Tower of London ~ Executions

ANNE BOLEYN - May 19, 1536 - Age 35

Henry VIII's second wife and mother to the infant Elizabeth, Henry made sure she would die. Crimes that carried an automatic death penalty included treason, adultery against the King and witchcraft. Although witchcraft was mooted about a bit, Anne was never formally charged perhaps because from Henry's perspective is was not a good look. Mind you, adultery doesn't win any prizes either but by then Henry was too busy lining up wife number three - Jane Seymour.

Anne betrayed none of her characteristic hysterics at the end. She walked slowly across Tower Green towards the scaffold with four of her ladies and climbed the steps unaided. As was the custom she gave a short speech in which she praised the King's grace, a calculated bit of hypocrisy designed to protect her relatives and dependants from the king's wrath and asked that those present pray for her. She was helped out of her ermine-trimmed cloak by one of her ladies but removed her hat herself replacing it with a white linen cap. Then she was blindfolded. A Frenchman, expert in cutting off heads with a sword, had been brought from St. Omer in France since Anne had requested that she be executed by the sword rather than the axe. He made a good job of it. No block was used. Instead Anne rested on her knees with her hands behind her back. The executioner picked up the sword from under the straw, where it had been hidden from view, and pretended to walk away towards the scaffold steps, calling out, 'bring me my sword'. Anne turned her head slightly and before she knew it he struck her, killing her instantly.

CATHERINE HOWARD - February 13, 1542 - Age 22

The night before her execution Catherine Howard practised placing her neck on the groove in the block that had been especially made for her. Except for needing some help getting up the steps, she conducted herself like a queen right up to the very end.

Her sister-in-law, Lady Rochford followed her onto the scaffold and got the chop too for her involvement in Catherine's indiscretions. Poor Lady Rochford. She had suffered what we would call a nervous breakdown and stood on the scaffold giving a long speech before both her, and her speech, were cut short.

Actually, the Tower was so full of people involved in the 'Queen's Disgrace' that some of the accused were moved to the criminal prisons in London. On her way to the Tower by barge, Catherine saw the heads of two of her convicted lovers - Thomas Culpepper and Francis Dereham - on display at London Bridge.

LADY JANE GREY - February 12, 1554 - Age 17

Lady Jane Grey was the granddaughter of a younger sister of Henry VII - Mary. Her father and the Duke of Northumberland arranged a marriage to Northumberland's youngest son Lord Guildford Dudley. At first the two kids hated each other but as time passed and adversity pressed upon them, they grew closer together and probably loved one another at the end. When Henry VIII's son Edward VI was on his deathbed, Northumberland induced him to nominate Jane as his heir in place of his half-sister, Princess Mary, the Roman Catholic daughter of Henry's first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Jane reigned for nine days before Mary's supporters defeated and captured Northumberland. Jane's own father proclamed Mary as the rightful heir - no doubt trying to save himself - and Jane became a prisoner. Her seventeen year old husband joined his father and eldest brother in the Beauchamp Tower.

Various attempts were made to convert Jane to the Catholic faith put she resolutely refused, although her arguments earned her the grudging respect of Mary's own confessor Feckenham.

Jane saw Lord Dudley briefly as he tearfully walked to his execution on Tower Hill. She was still standing at the window when his headless body was returned for burial in the Chapel.

Hastily examined to make sure she wasn't pregnant - Heaven only knowns what would have happened if she was - Jane made her own way to the private scaffold with dignity, reading from her prayer book as she walked. On the scaffold she was blindfolded and then urged to 'step upon the straw, Madam.' but, she knelt too soon and couldn't find the block. Waving her arms back and forth she cried out 'Where is it? What shall I do?' while everyone looked on, paralyzed by her pathetic plight. Finally someone helped her forward and she was able to place her head on the block where it was struck off with one blow. Her body was then taken away and buried next to her young husband in the Chapel.