December 16, 1485: Birth of Infanta Catherine of Aragon, Queen of England.

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Arthur Tudor, Infanta Catherine of Aragon, Kimbolton Castle, King Fernando II of Aragon, Prince of Wales, Princess of Wales, Queen Isabella I of Castile, Queen Mary I of England, Queen of England, Thomas Cromwell

Infanta Catherine of Aragon (December 16, 1485 – January 7, 1536) was Queen of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII from their marriage on June 11, 1509 until their annulment on May 23, 1533. She was previously Princess of Wales as the wife of Henry’s elder brother, Arthur, Prince of Wales.

The daughter of Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Fernando II of Aragon, Infanta Catherine was three years old when she was betrothed to Prince Arthur, heir apparent to the English throne.

Infanta Catherine of Aragon, Queen of England

They married in 1501, but Arthur died five months later. Catherine spent years in limbo, and during this time, she held the position of ambassador of the Aragonese crown to England in 1507, the first known female ambassador in European history.

She married Arthur’s younger brother, the recently ascended King Henry VIII, in 1509. For six months in 1513, she served as regent of England while Henry VIII was in France. During that time the English crushed and defeated a Scottish invasion at the Battle of Flodden, an event in which Catherine played an important part with an emotional speech about English courage and patriotism.

By 1525, Henry VIII was infatuated with Anne Boleyn and dissatisfied that his marriage to Catherine had produced no surviving sons, leaving their daughter Mary as heir presumptive at a time when there was no established precedent for a woman on the throne.

King Henry VIII sought to have their marriage annulled, setting in motion a chain of events that led to England’s schism with the Catholic Church. When Pope Clement VII refused to annul the marriage, Henry defied him by assuming supremacy over religious matters.

In 1533 their marriage was consequently declared invalid and Henry VIII married Anne on the judgement of clergy in England, without reference to the pope. Catherine refused to accept Henry as supreme head of the Church in England and considered herself the king’s rightful wife and Queen, attracting much popular sympathy.

Portrait by Juan de Flandes thought to be of 11-year-old Catherine. She resembles her sister Joanna of Castile.

Despite this, Henry acknowledged her only as dowager Princess of Wales. After being banished from court by Henry, Catherine lived out the remainder of her life at Kimbolton Castle, dying there in January 1536 of cancer. The English people held Queen Catherine in high esteem, and her death set off tremendous mourning. Her daughter Mary would become the first undisputed English Queen Regnant in 1553.

Catherine commissioned The Education of a Christian Woman by Juan Luis Vives, who dedicated the book, controversial at the time, to the Queen in 1523.

Portrait of a noblewoman, possibly Mary Tudor c. 1514 or Catherine of Aragon c. 1502, by Michael Sittow. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

Such was Catherine’s impression on people that even her adversary Thomas Cromwell said of her, “If not for her sex, she could have defied all the heroes of History.”

She successfully appealed for the lives of the rebels involved in the Evil May Day, for the sake of their families, and also won widespread admiration by starting an extensive programme for the relief of the poor. Catherine was a patron of Renaissance humanism, and a friend of the great scholars Erasmus of Rotterdam and Thomas More.

November 17, 1558: Death of Mary I, Queen of England and Ireland. Part II.

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Bill of Attainder, Countess of Salisbury, Duke Philipp of Bavaria, Duke Wilhelm I of Cleves, Margaret Pole, Mary I of England and Scotland, Mary Tudor, Reginald Pole, Thomas Cromwell

Mary was courted by Philipp, Duke of Bavaria, from late 1539, but he was Lutheran and his suit for her hand was unsuccessful. Over 1539, the king’s chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, negotiated a potential alliance with the Duchy of Cleves.

Suggestions that Mary marry Wilhelm I, Duke of Cleves, who was the same age, came to nothing, but a match between King Henry VIII and the Duke’s sister Anne was agreed. When the king saw Anne for the first time in late December 1539, a week before the scheduled wedding, he found her unattractive but was unable, for diplomatic reasons and without a suitable pretext, to cancel the marriage.

Cromwell fell from favour and was arrested for treason in June 1540; one of the unlikely charges against him was that he had plotted to marry Mary himself. Anne consented to the annulment of the marriage, which had not been consummated, and Cromwell was beheaded.

There was much court intrigue involving Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, and Mary’s old governess and godmother, and her son Reginald Pole. Margaret Pole was the only surviving daughter of George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, a brother of Kings Edward IV and Richard III (all sons of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York), by his wife Isabel Neville.

The entirety of the story is not the subject of this blog entry but I will mention it’s connected to Reginald’s objection to Henry VIII’s relationship with Anne Boleyn.

Margaret’s downfall was also connected to Thomas Cromwell. Cromwell produced a tunic bearing the Five Wounds of Christ, symbolising Margaret’s support for the Church of Rome and the rule of her son Reginald and the king’s Roman Catholic daughter Mary. The supposed discovery, six months after her house and effects were searched at her arrest, is likely to have been a fabrication. She was sentenced to death, and could be executed at the king’s will.

On the morning of May 27, 1541, Margaret was told she was to die within the hour. She answered that no crime had been imputed to her. Nevertheless, she was taken from her cell to the place within the precincts of the Tower of London where a low wooden block had been prepared instead of the customary scaffold.

Henry VIII had her executed on the pretext of a Catholic plot uncovered by Cromwell in which her son Reginald Pole was implicated. Her executioner was “a wretched and blundering youth” who “literally hacked her head and shoulders to pieces”.

In 1542, following the execution of Henry’s fifth wife, Catherine Howard, the unmarried Henry invited Mary to attend the royal Christmas festivities. At court, while her father was between marriages and thus without a consort, Mary acted as hostess. In 1543, Henry married his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr, who was able to bring the family closer together. Henry returned Mary and Elizabeth to the line of succession through the Act of Succession 1543/1544 (also known as the Third Succession Act), placing them after Edward – though both remained legally illegitimate.

Henry VIII died in 1547, and Edward succeeded him as King Edward VI of England and Ireland. Mary inherited estates in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex, and was granted Hunsdon and Beaulieu as her own. Since Edward was still a child, rule passed to a regency council dominated by Protestants, who attempted to establish their faith throughout the country.

For example, the Act of Uniformity 1549 prescribed Protestant rites for church services, such as the use of Thomas Cranmer’s Book of Common Prayer. Mary remained faithful to Roman Catholicism and defiantly celebrated traditional Mass in her own chapel. She appealed to her cousin Emperor Charles V to apply diplomatic pressure demanding that she be allowed to practise her religion.

For most of Edward’s reign, Mary remained on her own estates and rarely attended court. A plan between May and July 1550 to smuggle her out of England to the safety of the European mainland came to nothing.

Religious differences between Mary and Edward VI continued. Mary attended a reunion with Edward and Elizabeth for Christmas 1550, where the 13-year-old Edward VI embarrassed Mary, then 34, and reduced both her and himself to tears in front of the court, by publicly reproving her for ignoring his laws regarding worship. Mary repeatedly refused Edward’s demands that she abandon Catholicism, and Edward persistently refused to drop his demands.

July 28, 1540: King Henry VIII of England, Lord of Ireland marries his fifth wife, Catherine Howard

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Catherine Howard, Duke Wilhelm I-V of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, Execution, Francis Dereham, Hans Holbein the Younger, Henry VIII of England and Lord of Ireland, Privy Council, Thomas Cromwell, Thomas Culpeper

King Henry VIII considered the matter of the need for a politically aligned marriage. As a new Protestant nation England needed Protestant allies. Chancellor, Thomas Cromwell suggested Anne, the 25-year-old sister of the Duke Wilhelm I-V of Jülich-Cleves-Berg who was seen as an important ally in case of a Roman Catholic attack on England, for the duke fell between Lutheranism and Catholicism.

Hans Holbein the Younger was dispatched to Cleves to paint a portrait of Anne for the king. Despite speculation that Holbein painted her in an overly flattering light, it is more likely that the portrait was accurate; Holbein remained in favour at court.

Henry VIII, King of England and Lord of Ireland

After seeing Holbein’s portrait, and urged on by the complimentary description of Anne given by his courtiers, the 49-year-old king agreed to wed Anne. However, it was not long before Henry wished to annul the marriage so he could marry another. Anne did not argue, and confirmed that the marriage had never been consummated.

Anne’s previous betrothal to the Duke of Lorraine’s son François provided further grounds for the annulment. The marriage was subsequently dissolved, and Anne received the title of “The King’s Sister”, two houses, and a generous allowance. It was soon clear that Henry had fallen for the 17-year-old Catherine Howard, the Duke of Norfolk’s niece. This worried Cromwell, for Norfolk was his political opponent.

Shortly after, the religious reformers (and protégés of Cromwell) Robert Barnes, William Jerome and Thomas Garret were burned as heretics. Cromwell, meanwhile, fell out of favour although it is unclear exactly why, for there is little evidence of differences in domestic or foreign policy.

Despite his role, he was never formally accused of being responsible for Henry’s failed marriage. Cromwell was now surrounded by enemies at court, with Norfolk also able to draw on his niece Catherine’s position.

Cromwell was charged with treason, selling export licences, granting passports, and drawing up commissions without permission, and may also have been blamed for the failure of the foreign policy that accompanied the attempted marriage to Anne. He was subsequently attainted and beheaded.

Marriage to Catherine Howard

Catherine Howard

On July 28, 1540 (the same day Cromwell was executed), Henry VIII married the young Catherine Howard, a first cousin and lady-in-waiting of Anne Boleyn. He was absolutely delighted with his new queen and awarded her the lands of Cromwell and a vast array of jewellery.

Soon after the marriage, however, Queen Catherine had an affair with the courtier Thomas Culpeper. She also employed Francis Dereham, who had previously been informally engaged to her and had an affair with her prior to her marriage, as her secretary.

The Privy Council was informed of her affair with Dereham whilst Henry was away; Thomas Cranmer was dispatched to investigate, and he brought evidence of Queen Catherine’s previous affair with Dereham to the king’s notice.

Though Henry originally refused to believe the allegations, Dereham confessed. It took another meeting of the council, however, before Henry believed the accusations against Dereham and went into a rage, blaming the council before consoling himself in hunting.

When questioned, the queen could have admitted a prior contract to marry Dereham, which would have made her subsequent marriage to Henry invalid, but she instead claimed that Dereham had forced her to enter into an adulterous relationship. Dereham, meanwhile, exposed Catherine’s relationship with Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham were both executed, and Catherine too was beheaded on February 13, 1542.

May 2, 1536: Arrest of Anne Boleyn, Queen of England.

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1st Earl of Essex, Adultery, Anne Boleyn, Archbishop of Canterbury, George Boleyn, Incest, King Henry VIII of England, Mark Smeaton, Thomas Cranmer, Thomas Cromwell, Tower of London, Traitors' Gate

Anne Boleyn (c. 1501 – May 19, 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 as the second wife of King Henry VIII. Their marriage, and her execution for treason and other charges by beheading, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that marked the start of the English Reformation.

Anne was the daughter of Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Howard, and was educated in the Netherlands and France, largely as a maid of honour to Queen Claude of France. Anne returned to England in early 1522, to marry her Irish cousin James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond; the marriage plans were broken off, and instead she secured a post at court as maid of honour to Henry VIII’s wife, Catherine of Aragon.

Anne, Queen Consort of England

Henry VIII and Anne formally married on January 25, 1533, after a secret wedding on November 14, 1532. On May 23, 1533, newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer declared Henry and Catherine’s marriage null and void; five days later, he declared Henry and Anne’s marriage valid. Shortly afterwards, Pope Clement VII decreed sentences of excommunication against Henry and Cranmer.

As a result of this marriage and these excommunications, the first break between the Church of England and Rome took place, and the King took control of the Church of England. Anne was crowned Queen of England on June 1, 1533. On September 7, she gave birth to the future Queen Elizabeth I. Henry was disappointed to have a daughter rather than a son but hoped a son would follow and professed to love Elizabeth. Anne subsequently had three miscarriages and, by March 1536, Henry was courting Jane Seymour. In order to marry Seymour, Henry had to find reasons to end the marriage to Anne.

Henry VIII, King of England

Given Henry’s desperate desire for a son, the sequence of Anne’s pregnancies has attracted much interest. Author Mike Ashley speculated that Anne had two stillborn children after Elizabeth’s birth and before the male child she miscarried in 1536. Most sources attest only to the birth of Elizabeth in September 1533, a possible miscarriage in the summer of 1534, and the miscarriage of a male child, of almost four months gestation, in January 1536. As Anne recovered from her miscarriage, Henry declared that he had been seduced into the marriage by means of “sortilege”—a French term indicating either “deception” or “spells”. His new mistress, Jane Seymour, was quickly moved into royal quarters. This was followed by Anne’s brother George being refused a prestigious court honour, the Order of the Garter, given instead to Sir Nicholas Carew.

Anne’s biographer Eric Ives (and most other historians) believe that her fall and execution were primarily engineered by her former ally Thomas Cromwell. The conversations between Chapuys and Cromwell thereafter indicate Cromwell as the instigator of the plot to remove Anne; evidence of this is seen in the Spanish Chronicle and through letters written from Chapuys to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex

Anne argued with Cromwell over the redistribution of Church revenues and over foreign policy. She advocated that revenues be distributed to charitable and educational institutions; and she favoured a French alliance. Cromwell insisted on filling the King’s depleted coffers, while taking a cut for himself, and preferred an imperial alliance. For these reasons, Ives suggests, “Anne Boleyn had become a major threat to Thomas Cromwell.”

Cromwell’s biographer John Schofield, on the other hand, contends that no power struggle existed between Anne and Cromwell and that “not a trace can be found of a Cromwellian conspiracy against Anne… Cromwell became involved in the royal marital drama only when Henry ordered him onto the case.” Cromwell did not manufacture the accusations of adultery, though he and other officials used them to bolster Henry’s case against Anne. Historian Retha Warnicke questions whether Cromwell could have or wished to manipulate the king in such a matter. Such a bold attempt by Cromwell, given the limited evidence, could have risked his office, even his life.

Regardless of the role Cromwell played in Anne Boleyn’s fall, and his confessed animosity to her, Chapuys’s letter states that Cromwell claimed that he was acting with the King’s authority. Most historians, however, are convinced that her fall and execution were engineered by Cromwell.

Jane Seymour, Queen Consort of England

Henry himself issued the crucial instructions: his officials, including Cromwell, carried them out. The result was by modern standards a legal travesty, however the rules of the time were not bent in order to assure a conviction; there was no need to tamper with rules that guaranteed the desired result since law at the time was an engine of state, not a mechanism for justice.

Towards the end of April a Flemish musician in Anne’s service named Mark Smeaton was arrested. He initially denied being the Queen’s lover but later confessed, perhaps tortured or promised freedom. Another courtier, Sir Henry Norris, was arrested on May Day, but being an aristocrat, could not be tortured. Prior to his arrest, Norris was treated kindly by the King, who offered him his own horse to use on the May Day festivities. It seems likely that during the festivities, the King was notified of Smeaton’s confession and it was shortly thereafter the alleged conspirators were arrested upon his orders.

Norris denied his guilt and swore that Queen Anne was innocent; one of the most damaging pieces of evidence against Norris was an overheard conversation with Anne at the end of April, where she accused him of coming often to her chambers not to pay court to her lady-in-waiting Madge Shelton but to herself. Sir Francis Weston was arrested two days later on the same charge, as was Sir William Brereton, a groom of the King’s Privy Chamber.

Sir Thomas Wyatt, a poet and friend of the Boleyns who was allegedly infatuated with her before her marriage to the king, was also imprisoned for the same charge but later released, most likely due to his or his family’s friendship with Cromwell. Sir Richard Page was also accused of having a sexual relationship with the Queen, but he was acquitted of all charges after further investigation could not implicate him with Anne. The final accused was Queen Anne’s own brother, George Boleyn, arrested on charges of incest and treason. He was accused of two incidents of incest: November 1535 at Whitehall and the following month at Eltham.

On May 2, 1536, Anne was arrested and taken to the Tower of London by barge. It is likely that Anne may have entered through the Court Gate in the Byward Tower rather than the Traitors’ Gate, according to historian and author of The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, Eric Ives. In the Tower, she collapsed, demanding to know the location of her father and “swete broder”, as well as the charges against her.

Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury

On the very next day, Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote a letter to the king expressing his doubts about the queen’s guilt, highlighting his own esteem for Anne. After it was delivered, Cranmer was resigned to the fact that the end of Anne’s marriage was inevitable.

Four of the accused men were tried in Westminster on May 12, 1536. Weston, Brereton, and Norris publicly maintained their innocence and only the tortured Smeaton supported the Crown by pleading guilty. Three days later, Anne and George Boleyn were tried separately in the Tower of London, before a jury of 27 peers. She was accused of adultery, incest, and high treason.

By the Treason Act of Edward III, adultery on the part of a queen was a form of treason (because of the implications for the succession to the throne) for which the penalty was hanging, drawing and quartering for a man and burning alive for a woman, but the accusations, and especially that of incestuous adultery, were also designed to impugn her moral character. The other form of treason alleged against her was that of plotting the king’s death, with her “lovers”, so that she might later marry Henry Norris.

Anne’s one-time betrothed, Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland, sat on the jury that unanimously found Anne guilty. When the verdict was announced, he collapsed and had to be carried from the courtroom. He died childless eight months later and was succeeded by his nephew.

On May 16, Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Archbishop of Canterbury saw Anne in the Tower and heard her confession and the following day, he pronounced the marriage null and void.

This date in history: January 6,1540. Marriage of Anne of Cleves and King Henry VIII of England.

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Anne of Cleves, Annulled, Charles V, Hans Holbein, Holy Roman Emperor, King Henry VIII of England, Kings and Queens of England, Rochester Abbey, Thomas Cromwell

Anne of Cleves (1515 – 16 July 1557) was queen consort of England from January 6 to July 9, 1540 as the fourth wife of King Henry VIII.

Anne was born in 1515, on either September 22, or more probably June 28. She was born in Düsseldorf, the second daughter of Johann III of the House of La Marck, Duke of Jüliich-Cleves, and Berg. Johann III was also Count of Mark, and Ravensberg. Johann held the titles Duke of Jüliich, Berg and Count of Ravensberg jure uxoris which means by right of his wife Maria, Duchess of Julich-Berg (1491–1543).

Anne’s mother Maria of Jülich-Berg (August 3, 1491 – August 29, 1543) was born in Jülich, the daughter of Wilhelm IV, Duke of Jülich-Berg and Sibylle of Brandenburg, a daughter of Elector Albrecht III Achilles of Brandenburg (1414–1486) from his second marriage to Anna (1436–1512), daughter of the Elector Friedrich II of Saxony.

Maria came from the line of German princesses that stretched back to Sybille of Brandenberg, Sophia of Saxony, and Adelaide of Teck. Maria became heiress to her father’s estates of Jülich, Berg and Ravensberg after his death in 1511. In her marriage to Johann III, Duke of Cleves in 1509, Maria’s estates and titles were eventually merged with the Duchy of Cleves. Johann, who inherited the Duchy of Cleves-Mark in 1521, then became the first ruler of the United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, which would exist until 1666.

At the age of 11 (1527), Anne was betrothed to François son and heir of Antoine, Duke of Lorraine while he was only 10. Thus the betrothal was considered unofficial and was cancelled in 1535. The Duke of Cleves ongoing dispute over Gelderland with Holy Roman Emperor Charles V made them suitable allies for England’s King Henry VIII. The match with Anne was urged on the King by his chief minister, Thomas Cromwell.

The artist Hans Holbein the Younger was dispatched to Düren to paint portraits of Anne and her younger sister, Amalia, each of whom Henry was considering as his fourth wife. Henry required the artist to be as accurate as possible, not to flatter the sisters. Negotiations with Cleves were in full swing by March 1539. Cromwell oversaw the talks and a marriage treaty was signed on October 4 of that year.

Henry valued education and cultural sophistication in women, but Anne lacked these. She had received no formal education but was skilled in needlework and liked playing card games. She could read and write, but only in German. Nevertheless, Anne was considered gentle, virtuous and docile, which is why she was recommended as a suitable candidate for Henry.

Anne was described by the French ambassador, Charles de Marillac, as tall and slim, “of middling beauty and of very assured and resolute countenance”. She was fair haired and was said to have had a lovely face. In the words of the chronicler Edward Hall, “Her hair hanging down, which was fair, yellow and long … she was apparelled after the English fashion, with a French hood, which so set forth her beauty and good visage, that every creature rejoiced to behold her”. She appeared rather solemn by English standards, and looked old for her age. Holbein painted her with high forehead, heavy-lidded eyes and a pointed chin.

Henry met her privately on New Year’s Day 1540 at Rochester Abbey on her journey from Dover. Henry and some of his courtiers, following a courtly-love tradition, went disguised into the room where Anne was staying.

According to the testimony of his companions, Henry was disappointed with Anne, feeling she was not as described. According to the chronicler Charles Wriothesley, Anne “regarded him little”, though it is unknown if she knew if this was the king or not upon their first meeting at Rochester Abbey. In Anne’s defense, Henry did not reveal his true identity to Anne at this first meeting where the king was appearing in cog nito. Although Henry VIII is said to have been put off the marriage from then on.

Henry and Anne then met officially on January 3, at Blackheath outside the gates of Greenwich Park, where a grand reception was laid out. Most historians believe that he later used Anne’s alleged “bad” appearance and failure to inspire him to consummate the marriage as excuses, saying how he felt he had been misled, for everyone had praised Anne’s attractions: “She is nothing so fair as she hath been reported”, he complained. Cromwell received some of the blame for the portrait by Holbein which Henry believed had not been an accurate representation of Anne and for some of the exaggerated reports of her beauty. When the king finally met Anne, he was reportedly shocked by her plain appearance; the marriage was never consummated.

Henry urged Cromwell to find a legal way to avoid the marriage but, by this point, doing so was impossible without endangering the vital alliance with the Germans. In his anger and frustration the King finally turned on Cromwell, to his subsequent regret.

Despite Henry’s very vocal misgivings, the two were married on January 6, 1540 at the royal Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, London, by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer. The phrase “God send me well to keep” was engraved around Anne’s wedding ring. Immediately after arriving in England, Anne conformed to the Anglican form of worship, which Henry expected. The couple’s first night as husband and wife was not a successful one. Henry confided to Cromwell that he had not consummated the marriage, saying, “I liked her before not well, but now I like her much worse.”

In February 1540, speaking to the Countess of Rutland, Anne praised the King as a kind husband, saying: “When he comes to bed he kisseth me, and he taketh me by the hand, and biddeth me ‘Good night, sweetheart’; and in the morning kisseth me and biddeth ‘Farewell, darling.'” Lady Rutland responded: “Madam, there must be more than this, or it will be long ere we have a duke of York, which all this realm most desireth.”

Anne was commanded to leave the Court on June 24, and on July 6, she was informed of her husband’s decision to reconsider the marriage. Witness statements were taken from a number of courtiers and two physicians which register the king’s disappointment at her appearance. Henry had also commented to Thomas Heneage and Anthony Denny that he could not believe she was a virgin.

Shortly afterwards, Anne was asked for her consent to an annulment, to which she agreed. Cromwell, the moving force behind the marriage, was attainted for treason. The marriage was annulled on July 9, 1540, on the grounds of non-consummation and her pre-contract to Francis of Lorraine. Henry VIII’s physician stated that after the wedding night, Henry said he was not impotent because he experienced “duas pollutiones nocturnas in somno” (two nocturnal pollutions while in sleep; i.e., two wet dreams).

Cromwell was arrested at a Council meeting on June 10, 1540 and accused of various charges. He was imprisoned in the Tower. A Bill of Attainder containing a long list of indictments, including supporting Anabaptists, corrupt practices, leniency in matters of justice, acting for personal gain, protecting Protestants accused of heresy and thus failing to enforce the Act of Six Articles, and plotting to marry Lady Mary Tudor, was introduced into the House of Lords a week later and passed on June 29, 1540.

Cromwell was condemned to death without trial, lost all his titles and properties. Hoping for clemency, Cromwell wrote in support of the annulment, in his last personal address to the King. He ended the letter: “Most gracious Prince, I cry for mercy, mercy, mercy.” Cromwell was publicly beheaded on Tower Hill on July 28, 1540, on the same day as the King’s marriage to Catherine Howard. Cromwell made a prayer and speech on the scaffold, professing to die, “in the traditional faith” [Catholic] and denying that he had aided heretics.

The circumstances of his execution are a source of debate: whilst some accounts state that the executioner had great difficulty severing the head, others claim that this is apocryphal and that it took only one blow. Afterwards, his head was set on a spike on London Bridge.

Anne was not crowned queen consort. Following the annulment, she was given a generous settlement by the King, and thereafter referred to as the King’s Beloved Sister. She lived to see the coronation of Queen Mary I, outliving the rest of Henry’s wives.

Anne died at Chelsea Old Manor on July 16, 1557, eight weeks before her forty-second birthday. The most likely cause of her death was cancer. She was buried in Westminster Abbey, on August 3, in what has been described as a “somewhat hard to find tomb” on the opposite side of Edward the Confessor’s shrine and slightly above eye level for a person of average height. She is the only wife of Henry VIII to be buried in the Abbey.