Early this morning in 1536, Anne Boleyn celebrated the Mass for the last time, receiving the Sacrament from her almoner, John Skip. At 8am, Sir William Kingston, Constable of the Tower arrived and told Anne that she should prepare herself for death.
She wore a robe of grey or black damask with ermine, a red kirtle underneath and a gable hood in the English style rather than the French she had always favored. She took her final walk out of the Queen’s Lodgings, past the Great Hall, to the black-draped scaffold where Kingston helped her up the scaffold steps.
The crowd – filled with people she knew including both friends and enemies- was quiet as she gave her final speech. One spectator described her as “never so beautiful”. She said: “Good Christian people, I have not come here to preach a sermon; I have come here 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, nor to speak of that whereof I am accused and condemned to die, but I pray God save the King and send him long to 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.”
Her ladies removed Anne’s mantle and Anne lifted her hood and tucked her hair into a cap to keep it out of the way of the sword. Eric Ives, her biographer, wrote that her only display of fear was the way that she would look behind her to check that the executioner was not going to strike the fatal blow too soon. Anne paid the executioner, he asked Anne’s forgiveness and then Anne knelt upright in the straw, praying all the while “O Lord have mercy on me, to God I commend my soul. To Jesus Christ I commend my soul; Lord Jesu receive my soul.”
As Anne was praying, the executioner called out to his assistant to pass him his sword and, as she moved her head to follow what the assistant was doing, the executioner came up silently behind her and beheaded her with one stroke of his sword.
Anne’s ladies wrapped her head and body in cloth and took them to the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula, where she was placed inside an old elm chest which had once contained bow staves. She was buried in an unmarked grave.
That’s your Tudor Minute for today. Remember you can dive deeper into life in 16th century England through the Renaissance English History Podcast at englandcast.com.
Suggested link:
Episode 076: Alison Weir on Anne Boleyn
Autumn 2018 Tudor Summit: James Peacock on Anne Boleyn
From the shop:
The Anne Boleyn Collection
Here’s the Anne Boleyn Classic Tote Bag
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Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast, one of the longest running indie history podcasts, going since 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. She writes books, created the original Tudor Planner (a yearly diary filled with Tudor history) and in 2019 created the world's first Tudorcon (you can "attend" online this year!). She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 20 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history.