#smeaton

[aqrilene]

A commission of Joey Batey as Mark Smeaton for @everlastingfable

Thank you so much! I had a blast painting this dandy fellow

[isabelleneville]

MARK SMEATON, Court Musician

As portrayed by David Alpay

(Showtime's The Tudors - Season Two Promotional Material)

[travelling-my-little-pony]

Dr Whooves poses with Smeaton's Tower in the background.

In Plymouth, in Devon, England.

[dark-art-666]

[finitevariety]

imagine being tortured and executed for a crime you probably didn't commit and, 500 years later, the first thing that shows up when someone googles you is some deviantart fanart showing your gutters. dear god

[cosmic-walkers]

i love how the main message in the wolf hall trilogy is how power, no matter how humble the person is, will corrupt and will make them a mirror of the people they hated. thomas spends a lot of time speaking poorly about the boleyns, the howards, gardiner, henry, etc., but he starts to mirror their personalities. he becomes cutthroat, treacherous, cruel, yet thinks he's untouchable.

what i don't think the message is, is that a low born man shouldn't come into power. because arguably, he was the only one there who could do the job right.

it is just interesting to see how he's transformed and essentially doesn't even realize it. but he becomes a darker, colder person and he starts to mirror that.

[sixaus-meaa]

SIX THE MUSICAL - MODERN!AU: illustration

Anne's family tree

[annabolinas]

May 17, 1536 - The Executions of George Boleyn, Henry Norris, Sir Francis Weston, William Brereton, and Mark Smeaton

"Masters all, I am come hither not to preach and make a sermon, but to die. As the law hath found me, and to the law I submit me, desiring you all, and especially you, my masters of the court, that you will trust in God especially, and not in the vanities of the world. For if I had so done, I think I had been alive as ye be now. Also, I desire you to help … the setting forth of the true word of God. And whereas I am slandered by it, I have been diligent to read it and set it forth truly. But if I had been as diligent to observe it, and done and lived thereafter, as I was to read it and set it forth, I [would not have] come here. Wherefore I beseech you all to be workers and live thereafter, and not to read it and live not thereafter. As for mine offenses, it cannot prevail you to hear them that I die here for. But I beseech God that I may be an example to you all, and that all you may beware by me, and heartily I require you all to pray for me, and to forgive me if I have ever offended you. And I forgive you all. And God save the King." - George Boleyn's execution speech in Wriothesley's Chronicle

"Some say, 'Rochford, haddest thou been not so proud,

For thy great wit each man would thee bemoan,

Since as it is so, many cry aloud

It is great loss that thou art dead and gone." - Thomas Wyatt (?), In mourning since daily wise I increase

"These bloody days have broken my heart.

My lust, my youth did them depart,

And blind desire of estate.

Who hastes to climb, seeks to revert.

Of truth, circa regna tonat [about the throne, thunder rolls]." - Thomas Wyatt, Who list his wealth and ease retain

"Mr. Norris ... said almost nothing at all." - George Constantine

"I had thought to have lived in abomination yet these twenty or thirty years, and then to have made amends. I thought little it would have come to this." - Francis Weston's last words, as reported by Constantine

"I have deserved to die if it were a thousand deaths. But the cause wherefore I die, judge not. But if you judge, judge the best." - William Brereton's last words, as reported by Constantine

"Masters, I pray you all, pray for me, for I have deserved the death." - Mark Smeaton's last words, as reported by Constantine

Also on this day, Anne's marriage to Henry was annulled by Archbishop Cranmer, either on the grounds of a precontract with Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, or Henry's affair with her sister Mary before he met Anne.

[page-28]

[everlastingfable]

Who even is Mark Smeaton? *runs*

omg anon are you sure you wanna ask this?

short answer: he's a bard from the 1530s who was in king henry viii's court and at the age of 24-ish confessed to committing adultery with queen anne boleyn, leading to his execution as well as the execution of anne and four other lords in her circle. but he most likely lied

long answer: mark smeaton (last name probably originally smet or smedt) was from flanders and later moved to england. he was a commoner, and the people in the royal court did not let him forget that. he originally worked under cardinal wolsey teaching choir boys, but was later transferred to king henry's court in the early 1530s when henry was doing his church of england thing. mark was quoted to be a "very handsome young man", "one of the prettiest monochord players", and "the deftest dancer in the land"

very little is actually known about him, except that he was getting paid very well by the king and queen. in less than two years his yearly salary nearly doubled (going from modern day £750 to £1250), and that doesn't even include the bonuses he received from them. to the point where he was able to afford expensive horses, clothes, liveries, etc. the horses alone were worth more than three times his yearly salary. he supposedly also had land and servants of his own. he was the court's sugar baby and some lords hated his attempt to social climb

we know he received a manuscript of two poems from viscount rochford. inside is inscribed "this book is mine, george boleyn 1526" and underneath "a moy, m. marc sn" which directly translates "to me" but basically "mine"

he was a favorite of anne boleyn and was probably in love with her. his downfall started when he was standing outside of anne's apartment window looking sad. anne asked him what was wrong and he replied that it was "no matter" she then chastised him for wanting her to speak to him as if he's a nobleman. he's a commoner and he should be glad she's speaking to him at all. he replied "no, no, madam. a look sufficeth, thus fare you well."

this conversation was reported to thomas cromwell (the king's secretary) who invited mark to his house for "entertainment" but it was a ruse. no one knows exactly what happened that night. most sources say he was tortured. but the next day mark confessed to sleeping with the queen along with four other men, all of whom were part of her circle. mark was the only one of the five men to confess and plead guilty.

he probably lied as the dates he gave didn't match up. the days he said he slept with the queen, she was somewhere else entirely.

he and the four men were executed in tower hill. despite being a commoner, he was beheaded (the nobleman's death) instead of hung and quartered. supposedly for his cooperation with cromwell and his crew. he was the last of the men to get beheaded and was described to have stumbled back when he saw the bloody scaffold and said "masters, I pray you all pray for me, for I have deserved the death"

he was buried in the tower of london in either where the building for the crown jewels are being displayed or behind the chapel royal of st peter ad vincula

I think he's the most fascinating person to have ever existed and is the definition of "I'm here for a good time not a long time"

[austin-friars]

knowing so little of mark smeaton outside of his connection to the boleyn's and his death makes me insane in a bad way.

[bforbetterthanyou]

Enquiry revealed that the reason for the deaths of Anne, Brereton and the others was not sexual excess but politics. Their fate is explained by what happened not in the bedroom, but in the corridors of power.

—Eric Ives, The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn

[dontdenymeshakespeare]

The Final Year of Anne Boleyn

I’ve been looking forward to reading this book ever since it was announced years ago, but getting my hands on this one was a struggle that had nothing to do with airplanes, shipping or the vast oceans that separate me in Massachusetts and the author in Sydney, Australia. There were pre-orders, cancellations, a copy not turning up at my local indie bookshop and finally giving up and ordering a…

[fideidefenswhore]

What was more, there were whispers circulating that she was not even the King's child; Chapuys had been told that while annulling Cranmer 'declared by sentence that the concubine's daughter was the bastard of Mr Norris, and not the King's daughter.' There is no evidence that Henry ever questioned that Elizabeth was his; indeed, according to Ales, 'your father always acknowledged you as legitimate' and nothing could 'persuade the illustrious King that you were not his daughter.'

Young Elizabeth: Elizabeth I and Her Perilous Path to the Crown, Nicola Tallis

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

by David Schrock | Solomon advises us that there is nothing new under the sun.  Indeed, in the history of Christian thought, one would expect that under the Lordship of Christ and his church, the essentials of the gospel would remain consistent over time.  Thus, while they need repeating in every generation because slippage is always a threat, there...

[cosmic-walkers]

This part is depressing for so many reasons, specifically, Mark has put a lot of his dislike for Thomas behind, and really just wants to be acknowledged by him. Mark acknowledges that Thomas has taken in young musicians and creatives . It is clear to me at least, that Mark himself probably wants to be a part of that, or at least, have some closer proximity to Thomas than before. In short, Mark wants to be his friend, he thinks Thomas likes him, he wants to be a part of the community that Thomas fosters.

This is even more apparent because both Mark and Thomas are lowborn men that are being risen by their sovereign. Mark's father was thought to be a carpenter and his mom a seamstress - this is a life that he is also new to. I think he looks toward Thomas as someone he aspires to me, someone who encourages him to keep on climbing higher. He mistakingly calls him a Lord, and he's excited to do so, even when Thomas corrects him he implies that Thomas is going to be a Lord, which he does become one. Mark wants to be Thomas in a way, he wants to be taken under his wing or at least, exist in his house and be in close proximity to him. And Thomas, a few pages before, discusses taking in lowborn boys as well to help rise.

He doesn't know that Thomas hates him, which makes it easier for Thomas to manipulate him in the end.

There is just a sad feeling because you know Mark wants to be noticed by him, because in his mind they are the same. and Thomas hates him.

And out of ALL the people brought down with Anne, Mark was not only the youngest but suffered considerably more - at least IMO.

there is also the slightest, slightest kick at mark's sexuality and perhaps a reason thomas is uncomfortable with him -that's for another post.