The Execution of George Boleyn, 17th May 1536.

On the 17th May 1536, Jane Boleyn became a widow as her husband George was executed on Tower Hill. His execution was then followed by those of the four other men accused of adultery with Queen Anne Boleyn - Henry Norris, William Brereton, Francis Weston and Mark Smeaton.

Shockingly, not only was Jane was not allowed to send to George a personal letter, or even visit him, but she would also have had very little advance warning - or even no possible warning at all - of George’s execution because contacting the wife of a “traitor” was not a requirement. In addition, William Kingston, the Constable of the Tower, would have told George the night before, but only confirmed the actual hour with George and the other accused men early in the morning of the day.

George’s final words were -“Christian men, I am born under the law, and judged under the law, and died under the law, and the law has condemned me. I am a wretched sinner and I have sinned shamefully. Trust not in the vanity of the world, and especially of the flattering of the court.”

He asked for forgiveness from those that he had offended “in thought, word and deed” and he said that he was “a setter forth of the word of God” who “favoured the Gospel of Christ”. He acknowledged that he should have put into practice what he had read as it was better to be a “good doer” than a “good reader”. However, he did not comment on the crimes he had been accused of. He was then beheaded and his remains were buried in the Tower’s chapel, St Peter ad Vincula.

RIP George Boleyn.

Image - Jim Sturgess as George Boleyn, "The Other Boleyn Girl".

Source - “Jane Boleyn: The Infamous Lady Rochford” - Julia Fox, 2007