edwardslovelyelizabeth: On this day in history, the 19th of May 1536, the execution of Anne Boleyn,

edwardslovelyelizabeth:On this day in history, the 19th of May 1536, the execution of Anne Boleyn, Queen of England .The following contemporary account of Queen Anne Boleyn’s execution is by Edward Hall, Member of Parliament, sergeant of the City of London and judge in the Sheriff’s court, whose Chronicle of England was first published in 1542. Hall died in 1547, but his Chronicle was reprinted by Grafton in 1548 and 1550 and is now considered one of the more reliable accounts of the reign of King Henry VIII:“ On May Day were a solemn jousts kept at Greenwich, and suddenly from the jousts the king departed having not above six persons with him, and came in the evening from Greenwich to his place at Westminster. Of this sudden departing many men mused, but most chiefly the queen, who the next day was apprehended and brought from Greenwich to the Tower of London, where after she was arraigned of high treason, and condemned. Also at the same time was likewise apprehended, the lord Rochford brother to the said Queen, and Henry Norris, Mark Smeaton, William Brereton, and Sir Francis Weston, all of the king’s privy chamber. All these were likewise committed to the Tower and after arraigned and condemned of high treason. And all the gentlemen were beheaded on the scaffold at the Tower hill. But the Queen was with a sword beheaded within the Tower. And these following were the words that she spoke the day of her death which was the 19th day of May, 1536:” Good Christian people, I am come hither to die, for according to the law, and by the law I am judged to die, and therefore I will speak nothing against it. I am come hither to accuse no man, nor to speak any thing of that, whereof I am accused and condemned to die, but I pray God save the king and send him long to reign over you, for a gentler nor a more merciful prince was there never; and to me was he ever a good, a gentle and sovereign lord. And if any person will meddle of my cause, I require them to judge the best. And thus I take my leave of the world and of you all, and I heartily desire you all to pray for me. O Lord, have mercy on me, to God I commend my soul. “And then she knelt down saying, “To Christ I commend my soul, Jesu receive my soul” diverse times, till that her head was stricken off with the sword. And on the Ascension Day following, the king wore white for mourning.“Pictured: Anne Boleyn’s execution by Jan Luyken, c.1664-1712 -- source link

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