|
One
April day in the year 1536 a Tournament of knightly sports was in progress.
King Henry VIII was there and his Queen, Anne Boleyn.
The Queen accidentally dropped her handkerchief, and a chivalrous
knight picked it up on the point of his lance and handed it back to the
Queen. King Henry saw this act; he left the royal stand, where he and
Anne Boleyn were sitting, and his furious temper was plain to see. He
ordered that the knight, Sir William Brereton, and four companions of
his should be arrested, and carried off to the Tower of London, to be
charged with High Treason. Anne Boleyn was arrested a few hours later,
and never saw the King again.
King Henry was watching for a chance of deposing the Queen,
and this was his opportunity. A jury of Henry's choosing was impanelled,
and the five prisoners were tried, sentenced to death, and beheaded on
May 17th, 1536.
The Queen was beheaded two days after. The next day the King
was betrothed to Jane Seymour, and the marriage took place ten days later
at York Place, privately.
Source: The Story of Brereton Hall Cheshire,
by Arthur Lowndes Moir, January, 1949
|
|
|
