On this day in Tudor history, 8th May 1536, some very distasteful behaviour, downright greed, was being displayed by some of Henry VIII’s courtiers.
They were like vultures circling, wanting to take advantage of the fall of Queen Anne Boleyn and their fellow courtiers.
What were they doing? What were they after?
Find out in this Fall of Anne Boleyn video.
You can read the letters at here.
Here’s a transcript of the video:
By this day in 1536, the 8th May, Queen Anne Boleyn, Mark Smeaton, Sir Henry Norris, Sir Francis Weston, William Brereton, George Boleyn, Sir Richard Page and Sir Thomas Wyatt had all been arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London.
Their arrests were a shock to those at the royal court of King Henry VIII, but some people got over the shock quickly and made their move on the possessions of these prisoners. Rubbing their hands with glee, people like Lord Lisle, Richard Staverton of Berkshire, and the king’s illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Somerset and Richmond, set about writing letters to try and get their hands on the prisoners’ grants, offices and lands.
These people had not even been tried yet, but it was important to move quickly at court, as Fitzroy found out when the stewardship of Banbury, which had belonged to Henry Norris, couldn’t be obtained by him because it had already been given to Thomas Cromwell!
Reading these men’s letters makes me think of vultures circling, it’s just horrible!
