2 May 1536 – Anne Boleyn is Arrested

Anne must have been afraid and frightened for days and had some idea her time was up when she was summoned to the privy council chambers. Her denials were in vain as the council obviously had its orders to arrest her; and the King must have been following some kind of protocol; although Anne was the first Queen to be executed; others have been summoned to the council before to answer questions, I assume. In any event she was very brave to challenge them; her uncle included, most of them her enemies; and her soul must have been in tormoil, wondering for example what Norris and Smeaton had said, especially as she had quarrelled with Norris a few days before this. But Norris, Rochford, Brereton and Weston did not confess; did they not refuse to confess? Smeaton had claimed to have slept with the Queen; the council had its case for adultery; it did not need more, but wanted to trap her into a confession. Anne was too intelligent and too good for them on this point; she would accept the King’s command and her arrest, she was not going to give them the satisfaction of traping her into a false confession.

Anne knew that she was innocent; she must have had some belief that her word would be accepted by the commission; but they must have already had orders to arrest her no matter what she said. I feel sorry for Anne at this point as she was utterly abandoned; the women in the Tower were even those sent to spy on her and to get any additional evidence on her from her talk in the Tower. She would never see her husband again; she would only emerge from her prison to stand trial in the Great Hall in the palace at the Tower and for her execution. I have watched the video on the other site on the royal apartments where Anne was kept, the same rooms were she had been before her coronation or at least ones close to them; they looked comfortable; but this time she was under guard and I assume could not wander about the galleries and gardens, but confined to these rooms. Traditionally we are told that Anne may have been able to see the men she was accused with getting executed. I could not really tell from the model as it spun around but it seems her rooms were on the garden side and did not overlook what we know as Tower Hill. I doubt that she saw them executed unless she was moved there to witness, cruelly their demise. Why would she want to witness such a horrible sight, including the beheading of her own brother? Would it not be better to think of them as she had last seen them; enjoying the celebrations on May Day and happy?

Anne in the Tudors and other films is arrested in her rooms, but the documents say she went to the council and they had her arrested. Could it be that she was questioned and then the Lords came to her and arrested her? Another story is that her uncle Norfolk when she denied it said Tut Tut as if to indicate that he believed her to be guilty and yet we know that when he condemned his niece as the head judge that he did so with tears in his eyes. Was her father a judge? I have read three different accounts all that disagree on this point; one that he was excused as her judge as he was her father? I know I am jumping the gun as you will be covering this later in the month, but do you know if Norfolk at least believed his niece was a traitor. It must have been hard for her mother and father to remain aloof at this time and to even turn their backs on son and daughter, both condemned, if wrongly as adultery and treason. By the way incest came under the religious statues as well as the lawful ones so would have not been a capital crime, but the fact that Anne was the Queen made the accusation more serious. Anne would be seen as attempting to pass of a son of one of these men as the royal heir and so treason was added, with accusations that she intended to marry one of them and raise the son as such an heir. That turned a sinful crime into a criminal felony and it was for treason that they could then be executed, not for adultery. Confused? Yes. It was that Anne had plotted and imagined the Kings death in her careless talk with Norris that they were now to be charged with treason, even though Norris had been horrified and Anne tried to have that stupid conversation put right. The case for the prosecution was based purely on rumour, nonsense, innocent conversations turned against Anne and the others and pure speculation and invention. Innocent actions, courtly love, late night visits by her brother to calm a Queen worried about her state of mind and unable to sleep; visits to her chamber that were impossible as she was recovering from childbirth and no men were allowed in to her lying in chambers; visits that had good reasons behind them and were most likely not totally in private; and a total list of dates and incidents that could only have come out of Cromwells over fertile mind.
In other words Anne did not stand a chance. The case against her was made before she went to that council chamber and the court would be loaded with her enemies; those who delighted in her fall. She was utterly alone and abandoned, afraid and could take comfort from none of the women with her as none of them had any sympathy for her and did not have any liking for her either. They were there to attend her and to report all she said to Mr Kingston who would report them to the King, Cromwell and the council. It did not matter how many times she made her case or pleaded; Anne, sadly was totally lost and alone.