On this day in 1536, 9th May 1536, King Henry VIII’s second wife, Queen Anne Boleyn, had just ten days left to live.
While his wife and seven men were imprisoned in the Tower as part of Anne Boleyn’s fall, King Henry VIII was after an update on things from his master-secretary, Thomas Cromwell…
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And today’s normal “on this day” video is about William Bradford, a Yorkshire man who was the founder of the Plymouth Colony in America and the writer of a chronicle of its early years: “Of Plimmoth Plantation”:
The impression I get from from Henry is that after his talk with Cromwell they decided that the case against the accused so far was too weak to proceed.
Henry V111 surely did not believe his old love and queen consort had shamed him so publicly by indulging in carnal lust and plotting to kill him with one of his favoured courtiers? Yet he acted like he did believe the so called evidence and wrote to his evil genius master Cromwell to see how the investigation was going, for the queen to be in the Tower first of all looked ominous as it was unprecedented, queens were not locked in the Tower, she should have been merely confined to quarters as her tragic cousin Catherine Howard was some years later, any slander against the queen must be investigated and Smeaton had confessed to adultery with her , why did a King of England believe the so called evidence of this wretched soul whom he must have suspected was tortured, other than that of his queen, a woman he had been with for ten years and who he knew had always been faithful to him, to order the arrest of the Queen of England without giving her the chance to explain herself to him, to allow her to talk to him boded not well at all for tragic Anne Boleyn, as I said before, there is a stark contrast in how his fifth queen was treated, Cranmer had interviewed her many times and yet Anne was just told to present herself to the council, was informed of the charges against her, and taken to the Tower right away, she had had no chance to prove her innocence and later her so called lovers were to join her, including her own brother, I think in the letter the king wrote he wanted to make sure more dirt could be dished on the queen, he took an active interest in everything about the proceedings including the trial, and even the details of her execution right down to the minutest detail, he had wept to his bastard son the Duke of Richmond and his daughter the Lady Mary, how they had been so lucky to escape the clutches of the cursed wh*re Anne Boleyn who had threatened to poison them both, this in itself is ridiculous as Anne had arranged the marriage between Richmond and her cousin Lady Mary Howard, once when Henry had been planning to leave for France she had foolishly said she would murder Mary, but that was just her tongue running away with her, and it had probably been due to Mary snubbing her or insulting her as she usually did, Henry V111 during this dreadful time liked to paint himself as the cuckolded husband, the victim of an evil woman a Jezebel, a woman who was sexually out of control and had murder in her mind who threatened to kill him with her lovers, yet whilst his wife languished in her grim fortress albeit in luxury, he chose to go out on the town every night wining and dining with a company of his merry courtiers, and courting his latest love Jane Seymour, he was quite jovial in company and this behaviour made the people mumble not only in court but along the length and breadth of the city, the common folk could possibly not believe that their queen was in the Tower, and yet their king was as merry as a schoolboy, Anne had not been popular with the people yet a tide of sympathy was turning in her favour and a ballad had been written about the king and Jane Seymour, which angered him a great deal, he wrote to his sweetheart informing her that he would do everything in his power to catch the culprit, but he never did and as Ives wrote there is grim satisfaction that he was never caught.
Yes, Henry VIII believed it because it was convenient for him to blindly believe the treasonous charges against her than it was to be rational and get to the bottom of the truth in a logical manner.
Henry needed Anne gone and out of the way, he was convinced she could not provide him the longed-for son so he needed a new queen for the task. What better way to get rid of her, permanently, than to have her executed for treason? It provided nice, solid foundation for the new queen to enter the picture, since none could question the validity of her status as her predecessor was deceased (it’s important to note that Katherine of Aragon, Henry’s first wife, was also dead, conveniently for him)
Henry needed Anne gone and, in fact, needed her dead to make things more secure for the next queen and any offspring she might have. He did NOT want a repeat of what happened with Katherine of Aragon, in which many subjects still thought of her as their “true” queen and rejected Queen Anne. That is why Henry was so quick to believe the charges against Anne, because it worked in favor of his new plan to do so.
Have to mention the death of King Henry V111 the founder of the Tudor dynasty, this king is I find an enigma nearly as much as his son, he defeated his enemy in the Battle of Bosworth and while the slain body of Richard 111 was slung rather ignominiously over a horse and dumped in an unmarked grave, Henry Tudor rode in triumph to London and there was crowned and married the beautiful Elizabeth of York, and founded what we know as the Tudor Dynasty, the red rose of Lancaster and the white rose of York were thus entwined forever, the warring dynasties were at an end and England could enjoy peace and harmony again, Henry V111 was very unlike his son who was a show off and dressed splendidly like a king should, which is what the public expected of him, yet Henry V111 was not one for sports and spectacles of display, his painting shows him dressed in dark robes with a dark hat, more suited to a churchman than a king, he was said to be rather cheerless and austere and he did treat his daughter in law, the young Spanish princess with surprising parsimony, yet he loved his wife devotedly and built a splendid tomb for their final resting place, the death mask of Henry V11 shows he had inherited his mothers lean face with the prominent cheekbones, it is a handsome face and he was thus described in his youth, his two sons inherited their features from their mother who possessed a rounder more plumper face with golden colouring, his solemn procession with the hearse draped in black with a great company wound its way through the streets to old St Paul’s, the victor of Bosworth was dead yet his mother, the indefatigable Lady Margaret Beaufort lived on and became her youngest grandsons mentor as he was prepared for kingship.
I realise I kept posting Henry V111 instead of Henry V11 due to force of habit, I apologise to anyone who’s confused.
If Henry thought he could have gotten away with it I’m sure he would have been happy to just have Anne grabbed and executed on the spot or if he were a private citizen he would have murdered her with his own hands. What’s frightening is in his position he didn’t have to get his hands get involved he just had the government do his dirty work. Someone with his personality should never be in a position of power. I’m mainly referring to the older Henry.
Rather like Caligula and the Emperors Nero, they had untold power and in the end totally destroyed themselves, history is full of power being in the wrong hands, when we look at recent times, it was frightening how Hitler gained power, he was seen as the saviour of his country yet in the end Germany was a burnt out shell and on her knees, whilst the man who was responsible for it all evaded justice by killing himself along with his mistress.
And his dog Blondie. Joseph Goebels also killed his wife and children. What on Earth did the dog and kids do to deserve that?
At this point I think it’s safe to assume that the plan is well in hand and Henry is firmly in the driving seat, despite being apparently withdrawn and acting as if the people under arrest are already none persons. I suspect he knows already the outcome of the two Grand Juries because the orders have already been given to the plants on those juries, commitment to trial and guilty as charged. There was Sir Giles Heron for one thing, the son in law of the late Sir Thomas More, in charge of the Westminster Jury, who would be only too happy to help bring down the woman many blamed for the statesman’s death and every other religious and political disaster of the last few years. Anne had numerous enemies, women who replaced beloved Queens often got the blame for just about everything because women had mysterious powers, or that was the legend through the years. Henry and Cromwell would not have needed to look very far for the right people or their relatives, clients, patrons, married relatives to make up those Juries or act as her judges. The set up was almost complete.
Henry now demanded a status report and the Council was called, an emergency Council, most probably to plan the coming trials and aftermath. Henry must have given them the lowdown on the last two weeks, the reality of the charges facing the Queen and briefed them on their duties now. The nobles would sit at her trial and it was their duty to find her guilty but most of them would have had no difficulty in doing that duty and the Jury at her trial was well and truly stacked in the King’s favour. For one thing half of them were connected to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, who had no love for Anne and others had other connectivity which bound them to the King, rather than the Queen. The accused had no chance whatsoever.