Dr Kat and the Execution of Anne Boleyn

hello and welcome back to the channel if you're new here hi you're very welcome this is reading the past and I'm dr. cat and no doubt the title is a bit of a clue today we are talking about the execution of amberlynn so I will be laying out the events from the preceding months the things that arguably led up to her execution but principally I'm interested with attempting to find an answer to the question of just why Henry the Eighth chose to import an executioner to dispatch his second wife why is amberle in the rare figure in english history to be put to death by sword this is not a traditional method of english execution so why was this step taken let's look at it [Music] [Music] at the start of 1536 amberlynn had been married to her husband and King Henry the eighth's for around three years despite this length of time there were many who still did not support the marriage in Europe they felt it was invalid that he was still legally married to his first wife and there were many in England although perhaps more privately who seemed to have felt the same so on the 8th of January 1536 an event took place that would arguably change everything there are many who claim that this event sets in motion the things that would catastrophic the auto ambulance future certainly it changed the political landscape in England on this date and Berlin's predecessor her arch rival Catherine of Aragon first wife of Henry the eighth passed away at kim bolton castle for those who are more conservative at Henry's court this was a landmark watershed moment they had I think perhaps come to terms the fact that Henry would not put an away while Catherine was alive he did not want to return to his first wife he also therefore had no interest in returning to loyalty to the Holy See of Rome and the Pope if they would not support his separation from Catherine of Aragon his marriage to amberlynn then he wanted no truck with them what Henry wanted was a boy but both Catherine and Ann had so far failed to do this but with Catherine's death on the 8th of January perhaps he wouldn't have to with the Conservatives and arguably the Pope recognising his first marriage as valid Henry was now a widower all he needed to do was be convinced to put an away perhaps make a new marriage just the kind of marriage that would have the papal blessing that would give him the son and heir that he so desired maybe the Conservatives could have everything they wanted a return to Rome and also a Tudor royal male heir in the cradle by the end of January 1536 Anberlin must deal with her own tragedy when she miscarries a baby Henry the Eighth had used Katharine of Aragon's recurrent miscarriages and stillbirths as evidence that God was displeased with their marriage is it possible that Henry couldn't have been thinking the same about amberlynn and even if he wasn't is it really conceivable that amberlynn would not have been concerned that he was thinking this way this was not an Berlin's first recorded miscarriage and I think it's highly likely that at this time her grief at the loss would have mingled with quite a large dose of fear and paranoia fear and paranoia that her husband might turn away from her because he thought she could not give him a sign ere perhaps that his head might be turned by another lovely young lady at court she would have been aware that the Pope and conservative factions never recognized their marriage with Catherine's death earlier in the month for them her husband was a widower while it's of course impossible at this for a historical removed to know exactly what Anne Boleyn was thinking I think it's highly likely that in at least the days following this miscarriage she would have been desperate however while I stand by the fact that in the aftermath of this miscarriage Anne Boleyn would have been grief-stricken and probably a little scared I don't think that means that she's broken and indeed possible evidence for this for her rallying from this miscarriage is shown a few months later if she is the one behind the events of April of that year then she is taking risks she is aggressive and decisive and if she is the one behind it then it would seem apparent to me that she is absolutely sure of Henry's love for her of her own place as his wife and queen on the second of April 1536 an event takes place that many historians have taken to be evidence of a rift having formed between Anne Boleyn and the King's chief minister Thomas Cromwell it is believed at this time that Anne Boleyn instructed her almoner John skip to deliver a castigating sermon about evil counselors the Sermon referenced her man hey evil counselor from the Bible it was a thinly veiled reference to Thomas Cromwell Cromwell like his biblical counterpart her man is being set up as an evil counselor to his King in opposition to their good queen but why is this moment relevant to the fall and exit of an balloon indeed is it well it only is if we accept that an ordered skip to give this sermon on this very topic if we accept that amberlynn was the prime motivator behind this sermon being delivered in the form that it was and that is also how Thomas Cromwell read it then it looks like he saw his declaration of war and he wasn't going to go down without a fight like an Berlin he was prepared to move decisively and with lightning speed within the month on the 30th of April 1536 to be exact he arrested Mark Smeaton he took him to his house where he questioned him some say that Smeaton was tortured in the aftermath Smeaton had confessed to criminal Congress with Queen Anne Berlin he said that they had committed adultery together after his confession it took just 19 days for a queen and five men one her own brother to be arrested tried convicted and executed from this interpretation it is Thomas Cromwell that is the prime mover deciding to bring Anne Boleyn down in order to save himself he is the mastermind of a coup that Henry the eighth's simply falls in line with perpetrating account this reading is however that it relies on Henry the eighth being persuaded or convinced to do away with his wife due to external forces namely Thomas Cromwell many historians find this interpretation problematic they feel that it underestimates Henry the eighth his rule and his singular force of will on the 1st of May 1536 the royal court was celebrating May Day there was doubting at Greenwich at some point Henry brought festivities to a close early he left Greenwich riding towards London he took with him one of his gentlemen Henry Norris it is claimed that on route Henry the 8th turned to Norris and asked him to confess to adultery with his queen Norris refused he was still arrested and placed in the tower of lon the next day the second of May 1536 saw Queen and Berlin and her brother George Berlin Lord Rochford likewise being arrested and sent to the Tower of London Lynne a week they were joined by four others who were also accused they were Francis Weston William baritone Thomas Wyatt and Richard page four Thomas Wyatt and Richard Page their arrest and imprisonment in the Tower of London marked the end of their journey towards prosecution both men would be released in 1536 they were the lucky ones for those accused with them they would not be so fortunate on the 12th of May 1536 the first trial took place this was the trial for the so called commoners Norris Smeaton Brereton and Weston the allegations against these four men were put before a jury they were tried and found guilty of treason and condemned to death on the 15th of May 1536 it was the turn of Anne Boleyn and her brother George to face trial as they were enabled they were tried separately from the commoners before them they were to be tried by a jury of their peers the accusations against them would be heard at the Great Hall in the Tower of London which no longer stands it is highly unfair that this trial took place two days after the former trial where those four men were found guilty because if those four men were guilty then surely and Berlin's own guilt was a foregone conclusion and certainly it seems that it was Anne and her brother George were unanimously found guilty by those peers and they were sentenced to death two days later on the 17th of May 1536 all of the men convicted alongside Anne Boleyn would go to their execution they were taken from the tower up to Tower Hill where a scaffold was erected for the purpose there they placed their neck on the block one after another and were beheaded by axe the next day was the 18th of May 1536 the day that Anne Boleyn believed she was to die when she woke that morning she expected that she would prepare herself she would pray and then she would be collected at around 9 a.m. in the morning from her rooms in the tower she would be escorted to the scaffold erected for the purpose and there she would meet with the specialist executioner sent from Calais the swordsman before him she would kneel and blindfolded she hoped that he would part her head from her shoulders at a stroke but this was not to be there was to be another delay because the swordsman had not arrived he would not arrive until midday and Berlin's execution would have to be postponed to the following morning on the 19th of May 1536 all occurred as an thought it would occur the previous day she was collect from her rooms escort to the scaffold where she met with the swordsman there was to be no further delays and no reprieve Edward Hall gives an account before amberlynn said on the scaffold as follows 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 wear off 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 normal 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 hardly desire you all to pray for me oh lord have mercy on me to God I commend my soul at this point she was blindfolded and kneeling upright she is said to have repeated several times to Jesus Christ I commend my soul Lord Jesus Eve my soul as promised Anne Boleyn was beheaded with a single stroke we could discuss or rather argue for days about what the actual cause of ambulance fall was or who the actual cause was but as I said at the start what I wanted to talk about in this video was why Henry chooses to import an execution of her Anne why is she be headed by the swordsman of Calais when everybody accused with her meets with the block and acts estranged it might sound execution by acts on the block was a privilege in England reserved mostly for the nobility however that doesn't mean that it was a particularly clean or precise way to kill somebody while the sword is designed to do that job it is a cutting weapon the axe relies on its weight it's a crushing injury the blade as sharp as it can be is still relying on the weight of the handle and the rest of the metal blade to take it through a neck it's also worth bearing in mind that if it's been a while since a noble was last four headed then the executioner might not be in practice they might get themselves drunk the night before or even the morning off there's an extra courage so you may have an inexperienced hungover or drunk executioner trying to use a fairly poor crushing weapon to take your head off your shoulders so does this go perhaps some way to explain why Henry the eighth's chooses to import a swordsman from Calais to deal with Anne Boleyn the woman who at least for a time he appears to have loved beyond reason is he simply horrified at the thought that she might have to suffer unduly on the block with the Axman or is it more pragmatic than that Henry knows that even within the tower where you can control who comes in there is going to be an audience for this Anne Boleyn was the first queen of England to ever face execution Henry simply cannot have this turn into a PR disaster if it went wrong if it took more than one blow if it was a budge job so to speak it would perhaps look even worse and be even more embarrassing for him that it already was alternatively and perhaps even more unpleasantly can we read the choice to bring over a French executioner as Henry attempting to mock and Berlin and Berlin had spent a number of years during her adolescence and early womanhood growing up in France at the French Court so much so that when she came back to the English Court there were many who said he would have taken her for a French woman born her French was perfect and she reveled in fashions and it seems that she felt an affinity for France all her life and perhaps also for the French Court the French Court in English minds or at least in many English Minds were synonymous with promiscuity and licentiousness so here we have an English queen who grew up in France who is accused of treason adultery and incest with her own brother is Henry the eighth's making a joy at her French upbringing is Henry choosing to end her life in this French manner because as far as he was concerned she lived far to French Li in the first place many take issue with the fact that Henry orders this swordsman from France and that he is able to arrive even a day late but stood on the 19th of May they say this is evidence that he must have been ordered long before Ambulance trial in fact within days of her arrest for him to get there on time and to them this is evidence that Henry is turned tyrant there is not going to be a fair trial because this man has been sent for long before it's even taken place well we all know that this was really a foregone conclusion why else would you try the commoners before Anne and her brother but I think it's worth mentioning that Anne Boleyn could still have expected a pardon or reprieve had Henry so chosen despite the fact that all of this swordsman from Calais if he had changed his mind about Anne Boleyn he's the king of England and while I believe that her eventual guilt being declared was a foregone conclusion Sydney for the executioner early is not the thing that proves this Henry the eighth is King of England if the execution had arrived and and by some miracle had been found innocent or for that matter Henry had chosen to pardon and release her perhaps to a convent he could just send the executioner away paid him and sent him back to France him being sent for doesn't mean that Henry has started the process of ambulance execution which then has no way of being stopped he is still king sending for the executioner while it feels little callous to us is perhaps more about being prepared one of the side effects of course of importing your execution from France is that crucial day of delay and depending on how you read that it's potentially quite telling and Berlin wakes up on the 18th of May expecting that the French executioner has arrived and that she will die that day it's not until later that she's told he's been delayed and that she will have to wait for the following day now if the exclusion didn't come from France that delay would make no sense and perhaps it's a real delay an accident that was unavoidable people do get delayed in transit all the time but perhaps it was also so it was orchestrated and Berlin is made to believe she will die on one day when Henry and/or his councillors know that it will not be to the next day was this a callous attempt to break her spirit in the hope that she might finally confess to what they thought she'd done but I'd love to know your responses to those queries that I've posed and also what you think of this video more generally so let me see your thoughts in the comment section down below or alternatively you can come and find me over on my social media as always links to my Instagram and Twitter will be found in the description box you can follow me there and we can continue this conversation I do hope you enjoyed this video and found it useful if you did then please let me know by hitting the thumbs up please also subscribe to this channel and while you're there hit the bell icon that's next the subscribe button so that YouTube tells you when I've next uploaded I hope you're gonna have a great day whatever you're doing and I look forward to speaking to you all in my next video take care of yourselves good bye for now [Music] [Music]

Channel: Reading the Past

Views: 98,771

Rating: 4.9568882 out of 5

Keywords: Tower of London, Execution, Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII, 1536, Tudor, Education, Literature, Culture, History, Early Modern, Renaissance

Id: y0egLNh6B94

Length: 18min 12sec (1092 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 17 2020