17 May 1536 – The Execution of George Boleyn, Lord Rochford
Posted By Claire on May 17, 2011
Today is an awful day, a bloody day, a shocking day. Today has seen the brutal executions of five innocent members of the Tudor Court: Sir Henry Norris, Sir Francis Weston, Sir William Brereton, George Boleyn (Lord Rochford) and Mark Smeaton. The only good news is that all five men were beheaded rather than hanged, drawn and quartered, a more merciful death but still an awful way to die.
The first to die was George Boleyn, Lord Rochford. Being the highest in rank, Rochford was the first man to face the executioner. Before he knelt at the block, he made the following speech:-
“Christian men, I am born under the law, and judged under the law, and die under the law, and the law hath condemned me. Masters all, I am not come hither for to preach, but for to die, for I have deserved to died if had 20 lives, more shamefully than can be devised, for I am a wretched sinner, and I have sinned shamefully.
I have known no man so evil, and to rehearse my sins openly it were no pleasure to you to hear them, nor yet for me to rehearse them, for God knoweth all. Therefore, masters all, I pray you take heed by me, and especially my lords and gentlemen of the court, the which I have been among, take heed by me and beware of such a fall. And I pray to God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, three persons and one God, that my death may be an example to you all. And beware, trust not in the vanity of the world, and especially in the flattering of the court.
And I cry God mercy, and ask all the world forgiveness, as willingly as I would have forgiveness of God; and if I have offended any man that is not here how, either in thought, word or deed, and if you hear any such, I pray you heartily on my behalf, pray them to forgive me for God’s sake. And yet, my masters all, I have one thing for to say to you, men do come and say that I have been a setter forth of the word of God, and one that have favoured the Gospel of Christ; and because I would not that God’s word should be slandered by me, I say unto you all, that if I had followed God’s word in deed as I did read it and set it forth to my power, I had not come to this. I did read the Gospel of Christ, but I did not follow it; if I had, I had been a living man among you: therefore I pray you, masters all, for God’s sake stick to the truth and follow it, for one good follower is worth three readers, as God knoweth.”1
In this speech, George Boleyn is not only following the usual execution convention, by acknowledging that he has been condemned by the law and deserves death because he is a sinner, he is also preaching a sermon to the crowd, urging them to learn from his mistakes and to stick to the truth and follow it. Tudur court expert, Eric Ives, commented that Rochford “spoke the language of Zion”2 and it was truly a moving speech from a man who knew that he was justified by his faith in God and that he would shortly be meeting his Father.
After the speech, he knelt at the block and was beheaded. It was the end of a popular man, a man known for his reformed views, his good looks, his intelligence and his poetry. RIP George Boleyn, Lord Rochford.
In his poem “In Mourning Wise Since Daily I Increase”, Thomas Wyatt wrote of Rochford’s execution:-
“As for them all I do not thus lament,
But as of right my reason doth me bind;
But as the most doth all their deaths repent,
Even so do I by force of mourning mind.
Some say, ‘Rochford, haddest thou been not so proud,
For thy great wit each man would thee bemoan,
Since as it is so, many cry aloud
It is great loss that thou art dead and gone.’”
Notes and Sources
- The Chronicle of Calais In the Reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII to the Year 1540, edited by John Gough Nichols, page 46 – This version of George Boleyn’s speech is very similar to one recorded in the Excerpta Historica, 1831, in a contemporary account by a Portuguese man, so is thought to be an accurate record of the speech.
- The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, Eric Ives p278
George was a brave and honourable man, yet in both posts regarding his trial and execution there is a photo of a person who played him as a foolish man who was also a rapist and wife abuser. That seems a real kick in the teeth to me and has spoiled these articles for me, which is a real shame.
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Claire Reply:
May 17th, 2011 at 3:22 pm
I’m sorry you feel that way but obviously no contemporary image remains of him and my articles really do need an image, nothing was meant by the use of these images.
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I have always liked this poem. I think it is somewhat strange that George really only gets about half a stanza about himself, while the rest each get about eight lines apiece. Didn’t the Boleyns and Wyatts have a close connection? I would have expected that Wyatt would have written more about George in his ode.
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When there’s an article about George, why are we forced to look at a man who played him as a pathetic rapist and wife abuser. It rather goes against what’s been said in the articles and is a complete kick in the teeth for a brave and honourable man. I find the choice of photos incredibly insensitive. Once was bad enough, but twice seems like a deliberate desire to offend. I really hope that’s not the case, but to be on the safe side I’ll make this my last comment on the Anne Boleyn Files. I’m starting to think that my passion for George is actually having a negative effect rather than a positive one, which obviously defeats the object.
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Claire Reply:
May 17th, 2011 at 3:25 pm
I can’t quite believe that you have said that, Louise, when you know how much I love and admire the whole Boleyn family. No contemporary portrait exists and posts really need images of some type, particularly when they are written in a modern, newspaper style. I never meant to offend anyone and I find it a bit strange that you would accuse me of that. Oh well…
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I have never understood George Boleyn. To some, he is a reformist zealot; yet to others, he is proud and has led a liscientious life. Will the real George please stand up? I like all the pictures–there must be something more to him than I know. Anyone help?
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Tudorrose Reply:
May 18th, 2011 at 1:39 am
Indeed I quite rightly agree!
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These poor men and poor George, really and honestly. George would of course gone first in the line of execution due to who he was and what rank he was, being a Lord and a man of nobility, then the rest would follow and the Queen of course going last.
I remember in the show that they had Anne’s cell window just looking over the site of the scaffold so she could see her unfortunate brother and the other four men being executed. I am not too sure if this had been and was the case in reality as I know the show had it’s errors and what not as far as I know nobody really knows whether that had been the case or not and there are no records stating that this had been or was so anyway, anyhow.
Wyatt’s poems are really good as well as very heart feeling and they just tell you a little bit about these five men, they tell a story, funny though he did not mention Anne in them…I mean I know a couple of his poems were written about Anne or at least said to have been when read but not in this particular poem even though Anne’s execution was to take place last and not until the next day but really the day after that as there would be apparent problems. George like Wyatt said was probably a proud man I can believe that, this alongside the whole of the Boleyn family and this was probably one of the reasons that they including George came unstuck and the other four of the remaining men that went down with them.
+R.I.P+ George Boleyn.
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I have seen some Holbein paintings of noble men and women that have been labelled as “Unknown gentleman” or “Unknown lady” because there is no indication of the identity of the sitter.
One of them shows a handsome, bearded young man sitting at a table, with a lute nearby. Naturally, there is no indication of who he is, but I always like imagining him as George Boleyn. I WISH I could find that online gallery again, so I could post a link to it, so we could have what may have been a contemporary portrait, at least in our hearts and minds, of George Boleyn.
In the meantime, the images of the actors who have (wrongly) portrayed George that Claire is using are NOT meant to be insulting to George. The actors themselves simply played a role that was written for them – [sarcasm/] and everyone KNOWS Hollywood is so much “better” at creating “good” or “interesting” stories rather than the “boring tripe” that is Tudor history. [/sarcasm]
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I would just like to say that, although everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, how can you really know what these people were like? George could have quite possibly been a wife abuser, or even a rapist, we’ll never know for sure. Although I like to believe the best about everyone, these people were living in a time where ambition was everything and the throne was the greatest prize, meaning lots of feelings get trampled. I hate to think of how they execute people though, that’s just awful.
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Louise Reply:
May 30th, 2011 at 10:50 am
This comment actually exemplifies why I was so distressed when I saw this post. George was a wife abuser and rapist in The Tudors, and no offence to you Shannon, but you’ve read the post, saw the picture, and think that that portrayal is being condoned and that there is an acknowledment here that George may have been the man portrayed in that programme. Claire didn’t intend that, but to some people reading this, that’s the net effect. I had a go at Claire in my above comment and I accept I overreacted and that in no way did Claire have any intention of being deliberately offensive.
Maybe George was the man portrayed in that programme, even though there’s no evidence to suggest he was, and I know that Claire doesn’t believe that, but to most people lack of evidence is neither here nor there. For every one person who takes time to reflect on the facts there are thousands who take a TV programme at face value, or simply say, ‘there’s no smoke without fire.’
It’s made me realise my belief that the public perception of George could be changed is misconceived and that I’ve wasted four years of my life on researching this remarkable young man. It’s not helped by the fact that Weir has backed up a fictional programmes view of George, and of course she is the most popular writer of tudor history and to many what she says is gospel. That’s impossible to fight against. To most people George will always be the person they saw in The Tudors, and there is nothing anyone can do about that. It’s my frustration at that knowledge which is so distressing and why Claire now has the baton, not only for Anne, but also for George.
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Claire Reply:
May 30th, 2011 at 11:58 am
I don’t think Shannon was saying that at all, she was simply stating that we don’t know the full truth. I personally don’t believe that George was a wife-beater or rapist and I will fight those myths until I’m blue in the face. I don’t see any evidence for that kind of portrayal so I fight it and produce the evidence for what these people were like, but there will always be gaps that people can fill with wild ideas. Why they can’t portray George as a Renaissance man, a talented poet, a Reformist etc. is beyond me and incredibly frustrating. Debunking myths is a daily battle!
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Claire Reply:
May 30th, 2011 at 12:05 pm
Louise,
It’s a shame that you feel that you have wasted four years of your life researching George and I’m not sure why you feel that way. Historical characters will always suffer at the hands of authors, movie directors, bad history in schools etc. but that doesn’t mean that we should just give up. I’m happy to take the baton and fight for George but I just think it’s sad that you want to give up when you feel so passionate about him and have spent so much time researching his life. I’m so sorry.
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I first became obsessed with George Boleyn about 7 years ago, and his story, and that of another, has become a focus for much of my academic work, including my currect dissertation and future PhD topic, and I will continue to fight for him so to speak! However, I do not get offended by the pictures, just as I would not get offended by pictures of Natalie Portman or Scarlett Johansson, even though their portrayals were ghastly. The Tudors brought George more to the forefront of Anne’s life than other portrayals, and yes, there were some completely incorrect aspects to his character, but he isn’t the only one on that show to have been completely misrepresented.
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