“These bloody days have broken my heart”, wrote the famous Tudor poet, Thomas Wyatt, after witnessing the executions of the five men, and then Anne Boleyn, from his prison in the Tower of London’s Bell Tower.
Those days of May 1536 were indeed “bloody” and the 17th May saw the executions of five men, all former royal favourites, for high treason. The men’s sentences were commuted by the King, in his mercy, from hanging, drawing and quartering at Tyburn to beheading at Tower Hill. It was a small mercy.
The men were led out of the Tower of London up to the scaffold site on Tower Hill. George Boleyn, Lord Rochford and brother of Queen Anne Boleyn, was the first to be beheaded due to his high rank. He climbed the scaffold and addressed the crowd before him:
“Christian men, I am born under the law, and judged under the law, and die under the law, and the law has condemned me. Masters all, I am not come hither for to preach, but for to die, for I have deserved for to die if I had 20 lives, more shamefully than can be devised, for I am a wretched sinner, and I have sinned shamefully, I have knowne 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 unto 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 now, 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 live 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
George followed convention by acknowledging that he had been condemned by the law and confessing that he was a sinner who deserved death. However, although he the started by saying that he was not going to preach a sermon, he “spoke the language of Zion”,2 urging those witnessing his death to “stick to the truth and follow it”, and not make the mistakes that he had.
After he had finished speaking to the crowd, George knelt at the block and was beheaded. Although The Spanish Chronicle says that it took three strokes of the axe to finish him off, no other record corroborates it.
Next on the scaffold was Sir Henry Norris, Henry VIII’s former Groom of the Stool and great friend. Norris’s servant, George Constantine, recorded that the other men confessed, i.e. confessed to be deserving of death, “all but Mr. Norice, who sayed allmost nothinge at all.”3 The Spanish Chronicle reported that Norris “made a great long prayer”4 and declared that he deserved death because he had been ungrateful to the King. He then knelt at the block and was beheaded.
Norris was followed by Sir Francis Weston, gentleman of the Privy Chamber. Even though his family had fought for his release and Jean, Sieur de Dinteville, and Antoine de Castelnau, Bishop of Tarbes, French ambassadors, had interceded on his behalf, he had not been pardoned.5 Weston addressed the crowd, saying, “I had thought to have lived in abomination yet this twenty or thirty years and then to have made amends. I thought little it would have come to this.”6 Heartbreaking words. Although his use of the word “abomination” has been used by some historians as evidence of homosexuality and illicit sexual acts, it is more likely that Weston was just referring to the fact that he, like everyone, was a sinner and that he had hoped to have had an opportunity to have put things right and to live a better life. It was too late; he knelt at the block and was beheaded.
Then it was the turn of William Brereton, a groom of the privy chamber and a royal favourite. This man who Eric Ives described as “the dominant royal servant in Cheshire and north Wales”,7 finished his life on a bloodsoaked scaffold. According to The Spanish Chronicle, he said, “I have offended God and the King; pray for me”,8 but other reports have him repeating the phrase, “I have deserved to dye if it were a thousande deethes. But the cause wherfore I dye, judge not. But yf ye judge, judge the best.”9 He then knelt at the block and was beheaded.
Finally, court musician Mark Smeaton climbed the scaffold. Smeaton was of humble origins but his musical talent had led to obtaining a position at court and winning the King’s favour. There are frequent mentions of Smeaton in Henry VIII’s Privy Purse Expenses and it appears that Smeaton was “wholly supported and clothed” by Henry VIII.10 How far he had fallen now! According to George Constantine, Smeaton addressed the crowd, saying, “Masters I pray you all praye for me, for I have deserved the deeth”11 and then he was beheaded. He was the one man who had confessed to adultery with the Queen and who had pleaded guilty at his trial, and he did not make any effort to retract his confession at the end. When Anne Boleyn found out, she cried, “Did he not exonerate me… before he died, of the public infamy he laid on me? Alas! I fear his soul will suffer for it.”12 Perhaps Smeaton was in fear that he’d be dragged off the scaffold and hanged, drawn and quartered if he tried to do anything.
George Boleyn was buried in the chancel area of St Peter ad Vincula, the Chapel Royal of the Tower of London, and the other men were buried in its churchyard.
I’ll leave you with the poem Thomas Wyatt wrote in honour of the five men. It implies that Wyatt thought that these men were innocent.
In Mourning Wise Since Daily I Increase
In Mourning wise since daily I increase,
Thus should I cloak the cause of all my grief;
So pensive mind with tongue to hold his peace’
My reason sayeth there can be no relief:
Wherefore give ear, I humbly you require,
The affect to know that thus doth make me moan.
The cause is great of all my doleful cheer
For those that were, and now be dead and gone.
What thought to death desert be now their call.
As by their faults it doth appear right plain?
Of force I must lament that such a fall should light on those so
wealthily did reign,
Though some perchance will say, of cruel heart,
A traitor’s death why should we thus bemoan?
But I alas, set this offence apart,
Must needs bewail the death of some be gone.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.’Ah! Norris, Norris, my tears begin to run
To think what hap did thee so lead or guide
Whereby thou hast both thee and thine undone
That is bewailed in court of every side;
In place also where thou hast never been
Both man and child doth piteously thee moan.
They say, ‘Alas, thou art far overseen
By thine offences to be thus dead and gone.’Ah! Weston, Weston, that pleasant was and young,
In active things who might with thee compare?
All words accept that thou diddest speak with tongue,
So well esteemed with each where thou diddest fare.
And we that now in court doth lead our life
Most part in mind doth thee lament and moan;
But that thy faults we daily hear so rife,
All we should weep that thou are dead and gone.Brereton farewell, as one that least I knew.
Great was thy love with divers as I hear,
But common voice doth not so sore thee rue
As other twain that doth before appear;
But yet no doubt but they friends thee lament
And other hear their piteous cry and moan.
So doth eah heart for thee likewise relent
That thou givest cause thus to be dead and gone.Ah! Mark, what moan should I for thee make more,
Since that thy death thou hast deserved best,
Save only that mine eye is forced sore
With piteous plaint to moan thee with the rest?
A time thou haddest above thy poor degree,
The fall whereof thy friends may well bemoan:
A rotten twig upon so high a tree
Hath slipped thy hold, and thou art dead and gone.And thus farewell each one in hearty wise!
The axe is home, your heads be in the street;
The trickling tears doth fall so from my eyes
I scarce may write, my paper is so wet.
But what can hope when death hath played his part,
Though nature’s course will thus lament and moan?
Leave sobs therefore, and every Christian heart
Pray for the souls of those be dead and gone.By Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542)
Notes and Sources
- ed. Gough Nichols, J. The Chronicle of Calais In the Reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII to the Year 1540, 46.
- Ives, Eric. The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, 278
- Constantine, George. Archaeologia, or, Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity, 63.
- Hume, Martin Andrew Sharp. Chronicle of King Henry VIII. of England: Being a Contemporary Record of Some of the Principal Events of the Reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. Written in Spanish by an Unknown Hand.
- LP x. 909
- Constantine, 65
- Ives, Eric. William Brereton. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2004.
- Hume
- Constantine, 69
- Nicolas, Nicholas Harris. The Privy Purse Expenses of King Henry the Eighth, from November 1529, to December 1532, 100.
- Constantine, 65
- LP x. 1036
Rest in Peace George,Henry, Francis,William & Mark
Thinking of you all today xx
What a day. What a day in history, written in the ink of blood. For although the witnesses had seen no doubt, other executions, five in a row had to have turned the stomach. As it turns our stomachs now, knowing the treachery of the Court and the fickleness as God-given right of the King. George Boleyn said it best, I think: “Trust not in. . . the flattering of the Court.”
I feel so sorry for Mark especially as he was the last one he would’ve had to stand there and watch his friends die such awful and violent deaths knowing his turn was minutes away and the block and scaffold covered with blood and flesh It turns my stomach thinking about it
What a sad sad,day this truely is,Sometimes all there is to do is endure.Rest In Peace,Mark Smeaton, Sir Henry Norris, Sir Francis Weston,George Bolyen,William Brereton. Saddest Of occasions Baroness Von Reis
Wow…
Sad day, bloody day, yet Wyatt’s tribute is beautifully poignant. Definitely stop at the chapel and churchyard if ever ye visit London.
Such a sad day the 17 th of May for all of the five men being executed! I cannot imagine how Wyatt must have felt not knowing wether he too would suffer the same fate but he must have had some relief as he was never put on trial or taken to the scaffold if so he would have been gone by this date too. So he must have felt some sense of safety as well as security at the same time as the above. He was a good poet! He had feelings and was sympathetic as well as empathetic towards the condemned as it showed in his poems he believed them innocent not to mention the tears he cried. RIP.
Rip poor souls no one should have to die in this way let’s hope they have now found peace in heven that that did not find on earth.
RIP to them. You bravery and courage will always be remembered.
This is such a sad day indeed. I could not imagine being in Smeaton’s shoes, standing watching and awaiting my turn. I would be screaming and terrified. The bravery of these men is astonishing. RIP every one. Amen
Henry was made of strong stuff !! How he lived with himself is beyond me Ann was bad enough but those poor men all suffererd so he got what he wanted I wonder if in his heart he knew it was all lies ? Or he believed it was all true !! Will we ever discover the truth in the future 500yrs have passed I don’t think so !!!!
I can understand Cromwell wanting to get Anne out the way but deciding that five innocent men have to be executed to do so makes him appear very cold blooded, I wonder if he ever regretted the men’s deaths, I hope they all haunted him upto the very minute when he laid his head on the block.
I always wonder that too. I believe that Henry VIII was ultimately responsible for the deaths and that Cromwell was doing what he had to do to give the King what he wanted, but what a thing to have to do!
And Cromwell knew these men quite well, must have laughed with them and drunk together at christmas and banquets, in Lacy Baldwin Smiths book on Anne he said he thinks it’s strange that George Boleyn was accused of incest with his sister as he was known to get on well with him, Cromwell was obviously fighting for survival here either the Boleyns went or he did, Norah Lofts says Anne had to appear so monstrous so that death was the only option and so Henry would appear the real victim out of this, there was one historian who said either there was evidence for these allegations or there was none, and if it was true it had to be minute and precise, can’t remember his name I think he was writing in the 1920s or maybe even the Victorian age, he went on to say that if there was no evidence then the King and his ministers were involved in a murder perhaps the most revolting that had ever been committed.
Yes, Cromwell would have known those men very well. Brereton was a bit of a thorn in Cromwell’s side, with him being so powerful in North Wales and Cheshire and Cromwell looking to make administrative reforms there, but there is no evidence that Weston, Norris or Smeaton ever did anything to get in Cromwell’s way. I think Cromwell just had to do whatever was needed to get rid of Anne for Henry and it was easy to implicate these men because they spent time with Anne and took part in the courtly love tradition, and obviously George spent time alone with Anne in her chambers. The charges had to make Anne into a monster, they had to completely blacken her name so that Henry came out being a victim of their plotting, but not a powerless victim, a victim that could not help being one.
Yes really without knowing it, Anne gave Cromwell the ammunition he needed add to that the fact that she had never been popular what a nasty piece if work he was, but then Henry wasn’t blameless in all of this, he must have known she couldn’t be guilty of the ludicrous charges but he chose to believe them anyhow, imagine the gossips in the taverns through out the country, and at court, most of the noblemen must have been terrified they’d be involved next, Cromwell had Wyatt released as he was a dear friend of his but the others were just left to their awful fate.
I think Henry was the one behind the plot. I think it was a case of Henry telling Cromwell to get rid of Anne at any cost and Cromwell simply doing what he had to do to obey the king.
Yes, Wyatt’s father’s relationship with Cromwell seems to have been what got Wyatt off and Richard Page was lucky too.
You know Claire if that had happened today the judge would have had the case collapsed, on each occasion Anne could prove where she was when she was supposed to have been with the other men, it was just a kangaroo court.
I’d have thought that Henry would have spared Norris when your friends a long time with some one you tend to know when their lying, the fact that he offered him his life if he confessed to adultery with his wife and Norris hotly denied it must have planted the seed of doubt in Henrys mind, Norris was his old friend, surely Henry was aware of his loyalty? Was he so desperate to believe the charges that he allowed one of his oldest friends to be sacrificed? Henry was aware of that foolish remark Anne had made to Norris about dead men’s shoes it was a strange thing to say but Anne wasn’t noted for her discretion, it didn’t prove that she was having an affair with him tho, a lot of it is just speculation and rumour, and Norris wasn’t to blame for that daft remark, all of the men protested their innocence except Smeaton but I believe they put pressure on him and once confessed, he couldn’t withdraw it, how sincere is a confession made under torture? Henry was aware of that, I think it very sad that he allowed Anne and the others to die instead of just locking them up for several years he would have been free of Anne then anyway, but we can’t understand what was going thru Henrys mind then and we will never know,.
Cromwell knew he had to make the charges against Anne so terrible and revolting in order to arrest and execute an Anointed Queen, hence the incest and witchcraft charges. This gave Henry the perfect cover behind which to hide and be the “innocent” party.
Henry was truly a monster with no saving graces. His death sentence was even worse. He literally rotted away. He will face God!