The Toxic Love Affair Of Anne Boleyn And Henry VIII | Lovers Who Changed History | Chronicle

this channel is part of the history hit Network [Music] [Music] annberlin the wife of Henry VIII awoke in the Royal Apartments at the Tower of London her ladies and waiting made their final preparations and left her Chambers at a little before eight o'clock to face her destiny awaiting her at the end of this short Journey was an expert executioner famed for his skills with a razor sharp blade he just arrived from France summoned by the King as a last-minute Act of Mercy for a wife for whom he'd risked everything but whom he ultimately believed had betrayed him the lives of Henry VIII and Anne Berlin have been cloaked in historical myth romantic Legend cliches and half-truths henceforth you alone their turbulent relationship continues to spark Fierce debate I'm entirely innocent of all these accusations I'll be retracing the footsteps of this extraordinary couple together the fragments of evidence that have survived to discover what brought Henry and Anne together and what ultimately tore them apart we all know how this tragedy plays out but how well do we know its leading characters this is the story of Henry and Anne my journey begins in the Kent Countryside in search of amberlin foreign [Music] was a falcon used to extol her purity her chastity and her grace there's a popular myth that Anne was from lowly Origins that she was a bit of an upstart but that's far from the truth foreign [Music] 's childhood home where she spent many formative years here her parents Thomas and Elizabeth brought up with three children who made it to adulthood the eldest was Mary who fleetingly later would be a mistress to Henry VIII probably the youngest was George who was a great companion to Anne a bright young girl who would one day be Queen her father Thomas Berlin was a member of the king's Council and Henry VII's ambassador to France and was well educated and from a wealthy privileged family [Music] three goes that she was a free spirit someone who was Sparky intelligent and fun-loving foreign rumor and speculation as any hard evidence it's so hard to get a sense of the real amberlin we have a few letters but we don't have any Diaries we don't really have any of the sort of things that we need to get a grasp on what she was really like And yet when you come to a place like this where she actually lived one has this incredible sense that the veil between past and present has grown thin and only time and not space separates us from Anne fortunately a you telling pieces of evidence have survived which give us a rare glimpse into her character [Music] this is one of the few surviving possessions of Anne at heaver it's a book of ours it's a beautifully Illustrated and illuminated manuscript Book of Prayers And devotions and these things were immensely popular in Europe at the time and what's really exciting about it is that Anne held it there's something of a real thrill to be touching it it was probably one of her most treasured possessions what this reminds us is an importance of Faith at this time it literally determined people's hours religion marked out their days we often have an idea of Anne in our heads that of her as being ambitious and worldly and perhaps something of a vixen and yet this is one of her few belongings that we know and can identify it reminds us that Anne is pious and religious but what's even more thrilling about it is that Anne herself wrote in it history hit is like Netflix just for history fans with exclusive history documentaries covering some of the most famous people and events in history just for you with familiar faces such as Dan Jones and Dr Eleanor yanega we've got hundreds of documentaries covering the greatest figures and events of medieval history we're committed to Bringing history fans award-winning documentaries and podcasts as you cannot find anywhere else sign up now for a free trial and Chronicle fans get 50 off their first three months just be sure to use the code Chronicle that's checkout it's an inscription of French and it says the time will come I am Berlin the time will come I and Berlin now we don't know when she wrote this we don't know exactly what she meant by it but it seems immensely prophetic and Powerful it's on a page where there's a picture of Christ being raised above the Earth and then there are these little heads at the bottom that look like people coming up out of the Grave so perhaps this refers to the day of judgment many people in the 16th century thought that they were living in the end times the last days before the second coming of Christ but perhaps there's a more Earthly explanation I wonder if Anne thought that she was destined for greatness all our doings being ordered by that even if she was ambitious Anne could never have imagined that her Destiny would lie with the most powerful man in the land a married man amen the king [Music] we all think we know Henry VII but actually what we conjure up is Henry in the last decade of his life when he's obese and Savage and ruthless and cruel but he wasn't always like that in fact when he first came to the throne and for the first 20 or so years of his Reign he was noted first of all for being really good looking he had auburn hair he was very tall he was six foot two when the average height was five foot seven and a half and he was so good at sport that everyone commented on it he surpassed all the archers of his God [Music] he was a fine jouster a capital Horseman to see him play tennis one Venetian Ambassador commented was the prettiest thing in the world that Venetian Ambassador also said perhaps he had a crush that he had a round face so very beautiful that it would become a pretty woman foreign to me coming across this young Henry was that he was also well loved he was considered to be kind the Ambassador said that he was after born gracious a man who harmed no one Erasmus said that he was a man of gentle friendship and gentle and debate he acts more like a companion than a King Henry was evidently very charismatic when he spoke to you it was like the Sun was shining as a king and a man he seemed to have few flaws but Henry would become tormented by his failure to perform the most basic yet most important task of any monarch it would put him on a collision course with Anne and together they would change England forever [Music] oh oh [Music] [Music] Henry VII wasn't born to be king he'd come to the throne after the death of his father Henry VII and only because his older brother Arthur had died suddenly at the age of just 15. within months of becoming King Henry married his brother's widow Catherine of Aragon they were crowned together but with marriage came a huge pressure now he needs to produce an heir to secure the dynasty for the next generation and not just one he needed an air and despair as his brother's death had indicated Henry would be married to Catherine for over 20 years and for much of that time they were happy together but they were beset by a devastating series of miscarriages and stillbirth [Music] when a son Henry was born he died 52 days later Mary would be the only child to survive [Music] most people at the time saw little value in a female Heir as she would likely end up marrying a European Prince allowing England to be dominated by a foreign power and France and Spain were a constant threat throughout Henry's reign so sireing a legitimate Heir became Henry's overriding obsession it was an obsession that would manifest itself in Henry's relationship with God by whom he believed he had been an anointed king this lack of a surviving legitimate male Heir suggested to Henry VII that he was being punished by God and he suspected the reason was that he had married his brother's widow and scriptures backed him up in this in Leviticus it says in chapter 18 verse 16 you shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother's wife it is your brother's nakedness and chapter 20 verse 21 says if a man takes his brother's wife it is impurity he has uncovered his brother's nakedness they shall be childless Henry's theological experts assured him that childless in this instance actually meant no Sons [Music] [Applause] while England waited for an heir to the throne the teenage Anne had crossed the channel and was embracing all that Europe had to offer after some time in the Netherlands her father found her role in the French Court which would become a defining influence in her life little is known of Anne's nine years on the continent and yet much is always made of it it certainly was a formative period of her life it was the period when she was educated and people in the 16th century and today have speculated in a kind of nudge nudge wink wink kind of way that at the French Court particularly she learned the art of love [Music] I want to see for myself how and time in France shaped her character I'm traveling to the Chateau de blois one of the Palaces where the French King Francis the first held his court I can only imagine what the young Anne must have felt when she first arrived here I've never been here before it's really exciting Anne would be a lady in waiting to the cultured and Pious French Queen Claude everything so I halves did they look at this place my word it was the most fashionable Court in Europe reflected in its spectacular architecture this is an extraordinary sort of Renaissance style you've got the little classical statues up the top here and all these columns this amazing spiral staircase [Music] it's so incredibly beautiful the staircase foreign it would have been such an extraordinary time for Anne when she was here because she was here with Claude of France who herself was a real patron of the Arts Francis the first her husband was so much of a fan of the Renaissance he invited Leonardo da Vinci to France and he was installed just down the road there's every chance that Anne might have met him so basically Anne would have been surrounded by this world of intellectual Endeavor and artistic Endeavor it must have been such an exciting place to be I'm out of breath now and came of age in France one Observer later wrote that no one would ever have taken her to be English by her manners but a native-born French woman wow [Music] what might Anne have learned at this court the first thing of course is French because French was a very important language at that time for something like the English today in the northern Court of Europe [Music] we just know that she must have been at some very important events such as when the English ambassadors came to France in 1518 or at the field of the close of gold because she must there have played an important role as an interpreter between the English and the French she received a European education and she was really different from the young ladies who just stayed in England Anne also saw firsthand what was required to fulfill the essential role of a queen her mistress Claude gave birth to seven children in eight years including Three Sons something Henry and Catherine could only dream of Claude was also extremely Pious so it's unlikely that her Court was a hotbed of promiscuity one of the things that's often said about and time in France with probably little evidence from what you said so far is it there's kind of this idea that somehow she's learned all about sex while she's been at the court do you think this is at all plausible yeah my opinion would be that it's it's not true but but it may be true we don't know we have no evidence I don't think there was a clear difference at that time between the court of Francis the first and the court of Henry VII [Music] having letter from it was written to her father and shows her aspirations to be accepted in the English Court so I understand by your letter that you wish that I should be of all virtuous repute when I come to court and you inform me that the queen will take the trouble to converse with me which rejoices me greatly to think of talking the person so wise and virtuous written at five o'clock by your very humble and obedient daughter Anna De balloon we tend to think about amberlin in black and white terms so she's either a sexual predator or she's sexually chased she's either Pious or she's worldly she's either innocent or sophisticated and yet actually what I've learned here is that her French education her time at the French Court was such that it prepared her to be a much more complex character than that her nine years on the continent transformed her from a teenage girl into an extremely desirable woman the and that emerges back in England is one who's been shaped shaped by many different influences and worldly who's both sophisticated and something of an innocent she's one who can play musical instruments who can sing who can dance who can speak French who is sophisticated and witty who's been exposed to a world of Cosmopolitan glamor and she's such an attractive Prospect because precisely because she is so complex time will come I and Berlin [Music] in her early twenties Anne arrived back in London Henry held Court in palaces all over the Capitol and I've come to one of the few that has survived Hampton Court [Music] foreign [Music] when she came to court she was joining Catherine of Aragon school she was a lady in waiting and Catherine would have had a number of women serving her and of course this meant really being a companion to Catherine reading with her sewing with her being by her side as well as looking after her needs there would have been perhaps 1 200 people at the court at its most about 200 of whom were women captain of arrogant women and of course Catherine's Court was part of the wider Court Henry's Court which was probably at most a thousand men a Tudor Court was a heady mix of politics and theater [Music] a court ought to be formal or to be serious or to be religious but it also ought to be as well as all that ultimate place where people are having fun parties are going on where people are enjoying themselves you don't want to call which is too serious Henry's court is Awash with desire and love and sex it's full of young people with lots of time on their hands and not much to do in Henry's Court when people talk about love they're often actually talking about promotion they're often actually talking about politics Courtney Love is a game Henry has lots of roles but one of them is the leading Courtney Lover now in order for him to play that role he has to have the leading courtly woman as his object to desire as the person he performs too competition for this role was intense and maybe Anne aspired to be one of the leading players Henry did have Mistresses not nearly as many as the French King but it was considered to be a normal part of Court life especially when Catherine was pregnant because it was considered unlucky in Tudor times to have sex during pregnancy so in 1519 for example one of the most beautiful women at the court Elizabeth plant had given birth to an illegitimate son Henry Fitzroy his surname means son of the king foreign of course this indicated to Henry that if Catherine wasn't bearing him Sons it wasn't his fault [Music] when Anne came to court in 1522 Henry had another mistress someone I knew rather well [Music] Henry went out to just one day bearing The Motto El monco Nevada she has wounded my heart which spoke of this mistress and the she in question was Mary Ann's elder sister [Music] we don't know that much about Mary we know that she was beautiful giddy high-spirited she enjoyed the trappings of Court life as Anne would later do and we know even less about her relationship with Henry except that it was short-lived the risk of fleeting Royal affection surely served as a warning to am over the coming years [Music] thank you foreign [Music] it's one of the most famous love stories in history and yet we know very little about how Henry VIII and ambulance romance began it's likely that Henry first noticed Anne during courtly entertainment [Music] what is more certain is that their stories came together in early 1526 four years after Anne's arrival at court [Music] we know this because Henry was soon writing love letters and giving her romantic gifts one of these supposed housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London one of the first gifts that Henry is said to have given Anne is this beautiful miniature gold whistle pendant it's covered with foliage and it's really rather tiny and as well as being a whistle it also has within it a scoop for one of earwax and a pick for one's teeth so it's all about personal hygiene it is the sort of thing that Henry VIII might have worn on his clothing in a sort of Court mask or festivity that will then be given away as a present but above all it tells us a message and the message is clear Henry is saying if you whistle I will come it might have been just another gift from a king to a courtly love mistress but it soon became clear from Henry's own hand that this was something far deeper [Music] I and my begging you to recommend us to your good grace and not let absence lessen your affection when historians study Henry and Anne much is made of the dark political forces maneuvering behind the scenes to unite or to separate this couple and what is lost amongst these Affairs of state is the fact that this was a very real and very passionate love affair between two individuals these are copies of Henry VIII's letters to Anne The Originals the manuscripts are in the Vatican Library they probably ended up there as part of the evidence against Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon and these are quite extraordinary because they show to us these intimate moments these private thoughts this letter for example starts my own sweetheart this shall be to advertise you of the great loneliness that I find since you're departing for I assure you may think the time longer since your departing now last then I was want to do a whole fortnight I think you're kindness and my fervency of Love causes it for otherwise I would not have thought it possible that for so little a while it should have affected him so much and he concludes darling wishing myself especially of an evening in my sweetheart's arms it was pretty duckies I trust shortly to kiss is the Tudor slang for breasts and he says written by the band of he who was is and shall be yours by his will Henry Rex and these sentiments reiterated elsewhere so here it says for example I would that you were in mine arms or iron yours but I think it long since I kissed you [Music] and to cause you yet offer to remember me I send you by the bearer of this a buck filled late last night by my own hand hoping that when you eat of it you will think of the Hunter but perhaps the sweetest one of all is this one which is written in French and he promises Anne that in the future his heart would belong to her alone will be dedicated to her alone and that he desired that his body could be also and signs off again in the sweetest possible way H and R his initials is not looking for any other and then draws a love heart and puts a B in the middle so he's like a Schoolboy doodling on his exercise book Henry loves Anne I beg also if at any time before this I have in any way offended you the same Absolution that you ask assuring you that henceforth my heart shall be dedicated to you alone I wish my person was certain God can do it if he pleases to whom I pray every day to that end hoping that at length my prayers will be heard we don't know exactly when these letters were written and sadly we don't have Anne's responses but it's clear that Henry's love for her was becoming ever stronger we know that Anne received many of these letters at heaver Castle she was there in the late 1520s when she was suffering from sweating sickness and separated from Henry we just don't know what she wrote back foreign [Music] it has not pleased you to keep the promise you made when I was lost with you that is to say to hear good news of you and to have an answer to my last letter ing sickness was a bread through true to England forcing Anne to stay away from the King we don't have her responses a lot has been written to fill in that Gap and there's been an assumption that somehow she was playing hard to get and manipulating him that he loved her and she was just playing a game but in practice I think ultimately both of them wanted to do what was right and above all Henry of course wanted to have that legitimate Heir he could only do that if Anne became him as wife there was no point her becoming pregnant beforehand in fact it would have been detrimental to his cause [Music] I think both of them decided to hold out and to wait I don't think we should read into the absence of letters from Anne some sense that she was the one holding all the cards and Henry was just desperate to have her I think the two of them were passionately in love but wanted to do this correctly wanted to be right but the stakes were high Thomas Moore said politics be King's games and for the most part played on scaffolds and love at the Tudor Court was a political affair and was risking everything and it was tough for Henry too he now had to think the unthinkable to divorce Catherine and marry Anne [Music] the time will come I and Berlin foreign [Music] had ever divorced a queen the issue would become known as the king's great matter play later performed at court No Doubt with Henry's approval made his feelings about Catherine and Anne clear quite busy at a piece of work that needs must be done even now is the making of a new moon he says you're old it was called the play of the weather and was packed with political rhetoric talking of Jupiter needing a new tighter moon to replace his old leaky moon but for this new moon I just lay my gown except a few drops at her going down you get no rain mocking and embarrassing Catherine the play was a cruel statement of Henry's intent to discard a loyal wife whose only crime had been her failure to provide a male Heir on the ground though they fell on a sponge they would give no sound this new moon shall make a thing spring more in this wild than our old moon shall while a mile go a mile he would dramatically underestimate how difficult it would be to end this 20-year marriage legally England was a Roman Catholic country and on religious matters even the king came under the authority of the Pope and he wasn't going to play ball I've come to see a document that testifies to the lens that Henry would go to get Rome's permission this document dates from 1529 and it was produced at a court that had been convened in order to examine Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon and the possibility of an annulment this document has lots to tell us first of all saying that Henry's you know King of France and Ireland and all the other things that he claims to be and what's really interesting about it is that Henry has gathered all the officials of the church so it mentions Cardinal Thomas warsey we've got the Archbishop of Canterbury we've got the Bishops of Ely in London and bath and Exeter it says that Henry feels that this matter of his marriage to Catherine has caused him a real rupture in his Tranquility of his mind and his body in other words being married to his brother's widow in this sham marriage as he's claiming it to be has caused such a burden on his soul that his conscience is severely troubled so this is the first time we really have this recognition that something has to change [Music] and this document also demonstrates to us the length to which he will go to get what he wants among these beautiful seals on the third from the left we have one that has this signature up here of John Fisher Bishop of Rochester but not everything is quiet as it seems Rochester was a really important figure in Henry VII's life and yet his signature here is not genuine he later claimed that it was a forgery that he'd never signed this document and that he was entirely opposed to this matter of the divorce in the end Fisher would pay the ultimate price for his hostility to Henry and Anne and for the length to which Henry would go in order to be with her Fisher ended up as so many others in Henry VII's Reign on the scaffold now Henry and Anne's future together seemed to rest on the Judgment of the Pope [Music] Henry VII was used to getting his own way blocked by the pope from ending his marriage to Catherine so that he could marry Anne he needed to find another solution and help came from a source close to the king and herself [Music] I want to show you another book this is William tyndale's The Obedience of a Christian man from 1528. in fact it's a rather battered Edition but what it has to say is really important Tyndale was a Protestant and he argues in this book that the supreme authority is scripture over and above the false authority of the Pope he also adds that it's shameful for princes to be under the authority of the Pope in other words the kings are the highest Authority in the land it says the king is Judge over all and over him there is no judge what's really interesting is that Anne almost certainly gave a copy of this book to Henry and Henry on reading it said this is the book for me and all Kings to read he evidently rather liked it and it gave Henry a solution to his dilemma if he were the supreme religious Authority there was no need to get permission from the pope for his divorce [Music] and this idea that actually he was first under God played to his egotism it was something he'd secretly suspected all along and this is another example of the way in which This Love Affair was having a profound impact This Love Affair was so important that it would end up changing the very faith of England tires with Rome removing the Catholic Church's influence over the country and he set about creating a new church of England over which he would be the Supreme head it was an incredibly Brave move that risked taking England to war with its Roman Catholic Neighbors in Europe so Henry desperately needed a powerful Ally in December 1532 he crossed the Channel with Anne to seek approval for their marriage from the French King and they got it [Music] they had waited for each other for seven long and difficult years now they had cleared a pathway to marriage and all the evidence suggests that by the time they left Calais and returned to Dover Henry and Anne were lovers [Music] foreign [Music] I've always believed that Henry and Anne were passionately in love and if anyone should doubt their feelings for each other there's a remarkable 500 year old book I don't suppose it was ever meant to be seen by anyone except Henry and Anne I'm really excited about this in all my years of studying this couple this is the first time I've had a chance to see the real thing will you go ahead look at that so it's a stunning Exquisite turn of the 15th century 16th century probably Flemish illuminated book of hours but really evocative and very special because it provides us with a really intimate glimpse into Henry and Anne's relationship it contains two remarkable written entries in the hand of Henry VII and Anne Berlin that's amazing and this is Henry's here written in his own hand beneath very importantly an illumination of the flayed Christ sometimes referred to as Man of Sorrows or EK homo I think Henry is trying to portray himself by association as the lovesick King suffering you know in his heart [Music] you remember me in your prayers as strongly as I adore you I shall hardly be for got for I am yours forever if you remember my love in your prayers as strongly as I adore you then I shall scarcely be forgotten your Henry Rex forever well would you like to see what Anne wrote gosh yes yes I think she chose the page very carefully we can see here an image of the Annunciation so Virgin Mary has been told by um the angel that she's going to have a son and I think that this is what Anne is telling Henry yes that she is the woman to provide him with the son in there that he so desperately wanted and then at the foot of the page we can see she writes to Henry a couplet by daily proof you shall me find to be to you both loving and kind [Music] by daily proof you shall me find to be unto you both loving and kind wow these words that Henry and Anne wrote to each other remind me of wedding vows Henry declaring that he would be hers forever and Anne promising to give the king the Sun and Heir he desperately wanted [Music] now they set about making their Union official Henry brought Anne to one of his favorite palaces the palace at Whitehall at the time it was the largest Palace in Europe bigger even than the Vatican and this map from 1680 shows something of its large extent it shows that it had a tiltyard tennis courts Gardens a great hall and many many apartments it would have been a glorious place for Henry and Anne to celebrate being together Whitehall Palace was burnt to the ground in 1689 virtually all Henry's Tudor buildings were destroyed and what little is still left is now only seen by politicians and civil servants working in the cabinet office [Music] and this is it almost all that remains of that once Mighty Palace it's a crying shame because so much of this story would have been played out here at Whitehall including the Pinnacle of Henry and Anne's romance their marriage foreign [Music] January 1533 Henry and Anne were officially married it was a pretty private Affair there weren't many people there and so we have few witness accounts of exactly what took place but what we do know is that the couple would have been overjoyed because Anne was pregnant and surely this time it would be a boy [Music] they had defied a pope and redefined a kingdom it seemed that love had conquered all [Music] love had brought Henry and Anne together small power Rio manifold but what would tear them apart [Music] oh Lord have mercy on myself foreign became Queen she was already pregnant Anne had held out the promise that she would give Henry the Sun an heir that he needed to secure the Tudor dynasty [Applause] [Music] but Anne failed to fulfill that promise she gave birth to a girl Elizabeth it was a massive disappointment [Music] Catherine of Aragon a loyal wife and queen for over 20 years had already been unceremoniously discarded for being unable to deliver a son Henry had seen this failure as a stain on his image an image was everything in the world of the Tudors Henry needed to be seen as a king who could continue his dynasty this is a cartoon that was prepared by handheld by in a sketch and it is such an insight into how Henry wanted to be seen because for a start he's actually taller than he was in real life we've compared his armor with this picture and we found that actually he's been stretched but the key message of this picture is told by the shapes of Henry's body so it forms two triangles we've got the broad shoulders that form a triangle tapering to the waist and the splayed feet the taper also up to focus The Gaze on his bulging Cod piece which his hands frame and which the several bows above because this picture is all about masculinity and virility and fertility and potency it's no wonder that we think of Henry as this man of lusts when in actual fact he had trouble souring an heir because this picture tells us what to think that's why there are so many copies of this picture because if you're a courtier who had any Mouse at all you'd get yourself a copy of this picture to show that you were on message Henry and Anne's marriage came under intense pressure from the very beginning 's future depended on their ability to reproduce a song composed for Anne's coronation made the new Queen's duties explicit it was called the white Falcon the Falcon being Anne's heraldic badge and a symbol of Grace Purity and fertility this white Falcon rare and precious this bird shineth so bright of all that are no bird compare May with this Falcon White body small of power Regal she is and sharp of sight in Chastity excelithshi most like an angel bright that she may bring fruit according for such a falcon white a self-repose upon the Rose now may this Falcon White foreign [Music] the symbolism is clear as king and queen Henry and Anne were expected to produce a male heir under such pressure and increasing desperation began to show less than a year after Elizabeth's birth rumors circulated that the queen was once again of a goodly belly but mysteriously there's no record of either a miscarriage or indeed a birth will it suggests to me that maybe it was a case of pseudocyesis or phantom pregnancy which happened particularly in the 16th century before the age of scans or pregnancy tests when women who desperately wanted to be pregnant would have all the symptoms of pregnancy but there was no baby which expresses just how much and was desperate to give Henry what he wanted Henry's Obsession wasn't the only burden on their marriage there were still many Roman Catholics who refused to accept Anne as their Queen this conflict would lead to bloodshed [Music] foreign had paid a heavy price to marry Anne Boleyn in removing the Pope's authority over England he had made Catholic enemies at home and abroad to protect his own position the king needed the Loyalty of his subjects and he was prepared to create new laws and use Force to get it in 1534 Henry's government passed the act of Supremacy which said that Henry was and always had been Supreme head of the Church of England they just hadn't noticed it recently and following on the hills of that was the act of succession this said that Anne was his lawful Queen and any children they had would be the true heirs to the throne and all English subjects were required to swear that this was the case and some people found this very hard to swallow thank you those that refused to swear the oath were treated as traitors foreign this is Charter House in central London in the 16th century it was a flourishing Monastery and at its head was Prior John Houghton he would pay the ultimate price for defying Henry Houghton and many of his monks refused to swear that oath of succession and so in April 1535 ten of them were taken to Newgate Prison and within fewer than three weeks they were tried convicted and executed for treason and we have an astonishing account of their execution a foreign report on the gruesome event was graphic what it said was this they were dragged to the place of execution in their habits to the great grief of the people they were hanged cut down before they were dead opened and their bow and hearts burned their heads were then cut off and their bodies quartered and another report adds the shocking detail that the Executioner caused them to be ripped up in each other's presence their arms torn off their hearts cut out and rubbed upon their mouths and faces and the barbarity of this act was blamed directly on the king of England himself [Music] far from easing the pressure on Henry and Anne's marriage the deaths of these dissenters only Amplified it they needed a son more than ever to justify their actions [Music] but even though their relationship was under great strain they certainly weren't showing it I've come to a castle in gloucestershire it's a place that reminds us that for more than two years they were happily married and still in love [Music] the royal couple came here for 10 days in the summer of 1535 just a few months after the Bloodshed at Charter House today it's an art Market Hotel [Music] thank you my name is Lipscomb I've got the keys to a unique hotel room foreign unusual to stay in any room that a king and queen have slept in but one that Henry and Anne have stayed in is a rare and thrilling experience [Music] of course it's hard enough to know what goes on behind closed doors in modern relationships let alone at a distance of almost 500 years but what we do know is what other people said about Henry and Anne and what they said is that Henry and Anne were married together in fact Henry and Ann were described as being married together more than Henry and his other wives including throughout the Summer and Autumn of 1535 when they were staying here but the other thing we know about their relationship is that it was a relationship of sunshine and storms they quarreled and they made up they had fights and then they had Ardent reunions Henry and Anne were now two and a half years into their marriage and as 1535 Drew to a close all seemed well in their world [Music] 1536 should have been a great year for Henry and Anne the King was now Supreme head of the Church of England and any sum that they had would be the legitimate heir to the throne and things were looking optimistic on that front because Anne was pregnant again the couple's Good Fortune continued with the first major event of that year on the 7th of January 1536 Catherine of Aragon Henry's first wife had died after a short illness in the eyes of Roman Catholic Europe Catherine was still the legitimate Queen of England her nephew was the Spanish King Charles V a serious threat to Henry's Reign on the day his ex-wife died Henry was busy partying at court no one could now dispute his marriage to Anne if there's ever a true victim in this story it's Catherine of Aragon she gave more than 20 years of her life to this man who would ultimately discard and humiliate her [Music] her only crime was her failure to give Henry a healthy son for that she was exiled from court and her daughter Mary declared a bastard as a final humiliation Catherine was denied a state funeral at some pools or Westminster Abbey instead she was buried here at Peterborough Cathedral [Music] I find it quite moving and sad to be here by Catherine's grave Catholics viewed Catherine as a martyr and her story is so tragic the people still want to Mark her life look at all this people have brought flowers and Posies and the pomegranate her symbol to remember her by so Catherine remains an inspiration Henry and Anne treated her with utter contempt so self-absorbed were they ultimately she would be just another victim of their destructive love affair foreign had weathered a political and religious storm over his divorce from Catherine now Anne was expecting a child that would surely be a son Henry appeared to have come through the other side with pride and honor intact but I believe it was Henry's overwhelming desire to maintain honor that would ultimately destroy the marriage for which he had fought so hard [Music] just 17 days after Catherine's death Henry and Anne's relationship suffered a major blow like everyone else in the 16th century Henry VII was obsessed with honor an honor was associated with masculinity with upholding patriarchy with controlling one's household and maintaining one's good name masculinity was an essential part of kingship it was vital that Henry excelled overall he was a champion on the tiltyard an expert jouster but his Youth and athleticism were fading and his love for dangerous sports would now prove life-threatening Henry fell from his horse whilst jousting he suffered a major Blow To The Head foreign was reported to be unconscious for over two hours such a severe head injury could be partly responsible for the marked change in Henry's personality [Music] he became an increasingly brutal and cruel King we understand that the young Henry was very different from Henry in the later years of his life and there were a couple of ideas about why that could be and how his brain might have been involved if he underwent damage to the frontal lobe of the brain it's this part here just behind the forehead and if he hit the ground very hard then the front part of the brain could back against the skull and cause damage to this area and the reason why that's important is that the frontal lobe here the biggest lobe of our brain is the area responsible for our personalities and our Behavior it processes our experiences and makes us the people that we are and we know that people who have damage to the frontal lobe it may just exacerbate character traits that they already have so if they're slightly grumpy they may after their injury be very grumpy often people say it's like a completely different person and so their characteristics change completely so it's possible that that's what happened to Henry we also know that the impact of his fall opened up an old ulcer in Henry's left leg which would never heal we know that actually Henry's Physicians did try to drain his ulcers and they used Hot Irons almost like a hot poker that they pushed into his let into his ulcer with no anesthetic and that can't have done very much for his temper the worst was to come Henry's jousting accident would be blamed for the next disaster to strike at the heart of Henry and Anne's marriage foreign [Music] less than a week after Henry's near fatal fall and miscarried she blamed her miscarriage on her shock at hearing the news of the king's fall the fetus was three and a half months old old enough for them to be able to tell that it would have been a boy [Music] although they loved each other the success of Henry and Anne's marriage had always depended on having a son the Spanish Ambassador used as chapui wrote that Anne had miscarried of her savior foreign [Music] he believed that the queen had sealed her fate well we know that Henry was distraught reports said that he showed great distress and great disappointment and sorrow at the loss of this child he's reported to have said I see that God will not give me male children Henry had seen his failure to sire a son with his previous wife Catherine as a sign that God disapproved of his first marriage was the miscarriage a sign that Anne didn't have God's backing either [Music] following amberlynn's miscarriage rumors circulated in court that Henry VII had lost interest in his wife Anne was never a popular Queen and without a son she was exposed to those at court who would Rejoice at her downfall [Music] and they would have been delighted to hear gossip that Henry was seeing another woman our evidence comes from the Spanish Ambassador Eustis chapwi a Wily character and a staunch Roman Catholic who never disguised his hatred for Anne the woman whom he called the concubine while you know writes that he has heard in France that anabulan had in some way or other incurred the Royal displeasure and that she is in disgrace with the king who is paying his court with another lady [Music] and that the people are uttering words of much indignation against them the other lady that shapri refers to is Jane Seymour Jane was a lady in waiting to the queen just as Anne had once been to Catherine the Spanish Ambassador wrote that Henry had sent a letter to Jane accompanied by a purse full of sovereigns it was possibly a summons to his bedroom Jane didn't open the letter and instead sent back the Perth and the letters saying that she was the daughter of good and honorable parents and that if the king wanted to make her present of money perhaps he'd do so at the time that God decided to give her advantageous marriage look a little like Jane is playing hard to get perhaps because she hoped that the advantageous marriage would be with Henry himself but I don't believe Henry was planning to marry Jane it was normal practice for Kings at this time to have Mistresses and there's absolutely no evidence that Henry was thinking of abandoning Anne or indeed that he'd even fallen out of love with her in fact Henry was still increasing pressure on the Spanish King Charles V to recognize Anne as his Queen but then fate intervened delivering a blow so powerful that it would tear Henry and Anne's relationship apart scandalous rumors began to spread through the court that the queen had been having sexual relations with other men some close to the king why these allegations surfaced and who was behind them is still fiercely debated was she guilty of the charges against her were the dark Forces behind the scenes plotting her downfall was on the victim of Court gossip did careless talk cost lives we know that Anne could be feisty and sometimes even flirtatious but it's extremely doubtful that Anne would commit adultery frustratingly we don't have the evidence to give us a clear picture of what was going on but perhaps we can understand Anne's downfall through a more recent Royal scandal former courtier Patrick Jefferson was Princess Diana's private secretary [Music] I think there are some parallels with Diana there where some of her critics some of them quite close to to the Royal establishment have tried to paint her as a loose cannon whereas the truth was she was a extremely dutiful princess Diana was this woman who had many lovers was of course as well and it's extraordinary to me that 500 years later the way you can really blacken a woman's name is to suggest that she's some sort of sexual predator I think they were both very sassy women and you can't sass around in court and not expect to to bear the consequences sooner or later when your usefulness has been outlived then you better watch out in other words they would find anything they could to condemn her in the eyes of the world it seems to be at the heart of this question about Henry and Anne is the question of Scandal um and of course you have been in a court that had a certain amount of Scandal associated with it I mean what can we learn from that scanner is one way in which courtiers or those who make their living from the court are able to sort out their own pecking order and when Scandal doesn't exist then there will always be somebody around to create it and I think the extraordinary thing about Henry is conviction is that he does genuinely believe that she's committed adultery because there would be nobody who wanted to keep their head on their shoulders who was going to tell him he got it wrong and this is why today I think it is still the case that to give advice to a royal person let alone tell a royal person they're getting it wrong that's quite an art and I don't know how many people have got that art or want to exercise it there is nobody I think today who will tell senior members they're all family that they're getting it wrong according to One account when rumors of Anne's infidelity reached Henry he was shocked and his color changed he immediately ordered an investigation into the allegations arguably the most damaging and hurtful of these involved adultery and treason with one of the king's oldest friends Henry Norris Norris was a gentleman of Henry VII's privy chamber and a groom of the stall a role that traditionally entailed wiping the Royal bottom in reality it meant that Norris was Henry's closest companion someone he truly trusted but in Henry's Court walls had ears no one was immune from the deadly consequences of rumor and gossip in an Indiscreet conversation the queen was said to have asked Norris why he hadn't got married yet and when he replied that he would tarry a Time and said you look for dead men's shoes the report came to the king for good he would look to have me [Music] in other words you want to marry me when my husband's dead don't you Norris's response that he'd rather his head were off suggests he knew that they'd committed a serious faux pas they had imagined the King's death which under the treasons Act was illegal Henry launched an investigation into Norris's conduct along with many others who were suspected of having had sexual intercourse with the queen among them her own brother George [Music] Anne's final downfall was Swift and sudden it began with what should have been a day of celebration for the king and queen at Greenwich Palace Mayday they were at a tournament they were having a very nice time until some unwelcome news arrived for Henry it turned out that a musician who'd been interrogated possibly under torture had confessed to sexual intercourse with Anne on three occasions it's my opinion that Henry believed the accusations and they had the power to destroy his masculine honor something he valued more than his love for Anne Henry couldn't be seen as a king who had no control of his wife [Music] he abruptly left Greenwich taking Norris with him and whatever was said on that Journey back to London was enough to convince Henry that his closest friend was guilty too Norris would end up on the scaffold Henry would never see Anne again she would never have a chance to meet her husband to talk it through to give her side of the story to protest her innocence that same night alone at Greenwich Palace Anne was given all the usual attention of a queen she was still completely unaware that her life was unraveling foreign [Music] foreign [Music] early in the morning on the 2nd of May Anne was taken from Greenwich to the Tower by barge she had no idea why she could never have imagined that she was experiencing her final moments of freedom she's traveled in through this Watergate in Saint Thomas's tower now known as traitor's gate in those days the Thames came up all the way to the stairs and of course we have this scent with hindsight that that was the beginning of the end that she must have known it was all up but I wouldn't have known that no one considered for an instant that the Queen of England might lose her head [Music] [Applause] [Music] sometime after arriving at the Royal Apartments at the tower Anne was accused of a long list of sexual crimes and treasonous acts [Music] we don't know how the news was broken to her or how she reacted Henry meanwhile simply disappeared from public life no doubt wanting to escape the hurt and embarrassment but his wife's trial would bring [Music] I'm walking where the Royal Apartments used to be where kings and queens stayed the night before their coronation because to hold the tower was to hold London and was to indicate that you really held England and of course it was where Anne stayed on the night before her coronation and again on the night before her execution it was also the site of the Great Hall which held two thousand people and where Ann's trial was held [Music] Anne's trial took place in front of 2 000 people and she was judged by a jury of peers led by her own Uncle the Duke of Norfolk surviving documents from The Trial reveal some of the more salacious accusations leveled her down oh I'm looking forward to seeing these [Music] this document is an extraordinary one because it is a record of that trial this is the indictment this is the charges laid out against Anne it says for example that Anne has diabolically seduced these men because of her frail and carnal appetites because of her lust it doesn't stop here it goes on and on over here it describes Anne's relationships with these various men so it mentions here for example Henry Norris and says that he has violated and carnally known the queen and then it mentions George Berlin and brother and this bit's particularly lured it says that she has alert the said George into putting his tongue in her mouth and she has put her tongue in his mouth this is a picture of Anne as sexual predator and that's exactly how Henry wanted her to appear no man could possibly keep control of a wife with such a depraved sexual appetite not even the king Henry was conspicuous by his absence from The Trial it was a tactic that completely rebounded on him Henry stayed away because it was really humiliating for him to have his wife accused of adultery it suggested at this time his lack of sexual dominance his lack of sexual prowess and indeed that's precisely what came out of the trial George Berlin Lord Rochford Anne's brother was given a piece of paper that he was told not to read out loud but he did and on it was the charge that he and Anne had laughed at the King's Manor addressing had laughed at his terrible poetry and above all that Anne had said that the King was not skillful in copulating with a woman and had neither Vigor nor potency remember that's in front of that crowd of two thousand Henry was right to stay away [Music] Anne was convicted on all counts she now had just three days to live foreign [Music] 's trial was never in doubt by a jury loyal to the king she was unanimously found guilty of adultery incest and high treason sentenced to death and with nothing to lose it was now Anne's chance to tell her side of the story I am entirely innocent of all these accusations so I cannot ask pardon of God for them [Music] I have been always a faithful and loyal wife to the king I've not perhaps at all times shown him that humility and reverence that his goodness to me and the honor to which he raised me did deserve [Music] in some ways highly straightforward she says that she is innocent that she has always been a loyal wife to the king but then there's that curious line about not having shown him the humility and reverence that his goodness to her and the position to which he raised her Justified in other words she's admitting that actually she's been a bit feisty that perhaps she's spoken back she's been out of line from time to time she hasn't always been the wife that Henry wanted her to be I confess I have had fancies and suspicions of him which I had not strength nor discretion to resist [Music] God knows and as my witness I have never failed otherwise towards him and I shall never confess any otherwise and claimed both before and after taking the communion that she was innocent on power of her Soul's damnation and I think she was I also don't think there's any evidence to sustain the idea that Henry wanted to get rid of her in fact I think what happened to Anne was a terrible mishap that actually Anne managed to look guilty when she wasn't her sophisticated conversational wit her Excellence at the courtly game was where she came unstuck exactly what had beguiled Henry in the first place made her look guilty as Sin so like a Shakespearean tragedy the king feeling betrayed and hurt sentenced the queen that he loved to death for crimes she didn't commit that the concubines little bastard Elizabeth will be excluded from the succession [Music] and that the king would get himself requested by Parliament to marry [Music] The Joy shown by the day not only at the ruin of the concubine but at the hope of Princess Mary's restoration is inconceivable [Music] while Ann awaited her execution in her Chambers at the tower she may well have heard the commotion outside as the five men she was accused of sleeping with including her brother were beheaded I can't begin to imagine how she must have felt [Music] [Music] we can't be certain but it is believed that this is the prayer book that Anne had with her in the tower I've spent a lot of time thinking about Anne's weeks in the tower how she wracked her brains how she tried to figure out what had got her into that mess the hysteria the trauma the terrible time she must have had and the idea that she had this with her at the time and that I'm now holding it in my hands is something I can't quite Express this is The Wonder of History this tangible sense of reaching out to touch the past [Applause] [Music] what's even more extraordinary about it is that Anne has written in it now she probably wrote this sometime before her execution but what she wrote has a haunting resonance says remember me when you do pray that hope does lead from day to day remember me when you do pray that hope doth laid from day to day [Music] and she signed it Ann Berlin [Music] foreign [Music] left her Chambers at the tower a little before eight o'clock in the morning [Music] awaiting her at the end of this short Journey was an expert French swordsman summoned by Henry as an act of Mercy for a dignified execution befitting a queen a scaffold had been erected inside the walls of the tower away from the public an eyewitness reported Anne's final words [Music] Christian people I'm come hither to die for according to the law and by the law I'm judged to die therefore I shall speak nothing against it I'm come hither to accuse no man or to speak anything of that whereof I'm accused and condemned to die but I pray God Save the King and send him long to Reign Over you all for gentler nor a more merciful Prince was there never and to me he was ever a good a gentle 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 this world and of you all and I heartedly desire you all to pray for me [Music] see on my soul to Christ come in Jesus received my soul oh Lord God have mercy on this to receive my soul [Music] the Queen of England was beheaded with a single clean strike of the French blade this is the chapel Royal of Saint Peter adventular a Parish Church within the walls of the Tower of London after Adam was executed she was brought here to be buried released most of her was if they did what they did with other traitors they would have taken her head boiled it tart it and put it on a spike on London Bridge before throwing it into the swirling Thames but the rest of her is here somewhere beneath my feet and this is where she should be remembered [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Chronicle - Medieval History Documentaries

Views: 327,073

Keywords: history documentary, medieval history documentary, middle ages, medieval history, the middle ages, chronicle

Id: ssr2QNar0j8

Length: 87min 5sec (5225 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 14 2022