Claire | May 19, 2016
Queen Anne Boleyn was, of course, not the only victim of her fall in 1536, five men were executed on 17th May 1536. Clare Cherry, my co-author (George Boleyn: Tudor Poet, Courtier and Diplomat), pays tribute to these men in this video talk. Remember to head over to www.madeglobal.com/3292/clare-cherry-men-died-may-1536/ and enter the giveaway for a […]
Claire | May 12, 2016
On 12th May 1536, Mark Smeaton, Sir Henry Norris, Sir Francis Weston and William Brereton were escorted by barge from the Tower of London to Westminster by Sir William Kingston, Constable of the Tower of London, for their trial. At Westminster Hall, the four men were brought before a special commission of oyer and terminer […]
Claire | May 17, 2015
I sometimes feel that Sir Henry Norris, Sir Francis Weston, William Brereton, Mark Smeaton and George Boleyn, Lord Rochford, get forgotten about. On social media, there are often pleas to get Anne Boleyn pardoned or moved from St Peter ad Vincula, and visitors take flowers to her resting place on 19th May each year, but […]
Claire | May 17, 2015
The famous Tudor poet Thomas Wyatt the Elder wrote two poems about the executions he witnessed in 1536 from his prison in the Bell Tower of the Tower of London. In one, he wrote of how “These bloody days have broken my heart” and I am always moved by those words and the refrain at […]
Claire | May 12, 2015
On 12th May 1536, Sir William Kingston, Constable of the Tower of London, escorted Sir Henry Norris, William Brereton, Mark Smeaton and Sir Francis Weston by barge from the Tower of London to Westminster. The four men were brought before a special commission of oyer and terminer at Westminster Hall and arraigned for high treason. […]
Claire | May 10, 2015
On 10th May 1536, Giles Heron, foreman of the Grand Jury of Middlesex and son-in-law of the late Sir Thomas More, announced that the jury had decided that there was sufficient evidence to suggest that Anne Boleyn, George Boleyn, Mark Smeaton, Sir Henry Norris, Sir Francis Weston and William Brereton were guilty of the alleged […]
Claire | May 4, 2015
Mark Smeaton, Sir Henry Norris, Queen Anne Boleyn and her brother George Boleyn, Lord Rochford, were already imprisoned in the Tower of London and this day in history, 4th May 1536, saw two others being apprehended and added to their number: Sir Francis Weston and William Brereton. Francis Weston was the son of Sir Richard […]
Claire | May 17, 2014
On 17th May 1536, Sir Henry Norris, Sir Francis Weston, Mark Smeaton, William Brereton and George Boleyn, Lord Rochford, were executed on Tower Hill. They had all been found guilty of high treason and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, but their sentences had been commuted to the more merciful death by […]
