Henry VIII’s second wife was not treated nearly so gently by him as his first was when he decided to remove her. Anne Boleyn was charged with adultery, treason and incest (historians still debate which, if any, of these charges were true), and was arrested on May 2. Held prisoner in the Tower of London, she maintained her innocence throughout her trial, but to no avail. She was found guilty unanimously by the 27 member jury, and sentenced to death.
No reliable account of her last words survives – although witnesses left records, they contradict each other. All sources agree that she prayed to God, and most that she reaffirmed her innocence. Henry married Jane Seymour, one of Anne’s ladies in waiting, less than two weeks later.
