It’s May 19th, the anniversary of Anne Boleyn’s execution, so let’s talk about Anne’s enduring and unjustified reputation as a home-wrecking whore. Bearing the historical facts in mind, what exactly did Anne do to be slut shamed for more than five centuries? She refused to date a married man until she knew he was getting… Read more For Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn was beheaded on 19 May 1536. When this maligned and falsely accused queen walked her last steps to the scaffold where a swordsman waited to take her head, four ladies accompanied her. I agree with historian Eric Ives (no surprise there) that the ladies with her were probably the ones assigned to spy on… Read more The Ladies Upon the Scaffold
Anne Boleyn spent 18 May 1536 preparing for death. Imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys, a man who hated her and refered to her as ‘the concubine’ and worse, reported one of the ladies who attended Anne in the Tower had sent him, “word, in great secrecy, that before and after [Anne] receiving the Holy Sacrament, she… Read more Anne Boleyn’s Final Sacrament
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… Read more The Deaths of Five Innocent Men
George Boleyn, 2nd Viscount Rochford, was was brought to trial on 15 May 1536, accused of incest with his own sister, Queen Anne Boleyn. Until the day of his trial, people — even his enemies — thought George would be acquitted. No one really believed he had slept with his sister, and he was a great… Read more The Trial of George Boleyn
Queen Anne Boleyn was put on trial on 15 May 1536. According to Imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys, she was tried “by a tribunal composed of the principal lords of the kingdom … the Duke of Norfolk presiding over it .” The trial took place in the Tower rather than in Westminster Hall, “yet the trial… Read more The Trial of Anne Boleyn
On the surface Anne Boleyn’s judicial murder seems quite straightforward. Henry VIII wanted to marry a new, hopefully more fertile, son producing wife, and so he ordered Thomas Cromwell to rid him of his troublesome and miscarrying second queen. Cromwell, a brilliant legal mind, soon came up with a way to dispatch Anne and a… Read more The Plot Against Anne Boleyn
On 12 May 1553, the imperial ambassador, Jean Scheyfve, wrote to HRE Charles V to update him on King Edward VI’s illness. Scheyfve had only bad news to report, declaring that “it is held for certain that [Edward] cannot escape. The physicians are now all agreed that he is suffering from a suppurating tumour (apostème) on… Read more Where did Edward VI’s skin ulcers come from?
On 12 May 1536 four men — Henry Norris, Francis Weston, William Brereton, and Mark Smeaton — were condemned for treason, found guilty of having had sex with Queen Anne Boleyn. Although Smeaton confessed to sleeping with the queen on three occasions, he was the only man low-born enough to be tortured, so his confession… Read more A Clear Case for Murder
Anne of Bohemia, future queen consort of King Richard II of England, was born on 11 May 1366, the eldest daughter of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor (who was also King of Bohemia), and his fourth wife, Elizabeth of Pomerania. Even though her father was emperor of half of Europe, she didn’t have a big… Read more Anne of Bohemia, Queen of England