Anne Boleyn’s lost last words reveal she may have been innocent
Anne Boleyn’s lost last words reveal she may have been innocent
Sarah KnaptonSat, August 29, 2026 at 2:26 PM UTC
0
Historians Dan Snow (right) and Prof Suzannah Lipscomb (left) investigate the lives and deaths of some of Tudor England’s most fascinating figures, including Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn proclaimed her innocence until the sword fell and won over the watching crowd, a documentary has revealed.
Boleyn was executed at the Tower of London in 1536 after being convicted of treason and adultery, and was publicly vilified by the Tudor court as a traitor after her death.
But a new documentary on National Geographic, charting the deaths of prominent figures in Tudor England, claims that many courtiers believed her to be blameless and their views suppressed by Henry VIII.
The claims are based on an account by Lancelot de Carle, the secretary to the French ambassador in England, who wrote a long narrative poem detailing Boleyn’s downfall and execution two weeks after her death.
The new lines discovered may prove that Anne Boleyn was proclaiming her innocence until the sword fell - Heritage Images
Prof JoAnn DellaNeva, of the University of Notre Dame, discovered that one early version contained extra paragraphs that were omitted from other copies, detailing how Boleyn asked the crowd not to believe the charges.
In 15 out of 16 copies of the account, Boleyn said: “To tell you why I am here would not be useful to you or me: so I will stay quiet.”
But in the recently discovered version, de Carle said she added: “I want to beg you, very humbly, that you will not, on the basis of what you have seen, or on those things you have heard from others, judge my part such that it damages your confidence against me.”
De Carle also spoke of the crowd’s reaction, adding that: “Each one made judgment that her life was prudent, and they thought they’d committed a great offence by thinking ill of her.”
Anne Boleyn was executed at the Tower of London in 1536 after being convicted of treason and adultery - Bettmann
Prof Suzannah Lipscomb, a historian and co-presenter of How The Tudors Lost Their Heads, said: “The general opinion was being encouraged (by Henry’s government) that the Queen had committed these offences.
“What’s so interesting about this is it testifies to both Anne asserting the opposite, though in kind of elliptical ways – you have to at these times – but also to the fact that, in the light of that, people at her death believed that she was innocent, and then that Henry suppressed that.
Advertisement
“To say she was ‘prudent’ is to say she could not have engaged in the immoral behaviour she’s being accused of.”
Unlike other executions, Boleyn was beheaded on Tower Green, away from the eyes of the public. So the onlookers spoken about by de Carle must have been prominent figures in the Tudor court.
Historians believe that when Henry VIII was shown de Carle’s account, he was so angry he ordered all copies to be destroyed, with the only ones remaining having omitted the exculpatory paragraphs.
Historians believe that Henry VIII had ordered all copies of Lancelot de Carle’s account to be destroyed or omitted - Digital Vision Vectors
Prof Lipscomb added: “The government is cloaking the truth about this, it doesn’t want any version that says that Anne was innocent to come out.
“I think that kind of public shaming around her is unfortunately still alive and well. That’s what we see when people get cancelled.
“I desperately want (viewers) to think that she was innocent. And that not only was she innocent, but that her innocence was being actively suppressed by Henry’s government.”
The series also dives into the mystery of whether Perkin Warbeck was really one of the two Princes in the Tower, based on an unusual French translation of Warbeck’s confession.
It also examines the pivotal moments leading to the execution of Mary Queen of Scots and Margaret Pole, the last legitimate member of the Plantagenet dynasty.
Dan Snow, who co-presents the show with Prof Lipscomb, said: “The Tudors have always fascinated us, not just because of their power and pageantry, but because life at court could be as dangerous as it was glamorous.
“In this series, Suzannah and I return to the evidence with fresh eyes to ask whether these extraordinary executions were inevitable tragedies, political necessities or something far more calculated. It’s history at its most human, dramatic and brutal.”
How The Tudors Lost Their Heads airs Sundays at 8pm on National Geographic from 6 September, with all episodes streaming on Disney+ from the same day. The Anne Boleyn episode airs 20 September.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
