Tag: Anne Boleyn

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Beheading of Anne Boleyn May 19th 1536

Old Print showing the beheading of Anne Boleyn

The beheading of Anne Boleyn began at 8am with her speech.

‘Good Christian people, I am come hither to die, for according to the law, and by the law I am judged to die, and therefore I will speak nothing against it.

I am come hither to accuse no man, nor to speak anything of that, whereof I am accused and condemned to die, but I pray God save the King and send him long to reign over you, for a gentler nor a more merciful prince was there never: and to me he was ever a good, a gentle and sovereign lord.

And if any person will meddle of my cause, I require them to judge the best. And thus I take my leave of the world and of you all, and I heartily desire you all to pray for me. O Lord have mercy on me, to God I commend my soul.’

She was blindfolded. She knelt down, putting her neck on the block and repeated:

‘To Jesus Christ I commend my soul; Lord Jesu receive my soul.’

Recorded by Edward Hall (spelling modernized)

https://www.hevercastle.co.uk/news/19th-may-anniversary-of-anne-boleyns-execution

Here is a slightly annoyingly American youtube feature recreating what Anne Boleyn might have looked like.

To hear about Queen Elizabeth I’s nicknames for her chief advisers, read my post here.

Published in 2024, and revised in 2025.

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The London of Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell. The City of Wolf Hall Virtual Walk

Sunday 29th February 2021

The Walk creates a portrait of London in the early 16th Century. It has a particular emphasis on the life and times of Thomas Cromwell and Thomas More who feature in Wolf Hall, the novel by Hilary Mantel.

Listen to the Tour Podcast (6 min 55)

The Virtual Tour will start with a boat tour from Hampton Court, via Chelsea to the City, and then a Walk around the City.

More and Cromwell had much in common, both lawyers, commoners, who rose to be Lord Chancellor to Henry VIII and they both ended their career on the block at Tower Hill. But they found themselves on the other side of the gulf that suddenly opened with the religious ferment that accompanied Henry’s obsession with Anne Bolyen.

The Walk will include visits to the sites of More’s and Cromwell’s town houses and then walk through the market streets of Tudor London, to Cheapside and the Guildhall, St Pauls and outside the Walls to Smithfield where most of the religious executions took place. We visit Charter House where More took a break from the stress of public office, and whose Prior, Cromwell had hanged, drawn and quartered. We exit via the plaque pits, and finish off with a walk around the City Walls until we come to Tower Hill where both men ended their lives on the scaffold.

Saint or Sinner? What better place to ponder that question that the streets of Wolf Hall London?

To buy Tickets click here: