In recent years, the story of Boleyn’s life and death have reached a new audience

thanks to Hilary Mantel’s bestselling saga tracing the life of Thomas Cromwell, a
blacksmith’s son who became one of Henry VIII’s most trusted advisers. In the
Booker-prize-winning Bring Up the Bodies, she explored the destruction of
Boleyn, writing of her execution: “Three years ago when she went to be crowned,
she walked on a blue cloth that stretched the length of the abbey… Now she must
shift over the rough ground… with her body hollow and light and just as many
hands around her, ready to retrieve her from any stumble and deliver her safely
to death.”

The warrant book reveals that Henry worked out details such as the exact spot for
the execution (“upon the Green within our Tower of London”), making clear
Kingston should “omit nothing” from his orders.

Borman is joint chief curator for Historic Royal Palaces, the charity that manages
the Tower of London, among other sites. She will include the discovery in her
forthcoming Channel 5 series, The Fall of Anne Boleyn, which begins in
December.

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She had visited the National Archives to study the Anne Boleyn trial papers when
archivist Sean Cunningham, a Tudor expert, drew her attention to a passage he
had discovered in a warrant book. Most of these warrants are “just the minutiae
of Tudor government”, she said. “They’re pretty dull. The Tudors were great
bureaucrats, and there are an awful lot of these warrant books and account books
within the National Archives… It’s thanks to Sean’s eye for detail that it was
uncovered.”

Borman argues that, despite the coldness of the instructions, the fact Henry
spared Boleyn from being burned – a slow, agonising death – was a real kindness
by the standards of the day. A beheading with an axe could also involve several
blows, and Henry had specified that Boleyn’s head should be “cut off’, which
meant by sword, a more reliable form of execution, but not used in England,
which is why he had Cromwell send to Calais for a swordsman.
Henry’s instructions were not followed to the letter, though, partly due to a series
of blunders, Borman said. “The execution didn’t take place on Tower Green,
which is actually where we still mark it at the Tower today. More recent research
has proved that… it was moved to opposite what is today the Waterloo Block,
home of the crown jewels.”

She added: “Because we know the story so well, we forget how deeply shocking it
was to execute a queen. They could well have got the collywobbles and thought
we’re not going to do this. So this is Henry making really sure of it. For years, his
trusty adviser Thomas Cromwell has got the blame. But this shows, actually, it’s
Henry pulling the strings.”

• This article was amended on 26 October 2020. An earlier version said that Anne
Boleyn “refuted the charges”. To clarify: she “denied the charges”.