“As Anne waited for the executioner to strike, she started praying, "O Lord have mercy on me, to God I commend my soul. To Jesus Christ I commend my soul; Lord Jesu receive my soul. "As Anne prayed, the executioner called out to his assistant to pass him his sword. As Anne moved her head to follow what the assistant was doing, the executioner came up unnoticed behind her and beheaded her with one stroke of his sword. It was over.
As the shocked crowd dispersed, Anne’s ladies, who were described as "bereft of their souls, such was their weakness”, wrapped her head and body in white cloth and took them to the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula for burial. No casket had been provided, so a yeoman warder fetched an old elm chest which had once contained bow staves from the Tower armoury. Anne Boleyn, Queen of England and mother of Elizabeth I, was then buried as a traitor in an unmarked grave. The Tower cannons fired to tell London that its Queen was dead.
Scottish theologian Alexander Alesius had woken up in the early hours of 19th May from a nightmare about the Queen’s severed neck in which he “could count the nerves, the veins, and the arteries”. He went to visit his friend Archbishop Cranmer in his garden at Lambeth. Alesius was unaware of Anne’s imminent execution, having remained at home since the day of Anne’s imprisonment, but as he told the Archbishop of his dream, Cranmer “raised his eyes to heaven and said, ‘She who has been the Queen of England upon earth will today become a Queen in heaven.’ So great was his grief that he could say nothing more, and then he burst into tears.” The Archbishop who owed his rise to the patronage of the Queen and her family was a broken man, and perhaps he felt some guilt for his part in recent events. It is hard to imagine how he would have felt on hearing the cannons ring out over London, announcing the Queen’s death. Queen Anne Boleyn was gone, gone to a better place.“
Source: "The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown”, Claire Ridgway, MadeGlobal Publishing, UK, April 2012.
Okay, I’m a bit late with this one. Hilary Mantel won her second Booker Prize the other day, for the brilliant Bring Up the Bodies. The week the book was published I had to really hunt for a hardcover edition (o tempora o mores, etc.) but it was worth it. Like with Wolf Hall, we get a bonus endpaper – this time featuring the striking neck of Anne Boleyn. I know this Tumblr is supposed to be about book covers, but I think that a quality endpaper deserves a little love. (Image from Reading Space)
