17th May 1536, George Boleyn is executed

17th May 1536, George Boleyn is executed 

    On the early morning of the 17th of May 1536, several men, among them the queen’s own brother, were escorted out of the western entrance of the Tower, under heavy guard.  

They were George Boleyn, as well as Sir Henry Norris, Sir Francis Weston, Sir William Brereton, and Mark Smeaton.

    Large crowds had assembled on Tower Green to watch the bloody spectacle – the execution of those men who had once been favored by His Majesty and held power at the royal court.

The crowd were virtually silent, with little booing and jeering, as was common with normal state executions.

    As the highest-ranked man among the condemned prisoners, George Boleyn was the first one to climb the scaffold and meet his maker. 

George’s scaffold speech was both conventional, and dramatic ~ he acknowledged that he had been condemned by the law and hence, merited death, because he was a sinner.

    He begged forgiveness of anyone he may have offended, and begged for God's forgiveness.

He came close to denying his guilt by declaring, 

"beware, trust not in the vanity of the world or the flatteries of the court, or the favour and treacheries of fortune"

    After the speech, George bravely knelt at the block.  

He was beheaded with one clean strike of the executioner’s axe. 

The young, talented man – a Tudor courtier, poet, and diplomat famous for his attractive appearance, intelligence, and his reformed religious views – was murdered.

    Norris, Weston, Brereton, and Smeaton soon followed George.  

 As George had been killed before them, the scaffold was bloodied, and the fear of the other men, would have been obvious to see.

 They knew that they were innocent, and were never Anne’s lovers, so must have held on to their faith, that they would all see each other again, in Heaven.

    Mark Smeaton was the final man to be killed. 

Standing on the scaffold, littered with the headless corpses of those whom he had once known and been friends with, he must have surely been terrified. 

Yet, he was also fortunate.

As a man of lower class than the others, he could have been hanged, drawn, and quartered, so to leave this world by beheading with the axe, was a kinder fate.

Unfortunately, Smeaton never retracted the confession of his false adultery with Anne.  

In memory of George Boleyn, Sir Henry Norris, Sir Francis Weston, Sir William Brereton, and Mark Smeaton, may you continue to Rest in Peace <3