I told her it CH. 11. this time, and past my pain.' A.D. 1536. May 19. Green We are very near the termination of the tra- Friday, gedy. A little before noon on the 19th of May, Tower Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, was led down at noon. to the green, where the young grass and the first daisies of summer were freshly bursting in the sunshine. A single cannon stood loaded on the battlements; the motionless cannoneer was ready, with smoking linstock at his side; and when the hand upon the dial of the great Tower clock touched the mid-day hour, that cannon would tell to London that all was over. The yeomen of the guard were there, and a crowd of citizens; the lord mayor in his robes, the deputies of the guilds, the sheriffs, and the aldermen; they were come to see a spectacle which England had never seen before-a head which had worn the crown falling under the sword of an executioner. scaffold, persons On the scaffold, by the king's desire, there The were present Cromwell, the Lord Chancellor, the and the Duke of Suffolk, and lastly, the Duke of Richmond, present who might now, when both his sisters were ille- upon it. gitimized, be considered heir presumptive to the throne. As in the choice of the commission, as in the conduct of the trial, as in the summons of * Kingston to Cromwell: SINGER, 461. A.D. 1536. CH. 11. parliament, as in every detail through which the cause was passed, Henry had shown outwardly but one desire to do all which the most strict equity prescribed; so around this last scene he had placed those who were nearest in blood to himself, and nearest in rank to the crown. If she who was to suffer was falling under a forged charge, he acted his part with horrible completeness. The queen's last words. The queen walked firmly to the front of the block. When the few preparations were completed, she turned to the spectators. 'Christian people,' she said, 'I am come to die. And according to law, and by law, I am judged to death; and therefore I will speak nothing against it. I am come hither to accuse no man, nor to speak anything 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 and more merciful prince was there never; and to me he was ever a good, a gentle, and sovereign lord. If any person will meddle of my cause, I require him to judge the best. thus I take my leave of the world and of you; and I heartily desire all to you pray for me. Oh, Lord, have mercy on me. To God I commend my 'These words,' says Stowe, 'she spoke with a smiling countenance; which done, she kneeled down on both her knees, and said, 'To Jesus Christ I commend my soul;' and with that word the hangman of Calais smote off her head at soul.' 米 And *WYATT'S Memoirs, HALL, STOWE, CONSTANTYNE'S Memorial. There is some little variation in the different accounts, but none of importance. one stroke with a sword. Her body, with the CH. 11. head, was buried in the quire of the chapel.' A.D. 1536. May 19. To this end she had come at last, and silence is Friday, the best comment which charity has to offer upon it. Better far it would have been if the dust had been allowed to settle down over the grave of Anne Boleyn, and her remembrance buried in forgetfulness. Strange it is that a spot which ought to have been sacred to pity, should have been made the arena for the blind wrestling of controversial duellists. Blind, I call it; for there has been little clearness of judgment, little even of common prudence in the choice of sides. If the catholics could have fastened the stain of murder on the king and the statesmen of England, they would have struck the faith of the establishment a harder blow, than by a poor tale of scandal against a weak, erring, suffering woman: and the protestants, in mistaken generosity, have courted an infamy for the names of those to whom they owe their being, which, staining the fountain, must stain for ever the stream which flows from it. It has been no pleasure to me to rake among the evil memories of the past, to prove a human being sinful whom the world has ruled to have been innocent. Let the blame rest with those who have forced upon our history the alternative of a re-assertion of the truth, or the shame of noble names which have not deserved it at our hands. succession. No sooner had the result of the trial appeared Fresh perplexity to be certain, than the prospects of the succession in the to the throne were seen to be more perplexed than ever. The prince so earnestly longed for had not been born. The disgrace of Anne May. Elizabeth gitimate. CH. 11. Boleyn, even before her last confession, strengthA. D. 1536. ened the friends of the Princess Mary. Elizabeth, the child of a doubtful marriage which had terminated in adultery and incest, would have had slight chance of being maintained, even if her birth had suffered no further stain; and by the Lambeth sentence she was literally and now legally illegitimate. The king of Scotland was now the nearest heir; and next to him stood Lady Margaret Douglas, his sister, who had been born in England, and was therefore looked upon with better favour by the people. As if to make confusion worse confounded, in the midst of the uncertainty Lord Thomas Howard, taking advantage of the moment, and, as the act of his attainder says, 'being seduced by the devil, and not havDouglas. ing the fear of God before his eyes,' persuaded this lady into a contract of marriage with him; "The presumption being,' says the same act, 'that he aspired to the crown by reason of so high a marriage; or, at least, to the making division for the same; having a firm hope and trust that the subjects of this realm† would incline and bear affection to the said Lady Margaret, being born in this realm; and not to the King of Scots, her brother, to whom this realm hath not, nor ever had, any affection; but would resist his attempt to the crown of this realm to the uttermost of their powers.' Lord and Lady Margaret * Before the discovery of this proceeding, but * 28 Hen. VIII. cap. 24. This paragraph is of great importance it throws a light on many of the most perplexing passages in this and the succeeding reigns. 28 Hen. VIII. cap. 24. A.D. 1536. The council to an in anticipation of inevitable intrigues of the kind, CH. 11. the privy council and the peers, on the same grounds which had before led them to favour the May. divorce from Catherine, petitioned the king to and the save the country from the perils which menaced peers urge it, and to take a fresh wife without an hour's instant redelay. Henry's experience of matrimony had marriage been so discouraging, that they feared he might be reluctant to venture upon it again. Nevertheless, for his country's sake, they trusted that he would not refuse.* Henry Jane Henry, professedly in obedience to this re- May 20. quest, was married, immediately after the execu- marries tion, to Jane, daughter of Sir John Seymour. Seymour. The indecent haste is usually considered a proof entirely conclusive of the cause of Anne Boleyn's ruin. To myself, the haste is an evidence of have thought it meet for us to * Speech of the Lord Chan- | dry of his grace's council here cellor: Lords' Journal, p. 84. Statutes of the Realm; 28 Henry VIII. cap. 7. Similarly, on the death of Jane Seymour, the council urged immediate remarriage on the king, considering a single prince an insufficient security for the future. In a letter of Cromwell's to the Eng-framed his mind both to be inlish ambassador at Paris, on different to the thing and to the the day of Jane Seymour's election of any person from any death, there is the following part that, with deliberation, shall be thought meet for him, that we live in hope that his grace will again couple himself to our comforts.'-State Papers, vol. viii. p. 1. passage: 'And forasmuch as, though his majesty is not anything disposed to marry again-albeit his highness, God be thanked, taketh this chance as a man that by reason with force overcometh his affections may take such an extreme adventure-yet as sun † BURNET, HUME, STRICKLAND, &c. There is an absolute consensus of authorities. |