It’s the 19th May and we’ve come to the day Queen Anne Boleyn’s life ended at the hands of the Swordsman of Calais, but really at the hands of her husband, King Henry VIII.
‘Anne of the Thousand Days’ was executed by beheading on a newly built scaffold within the confines of the Tower of London on 19th May 1536, just under three years after she’d been crowned queen in that moment of victory at Westminster Abbey.
Six people died in a huge miscarriage of justice that May, leaving grieving families and friends, people who were supposed to grieve briefly and then pick themselves up, dust themselves down, and get on serving their king and proving their loyalty. Harsh times.
In the following video, I explain exactly what happened on that awful day in 1536 and I also share Anne Boleyn’s execution speech.
Also on this day in history, this very same day, Archbishop Cranmer made Henry VIII’s third marriage possible. Yep! Wife number 2 has just been killed and Henry is already making sure that marriage number 3 is completely above board.
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