01x03 - Anne Boleyn

[bunniefuu]

On the morning
of the 19th of May 1536,

one of history's most famous
and tragic figures is to be ex*cuted.

Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's second wife.

She'd risen to become
Queen of England,

and helped change the religious
landscape of Britain forever.

But she'd fallen spectacularly.

Charged with adultery,
incest, and treason.

But is Anne Boleyn about to die
an innocent woman?

To recount to you why I am here
would neither serve me nor you.

For God alone is the true judge
of the world.

The events that led this iconic
Tudor figure to the scaffold

are still debated to this day.

They are the moments
that reveal the real Anne Boleyn.

I'm Dan Snow.

And I'm Professor Suzannah Lipscomb.

We're investigating the world
of the Tudors in a whole new way,

by starting at the grizzly end.

In this turbulent time
of shifting allegiances,

volatile politics,
and a clash of religions,

many of the key players end up
with their heads on the block.

We'll uncover the critical moments
that led them to the executioner.

We'll discover fresh insights
and examine new evidence.

As far as the people around her
were concerned, she was innocent.

And challenge
how we see these individuals

and this pivotal point
in Europe's history.

-So Cecil is doctoring the evidence?
-Oh, absolutely.

Because understanding why these people
were convicted and k*lled,

is to understand the Tudors.

We're starting our investigation here,
at the Tower of London.

The site of Anne Boleyn's execution.

So, she'd have come out there,
through Coldharbour Gate.

She would have been able to see
her scaffold ahead of her.

I find it very interesting
that most people ex*cuted,

it's out there, in public,
on Tower Hill.

But she's ex*cuted
behind closed doors, really.

I feel like it's a mercy, like Henry
is granting her privacy and dignity.

And he also extends her the mercy

of paying for an expert swordsman
to come from Calais,

who can behead her in a single stroke.

He cost £23, six shillings
and eight pence.

At the time, a vast amount.

Hans Holbein, the court painter,
is paid £30 a year.

It's an annual salary
for a few seconds of work.

What brought her here
was an extraordinary list of charges.

Incest, adultery, even treason.

So what leads to this?
Her enemies conspiring against her?

I want to look into that.

There is extraordinary new evidence

that might help us understand
the events

that led to her end
in a completely different way.

While Dan goes to check out
Anne's family home,

I'm tracking down that new evidence.

And that means heading here, to Paris.

At the time of her death, and since,
Anne's name has been tarnished

by those charges
of adultery and incest.

But was Anne Boleyn really guilty
of all those alleged crimes?

One of the more reliable accounts
of events surrounding her death

was written by French diplomat
Lancelot de Carle.

There are multiple copies
around Europe.

But in 2021, an academic colleague,
Professor JoAnn DellaNeva,

discovered that one,
in the National Library of France,

was different to all the rest.

I've seen this poem in the British
Library, I've seen it printed,

but I've never seen this version
before.

It gets us to the moment of her death.
And on the scaffold,

she's speaking to the crowd.

And in the standard version
of her speech, she says,

"To narrate to you why I'm here
would not serve you nor me either,

so that's why I'm staying quiet."

But... in this version of the text,
there are some additional lines.

She doesn't stay quiet. So here we go.
She says,

"I want to beg you,

very humbly, that you will not,

on the basis of what you have seen,
or have heard from others,

judge my part such that it damages
your confidence against me."

In other words, she's saying,
"Don't believe the rumors,

don't listen to the hype
that I have done something wrong."

And then de Carle gives us
the reaction of the crowd,

the crowd that he himself
was probably in.

"Chacun pour sa fin tant constante
fait jugement de sa vie prudente."

Each one made judgement
that her life was prudent.

And this is such an exciting word
to find here.

Nowadays, I know we use it
to mean sensible.

It doesn't stand for much.

But in the 16th century,
this is a really important word.

The ability to restrain your passions,
to control yourself.

So it's the ultimate virtue.

To say this of Anne is to put her
in that category of saintly women,

to say she's completely different
from the harlot,

the wh*re that she has been painted
in the trial, and there's more.

It goes on.
"Et pensé avoir grandement offensé

de tout le mal
que d'elle avoir pensé."

So they thought that
they had greatly offended

in all the evil
that they had thought of her.

These additional lines
seem to indicate

that as far as the people around her
were concerned,

at the time of her death,
she was innocent.

This story goes completely contrary
to the version of events

that Henry VIII and his cronies
are putting out.

It's believed these lines were wiped
from all other known copies,

likely on the orders of Henry VIII.

This one was just out of his reach.

These missing lines
fundamentally reframe the life

and death of Anne Boleyn.
If she protested her innocence,

and those around her thought
she was innocent,

how is it she still wound up
being ex*cuted?

To find out, we need to go back
to the start.

I'm on my way to the Loire Valley
in central France.

Is there anything in the early years
of Anne Boleyn's life

that might help us understand
her tragic end?

Anne was sent to France
around the age of 14, by her father.

An ambitious member
of the English gentry,

he wanted Anne
to get a good education...

and to mix with royalty.

So, in 1515, Anne arrived here,
at the stunning Château de Blois.

Wow.

I've been here before, but this place
never ceases to thrill me.

This was one of the homes
of King Francois the First,

and Queen Claude.

Under their rule, France was emerging
as a leading cultural

and intellectual force in Europe.

The ideal place
for an aspiring young woman.

Anne had secured a post
as lady-in-waiting to Queen Claude,

and together, they would have walked
these rooms.

-Pauline.
-Hi, Suzie, how are you?

I'm well, thank you.

I'm meeting Pauline Favrau,

to find out
how being a lady-in-waiting

would shape Anne's whole life.

So the daily life was indeed
to be close to the queen.

They did whatever the queen did.

Claude valued the education
of young girls.

Anne Boleyn learned how to...
speak French,

how to dance, how to play music,

how to converse.
She had to represent her queen.

Well, it's utterly thrilling
to be in the space that...

Claude and Anne Boleyn were in.

Here, under Queen Claude's influence,

Anne also encountered new ways
of thinking about religion.

-Claude is a pious woman, isn't she?
-Yes, she prayed every day.

And so, probably here, Anne Boleyn
heard about the reformist idea

that was happening everywhere else
in Europe.

In early 16th century France,

new ideas of religious reform
began to circulate.

Reformers questioned
priestly authority,

and translated Bibles
into their mother tongue

so ordinary people could read it
for themselves.

The idea was not to create
a new church,

but to put the church back on track.

I think that really could have
an influence on her life in England.

Absolutely. So she has this sense
of what it is like to be open-minded,

to consider a whole range of ideas.

-Nothing's off the table.
-Of course.

The court of France was about saying
your mind. What you want to say.

So when Anne went back to England,

how do you think she had been changed
by her time here in France?

I think she was really different
than anyone else at the English court.

She had this wit, so different.

She could speak, act,
and say no.

She was confident in herself,
and she learned this here.

Anne's time in France
was so formative.

She realized it was possible
to be someone of faith,

deeply engaged with religious ideas,
and also be someone who was witty.

She is a great dancer and she's a very
sort of sensual woman.

She could be all of these things.

The question is, how would this
sophisticated young woman

use what she'd learnt...
back home in the English Court.

In 1522, the French-influenced,

free-thinking Anne Boleyn
returned to England,

to her family home here in Kent.

This is very exciting.
I haven't been here since I was a kid.

Wow.

That is the beautiful Hever Castle.

I want to find out how Anne used
what she'd learnt in France,

and whether any of it
may have contributed to her demise.

What a place.
You can feel the history in here.

Back in England,
Anne's French education paid off.

She became lady-in-waiting
to Henry VIII's wife,

Catherine of Aragon.

But all was not well
in the King's court.

Catherine had given Henry a daughter,

but he thought he needed a son
to carry on the Tudor line.

Catherine was approaching 40
and Henry was losing patience.

He'd become convinced
that the marriage was over.

And around about the same time,
Henry's eye was taken

by the young Anne Boleyn.

Anne is thought to have been
around 25 years old

when her wit, sophistication
and continental ways captivated Henry.

He'd had affairs before,
including with Anne's own sister,

but to Henry,
Anne was somehow different.

This is a crucial moment for Anne,

one that would set her off
on that fateful course.

-Hi, Kate.
-Hello, Dan. Good to meet you.

I'm meeting curator Kate McCaffrey

to find out
why Henry was so drawn to Anne.

What's different about Anne
is she's the first woman, it seems,

to say no to Henry.
That drives him absolutely mad,

makes him more and more infatuated.
He wants what he can't have.

So why does she keep him
at arm's length?

Perhaps foremost is the fact

that she just watched her sister Mary
be the King's mistress

and essentially be used
and discarded at his whim.

But by May 1527,

we know that Anne and Henry have
started some kind of relationship,

and perhaps the best evidence we have
is actually

a group of 17 love letters,
all written in Henry's hand, to Anne.

Henry's handwriting?

Which in itself is really unusual,
because he hated writing letters.

So the fact that he hand-wrote

at least 17 letters to Anne
really says something.

And so we can imagine her
reading these letters,

-possibly in this room here at Hever.
-Absolutely.

This one's written in French.

"Hence forward, my heart shall be
dedicated to you alone."

I don't know if you recognize
what that is at the bottom.

An A and a B?

It's an A and a B
encased in a love heart.

-No way. In a heart.
-In a heart.

It's a lovesick schoolboy,

doodling on his love letters
to his beloved.

It's quite incredible.

But what's interesting
is that it can very easily flick

from a positive to a negative.

Henry's intense devotion
and infatuation...

obsession, even, with Anne,
does flick...

in a matter of years,
to something far more negative.

So perhaps in hindsight, we can see
the beginnings of the end, really,

through these early love letters.

We don't have any letters from Anne
in return,

but I've heard there's one piece
in the British Library

that gives us a clue
about her ultimate reply.

So this is an early 16th century book
of hours. A personal prayer book.

But what makes this even more special

is that it once belonged
to Anne Boleyn.

-Wow.
-And at some point during

Anne's courtship with Henry,

it passed from her hands
into Henry's hands, and back again...

as they wrote intimate, slightly
flirtatious messages to each other.

We get excited by politicians'
WhatsApp messages,

but this is intimate personal
communication from 500 years ago.

That is so special.

Shall we turn to Henry first?

-In his own handwriting.
-That's great.

What a precious thing.

And he writes,

"If you remember my love
in your prayers

as strongly as I adore you,
I will hardly be forgotten.

For I am your Henry Rex forever."

-He's all in.
-He's besotted.

He's chosen a very interesting page,
hasn't he?

Under this picture of the wounded,
brutalized Christ. He's suffering.

So I think he's saying to Anne,
"I'm in torment.

Being without you is torturing me."

And so, if that's not enough, I'd like
to show you Anne's message.

And she writes,
"By daily prove you shall me find,

to be to you both loving and kind."

I think Anne thought very carefully
about where to place her message.

She chose beneath the moment when
the angel Gabriel appeared before Mary

and explained to her
that she would bear a son.

That's very suggestive.

-Deliberately enticing.
-Yeah.

Telling Henry, who was desperate
for a legitimate male heir,

that she's able to provide him
with one.

I think that must have been
intoxicating.

She's saying,
"I know what's gonna turn you on,

and that is the promise of a son."

In this moment in time,
she's holding the cards

and she's holding out to be Henry's
queen and the mother of his son.

It seems like Anne was gambling
everything on giving Henry a son...

and Henry accepted the bet.

So, could she deliver?

After seven years of courtship,
in 1533, Anne and Henry were married.

Now, she was the center
of Henry's world.

And nowhere is that clearer than here,

his most magnificent surviving royal
residence: Hampton Court Palace.

This never fails to thrill me.
Look at it. It's utterly beautiful.

Here, on the walls
of the palace's Great Hall,

are signs of Henry's devotion.

This is what I've come here to find.
Look here.

The H and the A intertwined.

Carved after Henry and Anne's
marriage. It's a true lover's knot.

An indication of how they felt
about each other.

Around the corner,
there's another beautiful feature

added by the craftsmen...
in honor of Anne.

And here it is.

It's just so amazing to be this close
to it, to make out the detail.

Anne adopted the falcon as her badge
when she married Henry VIII,

and I love that she did.

A falcon is a bird of prey that
is very good at getting what it wants.

It has a crown, and it's holding
a scepter. This is a royal falcon.

And it's standing on a stump
from which emerge Tudor roses.

Anne is promising Henry that the line
is going to be fruitful and fertile.

This falcon, along with many others,

was once high up in the ceiling
of the great hall.

Those that remain tell a sadder tale
of what was to come.

Look up there.

The original falcons
were painted black after her death.

This is a way of damning her memory.
But standing up here,

I've spotted even more.
Not just these,

but others hanging here,
up on the corbels

that drop from the ceiling.

She's everywhere, she's inscribed
over this whole ceiling.

So we have both the moment
of her greatest elevation as Queen

and also her downfall.

But I need to take a step back,

to look at how they were even able
to wed.

After all, Henry was already
a married man.

To marry Anne and make her his queen,

Henry needed to have his marriage
to Catherine of Aragon annulled.

Today, we often talk about it
as a divorce,

but it wasn't one as we know it.

It was a declaration that the marriage
had never legally happened.

The last 24 years never took place.
It is gaslighting, really, isn't it?

Henry needed the marriage declared
null and void,

and only the Pope could do that.

Henry tried for six years
to get Pope Clement to agree.

He sent diplomats and theologians
to plead his case,

but still the Pope refused.

His eventual solution

would be to break England
from Rome all together,

embracing some ideas
of religious reform

that Anne had picked up in France.

What I want to know is, how involved
was Anne in that momentous decision?

I'm hoping
Professor Catherine Fletcher can help.

How much do you think we can see
Anne's agency and role here?

It's easy to see Anne as just the sexy
object of Henry's desire here,

and to forget that she was
an extremely smart woman

who's interested in ideas of reading
the Bible for yourself,

of having access to the Bible
in your own language.

And so she is able to use these ideas

to push Henry
in the direction of thinking,

"Perhaps we don't need to make
this decision via the papacy?"

Is Anne driving this forwards
because of religious reform,

or is she simply ambitious for herself
to become Queen?

Anne's interest in religious reform

and her interest in becoming Queen
start to work together.

And Anne has a powerful ally
in Henry's court,

who's also pushing to reform
the church:

lawyer turned statesman,
Thomas Cromwell.

Thomas Cromwell has a few things
in common with Anne.

They are both slightly outsiders.

Anne is the daughter of a diplomat.
Cromwell is the son of a Brewer,

a tradesman in Putney,
who is very much a self-made man.

So in some ways,
they have some fellow feeling.

They also both support
religious reform.

Together, they're ideally placed
to influence the king.

And it was a key reformist idea,
that the Bible, not the Pope,

was the ultimate source
of spiritual authority,

that gave Henry his answer.

Catherine of Aragon
had previously been married

to Henry's late brother, Arthur.
The Bible decreed that a man

who married his brother's widow
would remain childless.

Henry concluded that was why
he'd been denied a son and heir.

In 1533, Henry had his marriage
to Catherine annulled,

a few months after he'd married
Anne Boleyn in secret.

In order to do so,
he founded a new Church of England,

with himself as its head.

A landmark moment in English history.

It seemed that Anne had got everything
she wanted: reform, Henry,

and she was Queen of England.

All she had to do now
was fulfill her part of the bargain

and bear Henry a son.

I'm also struck by how high stakes
this was for Anne.

She, by this point, could have
been the wife of a nobleman,

had a bevy of children and be living
a comfortable life in the countryside,

but instead,
she's chosen to pursue Henry.

She was risking her entire future
on him.

Less than eight months later,

Anne's gamble of promising Henry a son
and heir looked like it had paid off.

I've come to the Old Royal
Naval College in Greenwich,

once the site of a Tudor Royal Palace.

It was here,
on the seventh of September 1533,

that Anne gave birth
to her much-anticipated baby.

This is the official
birth announcement.

It was prepared in advance.
They left a gap here for the date.

Imagine a press officer preparing
for an important declaration.

It says, "by the Queen."
In theory, these are Anne's words.

"Right, trusty and well-beloved,
we greet you well,

and where it hath pleased the goodness
of Almighty God of his infinite mercy,

to send unto us and the deliverance
and bringing forth of a princess."

But wait, because a little
extra letter has been squeezed in.

An "s."

This tiny amendment points to just how
much everyone was expecting a prince,

the male heir that Anne
had promised Henry.

Of course, her baby would become
one of England's most celebrated

and longest reigning monarchs,
Elizabeth the First,

but no one knew that at the time.

For Henry,
a girl was a disappointment.

So was this the moment it all
went wrong? Well, no, not quite.

At this time in 1533,
yes, of course it was a shame,

it was unfortunate, regrettable
that Anne hadn't had a boy.

But Anne had proved she could
get pregnant, and very quickly.

And she delivered a healthy child.

Henry would have had every hope
for the future,

for a whole bevy of boys.

So Anne's downfall is not yet
set in stone.

There's every expectation
she'll get pregnant again.

Back at Hever Castle, there's
an extraordinary piece of evidence

that some historians believe
sheds light on what happened next.

This is a very, very special object
indeed,

from the British Museum
that's been lent to Hever Castle.

You can just about make out
the facial features.

Poor thing has slightly lost her nose.

And we think this is one of only a...
very, very, very few images of Anne,

created during her lifetime.
So it's very special indeed.

You've got "A R" there, which we think
stands for Anna Regina, Queen Anne.

And why do we think it's that?

Because writing around the rim here
says "MOOST HAPPI,"

which was the motto adopted by Anne.

And then we've got a date, 1534.

Quite an interesting date.
Our best guess

is that this was cast for another
very important occasion.

In 1534, Anne became pregnant
for a second time.

Perhaps this was struck
in anticipation

that that would result
in a healthy baby boy,

a new Tudor who would one day sit
on his father's throne.

And that makes this very poignant,

because we now know this pregnancy
did not result in a healthy,

happy male heir.

And so all of the optimism
you see here,

all of the excitement,
it would all came to naught.

So Anne had now been pregnant twice.

The first time produced a girl,
the second ended in miscarriage.

Then, in January 1536,
Anne miscarried again.

Aside from the personal tragedy,

I wonder what those around her
were starting to say.

I've found a report from a man called
Eustace Chapuys,

a diplomat who was writing back
to his master on the continent.

He's used code. It's encrypted

so that English agents
can't intercept these words.

And then someone on the continent
has translated it into French

for his boss.

The report tells of Anne's
most recent miscarriage...

and there's something else.

And you can see in the margin here,
he says,

"This fetus had
the apparence de male."

The appearance of a male child.

Now the fact that it was a boy,

it would have been that male heir
Henry had been praying for,

explains this next bit
of intelligence.

"Le roi demonstre grand désarroi."

The King shows enormous distress.

Things are looking really bad
for the Queen.

By January 1536,
Anne had been married for three years.

It seems she'd lost two pregnancies,

most recently, the son Henry
had been so desperate to have.

A miscarriage
is emotionally upsetting.

If it was the second in a row,
it would have been doubly devastating.

I doubt Anne just felt sadness,

I think she probably felt pressure,
maybe even fear.

And it was justified.
Not having a son made Anne vulnerable.

Just as with his first wife,
Catherine,

it seems Henry may have begun to lose
interest in his marriage to Anne.

Then, in April 1536,
Cromwell came to Henry with rumors

that Anne had been entertaining men
in her rooms.

The enraged king ordered Cromwell
to investigate, on pain of death.

If the rumors turned out to be false,
Cromwell would pay with his life.

To save his own skin, Cromwell had
to find a way to disgrace Anne,

without reflecting badly on Henry.

I'm meeting with
Professor Catherine Fletcher

to explore Cromwell's extreme claims.

Anne is accused of having sex

with a whole group of young men
at court.

An extraordinary set of allegations
and an extremely implausible one.

She can't have been in the places
where she's supposed to have been.

Clearly, this is made up.

Worst of all the allegations was that
Anne had had sex with her own brother.

I think the George allegations

push this into the realm of lurid
beyond rational belief.

It's just ridiculous.

By making Anne into the nymphomaniac
with multiple lovers,

one of whom is even her own brother,

because she so cannot keep her hands
off any man around,

that makes it very clear
that the problem here is Anne

and the problem is not Henry.

For Cromwell's plan to work,
he needed one of these men to crack

and admit to something
they hadn't done.

To look at how he did it,
I've come to the National Archives

to meet Tudor records specialist,
Dr. Sean Cunningham.

-Hello, Sean.
-Hello, Suzie.

The evidence Cromwell collected
against Anne

was stored away from prying eyes.

Oh. Let's take a look.

In the Tudor period, state trials
were kept in a bag of secrets.

Bag of secrets.
Goodness, look at this.

Anyone accused of high treason,
their papers had to be locked away.

The documents could be put in it,
these ties would be pulled,

and then it would be locked away
in a cupboard with three locks,

-and three keys needed to unlock it.
-Gosh.

So this 500-year-old leather bag

was keeping the secrets
of Anne's alleged crimes.

These documents list the accused men,
but one name stands out.

A low-ranking, young court musician
called Mark Smeaton.

-So here we can see Mark's name.
-Oh, yes.

In May 1535,
at the Palace of East Greenwich,

he was procured by the Queen to have
sexual relationships with her.

"Carnally known her,"
is how it's described here.

So this is interesting.

We've got much longer entries
for some men

who are much higher status,

but we have Smeaton referenced
with regard to adultery, carnally.

Mark Smeaton. He's the odd one out.

And Mark Smeaton is vital, because
he was the only one of the accused

who confessed
under Cromwell's interrogation.

Whenever he turns up in the sources,
whether it's this poem,

this account from June 1536,

or Wriothesley's chronicle of events
happening under Henry VIII,

or in this letter to Cromwell,

on each occasion, Mark Smeaton
is referred to only as Mark.

Everyone else is referred to
by surname --

Weston, Brereton, Norris. Mark.

Here again,
Norris, Brereton, and Mark.

And here again in the letter,
if we zoom in on that,

it says Mark.

It could be a question of status,

maybe Mark is particularly lowly
by comparison to these other people,

but I think it's more than that.

This is my other piece of evidence.
The privy purse expenses.

The amounts paid out by Henry's court
for small local expenses.

Where there's provision made
for clothing

for the two boy musicians.

For Mark, for Philip's boy,
and for Sexton.

Now Sexton is one of Henry VIII's
fools.

What these people have in common
is that they're all either very young,

they're boys, or in Sexton's case,

is that he's someone
of childlike intelligence.

Where does Mark fall into this?

Is he actually just someone
who's very young at this time,

or is he perhaps someone
who was vulnerable in some way?

Because it seems to me
that he's the key to this case.

Cromwell speaks to him.

Mark confesses to sexual intercourse
with the Queen on three occasions.

No one else confesses.

And my feeling is that Mark was chosen

because he was someone
who could be persuaded.

Because he was someone
perhaps of great youth

or childlike intelligence,
who could be made to say things

that weren't true.

And that was really crucial
to making this whole thing stick.

It didn't matter that it wasn't true.
Cromwell had his confession,

and it made the allegations against
the other men seem credible.

With the scandals seemingly confirmed
to a now embittered Henry,

Anne had to die.

But to execute the Queen,

Cromwell would need more than charges
of adultery and incest.

He needed to prove treason.

Scouring the evidence,
he found what he was after.

A conversation between Anne
and one of the men, Henry Norris.

She said to Henry Norris,

"If aught but came to the king
but good, you would look to have me."

Now, imagining the king's death
has been defined as treason.

So there is a point at which
the allegations about Anne

and this group of men move beyond
who is she sleeping with

and into the realm of...

they are planning what to do
if the king dies.

So what could have been
just a bit of flirtatious chatter,

becomes something much more sinister
in the eyes of the law.

Evidence to pin on Anne
as treasonable conduct.

This was the final nail in the coffin.

On the second of May 1536,
Anne Boleyn was arrested.

In less than three weeks,
she would be ex*cuted.

The thing that still catches my breath
is that it happened so quickly.

Henry is destroying the woman
that he has waged

a campaign to win for seven years,

he's written those love letters to.

And yet within a few weeks,
she's wiped off the map.

Once Henry has accepted the idea
that Anne is guilty,

then she has to go fast.

Cromwell doesn't want Anne
getting back to Henry

and pleading her case.

I think also,
making it happen very fast

means that neither Henry nor Cromwell
has to think about it too much.

They just go ahead and do it,

because what they're doing together
is judicial m*rder.

On the 15th of May 1536,

Anne Boleyn stood trial here,
at the Tower of London.

She protested her innocence,
but to no avail.

With our investigation coming
to a close, it's time to meet up.

What have you learnt
from this journey?

When I went to Paris,

I found she does effectively protest
her innocence on the scaffold.

I mean, this is brand new information
for all of us historians.

And the crowds around her believe
that she's innocent.

What just blows my mind
is the speed at which events move.

Henry goes from the hottest love --

I mean, those love letters
are so intense, very moving...

and yet suddenly, we're here.
He is putting his wife to death.

Two sides of one coin,
love and hate.

That's what we see enacted
here on the scaffold,

is Henry's love
has become bitter hatred.

So why?
Why is she going to her death?

Well, I think Cromwell's part of it,

but I think he's probably just acting
for Henry.

He's the good servant.
He's doing what he's told to do.

And really, we have to put the blame
on Henry himself.

What has really struck me is that
for all the poetry and courtly love,

actually, at root, this story has been
one about having a male heir.

The fact that Anne and Henry
couldn't have that son

just tears everything apart.

Yes. It's about Henry's devastation
at what he feels is betrayal.

That he feels this woman he has moved
heaven and earth to be with

has let him down.

There's no getting around the fact
that Henry behaves terribly here.

He puts his wife to death
and she's innocent of the crimes.

With all we've learned,

it's time to look again
at Anne's final moments.

On the morning
of the 19th of May 1536,

Anne Boleyn is led through
the Tower's Coldharbour Gate.

In the crowd, Thomas Cromwell...

the man who'd engineered the evidence
that had sealed her fate.

We now know from those missing lines
of Lancelot de Carle's account,

that Anne proclaimed her innocence.

O my friends...

since I can be with you
but a short while...

and finished
is the course of my years...

I beseech you
not to be troubled by it.

And that many of those watching on,
believed the charges to be false.

For God alone
is the true judge of the world.

But the judge of the world,

in whom justice and truth abound,
knows all.

She'd risen from a determined
young girl in France,

to be Queen of England.

But she'd promised a son,
something she could never guarantee.

And the man
who just a few years earlier

had professed his love
so passionately...

was sending her to her death.

Just 11 days after Anne Boleyn's
execution,

Henry married his third wife,
Jane Seymour.

Jane did bear Henry
his longed-for son, Edward.

He would succeed his father,
but his rule would be short-lived.

He died aged just 15.

It was Anne Boleyn's daughter
who would become Queen Elizabeth I.

One of England's longest reigning
and most celebrated monarchs.

While Anne, the intelligent,
free-thinking young woman

who changed England forever,
remains an enduring historical icon.