- 4/19/2025
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00it's dawn in London for the first time in history the Queen of England is about to be tried for
00:12adultery and treason if she's found guilty her fate will be death I'm historian Tracy Borman
00:23over three nights I'm exploring the incredible story of Anne's downfall look at that it's just
00:32exquisite it's wonderful it all took place in the space of just 17 days I studied Anne for most of my
00:42life I think I know her well but I'm gonna do something that I've never done before I'm going
00:48to follow in Anne's footsteps take the journey with her hour by hour during the three most important
00:57days from Queen to outcast to find the truth behind her downfall that is incredible can I just put it
01:06in my pocket I'm exploring exactly what went so devastatingly wrong for Anne Boleyn
01:18I've already investigated what happened on the day of her arrest in this episode I'll be tracing the
01:25events of Anne Boleyn's trial even by the standards of its day it was a complete outrage I want to find
01:33out if she stands any chance of a fair hearing or is her fate sealed from the beginning can Anne possibly
01:43save herself
01:48it's 7 30 a.m.
02:10it's 7 30 a.m. on Monday the 15th of May 1536
02:17in an hour and a half the trial of Anne Boleyn will begin at the Tower of London in its Great Hall
02:27or we can locate the Great Hall precisely on this Tudor map it would have stood over there on the far
02:40side of the lawn but demolished in the 17th century or so sadly we can only imagine what it must have been
02:47like
02:54today the Great Hall at the Tower is hosting the most infamous trial in Tudor England
03:02instead of the banquets and meetings it's more used to
03:08we can imagine the atmosphere when everyone is gathered in the courtroom is just electric
03:23this is the trial of one of the most famous women in Europe and her dirty laundry is about to be aired in public it really is the scandal of the century
03:36some of the most important men in the kingdom are gathering including the architect of Anne's arrest the king's right hand man Thomas Cromwell
03:51just three years ago Cromwell masterminded Henry's marriage to Anne hoping she would give the king a son but she hasn't
04:04Cromwell and Anne are now at loggerheads and his relationship with the king hangs by a thread
04:12Anne must go
04:19Anne was arrested 13 days ago
04:22Cromwell's ensured there's little time before the trial
04:26and to guarantee things go his way he selected the judge and jury
04:34Reading a list of who's gathered here for the trial
04:37it's a who's who of Tudor England
04:40Remarkably presiding over the whole thing is Anne's own uncle the Duke of Norfolk
04:49It may seem a risky move for Cromwell to put someone so close to Anne in charge
04:56But Cromwell has his reasons
05:01Five years ago the Duke of Norfolk predicted that Anne would be
05:05The ruin of all her family
05:07Cromwell is confident that when it comes to the crunch
05:12Norfolk will side with the king
05:14Anne's fate will be decided by a jury of 26 peers
05:20including her own father
05:24Thomas Boleyn
05:27Thomas Boleyn is a ruthlessly ambitious politician
05:31He puts his career ahead of everything
05:34Even or especially his own children
05:39Even though these men in theory are loyal to Anne
05:43If they don't vote the way the king wants
05:46their necks are going to be on the line
05:51At the centre of the room
05:52on a raised platform so all can see
05:55is a chair where Anne will sit
06:00Members of the public are being allowed to watch the trial
06:032,000 have squeezed in desperate to know how this is going to play out
06:13Anne is being accused of one of the most salacious acts
06:18imaginable punishable by death
06:21The stakes really couldn't be higher
06:25But there is one person missing from the trial
06:28Across London at York Place in Whitehall
06:33The king is out of bed and being dressed by his gentlemen
06:41Where these buildings now stand was Henry's Palace of Whitehall
06:45And it's here that he's lying low today as Anne's trial takes place
06:51But he's keeping a close eye on the proceedings
06:54If Anne is found guilty then a cannon will be fired from the tower
07:00And if she is out of the way then Henry already has plans for who he's going to marry next
07:13One mile down the river Thames from Whitehall in Chelsea
07:18Is the woman who the king hopes will be his next wife
07:22Jane Seymour
07:25She's already being kept like a queen
07:28Henry has been obsessed by Jane for the past few months
07:32And the affair hasn't gone unnoticed by Anne
07:36There are rumours recently that the king's been giving Jane priceless gifts and love letters
07:42And on one occasion
07:47Anne apparently spots Jane wearing a new locket
07:51And demands to see it more closely
07:53When Jane refuses, Anne rips it from around her neck
07:57And opens the locket to find a picture of the king
08:01She is furious
08:03Since Anne's arrest, Jane has been kept out of sight in the countryside
08:12As a lady-in-waiting to Anne Boleyn
08:15Her presence in court would cause gossip that he can do without
08:18Yesterday, with Anne's trial drawing nearer, Henry orders that Jane be brought back to London to be close to him
08:30Now she's just a mile downriver at Chelsea
08:34Where Henry can visit her secretly in the night
08:36He assures Jane that soon all this pretense will be over
08:49At the Tower of London, the court is now assembled
08:54And in the Great Hall, the most well-known woman in England is set to enter the stage
09:01Silence is called for
09:07And the Duke of Norfolk, Anne's uncle remember, shouts out
09:12Gentlemen jailer of the Tower
09:14Bring in your prisoner
09:15Bring in your prisoner
09:33Anne is led into the courtroom, flanked by the gentleman jailer
09:37His axe turned away from her because she's not yet proven guilty
09:42And also by four ladies
09:48Now these ladies aren't of Anne's choosing, but of Cromwell's
09:53He's placed them in her service to watch and record everything she says and does
09:59Spectators remark that she's never looked more in control
10:08Anne's composure is remarkable
10:11Several eyewitnesses comment on it
10:14She doesn't flinch even when she looks across and sees her own father sitting on the jury
10:21Everyone is in place
10:24The trial is about to begin
10:27If found guilty, Anne could be sentenced to death
10:30One night this man could be sentenced to death
11:00The prosecution is led by Anne's arch-rival, Thomas Cromwell.
11:10But as the trial begins, things are already not going quite as planned.
11:16Before Anne had come in, the crowds had been baying for her blood,
11:21but now she's conducting herself with such dignity,
11:25and clearly they weren't expecting that.
11:30When commoners are put on trial, they're made to stand throughout the proceedings,
11:35but Anne is still Queen of England, so she is allowed to sit.
11:41And you can imagine as she lowers herself into the chair
11:44and waits with apprehension to hear the charges against her.
11:51Anne still doesn't know what she's being accused of.
12:00To discover the actual charges, I've come to the National Archives at Kew.
12:07This is where all the records that still exist from Anne's trial are stored.
12:13Well, this is very exciting.
12:14These incredible papers in their original leather pouch
12:18were kept in what's known as the Bag of Secrets.
12:22Oh, there actually is a bag.
12:25And then you get all of the papers.
12:26And Sean Cunningham looks after them.
12:28...of the original commissions and orders.
12:32The records are written in Latin, on 22 sheets of parchment.
12:36It's amazing to think that this document would have actually been there
12:40in the trial room at the time.
12:42That's right.
12:43It is a record of the process as it was unfolding,
12:46so some of this would have been in the hands of the people in the court at the time.
12:49It makes it all chillingly real.
12:52But as I examine the records, something isn't right.
12:56These documents are all telling the story from the side of the prosecution.
13:01There's no record of Anne's testimony.
13:05We have here a huge body of evidence against Anne,
13:10the indictment, eyewitness accounts.
13:12Nothing in her defence has survived.
13:17And that surely is significant.
13:21The indictment that details Anne's charges does still exist.
13:26Here the charges are listed.
13:29Adultery with four men.
13:32Henry Norris.
13:34William Brayton.
13:38Sir Francis Weston.
13:40And Mark Smeaton.
13:47It's telling us that she's despised her marriage for three years and she's...
13:51Three years, so the whole marriage, really.
13:52Pretty much, yes.
13:53I mean, it's setting up the adultery and relationship with her accomplices
13:58in such a way that it undermines the king's status and dignity.
14:01And what's the significance of the men who are accused with Anne?
14:06They're all gentlemen, apart from Mark Smeaton.
14:09So these are the young men who've grown up with Henry or are serving Henry and his family.
14:15And so they spend a lot of their time in the king's direct presence.
14:18It's really explaining how they have been wooed by Anne's charms to be her lovers.
14:24Following daily her frail and carnal lusts, did falsely and traitorously procure kisses and touching
14:37of the king's daily and familiar servants to be her adulterers and concubines.
14:43In court, the charges are read out to Anne.
14:51She is accused of some 20 acts of adultery.
14:58So now that Anne knows what she's accused of, how on earth must she be feeling?
15:04Well, she's sure of her innocence.
15:06That comes across definitely.
15:08And she's also got great faith.
15:10So perhaps she thinks that God will deliver her from all this because he knows she's innocent.
15:15So he'll make sure that justice prevails.
15:18But mingled with all of that self-righteousness, there must be terror, disbelief and outrage.
15:27She must feel like screaming.
15:29In the courtroom, the spectators are on the edge of their seats, listening to these charges and waiting for Anne's response.
15:43But Anne is completely calm, certain of her innocence, believing God will intervene with a miracle to prove it.
15:53An eyewitness describes how she seemed unmoved.
15:57She said little, but no one to look at her would have thought her guilty.
16:05Cromwell must now be growing agitated.
16:09This isn't going the way he thought.
16:11He'd planned it all out very carefully.
16:14He must have thought it was a done deal.
16:17But now he senses the atmosphere changing and he must be terrified that it's all going to go against him.
16:25Because Anne has a hidden weapon.
16:30She's not just the intellectual equal of most of the men there, she's their superior.
16:38Anne's had the benefit of an education abroad, very unusual for a Tudor woman.
16:44She stands apart in Henry's court as somebody who champions the role of women, the qualities of women.
16:53And her feistiness, if we can call it that, is what attracts Henry.
16:57He loves the fact she's different to all the other women in his court.
17:01Well, he loves that when she's a mistress.
17:03But when she becomes his wife, that's something else entirely.
17:07Anne has been accused of adultery, a deeply serious allegation.
17:25But then the next part of the indictment is read out.
17:33Anne is also accused of having a sexual relationship with her brother George, the crime of incest.
17:41And the records spare no details in describing the siblings' alleged affair.
17:50There's quite a lot about the carnal contact and the lusting and the secret associations of Anne and her brother.
17:57They're talking about the Queen and her brother kissing.
18:00The court records claim that Anne encouraged her brother.
18:05Alluring him with her tongue in the said George's mouth, and the said George's tongue in hers, with their eyes wide open.
18:15There's allegations of diabolical sorcery.
18:19Witchcraft as well is flunger.
18:20And lots of carnal lust.
18:23She's presented, even in the language, as someone who's not in control of her passions.
18:27To make the charge of incest stand up, Cromwell needs to provide some proof.
18:34The evidence for Anne's incest with her brother is flimsy, to say the least.
18:40All it was, was the fact that Anne had written to George, telling him that she was pregnant.
18:47Well, that was taken to mean that the child was his.
18:50And as if the incest wasn't devastating enough, Cromwell also finds a way to really twist the knife.
18:58It all gets deeply personal, because as well as the incestuous relationship between Anne and George,
19:05it's recorded that they laughed at the King behind his back.
19:09They made fun of his clothes, of his poetry.
19:12It's deeply humiliating for Henry, and it's just another nail in Anne's coffin.
19:20But to be sure this would stand up in court, Cromwell needs to find someone who can testify.
19:27In the run-up to Anne's trial, from his base in Austin Friars, in the depths of the city,
19:37Cromwell's men scoured London for juicy evidence.
19:42What they come up with is a star witness, someone who confirms the incest between Anne and George.
19:52What's remarkable about this is that the witness is George's own wife, Lady Rochford.
19:59This is a mind-blowing claim, because she's incriminating her own husband.
20:05Why on earth would she do this?
20:08We know that they have an unhappy marriage.
20:13So perhaps she's jealous of just how close George is to his sister Anne.
20:20Whatever the case, it's clear she's out to get George and to bring Anne down with him.
20:26In the courtroom, Anne is still insisting on her innocence and fighting off the evidence brought against her.
20:39The atmosphere in the room begins to change as Anne defends herself against the charges.
20:46This is the woman who's the scandal of Christendom, called the great whore and the concubine.
20:52And yet, she's conducting herself with such wisdom and discretion that people are beginning to sympathise with her.
21:03It looks like it's going to go her way.
21:06Is it possible she will be found...
21:10..not guilty?
21:12Is it possible she toILL she with the sensor of a
21:36or another?
21:37.
21:40Anne Boleyn, Queen of England and second wife of Henry VIII,
21:51is accused of adultery and incest.
21:54At the start of her trial, she appears to be a dead woman walking.
22:00But now the atmosphere in the courtroom is starting to change.
22:04Even her most bitter enemies are impressed by her robust defence.
22:11Can she turn it all around?
22:15The men Anne has been accused of adultery with
22:19are her husband's most trusted and intimate courtier, Henry Norris,
22:24along with William Brayton and Sir Francis Weston,
22:28all members of the king's inner circle.
22:31Worse still, it's claimed she committed incest
22:35with her brother, George Boleyn.
22:39But Mark Smeaton, the fifth man accused, is of a much lower status.
22:45He's a simple court musician.
22:49Fifteen days ago, at Thomas Cromwell's house in Austin Friars,
22:54Smeaton was interrogated for 24 hours.
22:59All of the other men grilled by Cromwell have totally denied the charges.
23:11But Smeaton doesn't.
23:13He cracks.
23:14He claims that Anne singles him out for special attention.
23:20He says that one morning, as she lay in bed,
23:23she summoned him to play music so her ladies could dance.
23:28As she watched him, she decided to seduce him.
23:32Mark admits to making love to the queen on three occasions.
23:38But was this true?
23:41Or was Mark Smeaton attempting to save himself?
23:45A servant witnesses the horror of Smeaton's interrogation
23:49and cast doubt on his confession.
23:53The account reads as follows.
23:57Then he called two stout young fellows of his.
24:00And asked for a rope and a cudgel.
24:02And ordered them to put the rope, which was full of knots,
24:07around Mark's head.
24:09And twisted it with the cudgel until Mark cried out,
24:13Sir Secretary, no more.
24:16I will tell the truth.
24:17In Tudor times, torture could be used
24:24as a way of getting people to admit guilt.
24:27But it couldn't be used on members of the nobility,
24:30only commoners like Mark Smeaton.
24:33I think it's no coincidence
24:36that he's the only one to confess.
24:40There is one admission in particular by Smeaton
24:43that is hard to believe.
24:47It tells of the extraordinary lengths Anne would go to
24:52in order to get Smeaton into her bed.
24:55The problem is, as queen, Anne has very little privacy.
24:59She's always surrounded by her ladies.
25:02So she has to come up with a cunning plan.
25:06And it involves her most trusted lady, Margaret,
25:10whose bedroom lies right next to Anne's.
25:13And it's also used to store dried fruits,
25:17sweetmeats and marmalade.
25:20According to Smeaton's confession,
25:23Margaret hides him behind a curtain
25:25until the coast is clear.
25:27Then Anne supposedly calls,
25:30Bring me a little marmalade.
25:32Loud enough for any eavesdroppers to hear.
25:35Margaret leads Mark into Anne's bedchamber
25:38and supposedly says,
25:40Here is the marmalade, my lady.
25:43Anne tells her she may leave.
25:46And, well, you can use your imagination
25:48for what happens next.
25:57It's interesting to reflect on the likelihood of these charges
26:06because it's almost certain that Anne did flirt with the men at court.
26:11But then she'd been schooled in the art of what's known as courtly love.
26:16This is when a knight can court a woman far above him in status.
26:22He can wear her colours at a tournament,
26:24compose songs or poems,
26:26or even pursue her.
26:29But always the woman stays just out of reach.
26:33Although in reality, this behaviour did lead to sexual liaisons.
26:37But Anne is Queen of England after all.
26:43She's hardly ever alone,
26:44always surrounded by her ladies.
26:47She'd have had to have taken a huge risk
26:50to conduct an affair in secret.
26:53There's also the fact that Anne is a woman not lacking in self-control.
27:01She'd kept Henry at bay for seven long years.
27:05Would she really lack the discipline to stay faithful to him now?
27:14While all the charges of sexual liaison,
27:17even incest, might make Anne look like a scheming and lustful woman,
27:22would there be enough to get rid of her completely?
27:27Adultery was usually a crime for the church courts
27:30that would have seen the guilty woman exiled to a convent.
27:35But Henry wanted Anne gone permanently.
27:41So adultery wouldn't have been enough on its own to end Anne's life?
27:46It would have made Henry very cross
27:47and it made him look incompetent to the nation,
27:50which obviously he doesn't want to do,
27:51but something more formal and damaging
27:54has to be the final charge.
27:58To ensure that Anne was disposed of forever,
28:02Cromwell had to engineer a charge that was far more serious.
28:07And he cooked up the most serious charge of all,
28:10that Anne had been plotting the death of the king,
28:14an act of high treason.
28:16Henry is a very paranoid king by this time,
28:22so it would be easy to convince him
28:25that there's a plot afoot from amongst his gentlemen.
28:28Cromwell plays his trump card.
28:41He declares his discovery that Anne has plotted the death of the king.
28:46And he claims to have evidence from one of the men Anne is accused of sleeping with.
28:56Henry Norris.
28:57Henry Norris.
28:58Henry Norris.
28:59Apparently a couple of weeks before Anne had quarrelled with Henry Norris.
29:04She'd asked him why he hadn't yet proposed to her cousin, Lady Shelton,
29:10and he'd replied that he was going to wait and see,
29:14which Anne took to mean that he was going to wait and hope to marry her instead.
29:21In court, written testimony from William Kingston, the constable of the tower,
29:28says that when Henry Norris told Anne he was waiting, she said,
29:32You look for dead men's shoes.
29:36For if all should come to the king look good, you would look to have me.
29:40Well, this might all sound very flimsy and inconsequential,
29:46but the implication here is that it's just a short step for Anne
29:51from contemplating her husband's death to actually plotting it.
29:59Cromwell has pulled off a masterstroke.
30:03Treason is as serious as it gets.
30:05It's the ultimate crime, and it's punishable only by death.
30:19Even as Anne Boleyn sits calmly, listening to the evidence against her,
30:24she's aware that her fate doesn't just rest on the trial today.
30:30Three days ago, there was another trial,
30:33this time across London at Westminster Hall,
30:37right in the heart of government.
30:39Its outcome would profoundly affect Anne's situation.
30:45Being judged are four of the five men she's accused of having affairs with.
30:52Henry Norris,
30:55William Brereton,
30:58Sir Francis Weston,
30:59and Mark Smeaton.
31:06Ensuring the Queen is convicted
31:08rests on finding these men guilty.
31:14The men were brought here by barge from the Tower
31:18to Westminster Hall.
31:20Well, today it's part of the Houses of Parliament,
31:23but then it was one of the most important law courts in the kingdom.
31:27There are no surviving official records of the trial,
31:35only eyewitness accounts.
31:37Well, you have to imagine that this ancient hall is crowded with people,
31:42lining the walls on either side,
31:44courtiers, the jury, of course,
31:47and the men are led into the centre where they stand.
31:51You can imagine them gazing nervously around
31:54and their hearts must have sank as they saw
31:57all those hostile faces staring at them.
32:00The men stand to hear the charges.
32:06Well, we have here a record of the attainder
32:09that's read out against the men,
32:11and it says they had violated...
32:14Like the Queen, they have no witnesses testifying for them.
32:26They are only allowed to declare their guilt or their innocence.
32:30They all say not guilty, except one.
32:41Mark Smeaton confesses that he had, quote,
32:46carnal knowledge of the Queen, three times.
32:51The Lord Chancellor then reads out the sentence.
32:56They are to be publicly hanged, drawn and quartered.
33:02Their members cut off...
33:05..and burnt before them.
33:09Their executions are postponed
33:12until after the verdict of Anne's trial.
33:16Instead, they are returned to the Tower of London
33:19to await their fate.
33:22There are no records as to where the condemned men
33:26are locked up within the Tower,
33:28but I believe there are some clues
33:31etched into the ancient stonework.
33:37As a historian and curator,
33:39I spend a lot of time in historic buildings,
33:42grand state rooms,
33:44examining archives and the like.
33:47But this gives me an absolute thrill
33:50because graffiti like this
33:52gives you an insight into the past like none other.
33:57It really does feel like you're almost touching history.
34:00This was left behind, quite possibly,
34:04by the very men who are accused of adultery
34:07with the Queen of England.
34:08The graffiti shows a carving of a falcon,
34:13the emblem of the Boleyn family.
34:16I think this gives us a little glimpse
34:19into the state of mind of those men,
34:21if it was them who carved this,
34:23because carving Anne's symbol
34:26after they've been found guilty of adultery with her
34:29is almost like an act of defiance.
34:32They're still supporting her,
34:34even now, as they face death.
34:38As the condemned men await their sentence,
34:41just meters away in the tower's great hall,
34:45Anne's trial reaches its conclusion.
34:49She's done all she can to convince the court
34:52that she deserves to go free.
34:54Now, Anne must wait for the verdict.
34:59Anne's trial almost out of the student,
35:01Anne's trial conducting the chirp of the
35:28At this point, Anne seems to think that justice will prevail
35:37and she'll be found not guilty.
35:40After all, she's conducted herself throughout the trial
35:43like a woman who knows herself to be innocent.
35:48All of the evidence that's been presented against her
35:51has been questionable,
35:53and her faith and belief in her innocence are total.
35:58As she and everyone else here awaits the verdict,
36:03the tension must be palpable.
36:07The judge, Anne's uncle, the Duke of Norfolk,
36:11sends the jury to deliberate,
36:13including her own father, Thomas Boleyn.
36:18The room holds its breath.
36:23It takes them just moments to reach their decision.
36:28They are unanimous.
36:32Anne is found guilty of treason.
36:37It must have hit her like an electric shock.
36:42Her mind must be spinning with the implications.
36:48Immediately, she's stripped of her crown and her titles.
36:52She is no longer Queen of England.
36:58As Anne is still reeling from this,
37:01her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, sat there,
37:04delivers the sentence, and it's this.
37:07Because thou hast offended against our sovereign the king's grace
37:11in committing treason against his person,
37:15and here, attainted of the same,
37:18the law of the realm is this,
37:20that thou hast deserved death.
37:22And thy judgment is this,
37:28that thou shalt be burned
37:30here, within the Tower of London, on the green,
37:34or else, to have thy head smitten off,
37:38as the king's pleasure shall be further known.
37:42Well, this is just horrific.
37:48The sentence for treason is to either be burnt or beheaded.
37:52Well, the latter is preferable.
37:53It's the swifter death.
37:55But both are Anne's worst nightmare.
37:59She hasn't seen this coming.
38:02Now she knows that she's going to die.
38:06We can only imagine what must be going through her mind.
38:09But this is when Anne is extraordinarily courageous.
38:15As the room erupts into chaos,
38:19Anne's composure doesn't waver for a second.
38:23Why is she so unmoved?
38:27Is it just the shock?
38:28That would be understandable.
38:30But I can't help feeling it's something else.
38:34And it's Anne's determination to show no fear,
38:38no dismay, in front of the men who have brought her down.
38:43Because that would hand them yet another victory.
38:47Anne Boleyn has been found guilty
38:50of the most serious crime imaginable.
38:55High treason.
38:58But is her fate sealed?
39:01Surely she has the right to challenge the verdict.
39:07Lawyer Afua Hirsch has been studying Anne's case.
39:11I've never come across such a blatant unfairness.
39:15Even by the standards of its day, it was a complete outrage.
39:18Today, if you were in Anne's position
39:20and the verdict went against you,
39:22what recourse would you have?
39:24Well, the obvious thing would be an appeal.
39:26All of those things that are lacking in her first trial
39:29should have been addressed in an appeal
39:30where an appeal judge would say,
39:32well, what exactly is the evidence?
39:34And what did the witnesses say?
39:36And it's really a check on exactly this kind of abusive process.
39:40It's almost impossible now
39:43for somebody to be convicted of the most serious sentence
39:45without an appeal.
39:46The other thing that strikes me
39:48is the trial takes place in a single day,
39:50probably a few hours, if that.
39:52The idea that something this serious
39:54could be dealt with in a few hours
39:56is absolutely abhorrent to me.
39:58So if somebody's going to die,
40:00you would want to make sure
40:01that everything has been done properly and in a fair way.
40:05But perhaps the reason for all this unfairness
40:08was the most sinister part of Anne's trial.
40:11I think the real elephant in the room
40:13is obviously King Henry VIII himself.
40:15We have a monarch who is able to directly interfere
40:19in legal proceedings, bully and intimidate witnesses, judges.
40:23And I suppose the thing that explains
40:25all of this blatant unfairness
40:26is the fear that everyone must have had
40:28that if they didn't deliver the verdict the king wanted,
40:31they would be next.
40:32This is a trial in name only.
40:35Nothing about this meets
40:36even the most basic standards of justice.
40:40With the verdict delivered,
40:43silence descends on the courtroom.
40:45Still with incredible dignity and poise,
40:53Anne delivers a speech.
40:56She says,
40:57I do not say that I have always borne towards the king
41:01the humility to which I owe him,
41:04considering the great honour and respect he always paid me.
41:08I admit too that often I have taken it into my head
41:13to be jealous of him.
41:17But may God be my witness
41:18if I have done him any other wrong.
41:20It's such a well-thought-out speech
41:28and delivered without hesitation.
41:32It's tempting to think that Anne has prepared in advance,
41:36but remember, she doesn't believe that this is going to happen.
41:39She thoroughly believes she's innocent
41:42and will be found such.
41:44So, it seems that actually this speech
41:47is just delivered from the heart.
41:54To mark the guilty verdict,
41:57cannon's fire,
41:58which reverberates across London.
42:03In his palace at Westminster,
42:05the king hears the signal
42:07and knows that the deed is done.
42:10The coast is almost clear
42:13for him to marry Jane Seymour.
42:16Anne is escorted out of the courtroom.
42:20The guards turn their axe blades towards her.
42:28As Anne is taken back to her apartment in the tower,
42:32her brother, George Berlin,
42:34is escorted into the Great Hall for his trial.
42:40George, like Anne,
42:43defends himself eloquently,
42:46but also like Anne,
42:48he doesn't stand a chance.
42:50He's found guilty
42:51and taken back to the tower
42:53so that he can prepare for death.
42:57Two days have passed since Anne's trial.
43:01Imprisoned,
43:02she still believes salvation is possible.
43:05But then, near the tower,
43:07something shocking happens.
43:09Henry Norris,
43:11Mark Smeaton,
43:13William Brayton,
43:14Francis Weston
43:15and George Boleyn
43:16have been brought up there
43:19on Tower Hill
43:20for their execution.
43:24Their only crumb of comfort
43:26is that they're to be given
43:28the more merciful death
43:30of beheading
43:31rather than the traitor's death
43:33of hanging,
43:35drawing and quartering.
43:36The first to be executed
43:40is George Boleyn
43:41because he's highest in rank.
43:46Poor Mark Smeaton
43:47is the last.
43:50By then,
43:50the block and the scaffold
43:52would have been covered in blood
43:55and the axe
43:56would have been blunter.
43:58Well, Anne may have seen
44:00the men being led out
44:02up to Tower Hill
44:03for their execution
44:04and she may be watching now
44:06as their blooded remains
44:08are brought back.
44:10With her co-accused now dead,
44:13Anne must summon
44:14all her courage
44:15to stay strong
44:16as she hopes and prays
44:18that the king
44:19will have mercy
44:20and grant her
44:21a last-minute reprieve.
44:24Next time,
44:26I investigate the events
44:28that took place
44:29on this spot
44:30at the Tower of London
44:31on the 19th of May,
44:341536,
44:36the day the Queen of England,
44:38Anne Boleyn,
44:39is due to be executed.
44:45Yes, Tracy turns the focus
44:47on the darkest day of all
44:49for the now convicted queen.
44:50The fall of Anne Boleyn
44:51execution is brand new
44:53tomorrow at nine.
44:54It's a right old carry-on
44:56after the break
44:56as we get to know
44:57one of Britain's
44:58most cherished raconteurs.
44:59Kenneth Williams,
45:00in his own words,
45:01is next.
Recommended
45:13
|
Up next
45:04
40:16
50:08
1:23:45
1:00
55:38
24:00
35:22
45:12