Letter detailing Anne Boleyn's time in the Tower prior to her execution, May 1536

            A letter from Sir William Kingston, Lieutenant of the Tower of London to Thomas Cromwell, the leading Henrician minister. The letter concerns the preparations being made for Anne Boleyn’s execution. The letter is undated but evidently dates sometime after Anne’s trial on the 15th May 1536 and her execution on the 19th. Within the letter Kingston refers to Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury’s visit to the Tower to see Anne, which occurred on the 16th (hence the letter was likely composed on that date).

From her arrest on the 2ndMay to her death, a series of letters passed between Kingston and Cromwell cornering how Anne, and the men accused of committing adultery and treason with her, should be treated. Here Kingston mentions his meeting with Henry VIII in which the king specified the treatment his wife and the men were to receive. The letter also tells us of Anne’s state of mind in the days leading to her execution. In previous letters Kingston alleged that Anne was prone to significant mood swings, ranging from disbelief at her imprisonment to grief for the fate of her family. In this letter Kingston states that Anne apparently stated that she wished to enter a nunnery, indicating a desire to remain alive. Anne’s statement may have been an insincere one made out of desperation. Or perhaps she was proposing that she would be willing to end her marriage quietly by retiring to a convent, an option offered to her predecessor, Katherine of Aragon. 

The letter is currently display at the “Henry VIII: Man and Monarch” exhibit at the British Library.

Taken on: July 19, 2009

Tags:

Anne

Boleyn

Consort

Henry

VIII

execution

imprisonment

Tower

London

May

1536

William

Kingston

Lieutenant

Thomas

Cromwell

sixteenth

century

letter

official

correspondance

Cranmer

archbishop

Canterbury « less

Sets appears in: • Anne Boleyn • Henry VIII more » • Tudor manuscripts and documents • Queen Consorts of the Early Modern Period • Henry VIII: Man and Monarch exhibition « less

Groups appears in: • Anne Boleyn: “The Moost Happi” • The Six Wives of Henry VIII more » • Henry VIII (1491–1547) « less

Stats: 462 views / 2 comments

close tools panel

Badge creator

Use Flickriver Badge Creator to create a badge linking to your photos, your group or any other Flickriver view.

You can place your badge on your Flickr profile, Blog or Website.

Add to your iGoogle or Netvibes page

Flickriver widget for iGoogle or Netvibes can display almost any Flickriver view - most interesting today, by user, by group, by tag etc. Once added to your personalized homepage, just edit widget settings to select your desired view.

Clickr on one of the buttons below to install:

Embed on your Web site

To embed this view, Copy and Paste the following HTML code:

Black background (preview):

White background (preview):

Firefox and Chrome addons

Adds a 'Flickriver' button to your browser. While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on this button to open the same view on Flickriver.

Install in Firefox
Install in Chrome

Search plugin

Add 'Search on Flickriver' to your browser's search box. Works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Install search plugin

"View on Flickriver" Greasemonkey script

A Greasemonkey script that adds Flickriver links to various Flickr photo pages - user photos, favorites, pools etc, allowing to quickly open the corresponding Flickriver view.

Also, allows quickly viewing any Flickr photo on black background in large size.

Install "View on Flickriver" script

Bookmarklet

While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on the bookmarklet to open the same view on Flickriver.

To install: drag and drop the following link to your Bookmarks toolbar.
IE users - add the link to your Favorites under the Links folder