Page 36 - All About History - Issue 180-19

adultery were tried and condemned, and three
Boleyn
V s seyMour
The rival who replaced
Anne Boleyn
In around 1529 Jane Seymour made her
first appearance at court, where – like Anne
Boleyn before her – she joined the household
of Catherine of Aragon. She later transferred
to Anne’s service, while two of her brothers,
Edward and Thomas, were rising stars at court.
The children of a Wiltshire knight, Sir John
Seymour, it was these brothers – ambitious for
power and preferment – who were responsible
for actively encouraging Henry VIII’s pursuit
of their sister when he began to tire of his
Boleyn wife. Described as being “of middle
stature and no great beauty”, it was doubtless
with the connivance of her brothers that Jane
made a great show of her modesty. Though
she was not believed to be “a woman of great
wit”, she understood her situation only too
well. Chapuys had been told that Jane had
been “well tutored” and warned not to give
in to the king’s advances “unless he makes
her his queen, upon which the damsel is quite
resolved.” By January 1536 she was receiving
“great presents” from the king. However, she
refused a gift of money, declaring to Henry
that “there was no treasure in this world
that she valued as much as her honour.”
Predictably, his ardour for Jane “marvellously
increased”, and in order to prove his love to
her he insisted on using her brother
Edward as a chaperone. He even
moved the apartments of
Edward and his wife closer
to his own to facilitate
easier access. Anne’s
execution paved the way for
Henry and Jane’s marriage,
but tragically Jane died just
12 days after her son’s
birth in 1537. In time her
brothers attempted
to seize control and
influence their
nephew,
Edward VI, but
in a similar
manner as
the Boleyns,
both Edward
and Thomas
ended their
lives on the
executioner’s block
on Edward’s orders.
36
days later she and George stood trial separately.
Though both siblings defended themselves ably,
the result was a foregone conclusion. Anne and her
brother were both found guilty and condemned
to death. Among the peers who sat in judgement
upon them was their own father, whom Chapuys
had heard was “quite as ready to assist at the
judgement” as he had been to the other men who
had stood trial.
There was no hope of a reprieve, and on 17 May
George and the men condemned alongside him
were executed on Tower Hill. Permitted to speak,
in his final moments he stated that “I am come
hither not to preach and make a sermon, but to
die.” He met his end bravely. Two days after her
brother’s death it was Anne’s turn. By means of
a final favour to the woman who he had once
loved so passionately, the king had sent to Calais
for a French swordsman who was tasked with
executing his former queen. Unlike George, a
private execution within the confines of the Tower
had been arranged for her, and a scaffold erected
in front of the White Tower. Having made a short
speech in which she implored “If any person will
meddle with my cause, I require them to judge
the best”, Anne’s head was removed swiftly and
cleanly with a deft blow from the sword. Her
severed remains were interred within the Chapel
of St Peter ad Vincula within the Tower.
Eleven days after Anne’s death, Henry VIII
married Jane Seymour. It was through this
marriage that he received that which he had so
desperately craved: a son, Edward. Amongst those
who attended the prince’s christening at Hampton
Court in October 1537 was Thomas Boleyn. Yet
“Among the
peers who sAt in
judgement upon
them wAs their
own fAther”
he no longer basked in royal favour or held the
influence he had once enjoyed as a result of his
daughter’s exalted status. Moreover, the tragedy
that he had been forced to endure had left him a
broken man, and he retired to Hever to live quietly.
On 3 April 1538 his wife died and was buried
at Lambeth, and it would not be long before he
followed her to the grave. Thomas died at Hever
on 12 March 1539, and was interred in the church
there. It was a sad end for the man whose family
had once been raised to such staggering heights.
Yet their moment of glory was not quite at an end.
The two decades following Anne’s death left
their mark on her daughter, Elizabeth, whose life
was destined to run a less than stable course. She
would never forget her mother’s terrible end, and
there is no doubt that it deeply affected her. Yet
she was to be Anne’s greatest legacy, for when
Elizabeth succeeded to the throne on 17 November
1558, she did so not only as her father’s daughter,
but as her mother’s too. For in this queen flowed
the blood of the family who had once been the
most ambitious in England – the Boleyns.
Anne was found guilty of
treason, adultery and incest,
charges that appear to have
been concocted by her former
ally, Thomas Cromwell