Anne Boleyn was beheaded on 19 May 1536. When this maligned and falsely accused queen walked her last steps to the scaffold where a swordsman waited to take her head, four ladies accompanied her. I agree with historian Eric Ives (no surprise there) that the ladies with her were probably the ones assigned to spy on… Read more The Ladies Upon the Scaffold
Anne Boleyn spent 18 May 1536 preparing for death. Imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys, a man who hated her and refered to her as ‘the concubine’ and worse, reported one of the ladies who attended Anne in the Tower had sent him, “word, in great secrecy, that before and after [Anne] receiving the Holy Sacrament, she… Read more Anne Boleyn’s Final Sacrament
The five men accused of adultery with Queen Anne Boleyn — Henry Norris, Francis Weston, William Brereton, Mark Smeaton, and her brother, George Boleyn – were beheaded on 17 May 1536 in the Tower yard. Apparently the execution of Francis Weston caused some of the most brouhaha. The only son and heir of the former… Read more The Deaths of Five Innocent Men
Queen Anne Boleyn was put on trial on 15 May 1536. According to Imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys, she was tried “by a tribunal composed of the principal lords of the kingdom … the Duke of Norfolk presiding over it .” The trial took place in the Tower rather than in Westminster Hall, “yet the trial… Read more The Trial of Anne Boleyn
On the surface Anne Boleyn’s judicial murder seems quite straightforward. Henry VIII wanted to marry a new, hopefully more fertile, son producing wife, and so he ordered Thomas Cromwell to rid him of his troublesome and miscarrying second queen. Cromwell, a brilliant legal mind, soon came up with a way to dispatch Anne and a… Read more The Plot Against Anne Boleyn
On 12 May 1536 four men — Henry Norris, Francis Weston, William Brereton, and Mark Smeaton — were condemned for treason, found guilty of having had sex with Queen Anne Boleyn. Although Smeaton confessed to sleeping with the queen on three occasions, he was the only man low-born enough to be tortured, so his confession… Read more A Clear Case for Murder
Historians and history-buffs alike have strong opinions about facts and persons and those opinions aren’t universal. Nevertheless, there tends to be enough commonality that two “camps” will spring up regarding an event. For those interested in the Tudor era, there is often a spilt into (let’s overly-simplify it for the sake of argument) people who… Read more What Anne Boleyn Did That Jane Seymour Didn’t
Anne Boleyn was left isolated from her friends and miserable the entire time she was in the Tower awaiting her unjust death. Thanks to the informants surrounding her in her imprisonment, she was (ironically and cruelly) condemned more by her own words than anything else her enemies could come up with. Thomas Cromwell had assigned… Read more Cunning is Not the Word for Anne Boleyn
Queen Anne Boleyn was arrested on 2 May 1536. The befuddled queen was told she was suspected of adultery (which was treason) with Henry Norris, King Henry VIII’s friend and groom of the stool, and with lowly court musician Mark Smeaton, as well as one other unidentified man, but given no other details of her… Read more The Sudden Arrest of Anne Boleyn
Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington and 4th Earl of Cork, was born on 25 April 1694. He was a very talented architect who is credited with bringing Palladian architecture to the United Kingdom and Ireland in the 18th century, and one of his descendants is currently sitting on the British throne. Howard Colvin, who… Read more The Earl of Architecture and the Prince of Wales