Page 39 - All About History - Issue 52-17

It was this pregnancy that caused a reconciliation between
the sisters, with Mary once again returning to court. Anne’s
happiness could not last, however, and in January 1536 – on
the very day of Katherine of Aragon’s funeral – the queen
miscarried a male foetus. Henry was furious, declaring that
he could see that “he would have no more boys by her.” He
had already begun a relationship with another court lady,
Jane Seymour, and was soon determined to end his marriage.
On 30 April 1536 Mark Smeaton, who was a young
musician in Anne’s household, was arrested when he arrived
to dine at the house of Thomas Cromwell in London. After A D AY T O
being questioned in the Tower and probably tortured, he
confessed to adultery with the queen. The next day, Anne
was at Greenwich with her husband, watching the May Day
jousts when Henry suddenly rose to his feet and stalked R E M E M B E R
away. She never saw him again.
The next day Anne was in the Tower, with five men,
including Smeaton and the Boleyn sisters’ brother, George,
who were accused of adultery with her. Although both Anne
and George defended themselves eloquently at their trials,
their deaths were foregone conclusions. The five men were
executed on Tower Hill on 17 May 1536. Later that evening,
Anne was informed that her marriage to the king had been
annulled, probably on the grounds of his earlier relationship
with Mary. Two days later, on the morning of 19 May, she
walked to a scaffold on Tower Green and, after a short
speech, was beheaded by sword.
It was a bloody end to what had been the greatest passion
of Henry VIII’s life. Mary, who was the only survivor of her
siblings, perhaps reflected on her own lack of ambition saving
her life. The sisters’ lives had mirrored each other at times
and also been dramatically different. Mary disappeared into
obscurity after her sister’s death, living out her years with the
husband she had married for love. She died on 19 July 1543,
©Alamy only seven years after her sister.

Henry wrote many
love letters to
Anne, 17 of which
survive in the
Vatican Library