[English]
It's dawn in London. For the first time
in history, the Queen of England is
about to be tried for adultery and
treason. If she's found guilty, her fate
will be death.
I'm historian Tracy Borman. Over three
nights, I'm exploring the incredible
story of Anne's downfall.
Look at that. It's just exquisite.
>> It's wonderful, isn't it?
>> It all took place in the space of just
17 days.
I've studied Anne for most of my life. I
think I know her well, but I'm going to
do something that I've never done
before. I'm going to follow in Anne's
footsteps. take the journey with her
hour by hour during the three most
important days from queen to outcast to
find the truth behind her downfall.
>> That is incredible. Can I just put it in
my pocket?
>> I'm exploring exactly what went so
devastatingly wrong for Anne Berlin.
I've already investigated what happened
on the day of her arrest.
In this episode, I'll be tracing the
events of Anne Berlin's trial. Even by
the standards of its day, it was a
complete outrage.
I want to find out if she stands any
chance of a fair hearing or is her fate
sealed from the beginning.
Can Anne possibly save herself?
[Music]
[Music]
It's 7:30 a.m. On Monday the 15th of May
1536,
[Music]
in an hour and a half the trial of Anne
Berlin will begin at the Tower of London
in its great hall.
[Music]
Or we can locate the great hall
precisely on this TUDA map. It would
have stood over there on the far side of
the lawn, but demolished in the 17th
century. And so sadly, we can only
imagine what it must have been like.
Today, the great hall at the Tower is
hosting the most infamous trial in TUDA,
England. instead of the banquetss and
meetings it's more used to.
Well, you can imagine the atmosphere
when everyone is gathered in the
courtroom is just electric.
This is the trial of one of the most
famous women in Europe and her dirty
laundry is about to be aired in public.
It really is the scandal of the century.
[Music]
Some of the most important men in the
kingdom are gathering, including the
architect of Anne's arrest, the king's
right-hand man, Thomas Cromwell.
Just 3 years ago, Cromwell masterminded
Henry's marriage to Anne, hoping she'd
give the king a son. But she hasn't.
Cromwell and Anne are now at loggerheads
and his relationship with the king hangs
by a thread.
Anne must go.
Anne was arrested 13 days ago.
Cromwell's ensured there's little time
before the trial. And to guarantee
things go his way, he selected the judge
and jury.
Reading a list of who's gathered here
for the trial, it's a who's who of TUDA,
England. Remarkably, presiding over the
whole thing is Anne's own uncle, the
Duke of Norfolk.
It may seem a risky move for Cromwell to
put someone so close to Anne in charge.
But Cromwell has his reasons.
5 years ago, the Duke of Norfolk
predicted that Anne would be
>> the ruin of all her family.
>> Cromwell is confident that when it comes
to the crunch, Norfolk will side with
the king.
Anne's fate will be decided by a jury of
26 peers, including her own father.
Thomas Berlin is a ruthlessly ambitious
politician. He puts his career ahead of
everything, even or especially his own
children.
Even though these men in theory are
loyal to Anne, if they don't vote the
way the king wants, their necks are
going to be on the line.
At the center of the room, on a raised
platform so all can see is a chair where
Anne will sit.
Members of the public are being allowed
to watch the trial. 2,000 have squeezed
in, desperate to know how this is going
to play out.
An is being accused of one of the most
salacious acts imaginable, punishable by
death. The stakes really couldn't be
higher.
But there is one person missing from the
trial.
Across London at York Place in Whiteall,
the king is out of bed and being dressed
by his gentlemen.
Where these buildings now stand was
Henry's Palace of Whiteall. And it's
here that he's lying low today as Anne's
trial takes place. But he's keeping a
close eye on the proceedings.
If Anne is found guilty, then a cannon
will be fired from the tower.
And if she is out of the way, then Henry
already has plans for who he's going to
marry next.
One mile down the river tempames from
Whiteall in Chelsea
is the woman who the king hopes will be
his next wife, Jane Seymour. She's
already being kept like a queen. Henry
has been obsessed by Jane for the past
few months, and the affair hasn't gone
unnoticed by Anne. There are rumors
recently that the king's been giving
Jane priceless gifts and love letters.
And on one occasion, Anne apparently
spots Jane wearing a new locket and
demands to see it more closely. When
Jane refuses and rips it from around her
neck and opens the locket to find a
picture of the king,
she is furious.
Since Anne's arrest, Jane has been kept
out of sight in the countryside. As a
lady in waiting to Anne Berlin, her
presence in court would cause gossip
that he can do without.
Yesterday, with Anne's trial drawing
nearer, Henry orders that Jane be
brought back to London to be close to
him. Now she's just a mile down river at
Chelsea, where Henry can visit her
secretly in the night. He assures Jane
that soon all this pretense will be
over.
[Music]
At the Tower of London, the court is now
assembled.
And in the great hall, the most
well-known woman in England, is set to
enter the stage.
Silence is called for. And the Duke of
Norfolk, Anne's uncle, remember, shouts
out,
>> "Gentleman, jailer of the Tower, bring
in your prisoner.
[Music]
Anne is led into the courtroom flanked
by the gentleman jailer, his ax turned
away from her because she's not yet
proven guilty. and also by four ladies.
Now, these ladies aren't of Anne's
choosing, but of Cromwell's. He's placed
them in her service to watch and record
everything she says and does.
Spectators remark that she's never
looked more in control.
Anne's composure is remarkable. Several
eyewitnesses comment on it. She doesn't
flinch, even when she looks across and
sees her own father sitting on the jury.
Everyone is in place. The trial is about
to begin. If found guilty, an could be
sentenced to death.
[Music]
[Music]
The prosecution is led by Anne's arch
rival, Thomas Cromwell.
But as the trial begins, things are
already not going quite as planned.
Before Anne had come in, the crowds have
been begging for her blood. But now
she's conducting herself with such
dignity. And clearly, they weren't
expecting that.
When commoners are put on trial, they're
made to stand throughout the
proceedings. But Anne is still queen of
England, so she is allowed to sit. And
you can imagine as she lowers herself
into the chair and waits with
apprehension to hear the charges against
her
and still doesn't know what she's being
accused of.
To discover the actual charges, I've
come to the National Archives at Q.
This is where all the records that still
exist from Anne's trial are stored.
>> Well, this is very exciting.
>> These incredible papers in their
original leather pouch were kept in
what's known as the bag of secrets.
>> Oh, there actually is a bag.
>> And then you get all of the papers.
>> And Sean Cunningham looks after them.
>> In the front of the original commissions
and orders.
>> The records are written in Latin on 22
sheets of parchment. It's amazing to
think that this document would have
actually been there in the trial room at
the time.
>> That's right. It is a record of the
process as it was unfolding. So, some of
this would have been in the hands of the
people in the court at the time.
>> It makes it all chillingly real. But as
I examine the records, something isn't
right. These documents are all telling
the story from the side of the
prosecution. There's no record of Anne's
testimony. We have here a huge body of
evidence against Anne, the indictment,
eyewitness accounts. Nothing in her
defense has survived, and that surely is
significant.
The indictment that details Anne's
charges does still exist. Here the
charges are listed. Adultery with four
men,
Henry Norris,
William Breton,
Sir Francis Weston,
and Mark Smeittton.
It's telling us that she's despised her
marriage for three years and she's
>> three years. So the whole marriage
really
>> pretty much. Yes. I mean it's setting up
the adultery and relationship with her
accompllices in such a way that it
undermines the king's status and
dignity.
>> And what's the significance of the men
who are accused with an
>> all gentlemen apart from Mark Smeitten.
So these are the young men who've grown
up with Henry um or are serving Henry
and his family. And so they spend a lot
of their time in the king's direct
presence. It's really explaining how
they have been wooed by Anne's charms to
be her lovers.
The indictment alleges how Anne is
>> following daily her frail and carnal
lusts
did falsely and traitorously procure
kisses and touching of the king's daily
and familiar servants to be her
adulterers and concubines.
In court, the charges are read out to
Anne. She is accused of some 20 acts of
adultery.
So now that Anne knows what she's
accused of, how on earth must she be
feeling? Well, she's sure of her
innocence that comes across definitely.
And she's also got great faith. So
perhaps she thinks that God will deliver
her from all this because he knows she's
innocent. So he'll make sure that
justice prevails. But mingled with all
of that self-righteousness, there must
be terror,
disbelief and outrage, she must feel
like screaming.
In the courtroom, the spectators are on
the edge of their seats, listening to
these charges and waiting for Anne's
response.
But Anne is completely calm, certain of
her innocence, believing God will
intervene with a miracle to prove it. An
eyewitness describes how she seemed
unmoved. She said little, but no one to
look at her would have thought her
guilty.
Cromwell must now be growing agitated.
This isn't going the way he thought.
He'd planned it all out very carefully.
He must have thought it was a done deal.
But now he senses the atmosphere
changing and he must be terrified that
it's all going to go against him because
Anne has a hidden weapon.
She's not just the intellectual equal of
most of the men there. She's their
superior.
Anne's had the benefit of an education
abroad. Very unusual for a TUDA woman.
She stands apart in Henry's court. As
somebody who champions the role of
women, the qualities of women and her
feistiness, if we can call it that, is
what attracts Henry. He loves the fact
she's different to all the other women
in his court. Well, he loves that when
she's a mistress, but when she becomes
his wife, that's something else
entirely. And he turns against her, at
least partly for that reason.
[Music]
Anne has been accused of adultery, a
deeply serious allegation.
But then the next part of the indictment
is read out.
Anne is also accused of having a sexual
relationship with her brother George,
the crime of incest.
And the records spare no details in
describing the siblings alleged affair.
>> There's quite a lot about the carnal
contact and the lusting and the secret
associations of of Anne and her brother.
They're talking about the queen and her
brother kissing.
>> The court records claim that Anne
encouraged her brother,
>> alluring him with her tongue in the said
George's mouth and the said George's
tongue in hers with their eyes wide
open.
>> There's allegations of diabolical
sorcery,
>> witchcraft as well is flatter and lots
of carnal lust. She's presented even in
the language as someone who's not in
control of her passions.
>> To make the charge of incest stand up,
Cromwell needs to provide some proof.
The evidence for Anne's incest with her
brother is flimsy, to say the least. All
it was was the fact that Anne had
written to George telling him that she
was pregnant. Well, that was taken to
mean that the child was his. And as if
the incest wasn't devastating enough,
Cromwell also finds a way to really
twist the knife. It all gets deeply
personal because as well as the
incestuous relationship between Anne and
George, it's recorded that they laughed
at the king behind his back. They made
fun of his clothes, of his poetry. It's
deeply humiliating for Henry and it's
just another nail in Anne's coffin.
But to be sure this would stand up in
court, Cromwell needs to find someone
who can testify.
In the run-up to Anne's trial, from his
base in Austin Friars,
in the depths of the city, Cromwell's
men scoured London for juicy evidence.
What they come up with is a star
witness, someone who confirms the incest
between Anne and George. What's
remarkable about this is that the
witness is George's own wife, Lady
Roford. This is a mindblowing claim
because she's incriminating her own
husband. Why on earth would she do this?
We know that they have an unhappy
marriage.
So perhaps she's jealous of just how
close George is to his sister Anne.
Whatever the case, it's clear she's out
to get George and to bring an down with
him.
In the courtroom, Anne is still
insisting on her innocence and fighting
off the evidence brought against her.
The atmosphere in the room begins to
change as Anne defends herself against
the charges. This is the woman who's the
scandal of Christrysendom, called the
great and the concubine. And yet,
she's conducting herself with such
wisdom and discretion that people are
beginning to sympathize with her.
It looks like it's going to go her way.
Is it possible she will be found
not guilty?
[Applause]
Anne Berlin, Queen of England and second
wife of Henry VIII, is accused of
adultery and incest. At the start of her
trial, she appears to be a dead woman
walking. But now the atmosphere in the
courtroom is starting to change. Even
her most bitter enemies are impressed by
her robust defense. Can she turn it all
around?
The men Anne has been accused of
adultery with are her husband's most
trusted and intimate courtier, Henry
Norris, along with William Breton and
Sir Francis Weston, all members of the
king's inner circle.
Worse still, it's claimed she committed
incest with her brother George Berlin.
But Mark Smeen, the fifth man accused,
is of a much lower status. He's a simple
court musician.
15 days ago at Thomas Cromwell's house
in Austin Friars, Smeen was interrogated
for 24 hours.
All of the other men grilled by Cromwell
have totally denied the charges, but
Smean doesn't. He cracks. He claims that
Anne singles him out for special
attention.
He says that one morning as she lay in
bed, she summoned him to play music so
her ladies could dance. As she watched
him, she decided to seduce him. Mark
admits to making love to the queen on
three occasions.
But was this true or was Mark Smeen
attempting to save himself?
A servant witnesses the horror of
Smean's interrogation and cast doubt on
his confession.
The account reads as follows. Then he
called two stout young fellows of his
>> and asked for a rope and a cudgel and
ordered them to put the rope which was
full of knots around Mark's head and
twisted it with the cudel until Mark
cried out sir secretary no more. I will
tell the truth.
[Music]
In TUDA times, torture could be used as
a way of getting people to admit guilt,
but it couldn't be used on members of
the nobility, only commoners like Mark
Smeen. I think it's no coincidence that
he's the only one to confess.
There is one admission in particular by
Smean that is hard to believe.
It tells of the extraordinary lengths
Anne would go to in order to get smitten
into her bed. The problem is as queen,
Anne has very little privacy. She's
always surrounded by her ladies. So, she
has to come up with a cunning plan. And
it involves her most trusted lady,
Margaret, whose bedroom lies right next
to Anne's. And it's also used to store
dried fruits, sweet meats, and
marmalade.
According to Smeen's confession,
Margaret hides him behind a curtain
until the coast is clear. Then Anne
supposedly calls, "Bring me a little
marmalade."
loud enough for any eavesdroppers to
hear. Margaret leads Mark into Anne's
bed chamber and supposedly says, "Here
is the marmalade, my lady.
Anne tells her she may leave. And well,
you can use your imagination for what
happens next.
It's interesting to reflect on the
likelihood of these charges because it's
almost certain that Anne did flirt with
the men at court, but then she'd been
schooled in the art of what's known as
courtly love. This is when a knight can
court a woman far above him in status.
He can wear her colors at a tournament,
compose songs or poems, or even pursue
her. But always the woman stays just out
of reach. Although in reality this
behavior did lead to sexual liaison.
[Music]
But an is queen of England. After all,
she's hardly ever alone, always
surrounded by her ladies. She'd have had
to have taken a huge risk to conduct an
affair in secret.
There's also the fact that Anne is a
woman not lacking in self-control. She'd
kept Henry at bay for seven long years.
Would she really lack the discipline to
stay faithful to him? Now,
while all the charges of sexual liaison,
even incest, might make Anne look like a
scheming and lustful woman, would there
be enough to get rid of her completely?
Adultery was usually a crime for the
church courts that would have seen the
guilty woman exiled to a convent. But
Henry wanted Anne gone.
permanently.
>> So adultery wouldn't have been enough on
its own to end Anne's life.
>> It would have made Henry very cross and
it made him look incompetent to the
nation, which obviously he doesn't want
to do, but something more more formal
and damaging has to be the final charge.
To ensure that Anne was disposed of
forever,
Cromwell had to engineer a charge that
was far more serious. And he cooked up
the most serious charge of all. That
Anne had been plotting the death of the
king, an act of high treason.
Henry is a very paranoid king by this
time. So it would be easy to convince
him that there's a plot a foot from
amongst his gentlemen.
In the courtroom,
Cromwell plays his trump card. He
declares his discovery that Anne has
plotted the death of the king.
and he claims to have evidence from one
of the men Anne is accused of sleeping
with,
Henry Norris.
Apparently, a couple of weeks before,
Anne had quarreled with Henry Norris.
She'd asked him why he hadn't yet
proposed to her cousin, Lady Shelton,
and he'd replied that he was going to
wait and see, which Anne took to mean
that he was going to wait and hope to
marry her instead.
In court, written testimony from William
Kingston, the constable of the tower,
says that when Henry Norris told Anne he
was waiting, she said, "You look for
dead men's shoes. If all should come to
the king, but good, you would look to
have me." Well, this might all sound
very flimsy and inconsequential, but the
implication here is that it's just a
short step for an from contemplating her
husband's death to actually plotting it.
Cromwell has pulled off a master stroke.
Treason is as serious as it gets. It's
the ultimate crime and it's punishable
only by death.
Even as Anne Berlin sits calmly
listening to the evidence against her,
she's aware that her fate doesn't just
rest on the trial today.
3 days ago, there was another trial.
this time across London at Westminster
Hall, right in the heart of government.
Its outcome would profoundly affect
Anne's situation.
Being judged are four of the five men
she's accused of having affairs with.
Henry Norris,
William Breton,
Sir Francis Weston,
and Mark Smeittton.
[Music]
Ensuring the Queen is convicted rests on
finding these men guilty.
The men were brought here by barge from
the tower to Westminster Hall. Well,
today it's part of the Houses of
Parliament, but then it was one of the
most important law courts in the
kingdom.
There are no surviving official records
of the trial, only eyewitness accounts.
Well, you have to imagine that this
ancient hall is crowded with people
lining the walls on either side,
courtiers, the jewelry of course, and
the men are led into the center where
they stand. You can imagine them gazing
nervously around and their hearts must
have sank as they saw all those hostile
faces staring at them.
The men stand to hear the charges.
We have here a record of the attainer
that's read out against the men and it
says they had violated
>> and had cardinal knowledge of the said
queen each person at different times.
>> Like the queen, they have no witnesses
testifying for them. They are only
allowed to declare their guilt or their
innocence.
They all say not guilty except one.
Mark Smeen confesses
that he had quote carnal knowledge of
the queen three times.
The Lord Chancellor then reads out the
sentence.
They are to be publicly hanged, drawn,
and quartered.
Their members cut off
and burnt before them.
Their executions are postponed until
after the verdict of Anne's trial.
Instead, they are returned to the Tower
of London to await their fate.
There are no records as to where the
condemned men are locked up within the
tower, but I believe there are some
clues etched into the ancient stonework.
[Music]
As a historian and curator, I spend a
lot of time in historic buildings, grand
state rooms, examining archives and the
like. But this gives me an absolute
thrill because graffiti like this gives
you an insight into the past like none
other. It really does feel like you're
almost touching history. This was left
behind quite possibly by the very men
who are accused of adultery with the
Queen of England.
The graffiti shows a carving of a
falcon, the emblem of the Berlin family.
I think this gives us a little glimpse
into the state of mind of those men if
it was them who carved this. Because
carving Anne's symbol after they've been
found guilty of adultery with her is
almost like an act of defiance. They're
still supporting her even now as they
face death.
As the condemned men await their
sentence,
just meters away in the tower's great
hall, Anne's trial reaches its
conclusion. She's done all she can to
convince the court that she deserves to
go free.
Now must wait for the verdict.
[Music]
At this point, Anne seems to think that
justice will prevail and she'll be found
not guilty.
After all, she's conducted herself
throughout the trial like a woman who
knows herself to be innocent.
All of the evidence that's been
presented against her has been
questionable, and her faith and belief
in her innocence are total. As she and
everyone else here awaits the verdict,
the tension must be palpable.
The judge, Anne's uncle, the Duke of
Norfolk, sends the jury to deliberate,
including her own father, Thomas Berlin.
The room holds its breath.
It takes them just moments to reach
their decision.
[Music]
They are unanimous.
Anne is found guilty of treason.
It must have hit her like an electric
shock. Her mind must be spinning
with the implications.
Immediately she's stripped of her crown
and her titles. She is no longer Queen
of England.
As Anne is still reeling from this, her
uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, sat there,
delivers the sentence, and it's this.
because thou has offended against our
sovereign the king's grace in committing
treason against his person. And here at
tainted of the same, the law of the
realm is this, that thou hast deserved
death.
[Music]
And thy judgment is this, that thou
shalt be burned here within the Tower of
London on the green, or else to have thy
head smitten off,
as the king's pleasure shall be further
known.
>> Well, this is just horrific. The
sentence for treason is to either be
burnt or beheaded. Well, the latter is
preferable. It's the swifter death. But
both are Anne's worst nightmare. She
hasn't seen this coming. Now, she knows
that she's going to die. We can only
imagine what must be going through her
mind. But this is when Anne is
extraordinarily
courageous.
As the room erupts into chaos, Anne's
composure doesn't waver for a second.
Why is she so unmoved? Is it just the
shock? That would be understandable. But
I can't help feeling it's something
else. And it's Anne's determination to
show no fear, no dismay in front of the
men who have brought her down because
that would hand them yet another
victory. Anne Berlin has been found
guilty of the most serious crime
imaginable,
high treason.
But is her fate sealed? Surely she has
the right to challenge the verdict.
Lawyer Afua Hirs has been studying
Anne's case. I've never come across such
a blatant unfairness. Even by the
standards of its day, it was a complete
outrage.
>> Today, if you were in Anne's position
and the verdict went against you, what
recourse would you have?
>> Well, the obvious thing would be an
appeal. All of those things that are
lacking in her first trial should have
been addressed in an appeal where an
appeal judge would say, "Well, what
exactly is the evidence and what did the
witnesses say?" And it's really a check
on exactly this kind of abuse of
process. It's almost uh impossible now
for somebody to be convicted of the most
serious sentence without an appeal.
>> The other thing that strikes me is the
trial takes place in a single day,
probably a few hours if that. The idea
that something this serious could be
dealt with in a few hours is absolutely
abhorrent to me. So if somebody's going
to die, you would want to make sure that
everything has been done properly and in
a fair way. But perhaps the reason for
all this unfairness was the most
sinister part of Anne's trial.
>> I think the real elephant in the room is
obviously King Henry VII himself. We
have a monarch who is able to directly
interfere in legal proceedings, bully
and intimidate witnesses, judges, and I
suppose the thing that explains all of
this blatant unfairness is the fear that
everyone must have had that if they
didn't deliver the verdict the king
wanted, they would be next. This is a
trial in name only. Nothing about this
meets even the most basic standards of
justice.
>> With the verdict delivered, silence
descends on the courtroom.
Still with incredible dignity and poise,
an delivers a speech. She says, "I do
not say that I have always borne towards
the king the humility to which I owe
him,
>> considering the great honor and respect
he always paid me."
I admit too that often I have taken it
into my head to be jealous of him.
But may God be my witness if I have done
him any other wrong.
[Music]
It's such a wellthoughtout
speech and delivered without hesitation.
It's tempting to think that Anne has
prepared in advance. But remember, she
doesn't believe that this is going to
happen. She thoroughly believes she's
innocent and will be found such. So it
seems that actually this speech is just
delivered from the heart.
[Music]
To mark the guilty verdict, cannons
fire, which reverberates across London.
In his palace at Westminster, the king
hears the signal and knows that the deed
is done. The coast is almost clear for
him to marry Jane Seymour.
Anne is escorted out of the courtroom.
The guards turn their ax blades towards
her.
[Music]
As Anne is taken back to her apartment
in the tower, her brother George Berlin
is escorted into the great hall for his
trial.
[Music]
George, like Anne, defends himself
eloquently. But also like Anne, he
doesn't stand a chance. He's found
guilty and taken back to the tower so
that he can prepare for death.
Two days have passed since Anne's trial.
Imprisoned, she still believes salvation
is possible. But then, near the tower,
something shocking happens.
Henry Norris, Mark Smeon, William
Breton, Francis Weston, and George
Berlin have been brought up there on
Tower Hill for their execution.
Their only crumb of comfort is that
they're to be given the more merciful
death of beheading rather than the
traitor's death of hanging, drawing, and
quartering.
The first to be executed is George
Berlin because he's highest in rank.
Poor Mark Smeen is the last. By then,
the block and the scaffold would have
been covered in blood and the axe would
have been blunter.
While Anne may have seen the men being
led out up to Tower Hill for their
execution, and she may be watching now
as their blooded remains are brought
back. With her co-accused now dead, Anne
must summon all her courage to stay
strong as she hopes and prays that the
king will have mercy and grant her a
lastm minute reprieve.
[Music]