The five men accused of adultery with Queen Anne Boleyn — Henry Norris, Francis Weston, William Brereton, Mark Smeaton, and her brother, George Boleyn – were beheaded on 17 May 1536 in the Tower yard.
Apparently the execution of Francis Weston caused some of the most brouhaha. The only son and heir of the former Governor of Guernsey, he had been at court since he was a young boy serving as a page, and had been a good friend to King Henry VIII. He was a Knight of the Bath, and incredibly popular with people at court, especially among the diplomatic fellows of his father, Sir Richard Weston. That such a young, handsome, pleasant man should die on such ‘slight pretexts’ was a scandal. But in spite of “ the great efforts made by the resident French ambassador, the bishop of Tarbes, and by another one, called the sieur de Vintemille (Vintimiglia) …he suffered death like the rest.”
With the exception of Mark Smeaton, all the men steadfastly refused to confess any adultery with Anne, but all of them made the traditional statements that they deserved death as sinners. When Anne was told that Smeaton never recanted his confession, she was reported to have exclaimed in dismay, “Alas! I fear his soul will suffer for it.” A devout woman, the betrayed queen was more concerned about Smeaton’s afterlife than her own reputation.
Cruelly, Anne was forced to watch the executions of her friends and brother. Eustace Chapuys, the imperial ambassador, gloated that, “To make matters worse for the concubine it was arranged that she should witness their execution from the windows of her prison.” This would have been particularly painful for Anne, who had expressed more than once her dismay that innocent men must die in her downfall. In her last letter to the king, she begged, “That my self may only bear the Burthen of your Grace’s Displeasure, and that it may not touch the Innocent Souls of those poor Gentlemen, who (as I understand) are likewise in strait Imprisonment for my sake.” Again, at her trial, she said “that she was prepared to die, but was extremely sorry to hear that others, who were innocent and the King’s loyal subjects, should share her fate and die through her.” To watch them die must have been hellish for poor Anne … especially watching the death of the brother she loved so much.
Chapuys further claimed that although George Boleyn, “declared himself to be innocent of all the charges brought against him … he owned that he deserved death for having been contaminated with the new heresies, and having caused many others to be infected with them. He had no doubt, said he on the scaffold, that God had punished him for that, and, therefore, he recommended all to forsake heretical doctrines and practiceś, and return to true faith and religion. Which words on the mouth of such a man as lord Rochefort will be the cause of innumerable people here making amends for their sins, and being converted.” However, Chapuys was mistaken (or lying). George Boleyn maintained his reformist principles in his final speech on the scaffold, declaring “I have been a setter forth of the word of God, and one that have favoured the Gospel of Christ.” He also added that, “because I would not that God’s word should be slandered by me, I say unto you all, that if I had followed God’s word in deed as I did read it and set it forth to my power, I had not come to this.”
While five innocent men were being judicially murdered, and the former queen was being forced to watch it, King Henry VIII was busy visiting the object of his affections – Jane Seymour. Shortly after Anne’s arrest, he had moved his paramour into a more convenient location for his visits, “to within one mile of his own residence” where she was to be “splendidly entertained and served by cooks and officers of the royal household” while her predecessor awaited death at the king’s command.
The bloodshed in the Tower doesn’t seem to have bothered Jane and Henry even one little bit.