All of Europe was stunned

All of Europe was stunned

. That a King of England would execute his wife and anointed Queen of England was simply beyond the pale.

Europe was still reeling from Henry’s break with Rome, the annulment of his marriage to Katherine of Aragon, and the conference of illegitimacy upon their daughter, Mary.

The crowned heads of Europe were outraged. So Henry tried to do some damage control by changing Anne’s method of execution from an axe to a sword. The infamous Swordsman of Calais was procured to slice off Anne’s head rather than having it chopped off by a drunken executioner.

Henry perhaps felt this made him look more merciful. It did not, but he thought it did and that’s all that really mattered.

Several thousand people were in attendance as Anne climbed the scaffold. Anne made a brief statement before kneeling to await the fatal blow. The people watching all knelt as well. This was unprecedented. Anne was not a beloved queen. Not by the court and not by the citizens of England. She was seen as an usurper and a witch. However, no one could have ever imagined that she would come to this ignoble end. And so they knelt and prayed with her in her final moments.

Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, was beheaded with one stroke of the sword 19 May 1536.