#decided to once again highlight TSWOH8 1970

[annabolinas]

May 15, 1536 - The Trial of Anne Boleyn

"She made so wise and discreet answers to all things laid against her, excusing herself with her words so clearly, as though she had never been faulty to the same." - Wriothesley's Chronicle (1559)

"I do not wish to say that your verdict is unjust,

Nor presume that my opinion alone is so reasonable

That it must be considered valid

Against all of you; and I believe you know full well

The reason why you have condemned me,

Which is other than the one you have deduced

From this trial, for I am clear of all of it.

And I have no need for God to pardon me for it,

Nor ever to grant me any grace for it:

For I have always been faithful to the king.

I do not say that I have been such as I should have been,

Nor that I bore towards him the humility

That I owed him, given his kindness

And the great tenderness with which he treated me,

And the great honor that he always bestowed on me,

And that I didn't often harbor

Some notion of jealousy towards him:

In this I know that I failed in virtue,

And I truly strayed from my duty.

But as for the rest, may God be my witness

That I have done no more wrong against him ...

I wish that this last speech

Serve only to give solace to my sense of honor,

And that of my brother, and of those men whom you have judged

To die and have estranged from their good reputation,

Such that I wish that I had the ability to defend

And deliver them, and take on for myself

A thousand deaths. But, since it pleases the king,

I shall accept death in this faith,

And I shall keep company in their death

So as, afterwards, in everlasting life,

To live with them in eternal rest,

Where I shall pray to God for the king and for you." - Lancelot de Carle's account of Anne Boleyn's words after her condemnation (1536, trans. Joann Dellaneva)