I’m not in favor of beheading, but if anyone might have been worthy, it was King Henry VIII, himself. The son of a gun. Put a crown on it, and people will let it pee anywhere it wants to.
And that was the case with Henry VIII and his wives. He had six in all, and on this date, the second wife, Anne Boleyn, was beheaded.
Here is how it all played out. She was perhaps the most famous of all his wives. In 1523 Anne was to marry Henry Percy. He was the son of the Earl of Northumberland, and Percy’s dad didn’t approve. So, for that reason, the engagement was broken off. At the time all this was happening, Anne was a maid to the court for Henry VIII’s wife Catherine of Aragon.
Things were so sketchy and promiscuous back then. In 1526, Henry VIII became interested in Anne in a lusty sort of way. He began his pursuit, but Anne was a player. Yes, Anne, a skillful master at the game of courtly love, which was often played in the antechambers, wasn’t giving in.
That is how it happened, initially. Anne resisted Henry’s attempts to seduce her and told him to hit the road, Jack,” when it came to being his mistress. She often left the court, going off in seclusion elsewhere in the castle. But within a year, he proposed marriage to her, and she accepted.
Both assumed an annulment could be obtained within months. Easy Peasy. But here is the deal. The courtship of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII was a turning point in English history. The Catholic Church refused to accept his annulment to Catherine of Aragon. They sent the final word on January 25, 1533. So the big king broke off relations with the Pope and established an independent Church of England. And wedding bells were ringing.
There is no evidence to suggest that they engaged in a sexual relationship until very shortly before their marriage. Henry wrote love letters to Anne, and in these, it is suggested that their love affair remained unconsummated for much of their seven-year courtship.
What happened next is all Henry’s fault, once they wed. You see, he was shooting X chromosomes and nothing else. Anne gave birth to a daughter, the future Elizabeth I, and Henry was not happy. He was further disappointed when she had three miscarriages and produced no son.
So, so, so. The happy marriage was not to last. Just three years later, he was courting the love of Jane Seymour. Every time I hear this, I picture the actress Jane Seymour, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, dating King Henry VIII.
Back to the drama. In May 1536, Anne was arrested and imprisoned on charges of high treason, adultery, and incest. She, and others, were found guilty in a trial by jury. Her former fiancee and her own uncle were on that jury.
Anne and her cohorts were sentenced to death. William Kingston, the Constable of the Tower, reported Anne “seemed very happy and ready to be done with life.” Good old generous Henry commuted Anne’s sentence from burning to beheading. And, like the good guy he was, rather than have a queen beheaded with the common ax, he brought an expert swordsman from Saint-Omer in France to perform the execution. Whacky.
So, it was on this date that Anne Boleyn lost her head.
On occasion, I lose my head in a much different manner, and I don’t like it. Admittedly, this doesn’t happen very often these days. I try to stay even keel, the center of the street. But every so often, something will upend me. Mostly, something that is transpiring in the world, something that I have no control over. It is in those moments that I try to remind myself of the Serenity Prayer.
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”
And so it all goes.
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“I will be calm. I will be mistress of myself.”
― Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility
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“Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity.”
― Lao Tzu
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“There are two ways to get enough. One is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.”
― G.K. Chesterton
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Don’t lose your head
