Here are the Amazon US and UK links:-

The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown – The Kindle version from Amazon.com
The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown – The paperback version from Amazon.com
The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown – The Kindle version from Amazon.co.uk

The Fall of Anne Boleyn Blurb

During the spring of 1536 in Tudor England, events conspire to bring down Anne Boleyn, the Queen of England. The coup against the Queen results in the brutal executions of six innocent people – Anne Boleyn herself, her brother, and four courtiers – and the rise of a new Queen.

Drawing on sixteenth century letters, eye witness accounts and chronicles, Claire Ridgway leads the reader through the sequence of chilling events one day at a time, telling the true story of Anne Boleyn’s fall. The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown is presented in a diary format, allowing readers to dip in, look up a particular date, or read from start to finish. Special features include mini biographies of those involved, a timeline of events and full referencing.

Claire Ridgway, creator of The Anne Boleyn Files website and author of The Anne Boleyn Collection, continues her mission to share the real truth about Anne Boleyn.

Book Extras

On the book website – www.thefallofanneboleyn.com – you will find the following book extras:-

• Interactive timeline of the events of 1536 – Check daily for new events.
• Chapter notes and references
• Full bibliography
• Cast list
• Information on the places mentioned in the book
• YouTube videos on Anne Boleyn
• Gallery of photos
• Q&A with me
• Printable timeline

The Book Trailer

Funeral Procession of Elizabeth I

After her death on 24th March 1603, the body of Queen Elizabeth I was placed inside a lead coffin and carried by night in a torchlit barge along the Thames from Richmond Palace to Whitehall. There, the Queen was to lie in state until her funeral, giving time for King James to travel down to London. While the coffin lay in state, a life size effigy of the Queen, dressed in her royal robes, was placed on top of it to act as a symbol of the monarchy while there was no monarch in England.

On 28th April 1603, Elizabeth’s coffin was carried from Whitehall to Westminster Abbey on a hearse drawn by horses hung with black velvet. The coffin was covered in a rich purple cloth, topped with the effigy of Elizabeth with a sceptre in her hands and a crown on her head. Above the coffin was a canopy supported by six knights and behind the hearse was the Queen’s Master of the Horse, leading her palfrey. The Chief Mourner was the Countess of Northampton who led the party of peers of the realm, all dressed in black.  Chronicler John Stow wrote:-

“Westminster was surcharged with multitudes of all sorts of people in their streets, houses, windows, leads and gutters, that came out to see the obsequy, and when they beheld her statue lying upon the coffin, there was such a general sighing, groaning and weeping as the like hath not been seen or known in the memory of man.”

Elizabeth was then buried at Westminster Abbey in the vault of her grandfather, Henry VII, until she was moved in 1606 to her present resting place, a tomb in the Lady Chapel of Westminster Abbey which she shares with her half-sister Mary I. King James I spent over £11,000 on Elizabeth I’s lavish funeral and he also arranged for this white marble monument to be built. The tomb is inscribed with the words:-

“Consorts both in throne and grave, here we rest two sisters, Elizabeth and Mary, in hope of our resurrection.”

The Tomb and Funeral Effigy of Elizabeth I

You can see an 18th century copy of the funeral effigy that was carried on Elizabeth I’s coffin at the Westminster Abbey Museum and there is a photo of it at www.20thcenturylondon.org.uk. You can also visit the Westminster Abbey page on Elizabeth I’s tomb at http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/royals/burials/elizabeth-i.

You can read more about Wyatt and the rebellion in the following articles:-

• Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger
• Wyatt’s Rebellion 1554

It was a sad end to a man who had been the brother of one queen, the husband of another (when she was queen dowager), uncle of the King, a leading courtier, privy councillor and Lord Admiral. It was definitely his “little judgement”, in the words of the future Elizabeth I, which let him down.

You can read more about Thomas Seymour in the following articles:-

• Thomas Seymour’s Execution 20 March 1549
• The Execution of Thomas Seymour – Gives more detail on his downfall.
• Thomas Seymour Breaks into the King’s Residence
• Catherine Parr and Thomas Seymour Part One
• Catherine Parr and Thomas Seymour Part Two
• Elizabeth, Seymour and Shakespeare

Unfortunately, it took three blows of the executioner’s axe to decapitate Essex and then his head was held up to the small crowd and the executioner cried out “God save the Queen!” His remains were then laid to rest in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula.

You can read all about his execution, including his speech, in my article “Robert Devereux’s Execution – 25 February 1601″ and you can read more about his life and fall in a previous article on his execution – The Execution of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex.

Trivia: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, was the son of Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex, and Lettice Knollys. Lettice was the daughter of Sir Francis Knollys and Catherine Carey, daughter of Mary Boleyn. Essex was, therefore, the great-grandson of Mary Boleyn.

His godfather was Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and it is thought that he was named after him.

You can find out about the Ridolfi Plot and other plots against Elizabeth in my article “Plots Against Elizabeth I”.

Blanche was buried in St Margaret’s Church Westminster, with funeral rites which were usually reserved for a baroness. She has a monument in St Margaret’s and also one in Bacton Church, her home village in Herefordshire, which bears an inscription of twenty-eight lines of verse recording Blanche’s service to her beloved Queen. This can be read in full at http://www.blancheparry.com/epitaph.shtml.

You can read more about Blanche in Sarah Rochel’s article “Mistress Blanche”.

Also on this day in history

• 1554 – Execution of Lady Jane Grey and Guildford Dudley

Lord Darnley was killed, but his body was not found in the rubble, it was found in a neighbouring garden with the body of his groom. It appeared that he had been strangled.

You can read all about his murder in my article “The Murder of Lord Darnley”.