The Death of Anne Boleyn: Execution or Murder?
Queen Anne Boleyn, The Queen of a Thousand Days, the second wife to King Henry VIII was falsely accused of Adultery, Incest and High Treason. It was at the Tower of London on Tower Green on the 19th of May in the year 1536 the notorious death of Queen Anne Boleyn took place. I strongly believe Anne was innocent, here is why and the research I have done to support my thoughts.
Anne Boleyn being accused of treason, adultery and incest (even witchcraft) just does not sit comfortably with the evidence that points at Anne being a highly religious woman, a Reformist and an intelligent woman who knew her husband well. Anne had high morals and was not stupid, there is no way that she would risk committing such crimes.
I cringe at the bit in “The Other Boleyn Girl” where Anne begs her brother George to sleep with her so that she can give Henry VIII an heir to the throne. Yes, I can see that Anne would be discouraged after two miscarriages, but incest would be against all of her fundemental religious beliefs.
Other reasons why I think Anne Boleyn was innocent:
•She had alibis – Eric Ives, a biographer of Anne Boleyn, points out that there is evidence in at least 12 cases (which I have yet to find), that Anne could not have been with the men that she is accused of committing adultery with.
•Mark Smeaton was tortured – The only real evidence against Anne was that Smeaton confessed to sleeping with her. However, most historians agree that he was racked and had a knotted rope put round his head, which was gradually tightened (you probably saw that in “The Tudors”), and a confession produced by torture cannot be really trusted.
•The men pled “Not guilty” – All the men, except Smeaton, pled “not guilty”, and seemed shocked by the allegations.
•Jane Boleyn’s confession – Before her execution in 1542, Jane Boleyn (Lady Rochford), George Boleyn’s wife, confessed to lying when she falsely accused George and Anne of incest.
•Cromwell had an axe to grind – Eric Ives, and other historians, believe that Cromwell had to bring down Anne and her family in order to survive. She was a threat to him and to England’s foreign policy.
•There was no marriage – Henry actually managed to get his marriage to Anne Boleyn annulled before her execution, on the grounds that her sister Mary Boleyn had been his mistress. How could Anne have committed adultery if she was not even married?
King Henry VIII wanted to get rid of Anne Boleyn. Rumours about the conduct of Anne Boleyn started to circulate. The men who were part of her faction disappeared one by one. No one knew where Mark Smeaton the Queen's musician had gone. Then others followed including Sir Thomas Wyatt, Sir Francis Weston and William Brereton. The King's close friend Sir Henry Norris was arrested at a jousting tournament. Then the Queen's own brother, George Boleyn, was arrested.
It is was said Queen Anne Boleyn made her last confession to Arch Bishop Cranmer of Caterbury in the presence of Constable William Kingston in The Tower of London. The Queen demanded Kingstons presence uopn the time that she would recieve "The Good Lord" so that her innocence may somehow be witnessed and taken into consideration. Henry murdered Anne, there is no getting away from the fact. She had signed the papers to end her marriage to him and have Elizabeth declared a bastard, therefore the logical thought is how could he still have her executed for adultery. And even in those times it was a shocking event to execute a Queen. In normal circumstances she would have been banished - perhaps to another court in another country, or more likely to a convent.
As she sat in the Tower awaiting her fate, she wrote her last letter to the king, protesting her innocence while reaffirming her continued devotion to him, as well as a plea to spare the lives of the five men, who were accused of having adultery with her.
These are the final words of Queen Anne Boleyn to King Henry VII written in letter on May 15, 1536.
Sir; If, as you say, confessing a Truth indeed may procure my safety, I shall with all Willingness and Duty perform your Command. But let not your Grace ever imagine that your poor Wife will ever be brought to acknowledge a Fault, where not so much as a Thought thereof proceeded. And to speak a truth, never Prince had Wife more Loyal in all Duty, and in all true Affection, than you have ever found in Anne Boleyn. Neither did I at any time so far forget myself in my received Queenship, but that I always looked for such an Alteration as now I find; for the ground of my Preferment being on no surer Foundation than your Grace's Fancy, the least Alteration, I knew, was fit and sufficient to draw that Fancy to some other Subject.
Try me good King, but let me have a Lawful Trial, and let not my sworn Enemies sit as my Accusers and Judges; yea, let me receive an open Trial, for my Truth shall fear no open shame; then shall you see, either mine Innocency cleared, your Suspicion and Conscience satisfied, the Ignominy and Slander of the World stopped, or my Guilt openly declared. So that whatsoever God or you may determine of me, your Grace may be freed from an open Censure to follow your Affection already settled on that Party, for whose sake I am now as I am.
But if you have already determined of me, and that not only my Death, but an infamous Slander must bring you the enjoying of your desired Happiness; then I desire of God, that he will pardon your great Sin therein; and likewise mine Enemies, the Instruments thereof; and that he will not call you to a strict Account for your unprincely and cruel usage of me, at his General Judgement-Seat, where both you and my self must shortly appear, and in whose Judgement, I doubt not whatsover the World may think of me, mine Innocence shall be openly known, and sufficiently cleared.
Queen Anne Boleyn did not just die bravely, but died knowing she was innocent. Anne did not deserve her tragic fate but she did deserve to have her case taken further, derserved to be forgiven, deserved to be Queen there was no better Queen than Anne Boleyn. Most importantly she deserved to live!! Anne Boleyn's final resting place is at St. Peter's below the Alter, below a crest and below her name " Queen Anne ".
The only thing I myself find most fascinating are these two scenes from the television production "The Tudors". The first sequence is a dream Henry encountered of the Queen Anne Boleyn claiming her innocence before him. Queen Anne appeared to him claiming she had come to see her daughter, Princess Elizabeth and as Henry spoke he said this "But from time to time she reminds me of you, and what you did to me..." Anne then walks forward and replies "I did nothing to you, I was innocent. All the accusations against me were false, I thought you knew? Poor Catherine Howard, she lies in the cold ground next to me... poor child, it was not her fault either. We were like two moths drawn to the flame and burned." Meanwhile she has Henry in tears and it is almost as if he is filled with regret.
In the second sequence Queen Anne Boleyn is confined in the Tower of London and the Arch Bishop of Caterbury is set to receive the Queen's confession. Cranmer asks Anne after she kneels if she has a confession. Queen Anne replies "Yes, I confess my innocence before God. I solomnly swear on the damnation of my soul that I have never been unfaithful to my Lord, my husband. Nor ever offended with my body against him..." It is interesting how history claims Queen Anne was guilty but then yet here Queen Anne was confessing her innocence. This supports my fact that she definately may have been innocent, when Lady Rochford was tried Jane admitted the claims she made against Queen Anne and George Boleyn were false and not true. If history is so sure of itself that Queen Anne Boleyn was guilty, then why write books, entries of many kinds and even televise her last confession and Queen Anne's ghost appearing to King Henry reassuring him of her innocence. There had been entries written by historians that she had a last letter written to King Henry by her own hand claiming she was innocent. (refer to the above letter in red coloured font). In my own eyes I view the Queen as a wrongfully accused woman but who knows what else had taken place in those times... we will never know.
This statement concludes my entry on The Death of Queen Anne Boleyn.
