Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn was led King Henry VIII’s second wife. In 1536 she was taken to the Tower of London and imprisoned on charges of adultery. Upon being found guilty she sentenced to death. Anne, the mother of Princess Elizabeth, was heard to remark that her death would be swift as she had ‘a little neck’ and that the executioner was supposed to be very good.
And so the Queen of England, only 3 years into her marriage to King Henry VIII and only weeks after the burial of Catherine of Aragon was taken from her cell, knelt down and with a single swing of the sword, beheaded. She had been found guilty of committing adultery with 5 men: they also were executed.
It is quite possible that Anne Boleyn was innocent of these charges. Henry VIII had already fallen in love with Jane Seymour and there was a rumour that Anne, like Catherine of Aragon, was unable to give birth to a boy.
The Tudors
Henry VII – Henry VIII – Edward VI – Mary – Elizabeth – Depth study on Elizabethan England
Francis Drake – Walter Raleigh – William Shakespeare – Philip II of Spain – Mary, Queen of Scots – Anne Boleyn – Mary Boleyn
Battle of Bosworth – War of the Roses – Split with Rome – Spanish Armada – Voyages of Discovery – Protestant Reformation – Elizabethan Settlement – Roanoke Colony – Act of Union with Wales
