TL *Humaning the Best She Can*’s Reviews > The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown > Status Update
TL *Humaning the Best She Can*
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Kingston knew full well that Anne was not being executed that day as he had received orders from Cromwell to clear the Tower of foreigners first, perhaps so that foreign diplomats could not send home sympathetic reports of Anne execution. Kingston kept Anne in the dark for a while longer and tried to comfort her by explaining that her execution would not be painful and that the blow was "so subtle".
— Sep 03, 2025 07:04AM
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TL *Humaning the Best She Can*’s Previous Updates
TL *Humaning the Best She Can*
is 92% done
The Anne Boleyn I have come to know though my research is a far cry from the Anne of popular fiction, but she is certainly no saint, angel or martyr, and does not deserve to be put on a pedestal. Anne was stubborn, ambitious, impatient, hot-tempered, driven, calculating, spiteful at times, and a woman who would not suffer fools gladly.
— Sep 03, 2025 07:17PM
TL *Humaning the Best She Can*
is 92% done
I agree with Derek Wilson that the plot against Anne and the men was too complex to be down to Cromwell alone; if this were the case, there would certainly have been easier ways of ending the marriage. Adultery and incest were not even treason, so Anne and the men also had to be charged with conspiring against the King.
— Sep 03, 2025 07:16PM
TL *Humaning the Best She Can*
is 90% done
I've heard it said that Anne Boleyn has to take some responsibility for her fall in 1536 even though she was innocent of the crimes for which she was condemned. In his TV series on Henry VIII, "Henry VIII: Mind of a Tyrant",40 David Starkey spoke about how Anne's forthright character and ability to say "no" to Henry, when nobody else would, were attractive in a mistress but not what Henry found acceptable in a wife.
— Sep 03, 2025 06:59PM
TL *Humaning the Best She Can*
is 83% done
Anne's executioner was a French swordsman from Calais10,11 and for him to get to London by 18th or 19th May he would have to have been ordered before Anne's trial had even taken place.
— Sep 03, 2025 07:39AM
TL *Humaning the Best She Can*
is 83% done
Chapuys wrote to Charles V on the 19th May: "I hear that, even before the arrest of the Concubine, the King, speaking with Mistress Jane Semel[Seymour] of their future marriage, the latter suggested that the Princess should be replaced in her former position".8 So Henry had mentioned marriage to Jane Seymour before Anne was even arrested on 2nd May! Court gossip perhaps but it's interesting nonetheless.
— Sep 03, 2025 07:39AM
TL *Humaning the Best She Can*
is 81% done
Ralph Morice, secretary of Archbishop Cranmer, recorded the following warning issued by the King to Cranmer in 1546 when the conservatives targeted him and tried to bring him down: "Oh Lorde God ! (quod the king) what fonde symplicitie have you :
so to permitt yourself to be ymprisoned, that every enemy of yours may take vantage againste you. Doo not you thincke that yf thei have you ones in prison,
— Sep 03, 2025 07:34AM
so to permitt yourself to be ymprisoned, that every enemy of yours may take vantage againste you. Doo not you thincke that yf thei have you ones in prison,
TL *Humaning the Best She Can*
is 81% done
So, according to Henry VIII, the Queen had come to a sticky end from 'meddling' rather than being guilty of treason! As Eric Ives8 points out, Henry VIII also admitted years later that once a prisoner was in the Tower of London then false evidence could be used against him.
— Sep 03, 2025 07:32AM
TL *Humaning the Best She Can*
is 81% done
The imperial ambassador, Eustace Chapuys, in reporting the trials to Charles V, wrote that the men "were condemned upon presumption and certain indications, without valid proof or confession", that George Boleyn was charged "by presumption" and that "those present wagered 10 to 1 that he would be acquitted, especially as no witnesses were produced against either him or her".
— Sep 03, 2025 07:26AM
TL *Humaning the Best She Can*
is 81% done
Although Cromwell's propaganda machine had been working flat out, spreading the salacious and shocking news that the King of England had been saved from a conspiracy instigated by his own wife and Queen, there were those who were cynical and could not quite believe the official line.
— Sep 03, 2025 07:24AM
TL *Humaning the Best She Can*
is 80% done
On Tuesday 30th May, just eleven days after the execution of his second wife, Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII married Jane Seymour in the Queen's Closet at York Place, the property renovated by himself and Anne.
— Sep 03, 2025 07:21AM
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Sep 03, 2025 07:04AM
To this, Anne replied with characteristic black humour, "I heard say the executioner was very good, and I have a little neck", after which she put her hands around her throat and laughed heartily.4 Kingston was impressed with Anne Boleyn's composure, commenting to Cromwell that "thys lady hasse mech joy and plesure in dethe"5 and writing of how her almoner was with her continually.Anne's black humour in those dark hours showed through as she joked with her ladies that the people would be able to give her the nickname "la Royne Anne Sans Tete" 6 or Queen Anne Lackhead, and then she laughed. Regardless, those hours of waiting and not knowing what was going on must have been pure hell for Anne, who had prepared herself to die that day.
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She was finally put out of her misery when noon passed and Kingston informed her that her execution had been postponed until the next day, the 19th. According to Chapuys, "when the command came to put off the execution till today [19th], Anne appeared very sorry, praying the Captain of the Tower that for the honor of God he would beg the King that, since she was in good state and disposed for death, she might be dispatched immediately".7 Lanceleot de Carles has her adding that it was "not that she desired death, but thought herself prepared to die and feared that delay would weaken her". De Carles writes of how she then "consoled her ladies several times, telling them that was not a thing to be regretted by Christians, and she hoped to be quit of all unhappiness, with various other good counsels."There was nothing that Sir William Kingston could do to ease Anne's suffering; all Anne could do was return to prayer and wait.
