On 30th April 1536, the first arrest in the fall of Anne Boleyn took place. Court musician Mark Smeaton was taken to Thomas Cromwell’s house in Stepney and interrogated there.
On the same day, an argument between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn was witnessed, and later that day, their forthcoming trip to Calais was cancelled…
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If only we knew what Anne and Henry were talking about but Ales was too far away to hear he could only go by their facial expressions, this conversation he informed Elizabeth about when she was queen, and it must have dredged up feelings of utter sadness that her adored father could not have found it in his heart to spare her mothers life, I have visualised this scene many times in my mind, the gardens and there flowerbeds awash with May flowers, the throng of people walking around and Anne imploring Henry with the baby Elizabeth in her arms, he was looking out from a window and he appeared to be very angry but there was no shouting his countenance was one of deep fury however, I do believe he had heard about her foolish remarks to his friend of many years standing, Henry Norris and she was trying to explain to him it meant nothing, we know later Norris had been offered a pardon if he admitted to an affair with the queen but refused and was thrown in the Tower, I do believe because of that on hearing about this conversation between the queen and his friend, Henry became suspicious about his wife’s fidelity, and later convinced himself she was indeed capable of deceiving him, but he did not want Norris punished he had known a long time and he was in the kings special clique of friends, however he too was sacrificed then on this day also, we have that sad wretch Smeaton who was taken to visit Cromwell and we can only imagine what happened there, but the outcome was that Mark admitted to sleeping with the queen and he was taken to the Tower, Anne that day must have looked in vain for her favourite musician but alas he was kept in chains in a miserable little cell, in the country’s most secure fortress, the storm clouds were gathering over this tragic queen and when it broke, many lives were to be irrevocably shattered forever.