Hi my name is Kevin Hicks, welcome to
my YouTube channel the History Squad. Now Now today's video is on the conspiracy to execute Queen Anne Boleyn. So I've been fascinated by this subject Anne Boleyn her execution I'm going
to look at this and take you on a little bit of a journey which may help you understand what
was going on in the court of King Henry VIII Now first of all when I go for a poop you know
I do like to be on my own and I like to see to myself if you understand what I'm saying. Well
actually I'm not always on my own, I've got a dog, speaks for itself. So let's uh look at Henry VIII
right he gets up first thing in the morning he gets up very early he has somebody come in with
the the pot for him to pee in and uh that is done as he sits on the edge of the bed he stands up
he's helped into his dressing gown yeah it's uh reputed that he had a piece of fur on either side
of his chest and back to attract all the the mites and things that lived in his clothes hey that's
another thing he would then leave his bed chamber into his um private chamber and there things
went on his privy council his closest advisors but the closest of those uh had to be a kind of a
personal friend a confidante and was an extremely powerful man this is the keeper of the royal stool.
Now the royal stool or the closed stool was a an oak box padded on the outside had a very
nice seat with a hole in it and a lid it's where the King went for a poop. So there is his privy
counsel around and the King would simply lower his bottom on the suddenly opened lid and then his
night shirt would be lifted up and he'd be sitting there pooping away. Now I do know that Henry VIII
suffered from what my grandmother suffered from, constipation. So can you imagine the scene right,
there are these members of the privy council they're there in their finery first thing in the morning they've had to get up very early indeed and there is the keeper of the royal
stoll standing back respectable but whispering maybe in the King's ear and the
King with his constipation problems he's sat there going cross-eyed, and trying to do his
business of the day. Now when he's finished he will simply raise himself up and the keeper of
the royal stool will wipe the King's bottom clean. They used what was described as a taffeta
cloth or or linen this is a bit wow, you know. Did they then retrieve it and clean it did
they wash it, hey that's for another time maybe. But it's what went on with that privy council.
Who were these people what were they up to? So Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII, Queen of
England. She has a very close friend and confident, he is Sir Henry Norris who happens to be the
keeper of the royal stool to Henry VIII, so he has the ear of the King shall we say. Not the rear, the
ear, and he also has the ear of the queen. Somebody else has her rear, that's a lady in waiting. Whole
different story. So the two of them together, very close, then Norris with his close circle of friends
men who are in the royal wardrobe such fabulously wealthy people these they are very very strong
because if you are the keeper of the royal stool you're also the keeper of the privy purse the
King's money you are powerful. Now this is going fine until you add another name to this and this,
is where the whole conspiracy thing kind of goes on, because the name I'm going to introduce now is
Thomas Cromwell. So Thomas Cromwell, first minister to the King Henry VIII, now he together with Henry
VIII decided to channel some of the money that was being made from the dissolution of the monasteries, whole different subject, into their own pockets and also to foster a relationship with the holy
Roman Empire, yet again another subject, however the queen together with the keeper of
the royal stool Henry wanted the money not for their own use but for the poor,
because now the monasteries were down there is no alms for the poor so they thought
the best thing they could do channel some of the money into the poor, and also they were trying
to foster a lasting peace and alliance with France they're going against Thomas Cromwell. And he
has a spy network and he's picked up on an overheard conversation where Anne Boleyn
alludes to the King's death. It's illegal you can't even countenance, think that
the King may die. So Thomas Cromwell, he seizes the day and he takes into custody Mark
Smeaton, the queen's musician and he's questioned no he's not he tortured him and you imagine that
because that poor wretch confesses that he's had a love affair and has been sleeping with the queen
and the queen has slept with many others too and she's been conspiring with other men to actually
kill the King and Smeaton actually names these other men which actually include the keeper of
the royal stool Sir Henry and the queen's brother. This is the conspiracy, this is awful because
dates are put together, but they don't make sense. Apparently on one liaison the queen was with this
man but she couldn't have been because she'd just given birth to princess Elizabeth. It's a set up,
it's a conspiracy and it's going to go to trial. So, the trial of Anne Boleyn and her co-conspirators.
They had a jury, it should have been fair but here's a twist. In those days you didn't get
told what you've been charged with until the day of the trial, you couldn't prepare, but
notwithstanding that Anne and her brother George put up a great defence. In fact some of the jurors
had a bit of a gamble they said it's ten to one that he'll get off but no, it's a done deal the
jury knew their duty to the King. So Anne Boleyn, her brother George and the other conspirators
were found guilty of treason. That's George Boleyn, Sir Henry Norris, Sir Francis Weston, William
Brereton and the musician Mark Smeaton. They were gonna die. They've been found guilty.
They should have been hung drawn and quartered, but the King showed lenience, he's just gonna
have their heads cut off. However queen Anne found guilty of treason, she should be burned at the
stake, but this is the first execution of a queen, so the King shows leniency. She will be
beheaded. So the execution of Anne Boleyn. uh the popular myth is that uh she
requested that a swordsman be brought over the executioner of Calais to do the deed but she
was found guilty of treason on the 15th of May and just a few days later on the 19th of May. She's
going to be beheaded but actually it wasn't meant to be the 19th it was the 18th and it was all set
up, and she's ready to die when Thomas Cromwell orders it to be postponed because there's
too many people watching because they are going to kill a queen and he didn't want
foreign diplomats to witness the dirty deed. so it's cleared out and that poor woman has to
wait till the next day well come the next day she is so composed, it was almost as if her mind was in
a higher place. There is a condition for this but I am not a doctor so I can't tell you what it is.
She walks to her own execution, she's wearing an English hood, you know the old Tudor hood, black
velvet and a red dress the symbol of a martyr for her cause. She goes and mounts the
scaffold, apparently she gives a speech. But most importantly she kneels
down and holds herself up. No head on the block, and proud, hands clasped
she prays out loud. The swordsman behind her, silent and swift, cuts her head off in one. He then
holds it up. God saved the King, well he probably didn't say that did he because he's French so
he'd probably say God save the King yeah? But everybody goes, oh gasp because the queen's eyes
are moving and they fixed on a lady in waiting and her lips appear to be moving as if she's trying
to speak. Now apparently that's not uncommon if you cut somebody's head off, I don't know, but then
embarrassment. There's this French guy with a sword and a head, and there's the body but they'd
forgotten to bring a coffin. Can you imagine that? So guards are sent away very quickly into the
armoury and they come back with a nice oak chest. It's an empty arrow chest and the queen's body,
together with the head are placed in the chest and it's fastened down. But she was buried under
the floorboards of Saint Peter's chapel, the chapel for the Tower of London and there she would lay,
for many many years undisturbed, that is until they dug her up, but that's for
another story, another film. Well I hope you enjoyed that film or at the very
least found it interesting. If you did thumbs up. Now if you're a subscriber great, if you're
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having a lot of fun with history. Thank you very much for your time, bye for now.
