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The Rise, Reign and Fall of Anne Boleyn, Part V

© Ellen McDaniel-Weissler

The only evidence Cromwell had of Anne's "imagining the king's death" was a scrap of dialogue between Anne and Henry Norris, in which Anne asks Henry why he has not yet gotten engaged to Madge Shelton, the king's former mistress, of whom he was known to be enamored. Norris replied, in the accepted fashion of the game of courtly love and flirtation, that there was one person in the queen's household that he loved better than Madge. Pressed, he admitted that it was the queen herself. The queen replied haughtily, as befitted the object in the game of courtly love, that "you look for dead men's shoes; for if ought came to the king but good, you would look to have me." Things had gotten a little out of hand with this teasing statement, and Norris was quick to repudiate such a thought. However, the damage had been done, and the conversation was communicated to Cromwell as grist for his mill.

A fairly long monograph might encompass all the details of the trial of Anne and her fellows, but this essay does not admit of time for such an exploration. Suffice it to say that all were convicted and executed - a foregone conclusion, considering the king's desire to remarry. It is interesting to note that Henry offered Anne her freedom if she would agree that the marriage had never taken place, and that her child, Elizabeth, was a bastard - an odd fancy on the king's part, for if he and Anne had never married, then she could not have committed adultery! Regardless of this, Anne was executed on 19 May, 1536, a little over three years since her marriage to Henry.

No provision had been made for her burial, and after the body had been left for several hours to lie in the sun, an arrow chest was found by her ladies to serve as a coffin. It would have been too short for an ordinary corpse, but just fitted one with no head. She was buried in the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula on the grounds of the Tower of London.

Eleven days later, Henry married Jane Seymour at her family home of Wulfhall.