ABSTRACT
In May 1536 Henry VIII’s Queen, Anne Boleyn, her brother George, Viscount
Rochford, Henry Norris, gentleman of the privy chamber and one of the king’s
closest servants, William Brereton and Sir Francis Weston, both gentlemen
of the privy chamber, and Mark Smeaton, a groom of the privy chamber and
a musician, were all arrested, tried and executed for an alleged series of
adulteries. Anne, following her frail and carnal lust, had, according to the
indictments, procured and incited her brother George to violate her, alluring
him with her tongue in his mouth and his in hers; similar charges were made
against the others. Such offences were held to be treason, Anne allegedly often
saying she would marry one of them when the king died.2
