– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

[Music]

The 19th of May, the anniversary of the

death of a Queen of England.

Every year on this day, a bouquet of red

roses is delivered anonymously

to the Chapel of the Tower of London.

They are accompanied by a simple

request. They are to be laid just over

there on the spot where the second wife

of Henry VIII, Anne Berlin, was buried

on this day in 1536.

[Music]

I'm historian Tracy Borman. Over the

next three nights, I'm going to explore

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'll look at the day she's arrested,

the day she's tried,

and the day she's beheaded.

In this first episode, I'll be tracing

the events of Anne Berlin's last day of

freedom. For the first time in history,

a Queen of England has been arrested and

imprisoned in the Tower of London. And

she faces charges for which the penalty

is death.

[Music]

It's 8:00 in the morning on Tuesday the

2nd of May 1536.

Since dawn 3 hours ago, the streets have

been crowded with traders selling to

passing travelers.

The river Tempames is full of boats

carrying people and goods.

And in Whiteall, a plan is being

hatched.

At one of the king's palaces, he has

almost 60.

Servants are preparing Henry VII's main

meal of the day.

Things seem normal.

In 1536, Henry isn't yet the oversized

king we tend to think of. He's fit and

active, and his weight hasn't yet

ballooned.

And this morning, he's been busy

already.

He sent a message to one of his other

palaces,

and it's a message that will change the

course of history forever.

Leaving Henry's palace at Whiteall,

the messenger starts his journey

eastwards along the river Tempames

towards Henry's wife, Queen Anne Berlin.

She is at another royal palace down the

river in Greenwich, the magnificent

palace of Placentia.

This is Anne's favorite residence. The

name means pleasant palace, but it will

not live up to that today.

We're told Anne starts the day watching

a game of real tennis. It's a favorite

sport of hers and also of her husband

Henry who frequently plays matches.

Anne Berlin stands out in the English

court as stylish, intellectual and

charismatic.

She has already experienced plenty of

drama in her 35 years. Born in England

and was educated in France and later

became a lady in waiting to Henry VII's

first wife, Katherine of Araggon.

Henry spotted her at court, wooed her,

and they fell in love. He had his

marriage to Catherine anulled, and now

Henry and Anne have been married for 3

years. They have a young daughter, the

future Queen Elizabeth I.

[Music]

But today, unusually, Anne is watching

alone, and that must feel ominous given

what happened yesterday at the Mayday

Joust.

King Henry received some news which set

him on edge. He left without warning for

the palace at Whiteall, leaving Anne by

herself at Greenwich.

Anne loves to have a flutter on sporting

events, and the story goes that she's

just regretting not having placed a bet

on the winner when the message that the

king sent this morning arrives with

ominous instructions.

The king's message from Whiteall has

arrived by boat at Greenwich.

The instruction is simple but ominous.

It says, "By order of the king, Anne

must present herself before the privy

council here at Greenwich."

Her heart must sink. She knows that the

council is the most important advisory

body in the kingdom, and so this must be

really serious.

The world Anne lives in is full of

intrigue.

As people struggle for the king's

attention,

[Music]

Anne has climbed to the top. But there

are plenty of people who want to drag

her down.

This letter by a foreign ambassador

Shapi is full of court gossip.

Chapu is reporting that an whom he

refers to throughout as uh the concubine

and great [ __ ] This is absolutely

typical. There's nothing but criticism

of an

concubine, the woman who has led the

king astray.

In one of his most cutting comments, he

reports that Henry is tiring of Anne and

looking out for a new, younger wife.

It's the joy and pleasure a man feels in

getting rid of a thin, old, vicious

horse in the hope of getting soon a fine

horse to ride.

It really is incredibly thrilling as a

TUDA historian to get my hands on

documents such as this.

They're telling us what people are

saying about an at this time. The sorts

of rumors that are circulating. So, you

get the feeling of the weight of

evidence that is gathering against Anne.

There's nothing here in her favor.

It seems nobody is prepared to speak in

her defense.

The documents record what happens next

on May I

at the palace in Greenwich.

Anne is escorted from the tennis courts

which are part of the vast palace to a

council chamber at the other side of the

complex.

[Music]

Anne makes her way across the courtyard

to the privy council meeting in full

view of everyone.

I can only imagine what must be running

through her mind. Perhaps she's fearing

that like Katherine of Araggon, Henry is

going to divorce her. She must be

racking her brains trying to think of

just what she's done wrong.

At the council chamber, she is met by

three gravefaced men

who rise to their feet. One of them is

the Duke of Norfolk, Anne's uncle.

You'd have thought that he'd want to

help her, but in fact, the two can't

stand each other.

Also there is William Kingston,

constable of the Tower of London and a

member of the Privy Council.

Anne later claimed that I was cruy

handled at Greenwich with the king's

council with my lord of Norolk.

And then he said, "Tut tutt."

Well, tutt. That sounds like quite a

mild reprimand. But what the council

then said to Anne was earthshattering.

They charged her with adultery

with Sir Henry Norris.

This is a bolt from the blue.

Norris is one of the king's oldest

friends.

Until now, he's been one of Henry's most

trusted courtiers.

To make matters worse, Anne's also

accused of adultery with a common and

brash court musician, Mark Smeitten, and

a mysterious third unnamed man.

Anne must be absolutely reeling from

this. But somehow she holds it together.

She says, "I am the king's true wife,

and that no other man has ever touched

her." It's interesting that even now, in

the midst of her shock, the first thing

she does is protest her innocence.

Rumors travel like lightning in the TUDA

court. After questioning, Anne's

escorted under guard back to her rooms,

forced to cross the palace courtyard

again in full view of everyone.

[Music]

This is all incredibly demeaning.

No other Queen of England has ever

suffered such humiliation.

Gossip must already be spreading across

the palace.

And as Anne makes her way back to her

private apartments, her mind must be

spinning.

What's going on? It's the king behind

this, or is it a plot by her enemies to

destroy her?

Little does she know, much worse is to

come.

[Music]

[Music]

in Greenwich

at the Palace of Placentia. Anne is back

in her apartments under armed guard.

Despite the charges, she tries to follow

her normal routine

and sits down to dinner. She's clearly

doing her best to try and maintain

appearances that all is well. She's

dressed in a sumptuous gown of red

velvet and cloth of gold. and she sits

beneath a canopy of estate, a symbol of

her authority as queen, which is ironic

because that authority has started to

crumble.

The people around an are acting

strangely. Her ladies are upset and

tearful. And most ominous of all is that

the king's waiter, who usually appears

at meal times to say,

"Much good may it do you,"

on behalf of the king, doesn't appear.

Anne is so distressed that finally her

composure starts to crumble.

She must be wondering, as must everybody

else in the room, what is going to

happen next,

but today's events haven't come out of

the blue.

Anne's troubles began 3 months ago

when she was expecting a son.

[Music]

Henry's marriage to his first wife,

Catherine, had broken down because after

almost 25 years, they'd failed to

produce a son.

To continue the TUDA dynasty, he needs a

male heir.

The duty now falls to Anne.

Three months ago, she was pregnant. The

king and queen were pinning all their

hopes on it being a son.

Proof of the anticipation of this new

male arrival is a commemorative medal

produced by Anne. Known as the most

happy medal, she planned to distribute

it across the nation to celebrate the

birth and to boost her own image. Just

the prototype survives, locked away in

the British Museum. Feel like a burglar.

I'm about to come face to face with an

for the very first time.

Wow. It is really exciting.

It's amazing the detail. You can see so

much more. I've only ever seen pictures

of this.

Do you want to handle it?

Okay. Is that okay?

This feels like looking at an Lin. It

really is quite extraordinary and yet

very very different to the way that I

think of her, the way that I've been

influenced by those later portraits.

Whereas this is the only known likeness

of an actually taken during her

lifetime. So this is an as she really

was.

This is just incredibly thrilling to

see.

There weren't any others made. This was

it. And Anne was quite a control freak.

So the chances are that an perhaps Henry

too actually held this.

Shivers down the spine. So, this is a

piece of propaganda. This is the tudtor

equivalent of Twitter. I wonder what she

made of it when she saw it.

Can I just put it in my pocket now and

go?

That is incredible.

[Music]

But three months ago, tragedy struck.

Anne suffered a miscarriage.

Worse, it seems it was a baby boy. The

heir that Henry was so desperate for.

This is a major blow for Henry and an

absolute disaster for Anne.

All of Henry's doubts come flooding

back.

Henry believes that

God did not permit them to have a son

and there are rumors that he believed he

might

take another wife.

Straight away, Henry begins thinking of

ditching Anne for someone who can give

him a son.

step forward. This man, Thomas Cromwell,

the so-called fixer who has made it his

job to make Henry's deepest wishes come

true.

As Anne finishes her meal today, she

knows Cromwell must be behind this

attempt to bring her down.

He's spent the last few weeks secretly

building a case against her from his

base here at Austin Friars.

Today, the area lies in the shadow of

the city of London's skyscrapers.

The son of a blacksmith, Cromwell's

risen to be the king's special advisor

by promising to make Henry

the richest sovereign who ever reigned

in England.

I've come to Thomas Cromwell's power

base to get a political perspective on

him from journalist Owen Jones.

Hi Owen.

Hi. How you doing?

Nice to meet you. as well.

Well, we're here on the site of Thomas

Cromwell's original house, and it's from

here that he did so much of his

plotting. We can see him as the original

spin doctor, Mr. Fixer. There are some

pretty obvious modern parallels, aren't

there?

I think the parallels are very, very

striking indeed. You had to use cunning

and you had to be devious. You had to

constantly see it as a as a chess game

where you had to outmaneuver and defeat

your opponents ruthlessly. that kind of

tradition of the spin doctor whether it

be Peter Mandlesson and Dominick

Cummings I bet I wouldn't be surprised

if they hadn't themselves looked back at

Thomas Cromwell with some admiration and

who knows maybe they were partly

inspired by him

so it's case of the end justifying the

means

remorselessly so even if the way you get

there is seen as morally very dubious

very problematic even scandalous as long

as you get to where you want to get to

as long as you achieve that sacred goal

then everything can justified

for people like Cromwell. He has this

huge amount of power and influence, but

he has a job to do. Instead of get

Brexit done, it's, you know, get rid of

the Queen of England. And so, he knows

the risks that he's taking and that if

he fails really, it's his neck on the

line.

I think polit politicians are risk

seekers. They're adrenaline junkies.

They like the idea that they could

suddenly amass all this power, but at

any moment, it could all come crumbling

down. So I think there is that sense of

politics is seen as a bit of a game.

From his house in Austin Friars,

Cromwell makes his way across the city

to Greenwich.

The net is closing in on an

Cromwell's skill is finding out what the

king wants and making it happen. When

Henry had grown tired of his first wife,

Catherine, Cromwell had turned against

her. Now Henry has grown tired of Anne,

Cromwell has turned against her, too.

Well, his first move has been to put

Anne in front of the Privy Council. Now,

it's time to put the next part of his

plan into action.

Cromwell enters Anne's dining room

together with a large entourage of

important men, including her uncle, the

Duke of Norfolk. Earlier this morning,

Norfolk has been one of three men of the

Privy Council to charge Anne with

adultery. Now he's carrying a scroll,

which is a warrant for his niece's

arrest. Clearly, blood is not thicker

than water in the Berlin family. Loyalty

to the king is more important for

political survival.

Anne rises from her seat asking why they

have come. Norfolk says,

"We came by the king's command to

conduct an to the Tower of London."

Discovering that she is being taken to

the tower must be a horrific body blow

for Anne. Her stomach must be churning.

Yet, remarkably, she holds it together.

Anne replies, "If it be his majesty's

pleasure, then I am ready to obey.

She's given no time to pack, to summon

her ladies in waiting, or say goodbye to

her beloved 2 and a halfyear-old

daughter, Elizabeth.

Why the need for all this haste? Well,

Cromwell is painfully aware that Henry

and Anne have always had a tempestuous

relationship, furious rous, but each one

followed by a passionate reconciliation.

He has to act fast to make sure that

that doesn't happen this time.

The Queen of England is under arrest.

Her freedom gone. All she can do is wait

in Greenwich to be taken down the

tempames to the Tower of London.

But while events in Greenwich play out

down the temps in Whiteall, her husband

is keeping a low profile.

[Music]

[Applause]

Henry doesn't want to face his wife or

the public. Strangely though, he doesn't

seem greatly troubled by events that are

happening 10 miles from here in

Greenwich. In fact, those people who do

see him report that he's in great

spirits, even rejoicing at Anne's fate.

The court has never been so lively.

Feasts and banquetss follow one another,

much to the disgust of many of those

there. Eyewitnesses report that he has

daily gone out to dine here and there

with ladies and sometimes has remained

with them until after midnight.

It's all very strange behavior. But

perhaps mentally, Henry has already

moved on from Anne.

This sudden rejection of Anne is

particularly shocking because he courted

her for so long. But what attracted

Henry to her in the first place?

It's difficult to know the truth about

her looks and personality because

pictures we have of her were painted

after her death, but there may be clues

on the most happy medal I looked at

earlier. It features the only portrait

of an created during her lifetime.

It's badly damaged, but sculptor Lucy

Churchill is using it to reconstruct her

face.

I noticed when I looked at it under

magnification, I noticed so much more

detail.

I'm about to see the restored likeness

of an for the first time.

Here is my version.

Oh wow, that's amazing. Well, I must

admit that my first reaction on seeing

this is what was Anne's appeal for

Henry. We know that he was absolutely

besotted with her. the fact that she

isn't conventionally beautiful. A lot of

people are very disappointed. She is

heavy eyed, heavy jawed. She was

described as not the most beautiful

woman at court, but she she could dance.

She was uh very good, very witty, very

intellectual. She had charisma. And I

think that's much more attractive than

the idea of being her superficial beauty

that lured him in. And what you can see

from here is that she had

self-confidence in spades.

Yes,

it looks like more of a Henry VII pose.

It looks like hands on hips. You can't

actually see the rest of her arms, but

back straight, head raised. This is Ann

at her most self-confident, isn't it?

under arrest. An's self-confidence is

now in tatters.

At Greenwich, she's been waiting for

almost an hour for the boat to take her

down the temps.

Anne is about to leave her beloved

Greenwich Palace for the last time.

Next stop, the tower.

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

[Applause]

In Greenwich at the Palace of Placentia,

Anne is escorted from her apartments

down to the river Tempames.

Leading the way is the man responsible

for arresting her, Thomas Cromwell.

This must be the way that Anne is led

down the steps under arrest here to the

beach where there'll be a barge waiting

for her to take her up river to the

Tower of London. And you can still see

just over there the remains of the

original TUDA pier from which an would

have boarded the boat.

I'm now following in the wake of Anne's

journey to the Tower of London.

Usually state prisoners would have been

taken to the tower undercover of

darkness, but Anne suffers the

humiliation of being rode there in full

daylight.

[Music]

They really want to make her arrest very

public indeed.

If that isn't bad enough, her nemesis

Thomas Cromwell is with her on the boat.

It's as if he can't trust her arrest to

others. He has to keep a close eye

throughout.

[Music]

The atmosphere on the boat must be

toxic.

Cromwell's agents have been at work

spreading the word that the queen has

been arrested

and is heading down the river.

Within a matter of hours, the

sensational news is all around London

today. The tempames is very quiet, but

at the time of Anne's arrest, it would

have been a bustling thoroughare filled

with boats and also crowded with

spectators watching from the shore. And

they would have all been hostile to this

woman who they saw as a user. She'd

ousted the rightful queen Katherine of

Araggon.

After a 2hour journey, Anne arrives at

the Tower of London.

[Music]

This is the tower as an is seeing it as

she arrives from Greenwich.

And it's incredibly imposing when you

see it from this view. You tend to

approach by road and you don't get a

sense of just how intimidating the

fortress would have looked arriving here

particularly for an who knows that she's

arriving not as an honored guest but as

a prisoner.

Well, most prisoners who are brought to

the tower enter through traitor's gate,

but an is brought here to what was known

as the court gate, which was probably a

nod to her status because after all,

prisoner she might be, but she's also

still the queen of England.

Well, as an steps down here, the thunder

of the towers cannon sounds all around

her.

She's renowned for her composure, but

that now begins to crumble. She falls to

her knees protesting her innocence.

When Anne last arrived here 3 years ago,

it was for her coronation celebrations.

Remembering this, she says,

"I was received with grace ceremony the

last time I entered here.

The tower is a royal palace, but it's

also an infamous prison.

Responsibility for Anne now falls to Sir

William Kingston, the constable of the

tower.

Anne asks him,

"Mr. Kingston. Do I go into a dungeon?

An expects to be taken to one of the

many cells within the tower,

but instead she's taken the other way

towards the queen's apartments.

[Music]

This is a great relief for Anne and also

a surprise.

Perhaps it gives her a glimmer of hope

that things might not be quite as bad as

she feared. But on the other side of

London in Henry's Whiteall Palace,

something incredible is cooking up.

The case against Anne is developing

fast, and it's about to get much darker.

So far, Anne knows she's accused of

adultery with Mark Smeen,

Henry Norris,

and a mysterious third man.

But who is he? Rumors are circulating

that this third man is in fact

her own brother, George Berlin. George

has heard the rumor and as yet is

unaware. He races across London to hear

White Hall Palace, which once stood

where these buildings are now.

He's come to see the king, to plead his

innocence, clear his name, and make a

case for the Berins.

[Music]

But George's attempt to win the king

over is in vain.

Cromwell has the king in lockdown, so he

can control exactly what's going on.

George has no chance of a meeting.

Instead, he is arrested on the spot and

charged

[Music]

with incest.

As if the charges of adultery against

Anne aren't enough, they've really

stepped up a gear with this claim.

Cromwell's plot to destroy the queen is

all falling into place.

Now he needs Anne under lock and key

while he plots his next move.

Heat. Heat.

[Music]

[Applause]

Anne is under the watch of the constable

of the tower, Sir William Kingston.

He leads her to the queen's apartments.

Well, thanks to this detailed map from

the TUDA period, we know exactly where

Anne's apartments were. They're on that

lawn long since demolished, but would

have been very lavish. And they're

certainly not what Anne is expecting,

and that must have just added to her

confusion. Why has she been brought here

and lodged still as queen? The queen's

apartments, together with a great hall,

connected the White Tower to the outer

walls.

[Music]

Just three years ago, Henry spent

£35,000,

that's 1.5 million in today's money,

rebuilding them for Anne's coronation.

Inside they are sumptuously decorated

and furnished.

When Anne first sees her apartment, she

cries out,

"It is too good for me."

Which seems an odd thing to say given

she's just protested her innocence. Is

this an admission of guilt? Or is an

trying to be clever, pretending to be

humble in order to invite compassion?

Kingston recalled that an

knelt down weeping at good pace and then

fell into great laughing and

she has done so many times since.

It's clear that Anne is almost

hysterical at the thought of what might

now happen.

To make matters worse, she's been

appointed four ladies whom she neither

likes nor trusts. Incredibly, one of

them is her own aunt.

Once again, family loyalty counts for

nothing with the Berins.

Well, it's obvious that these ladies

have been placed there as spies by

Cromwell.

He knows that the evidence he's gathered

so far is not enough. He needs more.

And he's hoping that while Anne is here

in the tower, she'll say something to

really incriminate herself.

As Cromwell waits for incriminating

evidence from his spies, he plots the

next move from Austin Friars.

He has the queen under lock and key.

[Music]

But what next?

Cromwell can't risk a repeat performance

of Henry's split from Catherine of

Araggon. She'd refused to go quietly and

had caused a great deal of trouble for

the king.

Even after the enolment, most people in

Britain still see Katherine as the true

queen. But not everyone does. Anne is a

good deal less popular than Catherine,

but she's not without powerful

supporters who might make trouble if

Henry tries to divorce her.

So Cromwell knows he needs to get rid of

them and fast.

He's already imprisoned three of her

allies, Sir Henry Norris, musician Mark

Smeen, and a third man,

who has turned out to be her brother,

George Berlin, all accused of adultery

with the queen.

Across London, Cromwell's trap is

closing in on Anne and anyone who can

help her.

Now he must prepare for the trial of the

century in which he'll bring down these

supporters and the queen of England

herself.

Just a stones throw away from Cromwell's

base at Austin Friars at the Tower of

London. Anne Berlin prepares for her

first night as a prisoner. Her

[Music]

mood is darkening.

Kingston pays her a visit.

Anne insists on her innocence to

Kingston. She protests,

"I am the king's true wedded wife."

And then she asks, "Mr. Kingston, do you

know wherefore I am here?" and he

replies, "No." Whether he does know or

not is a different matter.

In desperation, Anne demands to know

where her supporters are, in particular

her father. The truth is her father

Thomas has abandoned her in order to

save his own skin.

Across the city in Whiteall, the king

retires for the night. his wife

imprisoned. He is alone.

As the events of the day draw to a

close, Cromwell sends a message to the

king here at Whiteall. The message

updates the king with the allegations

against his wife. When the king reads

it, he's utterly distraught.

An eyewitness tells us

the king begins to weep.

Were the tears genuine? Was Henry just

putting on a show? Or did he truly love

Anne?

I think it more likely that Henry was

feeling sorry for himself, that the

woman whom he'd raised to be queen of

England had betrayed him.

At the tower, Anne is settling in for

the first night away from her husband as

a prisoner.

The tower is a place full of forboding,

particularly at night. And I can only

imagine what Anne must have been feeling

during her first night as a prisoner

here, desperately wanting to know what

fate lay ahead for her.

Well, there is a letter in existence

that's said to have been written by Anne

to her husband, the king. In it she

writes, "Try me, good king, but let me

have a lawful trial, and let not my

sworn enemies sit as my accusers and

judges, for my truth shall fear no open

shame."

Anne is asking for a fair trial, but is

that what she's going to get?

[Music]

[Music]

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
queen /kwiːn/ A2	noun - a woman who rules a country or a king rules with her
king /kɪŋ/ A1	noun - a man who rules a country or a queen rules with him
palace /ˈpælɪs/ A2	noun - a large house where a royal family lives
tower /ˈtaʊər/ B1	noun - a tall, narrow building or part of a building that is higher than it is wide
arrest /əˈrest/ B1	verb - to use the power of the law to take someone away because they may have committed a crime noun - the act of arresting someone
trial /ˈtraɪəl/ B1	noun - a formal examination of evidence in court to decide whether someone is guilty of a crime
adultery /əˈdʌltəri/ C1	noun - the crime of having sex with someone who is not your husband or wife
incest /ˈɪnsest/ C1	noun - sexual activity between people who are closely related
betrayal /bɪˈtreɪəl/ B2	noun - the act of hurting someone who trusts you by not being loyal or honest with them
miscarriage /ˈmɪskærɪdʒ/ B2	noun - a loss of a pregnancy early in the woman's body noun - a failure to achieve something planned
dynasty /ˈdɪnəsti/ B2	noun - a family of rulers who rule for many years
intrigue /ɪnˈtriːɡ/ C1	noun - secret plans made to harm or deceive someone verb - to interest someone very much
charismatic /ˌkærɪzˈmætɪk/ C1	adjective - having a lot of charm and the ability to attract people
warrant /ˈwɒrənt/ B2	noun - an official document that gives authority to do something verb - to make something necessary or appropriate
cannon /ˈkænən/ B1	noun - a large heavy gun from the past that fired heavy metal balls
execution /ˌeksɪˈkjuːʃən/ B2	noun - the killing of someone as a punishment noun - the process of doing something in a planned way
bewitch /bɪˈwɪtʃ/ C2	verb - to charm someone completely
ominous /ˈɒmɪnəs/ C1	adjective - suggesting that something bad is going to happen
reconciliation /ˌrekənsɪliˈeɪʃən/ C1	noun - the process of making people become friendly again after an argument