Execution of Anne Boleyn: Anne Boleyn's Speech on the Scaffold

Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn's Speech on the Scaffold

The following contemporary account of Queen Anne Boleyn's execution is by Edward Hall, Member of Parliament, serjeant of the City of London and judge in the Sheriff's court, whose Chronicle of England was first published in 1542, only to be ordered burnt by Queen Mary. Hall died in 1547, but his Chronicle was reprinted by Grafton in 1548 and 1550 and is now considered one of the more reliable accounts of the reign of King Henry VIII.

I have modernized the excerpt for ease of reading. The source text can be viewed here.

The Beheading of Queen Anne Bullen - contemporary woodcut

On May Day¹ were a solemn jousts kept at Greenwich, and suddenly from the jousts the king departed having not above six persons with him, and came in the evening from Greenwich to his place at Westminster. Of this sudden departing many men mused,² but most chiefly the queen, who the next day was apprehended and brought from Greenwich to the Tower of London, where after she was arraigned of high treason, and condemned. Also at the same time was likewise apprehended, the lord Rochford brother to the said Queen, and Henry Norris, Mark Smeaton, William Brereton, and Sir Francis Weston, all of the king's privy chamber. All these were likewise committed to the Tower and after arraigned and condemned of high treason. And all the gentlemen were beheaded on the scaffold at the Tower hill. But the Queen was with a sword beheaded within the Tower. And these following were the words that she spoke the day of her death which was the 19th day of May, 1536:

" 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 any thing of that, whereof I am accused and condemned to die, but I pray God save the king and send him long to reign over you, for a gentler nor a more merciful prince was there never; and to me was he ever a good, a gentle and sovereign lord. And if any person will meddle of my cause, I require them to judge the best. And thus I take my leave of the world and of you all, and I heartily desire you all to pray for me. O Lord, have mercy on me, to God I commend my soul."

And then she knelt down saying, "To Christ I commend my soul, Jesu receive my soul" diverse³ times, till that her head was stricken off with the sword. And on the Ascension Day following, the king wore white for mourning.

1. May Day, 1st of May, a celebration of spring.
2. mused, wondered.
3. diverse, several.

Source:

Hall, Edward. Henry VIII. Vol II.
London: T. C. & E. C. Jack, 1904. 268-269.

Henry Ellis, writing in 1824, says of Anne's speech:

"To some it has been a cause of surprize, that Anne Boleyn should have passed an encomium upon Henry the Eighth at her death. Indeed it is remarkable that at almost every execution in that sanguinary period, the praise of the Sovereign was pronounced by those who fell upon the scaffold. It seems to have been so directed by the Government. Tyndale, from whose "Practice of Prelates" we have already made an extract respecting the disclosure of Confessions, has another passage upon this point, too important not to be given here:

When any Great Man is put to death, how his Confessore entreateth him; and what penance is enjoyned him concerning what he shall say when he cometh unto the place of execution. I coude gesse at a practyse that might make mennes eares glowe. (1530)

In Anne Boleyn's case, however, it may be in part ascribed to anxiety for the safety of her daughter."

Source:

Ellis, Henry. Original Letters, &c.. Vol II.
London: Harding, Triphook, and Lepard, 1824. 66.

Books for further study:

Ives, Eric. The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn.
           Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2005.

Starkey, David. Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII.
           New York: Harper Perennial, 2004.

Warnicke, Retha M. The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn.
           Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Weir, Alison. The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn.
           New York: Ballantine Books, 2010.

Weir, Alison. The Six Wives of Henry VIII.
           New York: Grove Press, 1991.

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