England as the second wife of His Majesty King Henry VIII, was executed by beheading at the Tower of London
England as the second wife of His Majesty King Henry VIII, was executed by beheading at the Tower of London
May 19, 1536: Anne Boleyn, one-time Queen of England as the second wife of His Majesty King Henry VIII, was executed by beheading at the Tower of London. She was approximately 35 years old. Anne Boleyn had been found guilty of adultery, incest, and treason in a sham trial; the simple truth was that she had not delivered the King a son.
"At around 8 in the morning Sir William Kingston, Constable of the Tower of London informed her that she must prepare for death within the hour, but she was already prepared.
It was just a short journey out of the Queen's Lodgings. Past the Great Hall (where just under three years ago she had dined on the night before her coronation), through Cole Harbour Gate, along the west side of the White Tower, to the scaffold.
It stood three or four feet high, draped in black and surrounded by possibly a thousand spectators. Many of whom she would know well, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, Thomas Cromwell and the King's illegitimate son Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond.
Kingston helped her up the steps to the scaffold, where she addressed the crowd with a dignified speech.
A Portuguese witness reported "Never had the Queen looked so beautiful," while another reported that she "went to her execution with an untroubled countenance".
After this her ladies removed her mantle, while Anne removed her hood, tucking her long dark hair under cloth cap to keep it off her neck. She then paid the distressed executioner, who begged her forgiveness.
Then her famous black eyes were hidden behind a blindfold, and Anne knelt in the straw praying "Oh Lord have mercy on me, to God I commend my soul. To Jesus Christ I commend my soul; Lord Jesu receive my soul."
The crowd- all except Suffolk and Fitzroy- sank to their feet, while her ladies sobbed.
Anne kept flinching slightly, anticipating the blow of the sword, and the executioner, noticing this, called to his assistant to bring him his sword. Anne moved her head to follow the assistant, and at that moment the executioner came up behind her, and cut off her head with one stroke of the sword.
As the cannons of the Tower fired to signal her death, her ladies gathered up her head and body, wrapping them in white cloth and placed them inside an old elm chest, once used for bow staves.
This was then taken to the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula, within the Tower, where it was buried in an unmarked grave near that of her brother George.
Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, wife of King Henry VIII and mother of Queen Elizabeth I was dead." - The Anne Boleyn Society
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