Her saturated garments sucked moisture from the misty gray air and clung to her skin. Damp strands of auburn hair hid her ashen face. Her hands and feet were bound in chains.
She rocked slowly from side to side in cadence with the yeoman’s oars, silent. The smell of rot and sewage wafted from the dark river, assaulting her senses as onlookers spit their disdain, “Whore!” “Witch!” “Traitor!” The gruesome severed heads of previous passengers along this bloody way dangled from the trusses of the bridge as they passed through.
Soon they would arrive at the tower. Her splendid tower where she once resided in oppulance when he still loved her deeply. This day she would enter from its bowels through the traitor’s gate.
Such was the final voyage of this wretched woman, once queen. She languished for weeks in the tower confessing her innocence to the very end.
On that horrible day in May she climbed the scaffolding in the Tower Green to meet her fate. To the one who had once declared that he had been “struck by the dart of love” appealing to her to “give herself body and heart to him”, she gave her head.
~kat
(200 Words)
A dramatization of the last weeks of Anne Boleyn, charged, found guilty and executed for numerous crimes at the behest of her husband, King Henry VIII who had arranged for annulment to gain clearance to marry his mistress Jane Seymour. They were betrothed the day after Anne’s execution and married ten days later.
For Al’s Sunday Photo Fiction Challenge inspired by his photograph of the Traitor’s Gate at the London Tower on the River Thames
May 27th, 2017 at 9:32 am
Anne was not the only unfortunate Queen to pass through that gate , young Elizabeth 1 as aprincess also arrived at the tower through that infamous gate but she survived… Anne’s daughter.
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May 27th, 2017 at 9:33 am
Yes…it was a dark, dark time.😣
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May 27th, 2017 at 9:35 am
Yes they were so devious and evil !!
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May 27th, 2017 at 10:18 am
…and barbaric!!! 😳
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May 27th, 2017 at 10:25 am
Yes and blood thirsty!
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May 27th, 2017 at 11:43 am
Yikes! Such Brilliance!🌹🌹🌹🌹😎
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May 27th, 2017 at 12:41 pm
History is often more horrible than fiction!
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May 29th, 2017 at 2:02 pm
Alas, Kat, History does have its unsavory moments, but hopefully Others will learn from them and avoid previous errors. 😀
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May 29th, 2017 at 2:15 pm
I agree! We can hope to learn from the mistakes of the past.
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June 1st, 2017 at 5:27 am
Henry disliked her because she could not conceive a son for him, only daughter. When he asked for the marriage to be annulled, the Roman Catholic church refused so he left that and started the Church of England so that he could. Things didn’t go well for his next wives either.
Divorced
Beheaded
Died
Divorced
Beheaded
Survived.
I wonder, when he set his eyes on a woman and said he would marry her, if her response was “aaah, crap”.
A good take on the prompt Kat.
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June 1st, 2017 at 6:29 am
I believe that is why she died as well, though she she was not
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June 1st, 2017 at 6:36 am
Oops hit send accidentally..though she was not blameless according to some historians, I wonder how many of the charges were trumped up to appease the king who wanted her gone. It is a truly sad tale. Her daughter too took that grisly journey. Thankfully exonerated.
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