On this day in 1533, at 5pm, Anne Boleyn left the Tower of London in a procession which took her from the Tower, through the streets of London, to Westminster Hall.
I wrote a detailed article about the route and its lavish spectacles last year – see 31 May 1533 – The Coronation Procession of Queen Anne Boleyn.
A procession, pageants, wine flowing from fountains, entertainment… what a day it must have been for Londoners!
You can also read an article on Anne’s coronation procession by Nasim Tadghighi, who walked the procession’s route in London and took photos – click here.
On this day in history…
- 1443 – Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby, and matriarch of the Tudor dynasty, was born at Bletsoe Castle in Bedfordshire. You can read all about her in the article I wrote to commemorate her death – see Lady Margaret Beaufort.
I’m not sure why I am just now wondering this, but given how close Anne Boleyn’s coronation was to her execution, does anybody else wonder if Henry VIII had impulse control issues? (not a joke) It seems he impulsively decided to execute nearly everyone close to him.
You have a point Mary the Quene. Wasn’t Charles Brandon the only person who remained close to Henry his entire life?
It does seem that when you get into the last decade of Henry’s reign there is a literany of his friends and family who seem to get the chop. He even got around to almost seeing off the old Duke of Norfolk, having executed the Earl of Surrey in January 1547; the Duke only being saved by the Kings death in the early hours of the moring of his set execution. And Norfolk had certainly served him from the start of the reign. But, Gary to answer your question; I do not know about his impulse control; he certainly had something going wrong with him from 1536 onwards; but there were not a lot of people around at the end of his life who could say they recalled the start. Charles Brandon is the obvious survivor, dying in August 1545 after a brief illness, in bed at Guildford, with his daugters and wife at his side. But one or two others made it as well; John Russell, Duke of Bedford was another close friend who lived through the storms; and Thomas Cranmer was there at the end; although he is a late introduction coming into the royal life in 1532/3. There were a few others, but certainly not as many as there should have been had Henry not turned so paranoid in his later years. Cousins, wives, brothers in laws; friends, even an old jousting partner Sir NIcholas Carew got caught up in cull on the Poles (the white rose clan) in 1539-1541. The Courtneys and Poles were his cousins and had served him well until his fall out with Reginald Pole over his treatment of Katherine of Aragon in 1536. Then scanty evidence; probably planted by Cromwell and a couple of ill thought letters; that did express some dangerous thoughts came to light and that was the end of this illustrious family, direct descendents of George Duke of Clarance, the middle brother to Edward IV. The old matriarch of the family, Lady Margaret Salisbury herself a friend of Princess Mary and Queen Katherine was taken from her prison cell in 1541 and beheaded; refusing to accept the charges; the executioner had to chase her around the scaffold in order to carry out her sentence. She was a greatly respected lady and her execution was shocking. Almost as if in some sort of cull; members of teh family were arrested, executed, vanished in the Tower, and friends were caught up and paid the price as well. Either Charles Brandon and John Russell had lucky stars or they managed to stay out of the factional plots at court; apart from the occassional small mishap; both stayed close to the King and both of them escaped much of the thunder and lightening directed at others.