I’m one of those people who, when the Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their wedding date, immediately thought: “Why would you want to get married on the anniversary of Anne Boleyn’s execution?” That’s what May 19 means to us in Anne Boleyn fandom. That and one more thing, at least to me: 19 May is also the date Anne’s daughter Elizabeth was released from the Tower.
So how did the two women come to share that fateful day at the Tower?
Anne Boleyn's 1533 coronation celebrations would last four days and include a triumphant arrival at the Tower of London. Once she arrived at the Tower, Anne was greeted by heralds, great officers of state, and finally by the King himself. The Queen’s apartments, now gone, were located in the innermost ward of the Tower, between the White Tower and the main curtain wall. Then on Saturday, 31 May Anne processed from the Tower to Westminster for her coronation. As Anne left the Tower in glory no one could have imagined the events that would bring her back just three years later.
On 19 May 1536, Anne left the Queen’s Lodgings in the Tower for the last time. She had worried she would be put into a dungeon when she arrived on 2 May; she was not, but the royal apartments had been little comfort as she had watched her life unravel. That morning she walked past the Great Hall and through Coldharbour Gate, the remains of which can still be seen today. When she passed along the west side of the White Tower, she saw the scaffold. A single stroke and it was over. Anne’s body was placed in a makeshift coffin, by legend an arrow case, and buried in the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula.
After the Wyatt rebellion, Mary I was certain her half-sister was guilty. On 18 March, 1554, Mary sent Elizabeth to the Tower. Elizabeth is described as playing the moment of her arrival at the Tower to its fullest effect, sitting down on the steps and when encouraged to come in out of the rain replying “It is better sitting here than in a worse place.” Declaring herself the truest subject in the land, she entered the Tower.
On 19th of May, the soldiers knocked at Elizabeth’s door. She would have known the date, of course. She would have known how her half-sister hated her mother, and how much she would love to have Elizabeth follow in Anne’s footsteps to the executioner. Instead, Elizabeth was taken from the Tower on 19 May 1554. Guarded by Bedingfield’s men, Elizabeth set off for Woodstock.
On 17 November 1558, Mary I died. Word came to Elizabeth at Hatfield. According to legend, she sank to her knees and quoted the scripture in Psalms: “This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.” After spending two days being celebrated and honored at the Tower, Elizabeth left for her procession to Westminster. According to Sir John Hayward, Elizabeth remarked, “Some have fallen from being princes in this land to be prisoners in this place. I am raised from being a prisoner in this place to be a prince in this land.”
I think the day she left the Tower, Elizabeth began her journey toward becoming the Queen her mother would have wished her to be.
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