Épistre Contenant le Procès Criminel Faict à l'Encontre de la Royne Anne Boullant d'Angleterre, or A Letter Containing the Criminal Charges Laid Against Queen Anne Boleyn of England, is a 1,318-line

poem Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meaning ...

written in French in 1536, by

Lancelot de Carle Lancelot de Carle (also Carles) (c. 1508 – July 1568), Bishop of Riez, was a French scholar, poet and diplomat. He was in London in 1536, in the service of the French Ambassador, Antoine de Castelnau. Carle was an eyewitness to the trial and ...

, secretary to the French ambassador to England,

Antoine de Castelnau Antoine de Castelnau, (died 1539), Bishop of Tarbes, was a French diplomat, who served as an ambassador to England and Spain during the reign of Francis I. Biography Antoine de Castelnau was the son of Louis de Castelnau, baron of Castelnau, Mir ...

In May 1536, a musician of the royal household,

Mark Smeaton Mark Smeaton ( – 17 May 1536) was a musician at the court of Henry VIII of England, in the household of Queen Anne Boleyn. Smeaton, together with the Queen's brother George Boleyn, 2nd Viscount Rochford, Henry Norris, Francis Weston and Wil ...

, the

courtier A courtier () is a person who attends the royal court of a monarch or other royalty. The earliest historical examples of courtiers were part of the retinues of rulers. Historically the court was the centre of government as well as the official ...

s Henry Norris, Sir

Francis Weston Sir Francis Weston KB (1511 – 17 May 1536) was a gentleman of the Privy Chamber at the court of King Henry VIII of England. He became a friend of the king but was later accused of high treason and adultery with Anne Boleyn, the king's second ...

, William Brereton, as well as the queen's brother, George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford, were tried and executed for

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

and adultery with

Anne Boleyn Anne Boleyn (; 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and of her execution by beheading for treason and other charges made her a key f ...

, the second wife of

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

. Lancelot de Carle was in London at the time, and was an eyewitness to Anne's trial and execution. The poem, dated 2 June 1536, details the life and the dramatic events surrounding the arrest, trial and execution of Anne Boleyn, and those accused with her. Although not published until 1545, it does appear to have been widely circulated prior to this.

Notes

References

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External links

''Epistre Contenant le Procès Criminel Faict à l'Encontre de la Royne Anne Boullant d'Angleterre''
''A Letter Containing the Criminal Charges Laid Against Queen Anne Boleyn of England'' at

Bibliothèque nationale de France The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...

French poems 1536 poems {{Poem-stub