Anne Boleyn Part Eighteen: The Conviction and Doomed Trial of Anne Boleyn

                                             Written By: Katelyn Abbott

Apparently four of the accused men were tried in Westminster on May 12, 1536. William Brereton, Francis Weston, and Sir Henry Norris had basically publicly maintained their innocence and only the tortured Mark Smeaton supported the Crown by pleading guilty. The four men had not been permitted to defend themselves and they were convicted of high treason. The four of them were all predictably condemned to die by originally being hung and then cut down before they died only to be disemboweled and quartered, but King Henry VIII prevented this from happening by commuting their death sentences to decapitation by the axe on Tower Green.  Sir Thomas Boleyn, Anne’s own father, was one of the judges who found the four men guilty which basically sealed Anne’s fate.

Anne and her brother George Boleyn had been brought to trial separately where Anne was charged with adultery, high treason, incest, making fun of King Henry VIII’s clothes, music, and poetry, and plotting to poison Katherine of Aragon and Lady Mary on May 15th, 1536. By the Treason Act of King Edward III adultery on the part of a queen was a form of treason (presumably because of the implications for the succession to the throne) for which the penalty was burning alive for a woman and hanging, drawing, and quartering for a man, but these charges and especially that of incest was also designed to impugn her moral character. She was charged with the other form of treason alleged against her being plotting King Henry VIII’s death with her “lovers” so that she might later marry Sir Henry Norris. Anne came to her trial dressed in a gown of deep black with a crimson petticoat and wearing a hat with a black and white feather on it which hundreds of people came to watch it. She did confront the charges against her with courage and dignity and ended up to keep her composure during her trial. She gave ‘discreet’ and ‘wise’ answers as Alison Weir had said “to all things laid against her, excusing herself with words so clearly, as though she had never been guilty of the same.” She had it in her to remind her accusers, that if they decided to send an innocent women and a Queen to her death, they would have to face another kind of judgment, in the greatest court of all. Her powerful address moved the hall of the crowds of people to silence and inevitably some people fought back tears. It made the Mayor of London declare, “I can only observe one thing in this trial—the fixed resolution to get rid of the Queen at any price.” Indeed, John Spelman, a judge in the court that had tried the accused, later declared that the entire whole spectacle was ridiculous and that “all evidence was bawdry and lechery.”

Henry Percy, the sixth Earl of Northumberland, sat on the jury that found Anne guilty. He collapsed when the verdict was announced and had to be carried out from the courtroom. He died eight months later leaving no heirs and he was succeeded therefore by his nephew.

 

Anne had gone on to hear the sentence being pronounced on her by her Uncle the Duke of Norfolk who supposedly had tears in his eyes while he said it without collapsing or crying in distress and from the gallery the Queen’s former childhood nurse, Mrs. Mary Orchard apparently “shrieked out dreadfully” and became hysterical. She remained calm and held her dignity for her the knowledge of her innocence and her pride were her strength to overcome this terrible obstacle. She rose from her chair and then made a magnificent speech: “O Father! O Creator! Thou who art the way the life, and the truth, knowest whether I have deserved this death. My lords, I will not say your sentence is unjust, nor presume that my reasons can prevail against your convictions. I am willing to believe that you have sufficient reasons for what you have done; but then they must be other than those which have been produced in court, for I am clear of all the offences which you then laid to my charge. I have ever been a faithful wife to the King, though I do not say I have always shown him that humility which his goodness to me, and the honors to which he raised me, merited. I confess I have had jealous fancies and suspicions of him, which I had not discretion enough, and wisdom, to conceal at all times. But God knows, and is my witness, that I have not sinned against him in any other way. Think not that I say this in the hope to prolong my life, for He who saveth from death hath taught me how to die, and He will strengthen my faith. Think not, however, that I am so bewildered in my mind as not to lay the honor of my chastity to heart now in mine extremity, when I have maintained it all my life long, much as ever queen did. I know these, my last words, will avail me nothing but for the justification of my chastity and honor. As for my brother and those others who are unjustly condemned, I would willingly suffer many deaths to deliver them, but since I see it so pleases the King, I shall willingly accompany them in death, with this assurance, that I shall lead an endless life with them in peace and joy, where I will pray to God for the King and for you, my lords. The judge of the entire world, in whom abounds justice and truth knows all, and through His love I beseech that He will have compassion on those who have condemned me to this death.”

George's trial began after Anne's trial ended. He claimed to be innocent of all the charges against him and defended himself apparently brilliantly. Many people who ended up watching the trial believed that he would be acquitted. Eustace Chapuys, the Imperial ambassador for the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, reported that people were betting at odds of ten to one that George would be acquainted while the court chronicler, Charles Wriothesley, stated that George’s defense of himself was exceptional. For the evidence of the case against him was largely based on a letter Anne had written to him saying that she was pregnant and Cromwell twisted the significance of this announcement by saying that the real reason Queen Anne was telling her brother of her pregnancy was because the child was his. Other evidence against George Boleyn was given by his wife Jane Parker. Some historians claim that she was a highly vindictive and jealous woman who testified against George in order to seek revenge against him for the affairs with other women he was rumored to have had and being closer to his sister Anne than he was to her. There are other historians declare that Jane Parker who did not actually provide evidence against George other than having written in a letter that Anne had claimed that King Henry VIII was impotent. Though a majority of people thought that George like Anne was actually innocent and should be acquitted, he was convicted and deemed to be sentence to death just like his sister and the other four men had been before him.

King Henry VIII apparently believed the charges of adultery, conspiring the King’s death, high treason, incest, and mocking the King’s clothes, music, and poetry against his wife Anne and he believed her to be a witch. Clearly he was furious over the way that Anne had allegedly betrayed him. He did say to his illegitimate son Henry Fitzroy that Anne had over a hundred lovers, she had poisoned Katherine to death, and she had tried to poison both him and his sister Lady Mary to do away with all of his other children who were a threat to their daughter Princess Elizabeth’ s position. He ended up going to see Jane to dine with her and giving her gifts of gowns and jewels. On May 15^th, 1536 Jane and he celebrated the outcome of the guilty verdict of Anne’s trial by dining together at Hampton Court.

Public sympathy was with Anne after she was arrested, brought to trial, charged with adultery, conspiring the death of the King, high treason, incest, mocking King Henry VIII’s clothes, music, and poetry, and sexual preservation, deemed to be guilty, and ended up being sentenced to death. They began to see that it was perhaps King Henry VIII and not Anne after all who was to blame for the bulk of Katherine of Aragon’s sufferings. Popular suspicion came to be King Henry VIII and his mistress Jane Seymour, both of whom were seen banqueting on the Thames, was widespread. Several pamphlets did circulate in London mocking the trials and supporting Queen Anne.  It was later decided that Anne was to be killed inside the Tower of London walls to prevent a possible demonstration or uprising. Anne finally had the support of her entire whole English people, but of course it came too late to do her any good.

On May 17, 1536 Archbishop Thomas Cranmer declared that Anne’s marriage to King Henry VIII dissolved and that Princess Elizabeth was a bastard to pave the way free to the line of succession to the English throne for any children Jane Seymour would bear him. The grounds ended up not being given, but many people feel that their marriage was declared invalid as it was a sin for King Henry VIII to marry Anne due to her blood bond with her sister Mary who was known carnally with the King as she was his former mistress. Though Anne and King Henry VIII’s marriage was annulled before Anne’s execution, their daughter Princess Elizabeth’s legitimacy should never been in question. The Act of 1534 rendered both the papal dispensation of 1528 and the marriage invalid; therefore the legitimacy of the Princess Elizabeth, who had been born before that date, from a marriage entered into good faith, should never have been affected. Yet Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, Thomas Cromwell, and her own father King Henry VIII were not concerned with the legality of the issue.