On this day in 1536, 10th May, the Grand Jury of Middlesex met to decide on whether Queen Anne Boleyn, George Boleyn, Sir Henry Morris, Sir Francis Weston, William Brereton and Mark Smeaton should be sent to trial.
The jury decided that there was enough evidence to try these people and then drew up the indictment.
In today’s Fall of Anne Boleyn video, I explain what happened and gives a summary of the charges laid against the queen and the five men.
I’m doing these “Fall of Anne Boleyn” videos daily until 19th May and I started on 24th April. You can catch up with them on the Anne Boleyn Files and Tudor Society Youtube Channel.
You can find out more about my book The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown at http://getbook.at/fallanneboleyn.
Here is a link to the article mentioned, where you can read the indictment for yourself – https://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/10th-may-1536-the-grand-jury-of-middlese/
The Middlesex indictment proclaimed they had enough evidence to bring the queen and men to trial, what utter nonsense it was all scandalous gossip and hearsay, they disregarded the facts that the queen and her alleged lovers were in other places when the so called offences took place, so where was the evidence? The wheels of injustice were moving with alarming speed for Queen Anne and they had only one purpose in mind, to bring her down to disgrace her and condemn her, so that was unfit to be the wife of the King, unfit to be his queen consort and to eradicate her completely, Sir Giles Heron was the ex son in law of Sir Thomas More so I think he must have been satisfied at Annes fate, the whole More family had suffered the sad loss of their beloved mentor so there must have been some feeling that his death was about to be vindicated, the so called evidence concerning Anne and her brother kissing is disgusting and yes, I can well understand how it appeared to the 16thc mind, nothing’s more revolting than incest and it revolts us now, back then it just goes to show the lengths Cromwell went to, to make this tragic queen look so evil and corrupt that people would think the worst of her, at her trial all the jurors were no friends of her and her family, they were biased against her, which would not happen today and thus we can see by the very speed at which the indictments of Middlesex and then Kent were going, that it was all designed to bring down the queen, yesterday we discussed the fall of Catherine Howard, the investigation into her alleged offences was much much slower, that was because it was done in a proper way, she was interviewed several times by Cranmer, something which Anne did not have the luxury of, she had been told Smeaton had confessed to adultery with her and she was to go to the Tower, no audiences no nothing, but with Catherine the Kings behaviour was completely different because he did not want to lose her, he loved her and hoped that all the investigation would show was malicious gossip nothing more, she was confined to her quarters but that was all, she did not go the Tower till much later, and then from Syon House, with Anne she was bundled off that grim prison immediately, right from the start Henry V111 had acted with an air of impatience with his second queen, a load of rubbish was used as evidence and the words condemned were even used before her trial, no wonder there was incessant grumbling, all this was happening whilst Anne was locked up in her prison absolutely powerless to stop it, all she could do was to pray for the justice we know she deserved, as history tells us she received none, Brereton Weston Norris and her own brother to could do nothing but plead their innocence, Smeaton alone in his cell must have been completely wretched knowing his false accusation had brought this to pass, yet he was just a scapegoat and I am sure Cromwell would have found another scapegoat to confess to adultery with the queen if he had not, as the month of May wore on one of the biggest injustices and bloodiest murders in English history was about to happen, it was to be talked about and debated on for centuries after.
Ive read the charges against Anne and the five others many times and they are terrible and shocking but I noticed hearing them read to me that they weren’t only shocking but came across as over the top and ridiculous. It made me wonder if any contemporary person HEARING the charges may have thought the same and that this reaction may have contributed to the doubt that we all still have today?
They were utterly ridiculous Michael and in fact laughable, yes laughable because it made the queen out to look like she was bed hopping all over the place which just was not possible, and no other women were involved either, another fact which makes the charges look rigged, because it would have been impossible for the queen to have successfully committed these offences without the help of some of her women, Catherine Howard had the co operation of some of her women, notably Lady Rochford who kept an eye out whilst the queen was in a private chamber with Culpeper, but Queen Anne according to the indictment had managed to do it all herself, this was an error because Cromwell had Page and Wyatt arrested then later released to make it look believable, so really he should have arrested some of Annes women then release them to, that would have carried more weight but really, most thought it was so rushed as to appear unreal anyway, it was the actual speed which makes the whole sorry affair look like Anne and her alleged lovers were framed, it looked suspicious at the time and in fact all Cromwell managed to achieve was the fall of Anne Boleyn which ended in her subsequent death, he did not manage to make it appear that she DESERVED the death, merely that she was easily disposed of, a dreadful dreadful miscarriage of justice and it ruined Henry V111’s reputation for ever.