– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

It's the early hours of the 19th of May,

1536.

4 days ago, Anne Berlin, Queen of

England, was tried here at the Tower of

London and found guilty of adultery,

incest, and even worse, treason against

her husband, King Henry VIII. She's been

condemned to die.

It's a stark reminder of just how

quickly her star has fallen.

I'm historian Tracy Borman. Over three

nights, I'm exploring the extraordinary

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. And I just put it in my

pocket.

>> I've already seen how Anne was arrested,

tried, and sentenced to death.

Now, in this final episode, I'm focusing

on the darkest day of all, the 19th of

May, 1536.

The day Anne is set to be executed.

I'll discover the order issued by King

Henry VIII which decides Anne's fate.

>> It's sad that behind this very

bureaucratic document is a a real person

who's going to suffer a butchering

basically.

>> Will the king grant her a lastm minute

reprieve

or is this Anne's final day?

[Music]

[Music]

It's the dead of night

Nearly all of London is asleep,

but not quite everyone.

[Music]

At the Tower of London, the Yman warders

are patrolling the grounds,

their prisoners secure inside.

Unsurprisingly, in the Queen's

apartments where Anne is spending her

final hours, everyone is awake.

Although it's just a few hours until

Anne's execution, she seems remarkably

composed, even cheerful, laughing and

joking with her ladies.

The constable of the tower, Sir William

Kingston, reports that Anne's moods

swing between despair

and hope. He writes, "I have seen many

men and also women executed, and all

they have been in great sorrow.

>> But to my knowledge, this lady has much

joy and pleasure in death."

>> Maybe Anne is thinking that King Henry

will intervene and save her at the 11th

hour. Or perhaps she's just resigned to

her fate.

After all, her marriage is over. She's

lost all of her power and status. Her

family has abandoned her, and she's been

found guilty of the most evil of crimes.

Perhaps she just wants to be put out of

her misery.

[Music]

[Applause]

At his base in Austin Friars, the man

who is determined and will die today is

sleeping.

The king's chief advisor,

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, giving him the perfect

opportunity to get rid of her.

Now the final part of his plan is

falling into place.

Two days ago, the five men accused of

adultery with Anne, including her own

brother, George, have been taken from

inside the tower up to Tower Hill, where

they were executed in full public view.

An on the other hand is to have a

private execution.

She's to be the first person to be

officially executed inside the walls of

the tower.

This means that they had to build a

scaffold and quickly.

But why the need for such a rush?

Cromwell wants to get Anne's execution

over and done with as quickly as

possible

before the notoriously fickle King Henry

changes his mind.

A short distance up river at Whiteall,

the king is sleeping in his private

apartments.

[Music]

In a matter of hours, he hopes to be rid

of Anne, the woman who has failed to

give him a son.

As king, he needs a male heir to

continue the TUDA dynasty. Already

waiting in the wings is the woman he

hopes will replace Anne and provide him

with a son, Jane Seymour.

Anne's former lady in waiting.

Over the last few weeks, Thomas Cromwell

has been working tirelessly to make it

happen.

He's managed to get Anne sentenced to

death on trumped up charges. Now he has

to make sure her daughter Elizabeth can

never become queen. But to do this, he

must wipe the marriage from existence.

It's vital for Henry to have the

marriage anulled. A divorce won't do. He

wants it never to have happened in the

first place.

Nothing must get in the way of the male

heir Henry now hopes to have with Jane

Seymour.

Three days ago, Cromwell persuaded the

Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas

Cranmer, to write off Henry's marriage

to Anne.

Even though Kmer has serious doubts

about Anne's guilt, he agrees to

Cromwell's request, perhaps to save his

own skin. He says, "On the basis of some

true, just and legitimate causes

recently brought to our attention, the

marriage was null and void, and had

always been so,

which made Anne's daughter, henceforth

to be known as the Lady Elizabeth, a

bastard." This is yet another blow for

Anne because it means that her precious

daughter Elizabeth is now technically

illegitimate and has no right to the

throne. It seems that Anne's legacy will

be completely destroyed.

Today, two miles up river from the tower

at Lambeath Palace, Thomas Cranmer, like

Anne Berlin, is unable to sleep.

Cranmer is a firm supporter of an

Cranmer's mind must be spinning. In a

way, he knows Anne better than anyone

because he's acted as her personal

confessor.

Anne is deeply religious. If she had

done anything wrong, she would have told

Cranmer in order to seek forgiveness and

be received into heaven.

But even though he granted the enulment

of her marriage to Henry, Cranmer is

astounded at the charges. It's

interesting because the fact that

Cranmer is so shocked and distraught by

the allegations must mean he believes

her to be innocent.

In fact, he told Henry he is

>> amazed for I never had a better opinion

of woman.

>> He must be desperately hoping that the

king will change his mind. But he's also

painfully aware that time is quickly

running out.

As Cranmer paces around his garden, a

close friend, Alexander Alice, arrives

by boat. Alice is in an agitated state.

He tells Kmer that he's been awoken by a

terrible nightmare and recounts it all

in gory detail.

It was revealed to me whether I was

asleep or awaken or not, the queen's

neck after her head had been cut off.

And this so plainly that I could count

the nerves, the veins, and the arteries.

>> Cranmer believes this is a premonition.

Alice has not left home for days, so how

could he know an is about to be

executed?

He later recounted that Cranmer looked

up to the sky and declared,

>> "She who has been the queen of England

upon earth will today become a queen in

heaven."

>> He is now utterly overcome with grief.

>> Despite believing Anne is innocent,

Cranmer is losing hope that the king

will grant a reprieve and save her from

the sword. Time is running out. An is

just 6 hours from execution.

[Music]

[Music]

[Applause]

It's dawn.

An is in the queen's apartments at the

tower.

She's with her chaplain receiving her

final communion.

But this is a repeat of what happened

yesterday

when Anne was supposed to be executed.

Yet it was postponed

not once

but twice. Why is this?

[Applause]

One theory is that Cromwell is worried

there will be protests at the tower in

support of Anne.

People are starting to mutter against

the guilty verdict

and Cromwell needs time to clear them

out of the tower before the execution

can take place.

This is torture for Anne.

They say hope is harder to deal with

than despair. And perhaps growing within

her is a notion that the king is having

second thoughts.

[Music]

Anne, still in her apartments, is

preparing to face the world for the last

time.

Her distraught ladies in waiting dress

her.

>> Hi, Larry.

>> Hi, Tracy.

>> She carefully chooses every item of

clothing to send a message to those

watching her execution.

Lynn is a world expert in TUDA clothing.

She's reconstructing what Anne wore.

>> Well, we know that she was wearing a red

curt. So, that's what we understand to

be an underdress. A red curtain was

quite a sort of uh normal thing to wear

in the 16th century. Peasants wore red

scarlet petty coats. So, it may be that

she was wearing it to appear humble. So,

she's sort of one of the people. But it

also plays to that idea of humility. And

that's certainly what she wants to

project now.

Educated on the continent, Anne is famed

for her flamboyant French style of

dress. She usually wears rich, colorful,

imported fabrics.

But today, for her outer gown, she

chooses something much more subdued.

I think the choice of the the gray or

the black fabric is quite important

because that is the color um of piety

and sobriety at court. It's the color of

the officials and the lawyers. All play

to an trying to be quite meek, which is

not what she's known to be otherwise. I

think what she's actually doing here is

dressing down. She's using everything

possible in her armory to try and get

out of this.

[Music]

An is guilty of treason, punishable by

death.

But the jury didn't specify the method

of execution. A queen of England has

never before been sentenced to death. So

this is new territory.

Deep within the National Archives lies

an extraordinary and rarelyseen document

that provides a glimpse into how the

decision was made. Tucked away inside a

500year-old book is something truly

remarkable. A record of the execution

warrant for Anne Berlin.

It sets out how she's to die.

The penalty under the tree is an act

that this all would have proceeded under

for a woman would be to be burned and

for a man to be hanged all and

quartered.

Burning is a slow excruciating death.

Beheading isn't that much better at

least with an axe because axes can be

very blunt. It can take several blows to

sever a head.

But the document reveals that for Anne,

Henry chooses an alternative method of

execution. So they've made a record and

that's what he says.

>> We moved by pity, not wishing the lady

Anne to be burned. Direct the constable

of the tower that on the green within

the Tower of London, the said Anne shall

have her head cut from her body.

Because of course Henry orders a a sword

rather than an axe. The axe being blunt,

more kind of brutal form of death. So

that that wording could be significant.

Cut away, not chopped away.

>> Yeah, I think I think this is again some

sense of of mercy in the king's

involvement in the process.

When Anne is told of Henry's decision

that she's to be beheaded by sword, she

shows her dark sense of humor. She puts

her hands around her neck um and laughs

heartily and says, "It'll be a swift

death because I have just a little

neck."

These instructions for Anne's execution

were sent to the tower just yesterday.

giving Sir William Kingston, the

constable of the tower, little time to

prepare.

What this document does make very, very

clear is the unprecedented nature of all

of this that a queen of England has

never been executed before. They have to

get it right. And worryingly for any

future wives now, they know exactly what

to do next time.

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

Beheading by sword is a French method of

execution. So the king has summoned an

expert swordsman from Santoare in

France. He arrived at the tower

yesterday and soon he will have the

daunting task of being the first man to

execute an English queen.

There's something quite intriguing about

the time frame here because somebody

would have had to have gone to summon

the swordsman. You can't just pick up a

phone in those days and obviously travel

is a lot slower. So they would have

traveled down from London to do by horse

and then of course sailed over the

channel and onto Calala and from there

it was a bit further on to Santo Mayor

where the swordsman was. That would have

taken at least 3 days and then of course

at least 3 days for the swordsman to

travel back. That's six days in total at

least.

This is a damning piece of evidence

because what it means is that incredibly

the swordsman must have been summoned

before the verdict of Anne's trial was

delivered just 5 days ago.

It was a foregone conclusion. Whatever

an does or says, it seems she's going to

be executed.

[Music]

This is meant to be a private execution

to preserve Anne's dignity and to

prevent anyone from trying to rescue

her.

So, the public were ordered to leave the

tower.

But the gates have accidentally been

left open. So now crowds are gathering

in anticipation of the execution.

A thousand people have come in, people

of all ranks of society to witness what

is about to unfold here on the scaffold.

It seems incredible to think that people

would willingly choose to come and watch

as a person's head is severed from their

body. But it's like the grim fascination

we have with crime dramas or watching as

the latest celebrity is shamed by the

media. Only this is much worse.

Among those gathering are men from the

king's council, including Anne's uncle,

the Duke of Norfolk.

There is also the king's illegitimate

son, the Duke of Richmond. Well, he's

there perhaps as a reminder to Anne that

the king has no trouble fathering sons.

Then the architect of Anne's downfall

arrives,

Thomas Cromwell.

He's about to witness the concluding

part of his plan to dispose of Anne

Berlin.

Everything is in place for the

execution.

Sir William Kingston now heads for the

queen's apartments to summon Anne.

Time is running out.

[Applause]

At the Tower of London in the Queen's

apartments, Anne Berlin is dressed and

waiting to be Boo.

It's the job of the constable of the

tower, Sir William Kingston, to make

sure Anne's execution all goes to plan.

With the time approaching, he heads over

to collect her.

Kingston arrives at Anne's door. You can

only imagine what she's thinking at this

moment because on the one hand it's what

she's been dreading all along.

Perhaps she is hoping that against the

odds Kingston has come with a message

from the king informing her that he has

come to his senses and she will be

pardoned.

[Music]

Well, if she does hope that, it's soon

shattered when Kingston tells her to

make ready for her execution.

>> Anne replies calmly,

>> "Aquit yourself of your charge,

for I have you long been prepared."

It seems extraordinary that Anne is so

ready to meet her fate and it's a real

testament to her strength of character.

Her great enemy, Ambassador Shapis, once

remarked,

>> "She was braver than a lion."

>> His words were never more true than on

this the last day of her life.

Up river at his palace in Whiteall

is the one man who can put a stop to the

execution,

the king.

But there's no sign he's about to change

his mind.

As he's dressed by his gentlemen, he's

listening out for cannon fire from the

Tower of London.

This will signal that Anne is dead and

he's free to remarry.

Anne is about to be led by Sir William

Kingston

from the sanctuary of her apartments

[Music]

through Cold Harbor Gate to the scaffold

on the other side of the White Tower

where she'll be executed.

She is to be accompanied

by her four ladies in waiting.

There's a terrible irony to all of this.

The last time Anne was here was just 3

years ago for her coronation

celebrations. Her story has come full

circle.

Anne, her ladies and Kingston are met by

a procession of 200 ymen of the king's

guard, followed by the officers of the

tower and her chaplain. She is escorted

the short distance towards the cold

harbor gate. She knows that what awaits

her around that corner is the scaffold.

The masked spectators are desperate to

get a glimpse of the fallen queen.

And she also sees for the first time the

scaffold where she's to be beheaded.

There's a hushed silence as she walks

through the crowds.

People comment that she's never looked

more beautiful.

Even now with time running out, Anne is

looking all around her as if hoping to

see a messenger from the king carrying a

royal pardon.

But there is no messenger.

Among the crowd, Anne sees familiar

faces.

These are the men who once raised her to

be queen.

her own uncle, the Duke of Norolk, and

the architect of her downfall,

Thomas Cromwell.

They are here to make sure Anne's life

and her powerful influence

are destroyed

permanently.

Kingston helps Anne to mount the steps

onto the scaffold. She turns to her

ladies who are weeping and comforts

them. And then she sees the executioner

who's looking apprehensive at what he is

about to do. What Anne doesn't see is

the sword.

which is hidden underneath the straw so

as not to alarm her.

Anne asks Kingston for permission to

speak.

She doesn't look like someone who's

about to be executed. Eyewitnesses say

that she's smiling and it's with such a

cheerful countenance that she turns to

address the crowds. Good Christian

people, I am come hither to die. For

according to the law and by the law I am

judged to die.

Therefore I will speak nothing against

it.

I am come hither to accuse no man, nor

to speak anything that whereof I am

accused and condemned to die. But I pray

God save the king

and send him long to reign over you. For

a gentler nor a more merciful prince was

there never.

And to me he was ever a good, a gentle

and sovereign Lord. And thus

I take my leave of the world and of you

all.

And I heartily desire you all to pray

for me.

Oh Lord have mercy on me. To God I

commend my soul.

[Music]

>> Anne's words reduce many spectators to

tears.

Well, this is an incredibly humble

speech. Perhaps not what we expect of

Anne, the woman renowned for her

feistiness and outspoken manner. What's

she actually saying here? Well, I think

she's trying to make the king look

kindly on those whom she leaves behind,

none more so than their daughter,

Elizabeth.

Then Anne is invited to confess the

truth, but instead she replies,

"I know I shall have no pardon, but they

shall know no more from me."

>> She is maintaining her innocence right

to the very end.

The swordsman takes off his shoes so

that Anne won't hear him approach.

Anne removes her headdress.

One of her ladies hands her a linen cap.

She tucks her hair inside so it won't

get in the way of the sword.

The executioner steps forward, kneels

before Anne, and begs her forgiveness

for what he's about to do.

He asks Anne to kneel and say her

prayers.

The crowd falls to its knees.

It's time

for the execution.

[Music]

The executioner picks up his sword as

Anne Berlin kneels down on the scaffold.

Her eyes are bandaged.

[Music]

Dazed, she says, "Jesu, have pity on my

soul."

The crowd falls completely silent.

The next thing to happen is that the

swordsman signals to an assistant who

makes a noise, distracting Anne.

The executioner's hands tremble in

distress. And in that moment, the

executioner swings his sword twice over

his head to gain momentum and then in

one strike severs Anne's head.

[Music]

[Music]

Anne's head falls to the straw on the

scaffold. Horrified

eyewitnesses claim they can see her lips

still moving in silent prayer.

People begin to weep.

The Queen of England, as she was, is

dead.

One of Anne's ladies bravely picks up

her head and covers it in a linen cloth,

the blood still dripping from it.

The other three ladies, deeply

distressed and refusing to let any man

touch her, pick up her body, and

together they carry Anna away.

[Music]

Cannons at the tower fire out,

reverberating across London, announcing

that the Queen of England is dead.

[Music]

At Whiteall, the king hears the cannons.

It's the signal he's been waiting for.

Henry takes no time to mourn Anne's loss

or even to celebrate it with a great

feast as he had the death of his first

wife, Catherine. Instead, he boards his

royal barge and travels the short

distance up river to Chelsea and into

the arms of the waiting Jane Seymour.

[Music]

At the tower, Anne's body is laid to

rest,

not in a coffin, but in an old arrow

chest.

It's been taken from the tower's weapon

store, which is right next to the

execution site.

Well, you might think there isn't room

for a body in an arrow chest, but the

arrows are actually laid end to end like

this. So, it is actually quite long, but

it is also narrow. So, it's quite lucky

that Anne was a very slender lady. But

why hasn't anyone prepared a proper

coffin? Anne was once Queen of England.

It could simply be because there was no

time to source a coffin. After all,

Cromwell had rushed through the Queen's

execution as quickly as possible. I

wonder though if there is another

reason. responsibility for the execution

and all of the arrangements for it lies

with William Kingston, constable of the

tower.

Is it possible that he like an didn't

really believe that Henry would go

through with the execution?

[Music]

Anne's body is brought here to the Tower

Chapel where it's stripped of her

jewelry and her expensive but

bloodstained clothes.

[Music]

Incredibly, Henry will pass the jewels

and clothing of his dead wife onto his

new wife, Jane Seymour.

[Music]

At midday, three hours after Anne's

execution, she's buried in the chancel

next to her brother George.

Every year on May the 19th, the

anniversary of Anne's execution, an

anonymous bouquet of red roses is

delivered to the tower.

They are to be laid just over there on

the spot where Anne Berlin was buried in

1536.

It's touching to think that Anne is

still remembered almost 500 years after

her death.

In executing Anne, Thomas Cromwell has

pulled off a massive coup.

He has got rid not just of the Queen of

England, but of all her faction.

Cromwell goes on to become the most

powerful man in England after the king.

But as Anne Berlin learned, no one is

safe in the TUDA court. In a dramatic

twist of fate, he falls from Henry's

favor.

Four years later, he too is executed.

There's a final postcript to this story.

After Anne's execution, Henry and

Cromwell tried to erase her from

history.

Her letters and portraits were destroyed

and her initials and emblems that once

adorned the royal palaces were removed.

[Music]

But there was one thing they couldn't

get rid of. Despite being queen for just

3 years, Anne left England one of its

greatest legacies.

22 years later, against all odds, her

daughter was crowned Queen Elizabeth I.

She ruled for 44 years

at the prime minister's country home.

checkers is evidence that Elizabeth

never forgot her mother.

[Music]

>> We now find ourselves in the great

parlor.

>> Curator Rodney Melville is giving me

exclusive access to a ring worn by the

queen that contains a secret.

>> So,

here we have Elizabeth's ring.

Oh, this is just incredible to see.

>> If you lift the E in diamonds,

>> it's so delicate.

That's incredible. There is an with her

very characteristic French hood.

And then facing her,

>> Elizabeth, her daughter. Look at that.

It's just exquisite.

>> It's wonderful, isn't it? And the face

shape you can see um an had a very long

slim face exactly as is shown here. But

it's just so intricate, isn't it? It's

absolutely beautiful.

>> What a piece of history. I have written

about this. I've never seen it in the

flesh.

As a historian, it doesn't get much

better than seeing this. So, thank you.

Elizabeth kept her feelings about her

mother private, but she cherished this

ring.

It said it was removed from her finger

on her deathbed.

[Music]

>> If you look at the portrait of Amberlin,

right at the bottom, there is a diamond

>> whereas Elizabeth I only has a ruby.

>> Huh? So her mother's jewels are

superior. Is this Elizabeth kind of

deferring to to Anne?

>> Very possibly.

>> That's remarkable. Yet another show of

of respect, of reverence even for her

late mother.

>> Yes, I think so.

>> There's one other intriguing aspect of

this ring.

>> Elizabeth wore pearls a lot. It

symbolized her her virginity, her her

purity. And I think it's quite

interesting that this ring is fashioned

from mother of pearl. That idea of

purity, of innocence and an is there.

Elizabeth was said to rarely speak of

her mother, but this ring speaks for

her. It seems to show what Elizabeth

really felt about the woman condemned as

an adulteress.

What it also very very clearly

illustrates is Anne's most valuable

legacy, her daughter of course, who was

a disappointment at the time of her

birth and really was the beginning of

the end for an

>> but little did Henry know that it was

his reviled second wife who would give

him his most successful child.

To think that this was on Elizabeth's

finger.

>> Yes,

>> it's amazing.

When I set out on this journey to follow

three very significant days at the end

of Anne's life, I had so many

assumptions about Anne and her story.

But re-examining the evidence in real

time rather than looking back has

shattered those ideas.

Stripping back the layers of rumor and

downright lies that have surrounded Anne

for 500 years makes it clear just how

groundless the case against her was and

how courageous she was in the face of it

all.

Well, living Anne's story with her day

by day and hour by hour has brought home

to me just how deeply shocking it was to

execute a queen of England. It's also

made me realize that most people didn't

really believe Henry VII would go

through with it above all and herself.

[Music]

Heat. Heat.

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
king /kɪŋ/ A1	noun - a male ruler of a country
queen /kwiːn/ A1	noun - a female ruler of a country
death /dɛθ/ A2	noun - the end of life
trial /ˈtraɪəl/ B2	noun - a formal examination of evidence before a judge
guilty /ˈɡɪlti/ B1	adjective - responsible for a crime or offense
treason /ˈtriːzən/ C1	noun - the crime of betraying one's country
executed /ˈɛksɪˌkjuːtɪd/ B2	verb - to carry out a sentence of death on a person
fate /feɪt/ B2	noun - the development of events beyond a person's control
power /ˈpaʊər/ A2	noun - the ability to control people or events
married /ˈmærid/ A2	verb - to become someone's husband or wife
lie /laɪ/ A1	verb - to be in or assume a horizontal position on a supporting surface verb - to speak falsely or deceptively
innocent /ˈɪnəsənt/ B1	adjective - not guilty of a crime or offense
sword /sɔːrd/ B1	noun - a weapon with a long metal blade and a hilt
legacy /ˈlɛɡəsi/ C1	noun - something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past
shocking /ˈʃɒkɪŋ/ B2	adjective - causing intense surprise, disgust, or outrage
grief /ɡriːf/ B2	noun - intense sorrow, especially caused by someone's death
brave /breɪv/ B1	adjective - ready to face and endure danger or pain; showing courage.