The Men Accused

~ The Men Accused with Anne Boleyn: Francis Weston, A Guest Post by Lissa Bryan ~

Sir Francis Weston was a minor courtier who probably would have faded into the mists of time had he not had the ill fortune to be one of the men caught up in the adultery trial of Anne Boleyn.

He was born around 1511, the only son of Sir Richard Weston, the former under-treasurer of the Exchequer. His mother had been one of Katharine of Aragon’s ladies in waiting, but both seem to have retired from court before Weston’s birth.

Weston started his career at court as a page, and begins appearing in the accounts as someone who gambled with the king and played sporting games, such as bowls and tennis.

King Henry seems to have taken a liking to him, and Weston was appointed a gentleman of the privy chamber. As such, he slept in the king’s bedroom and worked as a body servant, bathing the king, grooming him and dressing him with the other gentlemen. It was a position of great privilege, and Weston's parents must have been delighted to see him risen so high in the royal favor.

Weston was knighted at Anne Boleyn’s coronation. He married Anne Pickering, who was an orphaned heiress that had been made a ward of his father. They had a son, Henry, in 1535.

Weston made his fatal mistake when he began a flirtation with Madge Shelton, Anne Boleyn’s cousin. Madge had recently been rumored to have had an affair with the king, and her fiancé, Henry Norris, seems to have been hesitant to tie the knot afterward. Madge was troubled about it, and so Anne talked to Norris, and then decided to speak to Weston about his unseemly pursuit of Madge.

Perhaps the flirtation with Madge had gone too far. Anne’s court was a lively place of music, poetry, and the coy dance of “courtly love,” but Anne had a firm moral code she expected her courtiers to follow. Being the possible mistress of the king was one thing, but it would besmirch the family’s honor if Madge became Weston’s mistress.

Anne didn’t march up to Weston and begin to lecture him - that wasn’t her style. She chatted with him with her customary charm, teasingly accusing him of being in love with Madge Shelton and not loving his wife. Weston replied that there was someone in her household he loved more than his wife, or even Madge - Anne.

Anne likely rolled her eyes and said something teasing in return. This was the everyday language of the court. Every man was expected to pay homage to the queen and pretend to be dying of love for her. Katharine of Aragon herself was the recipient of poems praising her beauty and begging for a glance.

Anne said later that she “more feared” Weston’s testimony because he was the one who had stated bluntly that he loved her, rather than hinting and being coy about the subject. But Weston's words, and the date on which they happened, doesn't coincide with any of the charges in the indictment.

The dates of the alleged offenses were apparently chosen at random. Cromwell didn’t even bother to match them up to the court’s known whereabouts at the time they supposedly occurred. Why should he expend the effort? No one was actually interested in proof. The queen and the men accused with her were doomed as soon as they were arrested. The swordsman to execute the queen was summoned long before her trial.

Though the verdict of “guilty” was a foregone conclusion, the execution of everyone involved was not. His family used every bit of their wealth and influence to try to secure a pardon for him. John Husee wrote to Lord Lisle: "If any escape, it will be young Weston, for whome importunate suit is made."

The Weston family sought an audience with the king or Cromwell. They knew “justice” could be bought - they had seen it happen before - and they were willing to offer their entire family fortune to free Weston. They made an offer of 100,000 marks (the modern equivalent of eight million pounds) for his deliverance.

Aside from the efforts of the Weston family, Ambassador Eustace Chapuys reports a parade of officials at court attempting to procure a pardon for him, showing the pressure the Westons had put on those with whom they had influence: "notwithstanding the intercession of the bishop of Tarbes, the French ambassador resident, and the sieur de Tinteville, who arrived the day before yesterday, in behalf of one named Vaston (Weston)."

But the king doesn’t seem to have ever entertained the idea of releasing any of Anne’s “lovers.” They all must die, these innocent men framed for a crime to make it easy to rid himself of a wife he’d come to despise.

Weston appears to have been the only one arrested with Anne Boleyn who was allowed writing materials. In his Tower cell, Weston wrote out a document enumerating his debts, totaling some £925. Embroiderers, tailors, gambling debts, a fletcher, a barber … and "a poor woman that Hannesley of the tennis play had married for balls I cannot tell how much." He begged his family to pay them for him, and ended with this:

"Father and mother and wife, I shall humbly desire you, for the salvation of my soul, to discharge me of this bill, and for to forgive me of all the offences that I have done to you, and in especial to my wife, which I desire for the love of God to forgive me, and to pray for me: for I believe prayer will do me good. God’s blessing have my children and mine. By me, a great offender to God."

On the morning of Wednesday May 17, Weston was led out with the other men accused of being Anne Boleyn’s lovers. They left the Tower grounds and climbed Tower Hill to the scaffold there. A huge crowd had come to witness, stretching as far as the eye can see if the sketches are to be believed. Nobles and court figures were the celebrities of their day, and their execution would have drawn a large audience to witness such a memorable event. At most public executions, there were snack vendors strolling through the crowd, souvenir merchants selling ballads and biographies of the condemned. Children would be perched on their parents’ shoulders to get a better view. It was thought to be beneficial for children, that witnessing the penalty for crime would keep them on the straight and narrow.

The condemned were executed in order of rank, which made Weston the third man in line to lay his head down on the block, soaked with the blood of his friends.

He made the expected execution speech, lamenting his "abominations” or sins, and warning the crowd to learn by his example. He died after one blow by the axe. In the view of the Tudors, it was a good, “charitable” death.

One scholar speculated that Weston was confessing to homosexuality with his remark about “abomination,” but there is absolutely no evidence to support the assertion. Not so much as a whisper in the court gossip of the day, nor afterward. Cavendish, who disliked the Boleyn faction, accused many of the men of being libertines, but their supposed sins were all with women. Had there been any contemporary rumors about “unnatural” inclinations, he would have repeated them.

Weston’s body was taken to a grave behind the chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula, buried with that of Mark Smeaton, while Henry Norris and William Brereton were buried in another. No mention is made in the records of shrouds or cerecloth being provided for them. They were probably buried directly in the earth after their clothing was stripped off as a payment for the executioner.

The place where they were buried is now covered by the Jewel House. When it was built, they collected all of the bones they disinterred during the construction and placed them in the chapel crypt. Weston’s remains, if they survived, are now buried there.

Weston’s widow, Anne Pickering, remarried quickly after his death and lived on until 1582. Weston’s son, Henry, was “restored in blood” thirteen years after his father’s execution, meaning he got back his titles and could inherit the property of his grandfather. He was made a Knight of the bath at Elizabeth’s coronation. Elizabeth showed favor to the families of those who had been her mother’s friends and supporters, especially those who had died for her sake.