Henry the Eighth
To six women he wed:
Two divorced
Two beheaded
One died
And one survived.
-author unknown
Anne Boleyn was
born in 1500. Her father was an English diplomat
and her mother was the daughter of an earl.
When Anne was 12 years of
age, she became a maid of honour to Margaret
of Austria, the regent of
the Netherlands. She moved to the French
court a year and a half later,
where she served Henry the Eighth's sister
Mary, who had married the King
of France. Then King Louis died and Mary
returned to England. Anne
stayed in France until 1522 as maid of
honour to the new Queen, Claude.
When she returned
to England, she went to live at Henry the Eighth's
court as member of Queen Catherine's household.
She became secretly
drawn to a young courtier, Henry Percy.
Percy was forbidden ever to see
her again by his father. The Lord Chancellor,
Wosley, played a large part in
separating the pair and subsequently banished
Anne from the court until
1525. She held a grudge against him for
the rest of her life. Henry also
played a part, but, she was unaware of
his involvement.
When she returned
from the exile, she was pursed by Henry the
Eighth refusing to become his mistress.
She said that she would rather
lose her life than her honesty. Her sister,
Mary Boleyn had been pursued by
Henry the Eighth and was dumped when his
attention span grew weak and
drew towards Anne. Unlike her sister, Anne
did not give in to his "wooing",
even though he showered her with gifts,
which she flaunted in front of the
Queen, Catherine of Aragon.
She danced with
Henry at a masked ball at Greenwich in 1527 and
during a bout of influenza, Henry wrote
her love letters. When she was
healthy again, she moved into adjoining
apartments with Henry. As a
reward for her generosity with her affections
towards him, he gave her the
revenues from the See of Durham and Durham
House in the Strand. She
also received jewels and various wardrobe
accessories. Her furs were paid
for out of the Privy Purse and to her delight,
Henry the Eighth sent Bishop
Gardner to Rome to plea for a divorce from
his wife, Catherine.
The parliament at the time was coaxed
into ruling that there had
been no true marriage between Catherine
of Aragon and Henry the Eighth.
This annulment motion was set into place
so Henry the Eighth could marry
Anne Boleyn without religious consequences.
Thomas Cranmer, the
Archbishop of Canterbury, pronounced the
marriage null and void on May
23rd, 1533 based mostly on the fact that
Henry the Eighth had married his
dead brother's wife and that the marriage
was unconsummated.
Henry the Eighth
and Anne Boleyn married on January 25th, 1533. It
was a secret marriage ceremony to ensure
their impeding child would be
legitimate. Elizabeth the First was born
September 7th of the same year
and Anne's pregnancy drew the Royal couple
close enough for her to be
crowned the new Queen.
Anne was crowned
Queen with St. Edward's Crown. "Descriptions of
St. Edward's Crown suggest that it was
a circlet with four fleurons and
possibly also four crosses. Between these
would have run a double arch. It
was probably decorated with filigree as
well as with precious stones and
possibly enamels too. According to inventory
taken by the Commonwealth
in 1649, the crown weighed 79.5 ounces
(troy)." (Quote taken directly from
The Coronation Ceremony and The Crown Jewels,
by Tessa Rose, published
first in 1992. The quote is from Page 24,
Paragraph 4).
To her coronation,
Anne wore a (crimson) red velvet gown edged with
ermine and purple mantle. Her path of walking
was from Westminister Hall
to Westminister Abbey. Thomas Cranmer participated
in the ceremony by
effectively crowning her as Queen regent.
The coronation was followed by
an elegant feast in which many were encouraged
to eat and drink,
including lords, ladies and City dignitaries.
~~~
The music of Henry's
composition swelled around Anne Boleyn's
body. Her jet-black hair cascaded around
her unclean, blemish ridden face
whitened with natural remedies. As he played
the composition for her, she
played noisily with her upper tooth that
stuck out into her gum. She never
brought forth the courage to have it pulled
and she constantly hid it from
courtiers and even sometimes Henry. She
listened to the song with an
unpleasant attitude, mocking his musical
talent in her mind. Finally, to her
delight, the song ended.
"I found it to
be amusing." she said with pleasure in her voice.
"Amusing?" her
husband, Henry the Eighth replied.
"Yes, I found
it amusing. I don't understand why you fiddle with
poetry so. Catherine may have fallen for
‘Green Groweth the Holly’, but,
this contraption of a piece is really quite
dreadful for me to actually
compliment you on for your originality,"
she explained, still giggling from
the onset of the first bar of the music
Henry the Eighth wrote especially for
her.
""Adieu Madame
et ma Maistreusse" took me a lot of time to create.
Yet you insist on mocking me," Henry the
Eighth complained to his second
wife who now was laid across his bed with
her face covered with fresh
tears.
"I understand
you are hurt by my feeling towards your song," she said
stopping her giggling and drawing her husband
close with her left arm,
holding his face with her right. "You may
not believe that, but I do
understand. It's just that there are more
things you could be interested in
doing for me.”
"Anne," Henry
the Eighth objected.
“How long has
it been? Once we got married it was as if you no
longer wanted to be with me. Is the challenge
of our relationship gone,
leaving nothing behind? Don’t the lack
of romance in our love life worry
you?"
"Anne," Henry
the Eighth objected again, this time managing to keep
her advances away from him.
"Oh come on. It
wasn't last night or the night before. You are
avoiding intimacy," she replied tugging
at Henry's clothes. "I don't like this
outfit on you. You never pick out clothing
that suits your figure. You'd look
better without clothes than with these."
She looked impatiently
at Henry the Eighth clothing, coaxing him
into an embrace with him. To her dismay,
he was unobtainable
emotionally.
"To my annoyance,
you bash my written work. Now you dismiss every
emotion I have had tonight just to get
me under the bedspread," Henry
cried in distain.
Annoyed at his
behaviour, Anne rolled over setting her head into the
folds of her arms and saying, "Take off
your perfume and get in bed."
"No," Henry replied.
“I do not want
to go through this much of a hassle just to be with
you. The is a bowl of water next to the
bed. Use it,” she ordered.
“I do not want
to do so. I do not smell pleasant under this perfume,”
Henry informed.
"It’s that musk,
ambergris and civet blend you insist on putting on,
almost on a daily basis. It annoys me.
My nose tickles when you wear it,"
she said waving her left hand in his face
as if to wave the smell away from
her.
Henry glanced
at the bowl, then at her waving hand.
"You waving that sixth finger in
my face does not help me be in great
emotions with someone who claims to love
me. I did ask you to stop the
intense use of your “charms” around other
men in the court, yet you do so
still," Henry groaned rolling over on the
bed away from his wife.
"What sport did
you participate in today that deserved that strong of
a combination any ways?" she asked, changing
the subject away from her
physical appearance, towards his physical
smell.
Henry had spent
the daylight hours away from his wife, not telling
her where he had been or who he had been
with when he had returned
from his trip.
"So you do care
about my interests. I wouldn't had known
considering your lack of enthusiasm for
poetry. For your information, I was
playing tennis. In fact, I was playing
a hearty game at Windsor Castle,"
Henry informed her, quite proud of the
first ever tennis court in the world.
Henry had constructed the court after being
introduced to the game from
wealthy associates on France who had very
noble pasts and healthy
outlooks on life, unlike the commoners
he saw on the sidelines as he
played.
"Well, it's still
safer than jousting. I have this fear you'll fall off your
horse and not recover," she said glaring
at her beau.
"I worry about
leaving you alone while I go about my recreation, you
did fall for that engaged Percy fellow
years ago. I was hard for me to see
him in your arms. You have not proved your
comprehension of that point
to me as of yet."
"Yes, mistakes
happen. Even you make them," she said, burying
herself in the bed.
Henry fidgeted
and turned harshly away from her muttering, "Yes,
Anne. Mistakes happen."
~~~
"Why was she wearing
my locket? It's mine!" Anne screamed.
Henry stood before her, shaking his
hands by his sides, the urge to
yell in his Royal blood.
"It was yours.
I gave it to after you stopped wearing it last year. You
stopped wearing a lot of jewellery I gave
you. Jane owns very little pretty
things and I didn't think you'd miss it,"
explained Henry.
Anne was lying
on his bed with her hand elevated in the air,
mimicking his every word.
"You make mad,
Henry. Did I stop using your lap? Do not answer that
question," she ordered. "My point is, you
let her sit on your lap. Jealousy is
a good reason for my behaviour this afternoon."
"Your behaviour
was inexcusable. You had no right to tear the locket
from around her neck," Henry said as he
looked at the blood stained
bandage wrapped around Anne's hand. "You
deserved to cut yourself on it."
"You are a lady
hopper, Henry," she said, "I hope the scratch mark I
gave her today will scar. A suitable punishment
for a woman of the
Seymour House."
"No hopes for
the bite marks you gave her?" asked Henry.
She bolted upright
and pointed to her husband, "You had better not
take pity on that prostitute tramp," she
threatened.
"There is no real
chance of that, now is there? You never give me any
breathing room," Henry complained.
"You keep giving
my possessions away to her. I can't believe I missed
her face with a punch. I could have hurt
my shoulder trying to hit her," she
said to Henry, as if to add a note of pity
to her awkward circumstance.
"You may have
missed, but, obviously she caused you some emotional
damage. You miscarried again. You might
have had denied it, but, I can
sense it. I have seen you lose that much
blood before. There went the
possibility of a son. You have a distinct
inability to not bear male children."
"Yes, but, I gave
you Elizabeth! Do you not care about her? She is our
beautiful child!" she exclaimed.
"A female child.
Not a male to keep the throne along my bloodline.
Anne, I had also hoped my jousting accident
would not have caused
another one of your infamous miscarriages.
I may have been unconscious
for two hours, but, you should be able
to handle stress better. That strong
of a reaction is not good for your system.
Everyone in the court has made
snide comments against your poisoned womb.
What do you expect of me
when I desperately want a male child to
continue on my legacy?"
"You made Thomas
the Earl of Wiltshire. Can I expect that you'll are
going to give that title away to one of
Jane’s relatives?"
"I gave you an
establishment grander than my sister and nieces
before we were even married. You were given
a train-bearer, three ladies of
the bedroom and four maids of honour, when
we were only courting. You
are still the Lady Marquess of Pembroke.
Your complaints and questions
are not worthy of my attention. I'm King
and have more important matters
to attend to."
"I'm Queen, Henry!"
she exclaimed as he tried to get away from their
argument.
Her husband groaned
and flopped down on his bed next to his wife.
He ran his fingers through his beard and
looked up at his wife who was
sitting next to him sustaining eye contact.
"I know that,
Nan," Henry said. "She's just a girl who shows interest in
my life. More interest than you show."
"A girl that sits
on your lap in this very bedchamber. A girl that wears
the same jewellery I once did. What is
your plan for her in the future
Henry? We have agreed you are to have no
more mistresses. Your last
mistresses were with Catherine and you
promised to be loyal to me. That is
what our marriage vows meant, Henry! If
I find her with you, you are a dead
man," she informed him pointing her finger
at him accusingly.
"That is a form
of treason, Anne," Henry said highlighting the law
against threatening death unto the ruling
monarch.
"Hiding behind
your laws. Typical arrogant behaviour from a typically
arrogant man," she said.
Anne stormed out
of Henry the Eighth's room and into her's,
throwing herself onto her bed in a fit
of tears. She looked through the
tears at her hand with distain. She dreaded
the scars that would form if
she was unlucky about her recovery. Henry
quietly walked into her room
and sat down on a corner of her bed. She
made no moves towards her
husband and continued to stare at her hand.
"So, how do you
like your new bed, Anne?" asked Henry attempting to
make conversation with her.
"It's fine," she
said, muffling her voice in her pillow.
The bed had gold
fringe of Venice and tassels of Florence gold
recently added to it. She wanted her bed
spruced up to encourage Henry to
visit more it often than he was accustommed
to doing lately. Her plan did
not work.
"Is this a new
nightgown?" asked Henry fingering the loose chamber
robe made of tawny silk.
She grasped Henry's arm with her
good hand and pushed him away
from her body in distaste of his physical
attempts at consoling her violated
emotions.
"You don't have
to make conversation, Henry. You visit Jane's bed
more than mine. This bed transformation
was done weeks ago. You were
informed of the nightgown being made. You
did not notice the new
ribbons I put in my hair for dinner tonight,"
she pointed out, glaring at the
King. "Just leave me alone. Obviously you
love her more than me."
Henry left her
room with heavy steps, leaving Anne with her bad
attitude that could easily have be resolved
with a kiss on the cheek.
I'll get even
with you for that Henry, she thought, I know your
weaknesses and I'll expose your inabilities
to your court tomorrow.
The next morning,
she started intense mocking of her husband. By
nightfall, she was bringing up past instances
in which he had made a fool
of himself.
"Do you remember
the time Henry went to fetch an important guest
and got distracted by a lady, causing him
to forget his reason to cross the
room?" she mocked. "Do you? Let me demonstrate."
She proceeded
to imitate her husband's foolish actions during a
supper formerly attended by herself and
her King. She was acting in front
of a small group of seventeen courtiers.
Henry sat at the head of the table,
finishing his meal while breathing heavily
in distain towards his wife's skit.
"Why don’t you sit down
Nan and have a drink by my side?" asked
Henry, intent on distracting her from her
theatrics. This simple gesture
brought up an emotion to spurred from deep
within her body.
"By your side...
When was the last time I was there in bed?" she
asked, fully aware of the courtiers laughter
directed at her husband. No
matter how stifled the laughs were, Henry
was obviously embarrassed that
his wife would mention such intimate details
of their sexual nature. These
emotions were a direct result of her being
blamed for the four
miscarriages and not he. She was a flirt
in nature and constantly brought
her King to grief.
~~~ Tuesday, May 2nd, 1536 ~~~
"Adultery? How dare I
be accused of such an act!" Anne exclaimed.
"Do you know who I am
fool? I'm Anne Boleyn. I'm Queen. Married to your
King Henry the Eighth. Guards! Take this
ignorant man away from my royal
sight!"
"Unfortunately, his
cause is just. We have been ordered to escort you
to the Tower of London to await your trial,"
informed the hefty guard.
She jumped backwards
and braced herself for the fight of her life. No
one in their right mind was going to take
her away to the dungeons of the
Tower.
"Four different men
have confessed to have had affairs with you, Your
Majesty. The threats you have made on the
King's life do not bring forth a
trusting nature for you to be held in any
less of a secure environment," the
same man said, holding out his hand for
Anne to take.
"I'm not going that
easily!" she screamed.
"You have to go to Greenwich
to here all of the charges against you!
Move to the waiting horse, Your Majesty.
We are under orders to use force
if necessary to get you there.”
Anne's struggles
were in vain. She was taken to Greenwich where the
accusations against her were stated for
the records of the court
proceedings which were to take place in
a brief matter of days. The
charges against her were: three counts
of adultery, one of incest (with her
brother) and one of plotting to murder
the King. After the charges were
stated clearly and she was believed to
have understood them, she was
taken to the Tower of London, a two hour
trip from Greenwich by horse.
She struggled at the sight of the building
as she approached it, guided by
the guards. They surrounded her successfully,
forcing her to move forward
into the Tower.
"I was received
with greater ceremony last time I was here," she said,
referring to when she had occupied the
residence prior to her coronation.
She was placed in the in the very same
rooms, a good place to keep her
captive until the trial was over.
She replied to
the news of her accommodations by saying, "It's too
good for me."
Her hysteria turned
into tears and she fell to her knees, laughing.
She expected to be thrown into the dungeon
with common criminals, not
be treated with respect. Her head began
to spin with the echo of the
charges being laid through her mind. The
Queen had begun her decent
into a journey of emotional pain.
~~~
Mark Smeaton (a
court musician), Sir Henry Norris, Weston and
William Brereton all had confessed to adulteress
acts preformed with the
Queen. Anne had accused the men of being
tortured into confessing so,
but, all had agreed to testify, the countdowns
to their deaths nearing a
close.
Her own brother,
Rochford, was brought into custody to testify as
well, his death warrant signed because
the jury saw him as guilty before
they had even heard the facts. Thomas Cromwell
was behind the charge of
incest and watched with pleasure as Anne
was tried. The events of the trial
were of great heart wrenching to Anne.
All men, but, Norris, testified she
had paid for romantic involvement with
her.
Norris was a strong
man who said, "I would rather die a thousand
deaths than accuse the Queen of that which
I believe her, to be in my
conscience, innocent." Norris' words went
unnoticed by the jury.
She was condemned
guilty. She begged for a pardon, but, did not
receive one. The five men were executed
by being cut down while alive,
disembowelled, castrated and had their
limbs quartered, the extreme
penalties of the law.
~~~
After the trial,
Anne returned to the Royal Lodgings in the Inner
Ward of the Tower of London where she was
in hourly expectation of her
death. She went through periods of emotional
struggle contending with
her impending doom. During one of her better
days, her daughter,
Elizabeth came to visit her at the Tower
of London.
Anne ran her hand
through her daughter’s hair and breathed a heavy
breath.
“My beautiful
daughter,” she said softly. “This is such an
impressionable age for you to see the such
horrors. You’ll never fully
recover from these experiences, I can feel
it in my veins. Just make sure
you are always treated with respect because
you deserve it. You are and
always will be, the daughter of a Queen”
“Don’t speak like
this, Mother. No arrangements have been made for
your death; Papa could pull through and
pardon you,” Elizabeth said.
“If no arrangements
are made, an axe will be used,” she said holding
her delicate neck with both of her hands.
“I can’t go through with that
type of execution. Your father must do
something about that proposal. He
and I are husband and wife. As such I should
be able to ask him for a
painless execution.”
“Mother, he...,”
Elizabeth started, unable to complete her sentence
because no words came to her to use to
console her mother.
Anne wickedly smiled and said, “
I suppose I could be here accused
of witchcraft. This extra finger has never
done me any good in life. Neither
has this third little breast. It probably
turned of your father.”
“Mother, those
are minor imperfections. They are not and never will
be a source of hatred. Those men that lied
about your love are who are to
blame.”
“Did you watch
their executions?” she asked.
“Yes, and they
were all equally disgusting,” Elizabeth replied,
squirming at the thought of the gruesome
moment.
“Why did you go?”
“Because I wanted
to see them die. If their lies kill you, I want the
satisfaction of going to sleep at night
and be able to see their deaths
occurring. Its only fair. Their lies keep
you here like a caged animal. This is
no treatment for a Queen.”
“These are not
healthy thoughts for a young lady to be thinking,” she
said as she levelled her gaze with her
daughter’s.
“I know mother,
but, father allowed me to do so; I thought it was
alright.”
“You father...
Maybe that is the reason he has not done anything
about my situation. The many miscarriages
scarred his feelings for me. He
hates me for my body.”
“Don’t say that
Mother,” her daughter objected.
“The only son
I brought into this world was a stillborn child. He did
not share my pain of almost losing him,
then losing the child.”
“Mother, I’ll
speak to father. Maybe I can persuade him to be
lenient.”
“Thank-you, Elizabeth.”
~~~ Wednesday, May 17th, 1536~~~
Thomas Cranmer,
the Archbishop of Canterbury, presided over a
court, ruling the Royal marriage between
Anne and Henry to be invalid.
This outcome occurred because Henry’s affair
with Mary Boleyn had
invalidated the marriage from the start.
If this information had have come
earlier, Henry would not have been so jealous
with too much power and
too much at stake for her execution not
to take place. When Anne was
informed of the court’s ruling, her mood
uplifted.
“Invalid, Thank
goodness. I was truly afraid King Henry was going to
do away with me so he could legally marry
Jane Seymour,” she said,
relieved at the thought of her head not
coming off in two days.
Sir William Kingston,
the Constable of the Tower said to her,
“Unfortunately not so. You will die for
the crimes, Your Majesty. Your stay
has not been approved.”
“Not even exile?”
asked Anne, sharply pulling in her breath.
“Henry did not
approve. He has summoned a French executioner,”
Kingston quietly said as Anne wept openly.
~~~ Friday morning, May 19th, 1536 ~~~
At 8am, she was
escorted to the Tower Green, a devilish spirit ridden
through her mannerisms. She held her head
high and addressed her
subjects.
Her last words
to her public were, "Masters, I hereby submit me to
the law hath judged me, and for mine offences,
I accuse no man. God
knoweth them, I remit them to God, beseeching
Him to have mercy on my
soul. I call upon 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."
She wore a white
linen coif holding up her hair beneath her
headdress, a mantle of ermine over as loose
gown of dark grey damask,
trimmed with fur, and a crimson petticoat.
At a cost of twenty-four
pounds, "the Hangman of Calais" was called
upon to preform her execution. She knelt
down. Her ladies removed her
headdress and put a blindfold around her
eyes.
She said, "To
Jesus Christ, I commend my soul."
~~~
The "sword of Calais"
was concealed in the straw surrounding the
block Anne knelt before. It had been unnoticed
by everyone, including
Anne. In order to get Anne to position
her head correctly, (and stop her
from looking backwards), the hangman had
called "Bring me my sword" to
someone on the steps nearby. Anne turned
her head. The deed was done.
~~~
Her ladies in waiting
brought her two body segments to the Chapel
and she was buried in disgrace, her King
having married to Jane Seymour
twenty-four hours after her death.
Adding insult
to injury: She was buried in an arrow chest because
even Henry the Eighth did not believe the
execution would go through,
therefore no proper preparations were made
for a coffin. The long bow was
a little over four feet in length, so Anne,
sans head fit perfectly into it and
therefore she was buried in it.
~~~
Anne Boleyn did
not die as Queen. Thomas Cranmer preformed a
second divorce two days before her death.
Based on the fact that she had
been adulterous, consummating a relationship
was deemed as good as the
wedding vows themselves. The act of divorce
was put through parliament,
but, it was too late for Anne Boleyn was
already in her eternal resting
place, the Royal Chapel of St. Peter ad
Vincula, the Tower.
