affair didn't last long as soon it was Anne's turn, but he was different, she didn't want to be just a mistress she wanted to be his wife and Queen.
Henry was besotted with Anne and did everything that he could to make sure that he kept her, he had Thomas Wovsey try to get a divorce for the Pope, but when this didn't work he decided to break awy from the Church and set up his own. This meant that he could them marry the women that he wanted. Henry's other problem was Catherine, she wasn't going to go quietly and she put up a fight. Eventually Henry had her sent away and she spent the rest of her life far away from court, but still called herself Queen and Henry's on true wife.
By the time they married Anne was already pregant with what would be the furture Elizabeth I. After the birth of Elizabeth cracks started to show in the marriage. Anne fell pregnant a further 3 times but each time she lost the baby, if Henry hadn't of had a jousting accident things would have been different as at the time Anne was carrying a male child but lost it due to the shock. This was the final straw for Henry, he wanted her gone and he didn't care how. This time Henry got Thomas Cromwell involved and told him to do whatever it took to get rid if Anne. Thomas started to make a case against Anne and played a mean hand, because he found it hard to gain anything against Anne he took a dark path.
Thomas had Anne arrested on the 1st May 1536 and had her sent to the Tower of London. She was kept in the same apartents that she had when it was her coronation just 3 years earlier. Anne was suspected of adultery, treason, and incest. There were 5 men that were also accused along side her, Mark Smeaton, Henry Norris, Francis Weston, William Brereton and her brother George. A trial was held on the 15th May for George and Anne, both claimed they were innocent but their peers found them guilty and condemed them to death. Anne was to either be burnt at the stake or to be beheaded, depending on what Henry wished. On the 17th May Henry had his marriage to Anne declaired null and void as well as removed all her titles.
Anne was told she was to prepare to die on the 18th May, but there was a delay. The French swords man that Henry had requsted was stuck and would be a day late. At 8am on the 19th May, Anne was told by William Kingston, her wardern at the Tower that she was to prepare herself to die at 9am. He found her to be in a good spirit and what seemed to be ready to leave her life. It was at this time that she said the famous 'For I have a little neck', before laughing. Just before dawn she callled for him to join her at mass and to hear her final confesstion, in which she said she had never been unfaithful to her husband in which she continued to swear.
Bang on the hour of 9am Anne emerged from her rooms at the Queen's house, which has since been knocked down, dressed in a red petticoat under a lose grey gown of damask trimed with fur and a mantle of ermine, and made her way to the scaffold that had been built just for her. Because she was a Queen and was an important person, Anne was executed within the walls of the Tower on the green that was just in front of what is now the Waterloo Barracks. Anne was accompanied by two ladies in waiting, who had been placed with her while she was imprisonmened in the Tower and were to report back anything she said to William Kingston. They followed behind her to the scaffold. She climed the steps unaided and made a small speech:
'Good Christian 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, not to speak anything of that, whereof I am accused and condemned to die, but I pray God save the king and send him long 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'
She showed a little sign of weakness but she gained the strenth the carry on. She begged for forgivness and for people to pray for her and for the King. There was a small crowd watching the excution and many were in tears. Her emrmine mantel was then removed and she removed her headress to tuck her hair under a coif. She said a brief farewell to her ladies, who were in tears and then turned to kneel down. One of her ladies then tied a bindfold over her eyes. She knelt upright, which was the French fashion of execution. She repeated her final prayer and words:
'Jesus receive my soul; O Lord have mercy on me, to God I commend my soul'.
Anne's head was removed in one clean stroke, it's said that her lips carried on moving for a few moments afterwards. As the cannons fired to declair that she was dead, both her lady's wrapped her body in a white cloth and placed it in an arrow chest which was then laid to rest in an unmarked grave in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula. Her body was identified during renovations in 1876, where her body was reburied and now identified with a marble slab. A bunch of red roses are placed on her grave every year and nobody knows who sends them.
Anne's legend didn't die with her it carried on with her daughter Elizabeth. Elizabeth was just 3 when her mother was killed and didn't really know the women that she was, but she was told things by those that were close to her. When Elizabeth became Queen, its said that she had her mothers innocnce put though parliment. When Elizabeth died she was wearing ring that contained a picture of an unknown woman that looked like Anne along with a picture of herself.
My Anne Boleyn rose that blooms on her anniversary
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