On 12th May 1536, Sir Henry Norris, Sir Francis Weston, William Brereton and Mark Smeaton were escorted from the Tower of London to Westminster Hall, where they were tried by a special commission of oyer and terminer for high treason.
On the same day, Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, was appointed Lord High Steward of England in readiness for ruling, as Lord President, over the trials of his niece and nephew, Queen Anne Boleyn and George Boleyn, Lord Rochford…
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I did read the names of these men who sat on the trials of Norris Weston Brereton and Smeaton, one was a relation of Sir Thomas More the other of Jane Seymour, one was an enemy of Anne’s aunt and one owed money to Brereton, the list went on and on, none of these jurors were friends to the queen or the men and therefore thay had no hope of a fair trial, today a jury has to be impartial in case of prejudice either for or against the defendants, but as we no, shockingly this did not exist in Tudor times and in this sad case, the king was not impartial either, he wanted a guilty verdict brought in and it was a case of condemn or be condemned , Sir Thomas Boleyn also sat on the trial and how cruel of the king his own son in law to subject him to this, he had no choice but to return a guilty verdict, in doing so he knew that his own son and daughter were thus doomed, Smeaton was the unimportant one but he was the only one who confessed, William Fitzwilliam the Earl of Southampton stated that Norris had confessed to him also but I do not believe he did, it was his word against Norris, and that man am old friend of the kings of many years standing, went to his death declaring his innocence, Fitzwilliam lied to add credence to Smeaton’s confession, which shows the depth to which these noble men were prepared to go to to do the kings bidding, Tudor justice really was not justice not as we know it today, the odds were stacked heavily against the victims as they had no knowledge of the evidence against them, Anne was charged with adultery and taken to the Tower and at the time was was only told that both Smeaton and Norris had confessed to adultery, in fact Norris had defended her honour to the king, afterwards she was told the names of the other courtiers who were tried with her, and the vilest charge of all, incest with her own brother, at their trial these men were also accused of plotting the kings death unbelievable it must have seemed to everyone in the room, where was the evidence for that, Chapyus a man who proved his fair minded nature declared they were condemned on presumption and he said afterwards, he did not believe the queen was guilty of most of the charges, this turbulent event in Henry V111’s reign really out did the other awful events which occurred, and there were plenty, but the shameful hasty trial and deaths of his queen and once loyal friends brought his rule to an all time low.