Anne’s Execution was Deliberately Delayed
Anne Boleyn was due to die at 9 am on the eighteenth of May. She spent much of what was supposed to be the last night of her life praying and preparing to meet her end. She heard mass at dawn and also made her confession. Somewhat unusually, she requested the Constable of the Tower, Kingston to join her. And so he witnessed Anne, not once but twice confess that she had never been unfaithful to Henry.
Nine am came, but still, Anne waited for her death. The waiting must have been a torment. Then Kingston came to her and told her she would not die until noon. Anne, who had waxed between calm and hysterical over the last few days, now was mercifully composed saying only: “Master Kingston, I hear say I shall not die afore noon and I am very sorry there fore, for I thought to be dead by this time and past my pain.”
In fact, Anne’s execution was delayed for a whole 24 hours. She was not told her execution would occur on May 19th until the late afternoon of the 18th. So, she passed the whole of the day of her supposed execution waiting to be summoned to her death at any moment. The order for the delay had come from Cromwell on the pretext that the tower was to be cleared of foreigners. However, perhaps the intention was to finally break Anne’s resolve so that when she finally reached the scaffold, she would crack. She did not. Although she had been formally divorced to remove her daughter Elizabeth from the succession, Anne Boleyn met her death with all the dignity of an anointed Queen.