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| Wikipedia
A MURDER REMEMBERED--This collection of ephemera is intended to be of
general interest—a remembrance of the day this legendary woman was executed and
not intended to champion any belief—pro or con—true or false regarding the
ghost legends that have arisen over the years.
The following is a collection of the most popular stories gathered from
the usual suspects.—Ed.
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"I did nothing to you. I was
innocent. All the accusations against me
were false- I thought you knew." --Anne Boleyn
On this day in 1536, the neck of Anne Boleyn offered little resistance to
the metal sword, which instantly severed her head from her body as she knelt
erect on the scaffold. Her flesh is gone
but her short life remains a fascination 499 years later. And, a few say she
never really left as Anne’s ghost has been seen inside the millennium-old Tower
of London, the site of her execution.
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| Queen Anne Boleyn in a painting attributed to John Hoskins |
Anne Boleyn’s ghost is obviously not content with
being seen only at the Tower of London.
This enterprising spectre has opened a franchise at several locations:
Hever Castle, Salle Church, Marwell Hall and Blickling Hall in Norfolk, where at
the latter she has reportedly been seen riding into the courtyard of the Hall
in a carriage of headless horses, while holding her head under her arm (with
blood still seeping from the wound). Legend has it this apparition appears at
Blickling Hall at Midnight on the eve of her execution day, May 19, 1536. Blickling is the Boleyn’s ancestral
Jacobean-style manor, where Anne was born in 1507.
Two YouTube versions explaining Anne’s ghost at
Blickling Hall
Meanwhile back at the Tower of London, a legendary sighting
(all reputed, of course) is described by Hans Holzer, who said J.D. Dundas, an
officer in the 60th Rifles was looking out of his tower quarters
when he noticed a guard below in the courtyard behaving oddly. Standing in front of the lodgings where Anne
had been imprisoned, the guard appeared to challenge something or someone,
which to Major General Dundas “looked like a whitish, female figure sliding
toward the soldier.” The guard
challenged the form with his bayonet, then fainted. Only his superior officer’s testimony at the
court martial saved the guard from imprisonment for feinting while on
duty.
Reportedly, Anne’s body was
left unattended on the scaffold for sometime until a tower worker placed her in
an arrow box. She was buried the same
day in an unmarked spot inside the tower church St. Peter ad Vincula. Her
ghost has been seen inside the church walking down the aisle to her grave under
the altar.
As recent as 1933, newspaper
accounts reported a tower guard fled his post after a ghost walked into his
bayonet. That sounds like a version of
the previous ghost/guard story.
Sightings have occurred at
Hever Castle in Kent, where Anne met Henry VIII. She’s been seen among her favorite castle
haunts when she was alive.
At Marwell Hall, her ghost
has been seen at Marwell Hall, where reportedly Henry and Jane Seymour waited
out Anne’s execution.
Anne has appeared standing
at the window in the Dean’s Cloister at Windsor Castle.
One legend says she is
buried at Salle Chapel.
At Hampton Court she has
been spotted wearing a blue or black dress and many times she appears headless.
Also, Canon W.S.
Pakenham-Walsh, vicar of Sulgrave, Northhamptonshire, reported having
conversations with Anne.
EXECUTION SCENE From Henry VIII, the Showtime
series starring Natalie Dormer:
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| Brit actress Natalie Dormer had to dye her blonde hair dark for her role in the Showtime Henry VIII series. |
TOWER OF LONDON TOUR By actress Natalie Dormer.
Oh Death, Let Pass My Very Guiltless Ghost
In the Tower of London, Anne
penned this poem:
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| Dormer as Boleyn execution scene |
Oh Death
Rock me asleep
Bring on my quiet rest
Let pass my very guiltless
ghost
Out of my careful breast
Ring out the doleful knell
Let it sound
My death tell
For I must die.
WITNESS TO THE EXECUTION
Queen Anne Boleyn on the day
of her execution, Friday, 19, May 1536
From a letter from Sir W.
Kingston, Constable of the Tower, to Thomas Cromwell, May 19th, 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.”
ANNE’S FAREWELL ADDRESS
8 am. Recorded by Edward Hall with spelling that
has been modernized.
“Good Christian people, I am
come hither to die, for according to the law, and by the law I am judged to
die, and therefore I will speak nothing against it. I am come hither to accuse
no man, nor to speak anything of that, whereof I am accused and condemned to
die, but I pray God save the king and send him long to reign over you, for a
gentler nor a more merciful prince was there never: and to me he was ever a
good, a gentle and sovereign lord. And if any person will meddle of my cause, I
require them to judge the best. And thus I take my leave of the world and of you
all, and I heartily desire you all to pray for me. O Lord have mercy on me, to
God I commend my soul.”
After being blindfolded and kneeling at the block,
she repeated several times: “To Jesus Christ I commend my soul; Lord Jesu
receive my soul.”
--Recorded by Edward Hall
(spelling modernized)
CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY
Wikipedia provides a lengthy biography of Anne Boleyn:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Boleyn.
Where else will you find the signature of Anne Boleyn?
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| Tower of London chapel St. Peter ad Vincula, where Anne Boleyn is interred after her remains were identified during a Victorian era restoration of the small church.  |
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