Hi my name is Kevin Hicks and welcome to my YouTube channel the History Squad. Now
today's video is on the conspiracy to execute Queen Anne Boleyn. So I've been fascinated by
this subject Anne Boleyn her execution I'm going to look at this and take you on a little bit of
a journey which may help you understand what was going on in the court of King Henry VIII
now first of all when I go for a poop you know I do like to be on my own and I like to see to
myself if you understand what I'm saying well actually I'm not always on my own I've got a dog
speaks for itself so let's uh look at Henry VIII right he gets up first thing in the morning he
gets up very early he has somebody come in with the the pot for him to pee in and uh that is done
as he sits on the edge of the bed he stands up he's helped into his dressing gown yeah it's uh
reputed that he had a piece of fur on either side of his chest and back to attract all the the mites
and things that lived in his clothes hey that's another thing he would then leave his bed chamber
into his um private chamber and there things went on his privy council his closest advisors
but the closest of those uh had to be a kind of a personal friend a confidante and was an extremely
powerful man this is the keeper of the royal store now the royal stool or the clothes store was a
an oak box padded on the outside had a very nice seat with a hole in it and a lid it's where
the King went for a poop so there is his privy counsel around and the King would simply lower
his bottom on the suddenly opened lid and then his night shirt would be lifted up and he'd be sitting
there pooping away now I do know that Henry VIII suffered from what my grandmother suffered from
constipation so can you imagine the scene right there are these members of the privy council
they're there in their finery first thing in the morning they've had to get up very early indeed
and there is the keeper of the royal stall standing back respectable but
whispering maybe in the King's ear and the King with his constipation problems he's sat
there going cross-eyed I'm trying to do his business of the day now when he's finished
he will simply raise himself up and the keeper of the royal stool will wipe the King's bottom clean
they used at what was described as a taffeta cloth or or linen this is a bit well you know
did they then retrieve it and clean it did they wash it hey that's for another time maybe
but it's what went on with that privy council who were these people what were they up to
so Anne Boleyn second wife of Henry VIII queen of England she has a very close friend and confident
he is Sir Henry Norris who happens to be the keeper of the royal stall to Henry VIII so he has
the ear of the King shall we say not the rear the ear and he also has the ear of the queen somebody
else has her rear that's a lady in waiting whole different story so the two of them together very
close then Norris with his close circle of friends men who are in the royal wardrobe such fabulously
wealthy people these they are very very strong because if you are the keeper of the royal stall
you're also the keeper of the privy purse the King's money you are powerful now this is going
fine until you add another name to this and this is where the whole conspiracy thing kind of goes
on because the name I'm going to introduce now is Thomas Cromwell so Thomas Cromwell first minister
to the King Henry VIII now he together with Henry VIII decided to channel some of the money that was
being made from the disillusion of the monasteries whole different subject into their own pockets
and also to foster a relationship with the holy roman empire yet again another subject however
the queen together with the keeper of the royal stall Henry wanted the money
not for their own use but for the poor because now the monasteries were down
there is no arms for the poor so they thought the best thing they could do channel some of
the money into the poor and also they were trying to foster a lasting peace and alliance with France
they're going against Thomas Cromwell and he has a spy network and he's picked up on an
overheard conversation where Anne Boleyn alludes to the King's death it's illegal
you can't even countenance think that the King may die so Thomas Cromwell,
he seizes the day and he takes into custody Mark Smeaton, the queen's musician and he's questioned
no he's not he tortured him and you imagine that because that poor wretch confesses that he's had
a love affair and has been sleeping with the queen and the queen has slept with many others too and
she's been conspiring with other men to actually kill the King and Smeaton actually names these
other men which actually include the keeper of the royal stool Sir Henry and the queen's brother
this is the conspiracy this is awful because dates are put together but they don't make sense
apparently on one liaison the queen was with this man but she couldn't have been because she'd just
given birth to princess Elizabeth it's a set up it's a conspiracy and it's going to go to trial so
the trial of Anne Boleyn and her co-conspirators they had a jewelry it should have been fair but
here's a twist in those days you didn't get told what you've been charged with until
the day of the trial you couldn't prepare but notwithstanding that Anne and her brother George
put up a great defence in fact some of the jurors had a bit of a gamble they said it's ten to one
that he'll get off but no it's a done deal the jury knew their duty to the King so Anne Boleyn
her brother George and the other conspirators were found guilty of treason that's George Boleyn,
Sir Henry Norris, Sir Francis Weston, William Brereton and the musician Mark Smeaton
they were gonna die they've been found guilty that should have been hung drawn and quartered
but the King showed lenience he's just gonna have their heads cut off however queen Anne found
guilty of treason she should be burned at the stake but this is the first execution of a queen
so the King shows leniency she will be beheaded so the execution of Anne Boleyn
uh the popular myth is that uh she requested that a swordsman be brought over
the executioner of calais to do the deed but she was found guilty of treason on the 15th of may
and just a few days later on the 19th of may she's going to be beheaded but actually it wasn't meant
to be the 19th it was the 18th and it was all set up and she's ready to die when Thomas Cromwell
orders it to be postponed because there's too many people watching because they are
going to kill a queen and he didn't want foreign diplomats to witness the dirty deed
so it's cleared out and that poor woman has to wait till the next day well come the next day she
is so composed it was almost as if her mind was in a higher place there is a condition for this but I
am not a doctor so I can't tell you what it is she walks to her own execution she's wearing
an english hood you know the old Tudor hood black velvet and a red dress the symbol of a martyr
for her cause she goes and mounts the scaffold apparently she gives a speech
but most importantly she kneels down and holds herself up
no head on the block and proud hands clasped she prays out loud the swordsman behind her
silent and swift cuts her head off in one he then holds it up god saved the King well he probably
didn't say that did he because he's French so he'd probably says God save the queen yeah but
everybody goes oh gasp because the queen's eyes are moving and they fixed on a lady in waiting and
her lips appear to be moving as if she's trying to speak now apparently that's not uncommon if you
cut somebody's head off I don't know but then embarrassment there's this french guy with a
sword and a head and there's the body but they'd forgotten to bring a coffin can you imagine that
so guards are sent away very quickly into the armoury and they come back with a nice oak chest
it's an empty arrow chest and the queen's body together with the head are placed in the chest
and it's fastened down but she was buried under the floorboards of saint peter's chapel the chapel
for the Tower of London and there she would lay for many many years undisturbed that is until
they dug her up but that's for another story another film.
Well I hope you enjoyed that film or at the very least found it interesting. If you did thumbs up.
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Thank you very much for your time, bye for now.