QUEEN ANNE BOLEYN: HER CORONATION
WHITSUNDAY, JUNE 1, 1533
. . . The Thursday next before the Feast of
Pentecost, the King and the Queen being at Greenwich, all the Crafts of London
thereunto well appointed, in several barges decked after the most gorgeous and
sumptuous manner, with divers pageants thereunto belonging, repaired and waited
all together upon the Mayor of London; and so, well furnished, came all unto
Greenwich, where they tarried and waited for the Queen's coming to her barge;
which so done, they brought her unto the Tower, trumpets, shawms, and other
divers instruments playing and making great melody, which, as is reported, was
as comely done as never was like in any time nigh to our remembrance. And so
her Grace came to the Tower on Thursday at night, about five of the clock,
where also was such a peal of guns as hath not been heard the like a great
while before. And the same night, and Friday all day, the King and Queen
tarried there; and on Friday at night the King's Grace made eighteen knights of
the Bath, whose creation was not only so strange to hear of, as also their
garments stranger to behold or look upon; which said knights, the next day,
which was Saturday, rode before the Queen's Grace throughout the City of London
towards Westminster Palace, over and besides the most part of the nobles of the
realm, which like accompanied her Grace throughout the said city; she sitting
in her hair [i.e. her hair flowing down], upon a horse litter, richly
apparelled, and four knights of the Five Ports bearing a canopy over her head.
And after her came four rich chariots, one of them empty, and three other
furnished with divers ancient old ladies; and after them came a great train of
other ladies and gentlewomen; which said progress, from the beginning to the
ending, extended half a mile in length by estimation or thereabout. To whom
also, as she came along the City, were shewn many costly pageants, with divers
other encomiums spoken of children to her; wine also running at certain
conduits plenteously. And so proceeding throughout the streets, passed further
unto Westminster Hall, where was a certain banquet prepared for her, which
done, she was conveyed out of the back side of the Palace into a barge, and so
unto York Place, where the King's Grace was before her coming, for this you
must ever presuppose that his Grace came always before her secretly in a barge
as well from Greenwich to the Tower as from the Tower to York Place.
Now then on the Sunday was the Coronation, which
also was of such a manner.
In the morning there assembled with me at
Westminster Church the Bishop of York, the Bishop of London, the Bishop of
Winchester, the Bishop of Lincoln, the Bishop of Bath, and the Bishop of St.
Asaph, the Abbot of Westminster with ten or eleven more Abbots, which all
revestred ourselves in our pontificalibus, and, so furnished, with our Crosses
and Croziers, proceeded out of the Abbey in a procession into Westminster Hall,
where we received the Queen apparelled in a robe of purple velvet, and all the
ladies and gentlewomen in robes and gowns of scarlet according to the manner
used beforetime in such business; and so her Grace sustained of each side with
two bishops, the Bishop of London and the Bishop of Winchester, came forth in
procession unto the Church of Westminster, she in her hair, my Lord of Suffolk
bearing before her the Crown, and two other Lords bearing also before her a
sceptre and a white rod, and so entered up into the High Altar, where divers
ceremonies used about her, I did set the Crown on her head, and then was sung
Te Deum. And after that was sung a solemn Mass, all which while her Grace sat
crowned upon a scaffold which was made between the High Altar and Choir in
Westminster Church; which Mass and ceremonies done and finished, all the assembly
of noblemen brought her into Westminster HaIl again, where was kept a great
solemn feast all that day; the good order thereof were too long to write at
this time to you.
But now, Sir, you may not imagine that this
Coronation was before her marriage, for she was married much about St. Paul's
Day last, as the condition thereof doth well appear by reason she is now
somewhat big with child. Notwithstanding it hath been reported throughout a
great part of the realm that I married her, which was plainly false, for I
myself knew not thereof a fortnight after it was done. And many other things be
reported of me, which be mere lies and tales.... '
From Cranmer's own account contained in a letter
from him to Mr. Hawkyns, English Ambassador at the court of the Emperor,
Charles V. (Spelling modernized.)
1. From this account do you think Anne Boleyn's
coronation was designed for Henry VIII and his new Queen or to be a display of
Tudor power? Explain.
2. From the description of the coronoation,
what were the various ways that Henry VIII and his ministers displayed the
power of the Tudor state?
QUEEN ANNE BOLEYN ON THE DAY OF HER EXECUTION
FRIDAY, MAY 19, 1536
This
morning she sent for me, that I might be with her at such time as she received
the good Lord, to the intent I should hear her speak as touching her innocency
alway to be clear. And in the writing of this she sent for me, and at my coming
she said, "Mr. Kingston, I
hear I shall not die afore noon, and I am very sorry therefore, for I thought
to be dead by this time and past my pain ". I told her it
should be no pain, it was so little. And then she said, "I heard say the executioner was
very good, and I have a little neck", and then put
her hands about it, laughing heartily. I have seen many men and also women
executed, and that they have been in great sorrow, and to my knowledge this
lady has much joy in death. Sir, her almoner is continually with her, and had
been since two o'clock after midnight.
From
a letter from Sir W. Kingston, Constable of the Tower, to Thomas Cromwell, May
19th, 1536. (spelling modernized)
1. Why does the author of this document admire
Anne Boelyn?
2. What is an example of 'gallows humor' from
this document?