It was May 19, 1536. All of England held her breath. What happened was unprecedented. The queen was executed for the first time in the history of the country. But not for the last time ... By accusing a lot of treason and condemning Anna Boleyn to death, Henry VIII created an easy and convenient way to get rid of unwanted wives ...
She leaves when the queen's head is cut off. (...) But then he turns back to thank the executioner, because he did his duty in a great style, and although the king pays him handsomely, good service should be rewarded with a good word, not only with a purse. He, who was once a poor man, knows this well from his own experience.
The small body lies on the scaffold where it fell:on its stomach, arms outstretched, as if it was swimming in liquid scarlet. Blood seeps between the boards. The Frenchman - they brought the executioners from Calais - reaches for his head to wrap her in linen, and then gives one of the veiled mansions accompanying Anna in her last moments.
When she accepts the bundle, the woman trembles from her neck to her feet, but grasps the cloth with a firm hand, although the head is heavier than might be expected. (...) He sees that the manors are doing well. Anna would be proud of them.
They do not let anyone touch their mistress with an open hand, dismissing those who want to help them. They walk into the solidifying puddle and bend over the negligible corpse. They hold their breath as they pick up what is left of their mistress, grasping the gown; they are afraid that the fabric will break and then they will feel their body cooling down . One by one they pass the pillow she was kneeling on, now soaked with blood.
Anna Boleyn after her arrest at the Tower of London
Out of the corner of his eye, he sees someone sneaking out. The fugitive is wearing a leather vest. This is Francis Bryan, who, as a seasoned courtier, hurries to tell Henry that the king is free again. Francis Bryan knows what he is doing:yes, he was related to the late Queen, but he also does not forget that he is related to the Queen to come as well.
Hope is gone last
The Tower Guards bring an arrow box instead of a coffin. A small body just fits in it. The mansion holding her head kneels down with the bundle soaking through it. Finding no place elsewhere, the woman places them at the feet of the deceased. (...) The courtiers give one last look, then step back, keeping their hands far apart so as not to stain the dresses (...).
"These people are amazing," he says, addressing the French. - They didn't make a coffin, although they had so long to get ready? They knew he was going to die. They couldn't have any doubts.
'Perhaps it is, M. Cremuel. - No French can pronounce his name. "They might have doubted her death, because it seems to me that the woman herself believed that the king would push a messenger to stop it." Still going up the stairs, she was peeking over her shoulder, did you see me?
(...) The audience goes:courtiers, councilors and city officials wearing Tudor colors and with the insignia of the London guilds. Lots of people who don't quite understand what they saw. They know the queen is dead, but it happened too quickly for them to understand (...).
When to look and when not…
Still uttering the last words, when she asked those present to pray for the king, she looked over the heads of the crowd. But she did not let her hope weaken her. Few women can remain so firm to the last moments of their lives, and not many men. She began to tremble, but only after the last prayer.
There was no trunk because the executioner of Calais is not using it. She had to kneel upright, without any support. One of the maids blindfolded her, so the queen could not see the sword or even its shadow and the blade whistled through her neck more easily than scissors through silk (...).
Now a box of elm wood is carried to the chapel, where some floor tiles have been removed for Anna to rest next to her brother Jerzy Boleyn. Brandon comments:“They shared a bed when they were alive, so let them share the grave when they die. I wonder how they will now lie next to each other "(...).
The text is an excerpt from Hilary Mantel's book "Mirror and Light", which has just been published by the Sonia Draga publishing house. This is the culmination of the best-selling trilogy of two-time Booker laureates. The story of Tomasz Cromwell against the backdrop of the fall of Anna Boleyn.
Three years without a month have passed since Anna's coronation. During this time, some became wise, some grew up. Grzegorz was afraid if he could cope when he heard that he was to witness her death. "I can't," he said. "It's a woman, I can't." He could, however, keep his expression under control and control his language. Cromwell always told his son that people were watching him because they wanted to see if he was fit, so that, like his father, he would serve the king (...).
- I do not think I will ever become a member of the Council - says Grzegorz. "I'd rather not learn when to speak and when to remain silent, when to look and when not to." You said when I see the blade in the air she will die a moment later, and you made me bow my head and close my eyes . But you didn't close yourself, I saw.
- Of course I didn't. - He takes his son's arm. "I wouldn't be surprised if the Queen lifted her head after shearing, put it on her neck, grabbed her sword and chased me to Whitehall.
Even dead, she can ruin me yet, she adds silently.
The queen is dead. Long live the Queen!
Witnesses to the execution have already seen the nailing of the lid of the box with the lost queen and are now entering through the open door. City officials are jostling to have a word with him. The mouth is full of questions about one topic:
Honorable Secretary, when will we see the new queen? When will Joanna do this honor for us? Will he drive through the streets or take the royal boat? What coat of arms and emblem will she adopt as a queen? And what motto? When can we order painters and craftsmen? Will the coronation take place soon? What gift should I give her to make her look kindly?
"A bag of money will always be welcome," he replies. "I don't think she's going to be in public before she marries the king, but that will be soon." She is pious in the old style, so she will certainly welcome banners and banners depicting angels, saints or the Virgin Mary (...).
"My wife noticed that this morning the Queen gave up her usual headgear and chose the late Catherine style," says Constable Kingston. - She was curious why Anna did that.
Perhaps it was a courtesy, Cromwell thinks, being rendered to the dead queen by a dying woman. Both will meet today in a different world and they will undoubtedly have a lot to say to each other.
"I wish my niece was imitating Catherine in other things as well," says Norfolk. - If she had been obedient, chaste and chaste, maybe her head would still be resting on the nape of her neck (...).
Cromwell breaks the silence before his son tries to fill it. It will be “Duty to listen and serve” (…).
Three heartbeats
Thomas Cromwell is fifty years old. The same jumbled eyes, the same squat, strong body; same daily schedule. He is at home wherever he wakes:at Roll House on Chancery Lane, at the townhouse on Austin Friars, at Whitehall with the King, or wherever Henry is visiting.
He gets up at five, says a prayer, washes himself and eats breakfast quickly. At six, he starts seeing people with his nephew Richard Cromwell by his side. The barge owed to the King's personal secretary carries him up and downriver to Greenwich, to Hampton Court, to the Mint and the Tower Armory.
Anna was not the first wife Henry VIII got rid of. However, Katarzyna Aragońska was more fortunate - she was not sentenced to death.
Although he still belongs to the commoners, many would admit that he is the second person in England. He replaces the king in ecclesiastical affairs. He has permission to control every government office and investigate every case at the royal court. He carries in his head the English law, the texts of psalms and the words of the prophets, entire lines of the king's books of accounts and his lineage, data on the wealth and income of every significant person in the country (...).
His main responsibility (it seems) was to provide the king with new wives and free him from old wives. (...) Seven years for the king to get Anna. Three years of her reign. Three weeks to bring her to trial. Three heartbeats to end the matter (…).
That night he dreams of the death of Anna Boleyn in three pictures. In the first one, Anna goes to the scaffold in her shapeless, pointed cornet. On the second, Anna is kneeling in a white bonnet, and the Frenchman is raising his sword. In the last one, the severed head, already wrapped in linen, bleeds, painting its shapes on the weave of the fabric.
It wakes up when someone shakes the scarf. If Anna's face is imprinted on the canvas, it is too shocked to see it. The twenty-th day of May one thousand five hundred and thirty-six begins.
Source:
The text is an excerpt from the book by Hilary Mantel "", which has just been published by the Sonia Draga publishing house. It is the culmination of the best-selling trilogy of two-time Booker laureates. The story of Tomasz Cromwell against the backdrop of the fall of Anna Boleyn.