Documentary, Six Wives with Lucy Worsley S01E02 - Anne and Jane
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00:00Divorced. Beheaded. Died. Divorced. Beheaded. Survived. The story of Henry VIII and his six
00:17wives is one of the best known in history. There's Catherine of Aragon, the bitter,
00:23abandoned first wife. Anne Boleyn, the original other woman. Jane Seymour, bit of a doormat.
00:31Then we've got Anne of Cleves. She was the ugly one. Catherine Howard, the one who slept around.
00:37And Catherine Parr, the saintly nurse. But I'm going to tell you a very different story.
00:46I'm going to take you back in time and into the private lives of Henry's six wives.
00:53I'm going to see the story from their point of view. And I'll watch as events unfold.
01:01The fate of my soul is no longer your concern. It will always be my concern.
01:06These events all really happened and were recorded in historical documents or reported by eyewitnesses.
01:13They asked for his head, not his coat. They reveal six complex women who lived in a dangerous age
01:22as they struggled to survive being married to Henry VIII.
01:26You are still prepared to question me.
01:30Six wives whose names were tarnished by Henry's propaganda machine.
01:37Six queens whose stories I want to re-examine.
01:42Is she here?
01:43I'll observe their life at court.
01:48I'll watch them romanced by a charismatic king.
01:52Tell me all the same.
01:54Always.
01:55Who craves the company of women.
01:57The king is a very sociable man.
02:00I have here a warrant for the arrest of Queen Catherine.
02:03I'll see how their reputations are destroyed.
02:06I beg of you to tell the king that my heart is filled with sorrow and assure him of my repentance.
02:11And life's cut short at the hands of a ruthless, brutal man.
02:16Six children born.
02:18Five of them dead.
02:21This is the ultimate true story of love, loss and betrayal.
02:27Remember what happened to my last wife and queen.
02:45Henry VIII's loyal first wife, Catherine of Aragon, tried desperately to give the king a male heir.
02:52I'm afraid she has suffered a loss of the child.
02:56Get out!
02:58Mary?
02:59Mother?
03:01After losing five children, she had a daughter, Mary.
03:05But her failure to give him a son angered her husband.
03:09He began to look elsewhere.
03:11Sent from Anne Boleyn with her kindest regards, Your Majesty.
03:15Henry became infatuated with Anne Boleyn.
03:18And he made her a promise that one day she would be his queen.
03:22The storm shall pass.
03:25If she has patience enough.
03:27Or the will to see it through.
03:29But he already had a queen.
03:32I have been a true, humble and obedient wife.
03:38Henry was determined to marry Anne.
03:40But two people stood in his way, the Pope and Catherine herself, who had no intention of giving up her crown.
03:48The king has been trying to end his marriage for more than two years.
04:01Increasingly impatient, he has now moved Anne Boleyn into the royal palace at Greenwich.
04:05Forcing Catherine of Aragorn to live side-by-side with his mistress.
04:10You brought me here under false pretenses.
04:20I assumed it was to discuss a specific legal matter.
04:24Not to be caught up in this feudal repetitious debate.
04:26You, sir, face eternal damnation.
04:29Not only of your own soul, but all of your subjects.
04:32You cannot defy the church in this way.
04:35The fate of my soul is no longer your concern.
04:37It will always be my concern.
04:40You are no longer queen.
04:41Accept this.
04:42My majesty.
04:57My lord.
04:59How was your meeting?
05:01Brief.
05:02And the last of its kind.
05:09It's 1530.
05:10One of the stranger moments in English history.
05:13Because the country's got two queens.
05:16One of them, Catherine of Aragorn, is the crowned queen of England and lawful wife of Henry VIII.
05:22The other, Anne Boleyn.
05:30No Tudor woman has been mythologised as much as Anne Boleyn.
05:35She's been accused of being a seductress, an adulteress, even a witch.
05:43And because she was the other woman in a previously happy marriage,
05:47she's had a pretty harsh press from historians.
05:51It's the oldest cliché in the world.
05:53A sexy young thing worming her way into a man's heart
05:58and pushing out his loyal first wife.
06:05True, Anne was clever and she was ambitious.
06:08But she also had little choice.
06:10Because as soon as Henry set eyes on her, he had to have her.
06:15Where Anne was different from earlier mistresses
06:17is that she set the terms by refusing to sleep with him.
06:22This only made Henry even keener.
06:26He thought that Anne could give him everything that he wanted,
06:29including a son and heir.
06:32Which poor old Catherine could no longer do.
06:36To Henry's mind, she was now old and past her best.
06:41She may once have been his warrior queen,
06:43but now she was a bitter queen,
06:46standing between him and happiness.
06:52Henry decided to send Catherine away from court.
06:57He moved her and their 12-year-old daughter, Princess Mary,
07:00to Windsor Castle.
07:02So where was Henry?
07:04Well, he was off with Anne Boleyn.
07:07They were travelling about, staying in people's houses,
07:10going hunting, having dinner,
07:12acting just like a married couple,
07:15except for the fact they weren't having sex.
07:18Now, Henry was in love with Anne,
07:20but his subjects weren't.
07:22To them, Anne was the other woman.
07:25When she appeared in public,
07:26there was hooting and hissing,
07:28and some people called her
07:29the king's goggle-eyed whore.
07:32There's a story from round about this time,
07:41which shows just how much Anne was vilified.
07:45She was having dinner down by the River Thames
07:48when she was set upon by a mob of angry women.
07:52We're told that there were between 7,000 and 8,000 of them,
07:55so many that Anne had to escape by boat.
07:58Now, I don't think it's particularly plausible
08:01that that many women all went after Anne at the same time.
08:05But the story does show
08:07how much the people of England hated her.
08:12Catherine, though, remained hugely popular.
08:17Henry would need to get rid of her for good.
08:21He sent word that he and Anne were coming to Windsor to hunt,
08:24and that Catherine would have to move again.
08:29And painfully for Catherine,
08:31he decided to split up mother and daughter.
08:40Catherine will never be allowed to return.
08:43And what's worse,
08:45she's not allowed to take the Princess Mary with her.
08:49She will never see her daughter again.
08:52The final humiliation will come
09:02when Catherine is ordered to give back
09:04the Queen's crown jewels
09:06so that Henry can give them to Anne.
09:09The Queen was unceremoniously removed from Windsor
09:27and sent to the abbey at St. Albans.
09:30Mary was sent to Richmond Palace.
09:34After 22 years of marriage,
09:36the King didn't even say goodbye.
09:38All this was calculated to cause her maximum hurt
09:43and deliberately to insult her.
09:47This is something Henry did a lot.
09:50He dodged problems.
09:52With him, it was out of sight, out of mind.
09:55He sent Catherine into exile
09:57so that he wouldn't have to deal with her anymore.
09:59After all, when they had arguments face to face,
10:02she always won.
10:03She was much cleverer than he was.
10:06But nevertheless, she remained his legal wife.
10:13With Catherine out of the way,
10:16Anne agreed to consummate their relationship.
10:20Henry had been waiting for seven long years for this moment.
10:23And they both knew that if Anne got pregnant,
10:27he would have to marry her and make her Queen of England
10:30so that any heir that she might produce would be born legitimate.
10:37However, there was still one man standing in their way,
10:41the head of the Catholic Church.
10:44After more than five years,
10:47the Pope was still refusing to grant an annulment.
10:51Fortunately for Henry, though, times were changing.
10:55A religious revolution was unfolding in Europe.
10:59A rift was opening up
11:01between the old traditional form of Christianity,
11:04Catholicism, with the Pope at its head,
11:06and a new stripped-back form of Christianity called Protestantism.
11:12The clue to Protestantism lies in its name.
11:15It was originally a protest movement
11:17against the excesses of the Catholic Church.
11:22Religious reformers wanted to change the way
11:25that people worshipped God,
11:27with services held in their own native languages,
11:30not in Latin,
11:31and churches led by themselves, not by Rome.
11:34And was a strong supporter of this movement for reform.
11:41And Henry, too, began to see how this might work in his favour.
11:46He could be the head of his own church.
11:50The new religion had many practical advantages to offer him.
11:54So he joined this wider movement to cut out the Pope,
11:59a movement that would allow people to decide for themselves
12:02what God wanted them to do.
12:04And Henry decided that God wanted him to leave his wife.
12:10So he chose to ignore the Pope and to marry Anne.
12:14It's January the 25th, 1533,
12:24and a wedding has been hastily arranged.
12:33You look breathtaking, my lady.
12:38We should make our way.
12:39I can't seem to stop.
12:44It's to be expected.
12:48Particularly for the entire kingdom,
12:49harbour's hatred towards me.
12:52No.
12:54No, my lady.
12:54The king is waiting.
13:06We must go.
13:08We must.
13:09We must.
13:09So why is Henry getting married so secretively?
13:37I'd call it furtive to do it at dawn in such a small ceremony.
13:42The answer is that if his subjects knew what Henry was up to,
13:46getting married like this without the Pope's approval,
13:50many of them would still think that he's committing the sin of bigamy,
13:55with the danger of excommunication from the church
13:58and the damnation of his soul.
14:01But I believe Henry has to marry Anne,
14:04because she suspects that she's pregnant.
14:10I will.
14:13Henry must be hoping that after all this time,
14:15Anne will now give him the son he craves.
14:19With Henry and Anne at last married,
14:28and with his bride carrying his heir,
14:30he was convinced it would be a boy,
14:32the king was in a celebratory mood.
14:35Anne's coronation four months later
14:37was as public as her wedding had been private.
14:41There was a grand procession
14:44along from the Tower of London towards Westminster.
14:48Anne had her long, dark hair down
14:51and just a golden coronet on her head.
14:53No veil.
14:54Henry wanted people to be able to see her face.
14:58This was him saying,
14:59This is my wife.
15:00She is your queen.
15:02And there's nothing that the Pope
15:04or the people of England can do about that.
15:06And when she arrived at Westminster Abbey,
15:18Anne was crowned queen.
15:28Huge crowds had turned out to watch the ceremony,
15:31but the mood was grim.
15:34One-eyed witness claims
15:36that they showed themselves
15:37as sorry as if it had been a funeral.
15:41The rightful queen had been banished.
15:44Anne was a pretender.
15:46It was a public scandal.
15:48But most important of all,
15:50Henry had defied the Pope to marry her.
15:53And devout Catholics up and down the country,
15:56but particularly those at court,
15:58were all blaming Anne Boleyn.
16:00Yet Anne had achieved her goal.
16:09She was now Queen of England,
16:11but she'd also managed to make
16:13some dangerous enemies at court.
16:16What's worse,
16:17now that she was married to Henry,
16:19the power that she'd held over him
16:21was beginning to slip away.
16:24Anne's about to enter confinement
16:26for the last month of her pregnancy,
16:28and she expects Henry to stay faithful to her
16:32while she's locked away.
16:36This should be the honeymoon period
16:39of Henry and Anne's marriage.
16:41But Anne's learning very quickly
16:43that it's not easy being married to King Henry VIII.
16:46I am unclear, my lady,
16:54exactly what it is you are asking of me.
16:56And I am unclear, my lord,
16:58as to why it is so difficult for you to comprehend.
17:01I bestow trust in my husband,
17:03and I expect that trust to be honoured.
17:05Surely that is not unreasonable.
17:07You are dissatisfied already with me, madam?
17:10Of course not.
17:12I simply wish to protect our union,
17:14to enter confinement
17:16in the knowledge that you hold it
17:17in the same esteem as I do.
17:20For you, my dear,
17:21are so well versed
17:22in respecting the sanctity of marriage.
17:27A king has his needs.
17:36But you are my queen,
17:39mother of my heir.
17:41Your position is without question.
17:44Then surely I deserve your respect, my lord.
17:54You are still prepared to question me.
18:00If you wish to protect our union, my lady,
18:02then allow me to make a suggestion.
18:06Look away.
18:07Now, from Henry's point of view,
18:22this was quite straightforward.
18:24He was just acting as any king should.
18:26Obviously, when his wife was pregnant,
18:29he should get his needs met elsewhere.
18:31But Anne wasn't going to put up with this,
18:34unlike Catherine,
18:36who'd overlooked her husband's many indiscretions.
18:39After this particular argument,
18:41Henry and Anne didn't speak to each other
18:43for several days.
18:45But Anne knew that she had a trump card,
18:53that baby in her belly.
18:55The king's doctors and astrologers
18:58were all saying it was going to be a boy.
19:00This would set the seal on Henry's dynasty
19:03and upon Anne's destiny.
19:05It's September 1533 and Anne has given birth.
19:19The delivery was easy and the child is healthy.
19:24But it's another disappointment for Henry.
19:27The baby is another girl.
19:29This is the princess Elizabeth.
19:37Her mother, Anne, is absolutely besotted with her.
19:41Little do any of them know it.
19:43But this disappointment will end up
19:46as one of the greatest monarchs in English history,
19:49Queen Elizabeth I.
19:50But Anne hadn't solved the king's problem.
20:04Henry needed a boy,
20:06in addition to his two daughters,
20:08Mary, from his first marriage,
20:10and now Elizabeth.
20:13The girls wouldn't be able to continue the Tudor name.
20:16And who knew if the country would accept a female monarch?
20:20It hadn't been tried.
20:22So the pressure was now all on Anne.
20:26She only needed to look north,
20:29to the bleak Fenland countryside,
20:31to see just how dismal her fate might be
20:34if she failed to deliver a male heir.
20:38Now in exile and out of public sight,
20:42Catherine was being made to suffer.
20:44It would suit Henry and Anne
20:45if something were to happen to her.
20:47Henry's advisers had been constantly moving her
20:52to more and more grim
20:53and more and more isolated residences.
20:56One of them was described
20:57as the most pestilential house in England.
21:01These places weren't healthy.
21:03They'd also been slowly getting rid of her servants.
21:07Catherine was now in poor health
21:09and had been separated from Princess Mary
21:11for more than two years.
21:14She wrote heartfelt letters of love and advice
21:17to her daughter, who was now 17.
21:20Despite her pleading, though,
21:21Henry refused to let them see each other.
21:24But still, the people of England
21:27hadn't forgotten Catherine.
21:29During one of these moves,
21:31the road into Cambridgeshire,
21:3324 miles of it,
21:34was lined with people
21:35who called out her name as she passed.
21:38The people of England
21:40still remembered their queen.
21:42This is where Catherine finally ended up,
21:53Kimbolton in Cambridgeshire.
21:56It was rebuilt in the 18th century,
21:59but it was then a desolate medieval castle.
22:02Catherine's health was deteriorating
22:10in the cold and the damp
22:12at the edge of the fens.
22:14She felt besieged.
22:17She became paranoid
22:18that somebody was poisoning her food.
22:20And some of her faithful ladies-in-waiting
22:23were forbidden from seeing her.
22:25Among them was Catherine's oldest, closest friend,
22:28her fellow Spaniard, Maria de Salinas.
22:32It's January, 1536.
22:38Am I too late?
22:40Please tell me I am not too late.
22:42Maria has defied the king
22:44to visit Catherine on her deathbed.
22:48My lady de Salinas.
22:50Mi señora.
22:53Gracias por venir.
22:54Como no iba a venir.
22:57Debéis padecer gran dolor.
22:59He sufrido peores males.
23:02Mi querida MarÃa.
23:08Amiga fiel.
23:11He de pediros un favor.
23:14Lo que queráis.
23:17Deseo escribir una última carta.
23:20Al rey.
23:21Pero me faltan las fuerzas.
23:26No os preocupéis.
23:28Yo escribiré por vos.
23:29Mas...
23:29my lord king...
23:33...
23:49And dearest husband, as the hour of my death now approaches, I wish for you to know that
24:04you have my forgiveness. It is my final wish. I ask your grace to forgive me also, to understand
24:24that my behavior is borne only from the grief of our separation. A loss too great to endure.
24:43But my eyes long for you above all elves. Farewell.
25:10Catherine died six days later, without receiving a reply to her final letter.
25:19She was 50 years old. She'd been betrothed to Henry since she was 17. She dedicated her
25:26whole life to being queen. And right to the end, she remained immensely popular. People
25:34lined the streets to watch her coffin being carried here, to Peterborough Cathedral in
25:39Cambridge. The king wasn't present at Catherine's funeral. And neither was their daughter, Mary.
25:51Henry refused to let her attend. But the service was packed with those who'd loved and respected
25:58Catherine, including the other faithful Maria de Salinas. Even today, people leave pomegranates
26:05on Catherine's grave, the fruit from her personal emblem and a reminder of her homeland in Spain.
26:12A lot of people think of Catherine of Aragon as a grim-faced, angry, rejected woman. But
26:21I don't think that we should remember her like that. I prefer to think of her as a fearless
26:28warrior queen. And don't forget, she was also Henry's first and his longest lasting love.
26:36It's just days after Catherine's death. Queen Anne is pregnant again. This should be a time for
27:03celebration. But tensions are increasing between the royal couple. With his wife preoccupied by the
27:11early stages of her pregnancy, Henry's eye is free to wander.
27:16Queen Anne is sleeping. Should I wake her? No. Then I shall come and find you, sire, as soon as
27:30she rises. Ah, there's no need. I shall wait here. That's if you don't object to keeping me company.
27:37It would be my pleasure. The queen has been feeling unwell this morning. Hopefully rest will be the cure.
27:47Perhaps. Although, she's certainly no stranger to rest.
27:54I'd like to thank you again for my gift, your grace. It was a most unexpected thing.
28:07Unexpected, but welcome? Of course. It is beautiful.
28:13As is the wearer.
28:22The woman sitting on the king's knee is called Jane Seymour. You might recognize her,
28:27because she's one of Anne Boleyn's ladies-in-waiting. And before that, she was one of Catherine of Aragon's.
28:33My lady, how are you feeling?
28:48It's almost like Henry's gone out of his way to humiliate his wife,
28:53by having this brazen flirtation with one of her servants.
28:57A few days later, Anne miscarried her child. When Henry discovered he was too angry to speak
29:08about it, there was one report that he said scarcely anything to her, except that he clearly saw that
29:17God did not wish to give him male children. I believe that this is the point at which Henry
29:24began to turn against his wife. The spell was broken for Anne. Her power over Henry
29:32was ebbing away. And Anne sensed this. The reason she'd had the miscarriage, she told the king,
29:40is because she was upset. Her heart broke, she said, when she saw that he loved others.
29:48After just three years of marriage to Henry, Anne now had a rival. Jane Seymour was young and
29:56attractive. And unlike Anne, she seemed compliant and respectful. But the real reason why Jane was
30:04such a threat was because she'd been deliberately placed before the king by Anne Boleyn's enemies.
30:11The court was a hotbed of different factions, all of them competing for the attention of the king.
30:20One lot were the religious reformers. They were very keen on Henry's new church in England. But opposing
30:26them were the religious conservatives. This lot was still secretly loyal to the pope. And they would
30:33have been very glad to see the back of Anne Boleyn. But they had their own secret weapon, Jane Seymour.
30:41They coached her in how to attract Henry's attention. And it worked. Henry seemed to be falling in love
30:49with Jane. It must be agonising for Anne. She's watching a love affair unfolded between Jane Seymour
31:00and her own husband before her very eyes. Ironically, she's in exactly the same position
31:06as Catherine of Aragon had been before her. Anne is feeling vulnerable and nervous. And nervousness
31:14makes people do strange things. So, Sir Henry, have you proposed marriage to my cousin yet?
31:23Not yet, Your Grace. Poor Lady Margaret. I have no ill feeling towards her. I simply wish to
31:31bide my time a little. Such a gentleman. Do you know what I think, Sir Henry? No, my lady.
31:40But I feel sure you're about to tell me. I think you look for dead men's shoes.
31:46A rich widow? You think me so, Sir?
31:54Not just any rich widow. What I mean to say is this. That if something were to happen to the King,
32:02you'd look to marry me. Am I right?
32:07Madam, I'm sure that if ever I would have even such a thought, then I would be in grave danger of losing
32:13my head. Well, remember, I could certainly make that happen if I so wished it.
32:19I'm teasing you, Sir.
32:21Then perhaps we should concern ourselves with less gruesome thoughts and return to the celebrations.
32:25A very wise idea.
32:29Anne should know that at the Tudor court, conversations like this don't stay private for very long.
32:47The man Anne was talking to was called Henry Norris, and he was one of the King's most trusted and
32:58intimate confidants. Now, to talk about the King's death was treason. For Anne to talk about the King's
33:07death to the King's close friend and then to suggest that they might get married, well, that seems absolutely bonkers.
33:14So why did Anne do it? Was she arrogant enough to think that she could get away with it?
33:22Or was she really desperate to feel desired once again? I think the answer is neither.
33:29I think the really unfair thing is that Anne was only acting in accordance with the code of chivalry.
33:37This was a way of behaving with which Henry was obsessed. And according to chivalry,
33:42a queen or a noble lady was supposed to behave kindly and graciously and flirtatiously to humble
33:50young knights. So by flirting with Henry Norris, Anne was only fulfilling her job description.
33:57The only thing I'll concede is that maybe fear made her go too far.
34:01Whatever her reasons, Anne's ill-judged remark would have enormous repercussions.
34:15By the next day, everybody at court had heard what Anne is supposed to have said, including the King.
34:22Rumours were flying about that Anne had been having this affair with Henry Norris, but also with other
34:28courtiers too. It was even said that she'd been sleeping with her own brother.
34:36No matter how preposterous the claims, Anne's enemies fuelled the rumours and it suited Henry
34:42to believe them. He was now obsessed with Jane Seymour and he wanted to get rid of his second wife.
34:50My lord, my lord, pernicious gossip. Can you not see that?
34:56I cannot see everything. And that is why I employ the greatest trust in those I keep close to me.
35:01And who closer than me?
35:02Those who have served me for nearly their entire lifetimes.
35:06I am your loyal wife, my lord. Does that count for nothing? I could not do a thing to her to discredit
35:12you, I swear. My loyal wife and trusted companion, Sir Henry, in each other's arms.
35:20Lies. Witnessed by others. Good men who have neither reason nor inclination to fabricate nonsense.
35:26How could I jeopardise all that I have for so long desired? Only you hold the answer to that question.
35:31Just think of our child, my lord. How long we have waited to be together.
35:40You should heed your own advice, madam. I do, my lord. And I would no more slight you than I would
35:46harm a hair on the head of our sweet daughter, Elizabeth. Think of her, Sire. Sire.
35:55I wish you to leave now. But if my lord could give me a few precious minutes more than I can...
36:03Leave, or I shall have you dragged from here.
36:16Even after this really horrible confrontation, Anne must still have had hopes of salvaging her
36:22relationship. The very next day, she attended the May Day tournament, just as if nothing was wrong.
36:30And in fact, this would be her last public appearance as queen. As the king was riding away
36:37from the joust, he went with Henry Norris, and he questioned him closely about what he might have been
36:42up to with his wife. Henry Norris denied all wrongdoing, but nevertheless, he was arrested and sent to the
36:51tower. And the king's men were coming for Anne too.
37:05The following day, after three tempestuous years of marriage, Anne was arrested.
37:11She was taken by boat from Greenwich up the river to the Tower of London.
37:16Henry didn't see her again, either to confront her or to say goodbye.
37:25Just as he had with Catherine of Aragon, he let other people do his dirty work.
37:36Anne was accused of treason and of committing adultery with five male courtiers,
37:46including her own brother, George.
37:50Anne was frightened about where exactly they were taking her.
37:54Shall I go into a dungeon? She asked. But the guards said no. They were taking her to the royal
38:00apartment, where she'd stayed the night before her own coronation. When she heard this, Anne cried with relief.
38:08It is too good for me, she said. Jesus have mercy upon me. It's at this point that we begin to see Anne's terror.
38:17Anne's own servants were dismissed, and she was given five new ladies-in-waiting. But really,
38:29they were spies. Every single word that Anne said was fed back to the king. The ladies reported that
38:37Anne was growing hysterical, sometimes crying, sometimes laughing. She even made a joke that
38:43history would know her as Queen Anne the Headless. The five accused men, including her brother and
38:53Henry Norris, were quickly found guilty and executed. Anne has also been found guilty of treason. And the
39:05punishment is death. But for me, there's a compelling piece of evidence that points to her innocence.
39:14Anne has asked to see a priest, Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury.
39:30You wish to take the Holy Sacrament of Confession, My Lady?
39:43My Lord God, I am heartily sorry for having offended you. I detest all of my sins, because I fear the loss of
40:02heaven and the pains of heaven and the pains of hell. But most of all because I offend you,
40:06my God, who is all good and deserving of all my love.
40:10But I kneel before you now to protest my innocence of the crimes I'm accused.
40:21I have ever been a faithful wife to the king, though I do not say I have always shown him that
40:27humility that his goodness merited. I confess that I have had jealous fancies and suspicions of him,
40:34that I had no discretion nor wisdom to conceal at all times.
40:37But as for my brother, and those others unjustly condemned,
40:47I shall willingly accompany them in death with this assurance, that I shall lead an endless life
40:56with them in peace and joy, where I shall pray to God for the king.
41:00May the Lord have mercy on my soul.
41:09This is everything you wish to say.
41:12God knows and is my witness that I have not sinned against him in any other way.
41:18Anne believes, all Tudor people believe, that if she tells a lie in confession,
41:30she damns her soul to eternal torment. So when she says she's innocent,
41:36in those extreme circumstances, I think we have to believe her.
41:41Anne's husband, Henry, had loved her so much that he changed a country's religion so that he could
41:52have her. But now he's tired. He's frustrated by her. Anne's real crime is to have failed to give the
42:01king a son and to have become difficult to live with. That's why she has to die.
42:11Anne's husband.
42:41All this for so little, Anak.
43:11Anne Boleyn's beheading on the 19th of May, 1536, was the first execution of a queen in
43:37English history.
43:40The country shed few tears for Anne, and her enemies rejoiced.
43:46Her body was brought to the small chapel that lies within the Tower of London.
43:54This is where Anne is buried.
43:56She really has been one of history's most controversial figures.
44:01For much of the last 500 years, she has been vilified as a schemer, a predator, even as
44:07a witch.
44:08But from the vantage point of the 21st century, it looks very different.
44:14At first, this worked very well for Anne.
44:20But ultimately, the Tudor court was a dangerous place to be for an ambitious woman.
44:30In the end, she was the victim of her own strength, as well as the victim of the pitiless king.
44:38The Tudor court was a dangerous place to be for Anne.
44:46And she was the victim of the
45:02As soon as he received the news of Anne's execution,
45:17Henry went off to see Jane.
45:19And 11 days later, he married her, his third queen, at Whitehall Palace.
45:26He didn't waste any time, did he?
45:28Preparations for the wedding had begun even before Anne was dead.
45:37Jane was 27, and a devout Catholic.
45:42Her family and her Catholic supporters hoped she might steer Henry back to the old religion.
45:49But I think Jane decided to take a different approach now she was queen.
45:53And here's the clue.
45:54The motto she chose was, bound to obey and serve.
46:01Jane Seymour was your typical English rose.
46:05Just look at her pale skin, her strawberry blonde hair, her lovely rosy cheeks.
46:11But English roses aren't very exciting, are they?
46:14And Jane's pale appearance does seem matched by her pale character.
46:21She's curiously passive.
46:24But I think that this was a clever choice, to be the absolute polar opposite of Anne Boleyn,
46:30who was a bit too exciting for her own good.
46:32I think I might do exactly the same thing if I were married to Henry VIII, to pretend to be meek and mild, even if I wasn't, so as not to annoy him and to stay alive.
46:43After so much upheaval, a period of calm descended upon the royal household.
46:50Importantly, Jane was a peacemaker.
46:55She improved Henry's relationships with his children.
46:59For a long time, he'd been estranged from his daughter Mary.
47:04Mary was now 20.
47:06And Henry had even made her sign a piece of paper, saying that her own mother's marriage had been incestuous and unlawful.
47:13But now, in 1536, Jane persuaded Henry to meet Mary once again.
47:21So Henry's family life, for once, was going smoothly.
47:26But meanwhile, out in the country, a great big wave of political and religious change was about to break.
47:34And this was the moment when Jane's obedience to the king would be tested.
47:39England was a country divided, split between the new reformers and the Catholics.
47:48Hundreds of monasteries all around the country kept the old faith alive.
47:54To Henry and his advisers, these monasteries represented a challenge to his authority, because they were still answerable to the Pope.
48:03Also, they were fantastically wealthy.
48:06Henry had fought a lot of wars, he'd built a lot of palaces, he was short of cash.
48:12Hmm.
48:14In 1536, the king ordered that they be pulled down and their assets seized.
48:21To many people, this destruction felt like a sort of apocalypse.
48:26It destroyed the fabric of their world.
48:29And the dissolution of the monasteries led to rebellion.
48:32One particular rebellion, called the Pilgrimage of Grace, started in the East Midlands.
48:39It spread to the North, and it culminated with a bloody uprising in York.
48:48Jane's stepdaughters, Mary and Elizabeth, were brought back to the court in London to avoid them getting caught up in the uprising.
48:56Mary in particular was in danger, because as the daughter of the staunchly Catholic Catherine of Aragon,
49:03the rebels would have loved to use her as a figurehead.
49:06Henry was determined to prevent this.
49:15The religious tension playing out across the country is also being felt within the palace walls.
49:22Princess Mary has just returned to court under the protective wing of her stepmother.
49:30She has to tread carefully around her father, who she barely knows.
49:39What have you been doing today?
49:41Tell me.
49:42Riding, sir.
49:44Some needlework.
49:45A little music.
49:47Pardon?
49:47Music, sir.
49:49The lute.
49:49Mary is extremely gifted, my lord.
49:55Almost a match for her father.
49:56Is she now?
49:59You must play for me again.
50:01It's been a long time.
50:02Of course.
50:03It'll be a pleasant distraction from the foolishness in York.
50:08I've heard talk at court.
50:11These men wish to see us slaughtered.
50:14They are churchmen, not murderers.
50:18They are simply protesting.
50:20You sympathize with them?
50:23I can understand their allegiance to their faith.
50:27They are much attached to their monasteries in the north.
50:30You do sympathize, then?
50:33My concerns are for you alone, my lord.
50:36For your soul.
50:37If I upset you, sire, then I beg your pardon.
50:47I only wish to offer my counsel as your devoted wife and queen.
50:51And so I would urge you to tread carefully.
50:56Remember what happened to my last wife and queen.
50:58What Jane was doing was fulfilling another of these recognisable roles of a Tudor queen.
51:11Jane also thought it was her duty as a devout Catholic to petition the king for a cause she believed in.
51:24Although this was a brave thing to do, Jane was wise to back off when she saw that she'd pushed the king too far.
51:31But she did do absolutely everything else that Henry asked of her, including the most important thing of all.
51:40On the 12th of October, 1537, after a long labour lasting two days and three nights, Jane gave birth.
51:54It was a boy.
51:58Henry had a healthy, legitimate son at last.
52:01It had taken him three wives to get to this point.
52:05Three days later, baby Prince Edward, this new hope of the Tudor dynasty,
52:10was christened here in the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court.
52:20It's 12 days since the birth of Prince Edward,
52:23and the nation is still celebrating.
52:32But Jane is taking longer than expected to recover.
52:40Somebody fetch more cold water.
52:52Can you hear me?
52:53You are still here.
53:01My sweet lady, where else would I be?
53:05Where is our son?
53:07He is thriving.
53:20He is thriving.
53:35Very much so.
53:39What more contented child I've yet to meet.
53:43You must know how much his mother loved him.
53:49You will tell him, my lord.
53:51I do not give up hope that you may tell him yourself.
53:59Many times.
54:00Lord God, why must you punish me this way?
54:17Jane Seymour.
54:18Jane Seymour never recovered from the infection she contracted after the long and difficult birth of Prince Edward.
54:35She died on the 24th of October, 1537.
54:40Henry genuinely grieved for Jane.
54:42Henry genuinely grieved for Jane.
54:46He wrote about his bitterness, and it was said that he retired to a solitary place to see to his sorrows.
54:54Jane had been the perfect wife for him.
54:58She hadn't bothered him.
54:59She'd given him what he wanted, a son.
55:02Who knows what would have happened next, because they had only been married for 16 months.
55:07There's a sense that he hadn't had time to get bored of her.
55:11To me, Jane Seymour was a queen who played a canny hand.
55:15By acting exactly like the wife that Henry wanted, she became his most loved queen.
55:31When Henry died, he chose to be buried alongside her, here in St. George's Chapel, Windsor.
55:40But that wouldn't be for some time yet.
55:42Henry still had three wives to go.
55:50The aging and increasingly overweight king will struggle to find a fourth wife.
55:58And a blind date will prove a disaster.
56:05History will forever judge this queen on her looks.
56:11Ignoring a gift for diplomacy that will make her one of England's richest women.
56:17Nice tight grip on the shaft.
56:18And the 50-year-old king's relationship with a teenage lady-in-waiting will lead to lurid tales of adultery and treachery.
56:35And I'll reveal that this will be the most disturbing story of them all.
56:48Did you lie with Dearham?
56:51Yes, my lord.
56:52I see.
56:54The choice to lie with him was not mine.
56:57I was a child.
56:58And that's here same time next week at 9 o'clock.
57:06Tomorrow night at 9 over on BBC4, Simon Seabag Montefiore's turn to do the exploring.
57:11He continues his journey, the Empire, Dynasty and Dream of Vienna.
57:14The Empire.
57:16The Empire.
57:16Transcription by CastingWords
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