ANNE BOLEYN’S EXECUTION. Hollywood versus history. Most famous execution in history. History Calling

hi everyone and welcome or welcome back to the channel where i bring you new videos every friday looking at the events of the past from anywhere anytime today on history calling the theme is going to be hollywood versus history specifically i'm going to compare three of the most famous modern depictions of the execution of anne boleyn to the real historical record and to each other to see which was the most accurate and what each one got right and wrong the three portrayals i've chosen are showtimes the tudors starring natalie dormer as anne the 2008 film the other berlin girl starring natalie portman and the bbc's 2015 production of wolf hall starring claire foy i won't be showing anything gruesome but we are going to take a deep dive into what i think is the most famous execution in history and separate out fact from fiction if this video puts you in the mood to re-watch any of these shows or the film there are links in the description box so that you can stream them or purchase the dvds [Music] [Music] we know from the historical record that queen anne boleyn second wife of henry viii was executed at the tour of london on the 19th of may 1536 on a scaffold draped in black which stood in between the central white tar which you can still see today and the modern entrance to the building where the crown jewels aren't i kept none of the three depictions under discussion here filmed at the tar and even if they had the structures don't quite look the same today as they did in the 16th century nevertheless they all correctly show on on a scaffold though none have it dripped in black and all do a decent job of making you believe you're in the tar the cameras are arranged in such a way that you don't tend to get a good view of the entire space because that would obviously give away the fact that it isn't the real location however a shot of anne's view as she ascends the scaffold from the tudors and an aerial shot from the other berlin girl with anne's body blocked out to keep youtube happy gives a good impression i think of being in between two sets of buildings in wolf hall you generally just see her with a building wall directly behind her and no wider angle to show the rest of the area it is alone amongst the three in showing and dulling out alms as she approaches the scaffold too i've never seen a primary source which says she did this nor does her biographer eric ives mention it but let me know in the comments if you know where this detail comes from assuming it isn't just fictitious there was a fairly large crowd present at anne's death of perhaps one to two thousand people but none of our three depictions show this many spectators they do sometimes however include some people who are genuinely present wolf hall for instance shows that cromwell was there and the tudors has charles brandon duke of suffolk in attendance the other berlin girl however has mary belin in the crowd and sister which is completely false if you're interested other people who were there include henry viii's illegitimate son the henry fitzroy chuck of richmond the duke of norfolk and the lord chancellor thomas audley by combining a number of different sources we can say that anne had four ladies with her on the scaffold no source gives their names though one claims that they were the same women who attended her in the tar another later writer says that she gave them keepsakes just before she died also present was the captain or constable of the tar sir william kingston and of course the unnamed executioner who was a swordsman from calais and didn't have any religious man with her none of our three portrayals get this information correct the tutors has three women kingston the executioner and a chaplain the other berlin girl presents two women and four men one of whom is a soldier and another a minister but it's wolf hole which deviates furthest from the records by showing five women and a veritable host of men on the edge of the scaffold next let's think about what anne was wearing original sources vary slightly here so you'll see different descriptions even in the modern secondary works on her depending on which primary source they've favored one which was used by antonia fraser in her book on henry's wives says that she wore a night robe of damask with a red mask skirt and netted koif over her hair i don't find this source which is martin hume's chronicle of king henry viii particularly reliable on its own though as it also says other things which we know to be false including that anne's father died a few days after her a french writer however confirms a night robe of grey mask and coiff whilst a portuguese observer described a robe of black damask made in such guys that the cape which was white did fall on the outer side thereof before her death a linen cap and blindfold were added a letter in the venetian archives says much the same noting a short mantle furred with her means over her dress with an english style gibble hood on her head and after the hood was removed a linen cap and a blindfold eric ives also states that her collar was low cut at the back so as not to impede the sword looking at our three and natalie dormer's outfit is the least true to the sources she has a furlined cloak however it's full length rather than short and it isn't white she does don a cap towards the end of the scene and her dress is low cut at the back but it's in the wrong color and there's never any blindfold natalie portman is much more historically accurate she has a dark colored dress with a low back and a short white cloak with fur just like the venetian and portuguese descriptions she also wears a cap though we don't see it being put on and is the only one who wears an english hood like the tutors though there's never any blindfold here in wolf hall claire foy has a dark dress the back of which we don't see a fur lined cape though again it's full length and only the trim is white and she later acquires a cap her headdress is very strange to me though as it's neither an english gablehood or the french hood which was also popular at this time and both of which we know anne wore at different points in her life i remember watching this show the first time it aired and i still think now what i thought then which is that this piece of her costume most closely resembles a modern hairband with some jewels and a veal stuck on the back of it this is particularly odd to me as you can see other actresses in this shot wearing the correct style of hoods so the costume department obviously knew how to make english and french hoods they just decided not to give claire for one she is however the only one who's blindfolded which is a detail you often don't see in portrayals of anne's death possibly because actors find it easier to act with their eyes uncovered so they do get points for that before her death anne made a final speech to the assembled crowd there are numerous accounts of her words and her composure while she spoke some more detailed than others so get comfy while i take you through them and at the end you can decide for yourself which you think is the best and the most accurate hume's chronicle which i mentioned a minute ago gives what is perhaps the most unreliable account which bears little resemblance to any other it has anne declaring do not think good people that i am sorry to die or that i have done anything to deserve this death my fault has been my great pride and the great crime i committed in getting the king to leave my mistress queen catherine for my sake and i pray god to pardon me for it i say to you all that everything they have accused me of is false and the principal reason i am to die is g and seymour as i was the cause of the ill that befell my mistress i firmly believe that this is rubbish had anne made such an incendiary speech there would be many records of it thankfully none of the tv shows and the movie we're looking at here use this the other records we have of her words more or less tally with each other and have anne behaving in a much more conciliatory manner the venetian archives say only that she began to raise her eyes to heaven and cry mercy to god and to the king for the offense she had done desiring the people always to pray to god for the king for he was a good gentle gracious and amiable prince lancelot carl who was secretary to the french ambassador reported that she begged her heroes to forgive her if she had not used them all with becoming gentleness and asked for their prayers it was needless she said to relate why she was there but she prayed the judge of all the world to have compassion on those who had condemned her and she begged them to pray for the king in whom she had always found great kindness fear of god and love of his subjects charles risley in his chronicle of england during the reigns of the tudors has her say masters i here humbly submit me to the law as the law hath judged me and as for mine offenses i here accuse no man god knoweth them i remit them to god beseeching him to have mercy on my soul and i beseech jesus save my sovereign and master the king the most goodly noble and gentle prince that is and long to rain over you it is a very slightly modernized and condensed version of this speech which natalie portman delivers in the other berlin girl and so again this production has stuck with a primary source and can't really be faulted as the changes to the speech are so minimal and mostly to make it easier for a 21st century audience to understand the portuguese account of her speech is more detailed and reads as follows good friends i am not come here to excuse or to justify myself for as much as i know full well that ought that i could say in my defense does not pertain unto you and that i could draw new hope of life from the same but i come here only to die and thus to yield myself humbly to the will of the king my lord and if in my life i did ever offend the king's grace surely with my death i do not attune and i blame not my judges nor any other manner of person nor anything save the cruel law of the land by which i die but be this and be my faults as they may i beseech you all good friends to pray for the life of the king my sovereign lord and yours who is one of the best princes on the face of the earth and who hath always treated me so well that better could not be wherefore i submit to death with a good will humbly asking pardon of all the world in his book the history of the reigns of henry vii henry viii edward vi and queen mary francis bacon gives a similarly detailed account though it's not quite the same as the portuguese transcript friends and good christian people i am here in your presence to suffer death whereto i acknowledge myself adjudged by the laws how justly i will not say for i intend not an accusation of anyone i beseech the almighty to preserve his majesty long-term over you a more gentle or mild prince never swayed scepter his bounty and clemency towards me i am sure has been a special if anyone intend an inquisitive survey of my actions i entreat him to judge favorably of me and not rashly to admit of any hard sensorious conceit and so i bid the world farewell beseeching you to command me in your prayers to god to thee god do i command my soul perhaps the most famous rendering of her speech is found in edward hall's chronicle and raphael hollandsheads chronicles of england scotland and ireland it was also used in the writings of john fox who wrote the famous book of martyrs and in the 17th century book the life and rein of king henry viii by edward herbert byron herbert of cherbury in it and says 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 rein over you for a gentler nor 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 command my soul this version of the speech is the one used by wolf hall and is therefore completely accurate to the primary sources and for me is the best most detailed depiction of anne's execution speech my main gripe with how wolf hall shows this is that it cuts away from anne for parts of the speech so we just hear her talking in the background there's also a very slight issue with her demeanor but i'll come to that in a minute that leaves us with the tutors if you listen to what natalie dormer says her script is clearly a composite of the portuguese account and that written by hall holland shed with some alterations made to accommodate a modern audience while it therefore gives you a flavor of what the real and said it isn't following any single source which weakens it in my view though miss dormer gives an excellent performance as for the actions of anne and those who were with her on the scaffold again there's variation in the contemporary descriptions charles risley keeps it short by saying that once her speech was done she knelt down said to jesus christ i command my soul then the swordsman executed her with a single stroke her body and head were apparently later buried in the choir of the chapel of saint peter at vincula that afternoon edward hall's chronicle is similar saying that after the main speech she knelt down and repeated the words to christ i command my soul jesus received my soul until she was beheaded francis bacon agrees with this sequence of events but the venetian report gives a little more detail writing that after her speech her mantle was taken off and herself removed her hood and it was only then that she put on her linen cap which was supplied by one of her women she then quote knelt down fastening her clothes about her feet and one of the sad ladies bandaged her eyes there is no mention of anne's prayers instead immediately the executioner did his office and when her head was off it was taken by a young lady and covered with a white cloth afterwards the body was taken by the other ladies and the hole carried into the church nearest to the tar of london lancelot carl says that the spectators could not refrain from tears while the portuguese observer gives a lot more detail than is found elsewhere saying that after her speech anne removed her coivs which i take to mean her headdress from her head and replaced them with a linen cap supplied by one of her female attendants saying alas per head in a very brief space thou wilt rule in the dust on this scaffold and as in life thou didst not merit to wear the crown of a queen so in death thou deserves not a better doom than this and ye my damsels who whilst i lived ever showed yourself so diligent in my service and who are now to be present at my last r and mortal agony as in good fortune you were faithful to me so even at this my miserable death you do not forsake me and as i cannot reward you your true service to me i pray you take comfort for my loss how be it forget me not and be always faithful to the king's grace and to her who with happier fortune you may have as your queen and mistress and esteem your honor far beyond your life and in your prayers to the lord jesus forget not to pray for my soul this is obviously a lot of extra material so much so that i doubt ann really said much if any of this as surely one of the other sources would have mentioned this second speech to her women had it occurred it does help to explain why some sources have claimed that the ladies with anne were the same as those women who attended her during her imprisonment though having added this second speech in the portuguese account then returns to the sequence of events laid out in other sources saying that anne knelt down was blindfolded by one of her ladies and that that lady then withdrew with the others to cry at the edge of the scaffold the queen was then executed after saying oh lord god have pity on my soul this account adds that there was a chest ready on the scaffold to receive the body which was quickly covered with a sheet and placed in it by her women who then carried her to the chapel for burial it is from the dubious hume chronicle that we get and supposed interaction with the executioner he writes that after she had been prevented from saying anything further and refused to confess to any crimes the headsman came and kneeled next to her begging pardon for what he had to do she then knelt with no blindfold and because she kept looking around her the executioner distracted her by calling to someone bring me the sword as anne looked around he pulled it out from beneath some straw and struck our three on-screen depictions are all combinations of these sources the tudors takes pieces of the venetian portuguese and hume accounts showing anne being made ready by her crying ladies and talking to the headsman before kneeling praying having her hair adjusted by the executioner which didn't happen then being distracted by him at the moment of death it also has the crowd kneeling with her which i haven't seen any source for the other berlin girl also mixes fact with fiction as it includes a completely fabricated non-verbal interaction with her sister mary as anne loses all hope of a reprieve she then removes her own hairdresser to reveal the koif already in place beneath and takes off her cape and famous bee necklace which there's no suggestion she was actually wearing before handing them all to a lady behind her she is then pushed down to her knees by the swordsman again a total invention says a quick prayer and is swiftly executed wolf hall has her made ready by her ladies who remove her cloak before her speech and her headdress afterwards by which point she is already kneeling they then place the coif over her hair and a blindfold is presented by the executioner of all people which seems like an odd deviation from all historical records to me she then prays and there is a totally unnecessary gasp by the crowd when the executioner pulls out the sword bear in mind these are people who would have seen many executions in their time even if not by sort the executioner slips off his shoes so and can't hear him move and distracts her to get her to turn her head to the side which seems pointless given that she's blindfolded in this adaptation and he can move around her unseen and unheard it does include the aftermath of her death however with her ladies removing her body and a chest already present a detail which clearly comes from the portuguese account all three portrayals show her dying by the sword and kneeling upright which is factually correct with regard to anne's demeanor on the scaffold the original sources are pretty much unanimous that she was very brave the spanish ambassador used to shop we who hated her guts nevertheless said that no one ever showed more courage or greater readiness to meet death than she did charles risley said that she gave her speech with a goodly smiling countenance while the venetian archives say that she looked frequently behind her and when she got upon the scaffold was very much exhausted and amazed hardly surprising as she likely hadn't slept the night before lancelot carl admitted that she initially spoke with a voice somewhat overcome by weakness but which gathered strength as she went on and added that she looked untroubled and had never been more beautiful hume's chronicle for what it's worth says that she showed a devilish spirit and was gay as if she was not going to die these sources for me personally the most inaccurate portrayal on this point is natalie portman whether as a result of her own acting decisions or the instructions she got from the director or the script she played on as a sobbing wreck this didn't happen and while it might well be how any of us would act in such circumstances and did a remarkable job of maintaining her composure which i think deserves to be recognized when she's portrayed this is no criticism of the acting abilities of the incredibly talented miss portman who is in fact one of my favorite actresses i just don't think she was well served by her direction and script here if you'd like to see a better example of her playing a real life figure i'd recommend the movie jackie in which she plays jackie kennedy onassis and i'll leave a link for that in the description box as for claire foy she does a beautiful job of showing on holding it together but with her fear just breaking through at certain moments and i think she puts across anne's exhaustion the best even if she doesn't show her almost relaxed countenance instead displaying an obvious strain she comes in a very close second in my opinion the reason she isn't first is that i dislike the decision to show her shaking so hard and speaking so nervously and quietly throughout that the audience struggled to hear her there's no report of such a problem in real life even if de carl did note her voice as being initially weak and i think as a result she just didn't quite capture the level of calmness that anne reportedly had again though she's a fantastic actress and she will have been bound to a certain extent by what the director in the script told her to do what i would also add about wolf hall is that i think it does by far the best job of demonstrating the horror of the whole situation and not romanticizing it with a loud swelling soundtrack or flashbacks to and childhood as we see in the tudors and or the other berlin girl to natalie dormer whose performance of anne at her execution is my favorite she shows her as being very calm and composed and someone who is at peace with her fate as anne reportedly was for she told william kingston that she had long been prepared for death and even asked that it not be delayed for any reason details which the shooters does show in earlier scenes by the way i've always assumed that miss dormer read the sources i cited a minute ago and incorporated them into her performance as she delivered the speech with a steady voice which increased in strength as she went on and the goodly even smiling continents that risley noted she does shed a few tears and we see some moments of nervousness but it's very restrained and overall i think she does the best job of capturing the real anne so final thoughts i think the other berlin girl is the weakest of the three depictions i've looked at here mostly because of anne's demeanor and the ridiculous subplot of mary berlin being present and receiving a letter from henry while she's in the crowd the costume is good though and the speech and many of anne's actions are accurate as for wolf hall and the tudors it's hard to choose between them wolf hall does a better job with the speech and the costume and it doesn't sentimentalize events in the way that i think the other two do but natalie dormer gives what i consider the most accurate portrayal of anne's demeanor and though i question the accuracy of some of the details shown in particular anne's interaction with the headsman they are drawn from a primary source even if it's of doubtful reliability i think wolf hall takes the crown new pun intended for accuracy while natalie dormer is the best anne of the three i'm curious to hear your thoughts however which depiction of the execution do you think is the best and who is your favorite anne perhaps she's not even one i've shown you here maybe you favor genevieve bujold from anne of the thousand days helena bonham carter from the bbc's henry viii in 2003 or the recent channel 5 series on her final months in which she was played by julie turner smith let me know in the comments below and if you like this video why not give it a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel with notifications switched on so you never miss my uploads you can also follow me on instagram where my username is history calling and there's a link for that in the description box if you're a tutor nerd you'll be happy to know you're in the right place i already have a whole playlist dedicated to the six wives of henry viii and another looking at all the tudor monarchs so why not check those out next they're linked on screen as well as below the video where there are also links to all the shows movies and books i've mentioned today and a few extra i'll be back next week with a new video but until then keep learning

Channel: History Calling

Views: 694,460

Keywords: ANNE BOLEYN’S EXECUTION, ANNE BOLEYN’S EXECUTION on screen, Hollywood versus History, how accurate was the Other Boleyn Girl, Anne Boleyn’s final speech, Anne Boleyn’s final words, six wives documentary, most famous execution in history, most famous Queen of England, Anne Boleyn’s death, Queen Anne Boleyn, Anne Boleyn, The Other Boleyn Girl, Wolf Hall, Natalie Dormer, Claire Foy, Natalie Portman, famous executions, the life of Anne Boleyn, the death of Anne Boleyn, Tudors

Id: gBczwBsGCqM

Length: 24min 52sec (1492 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 02 2021