ABSTRACT
This verse creates an image of Wyatt, or at least his narrator, looking through the grated window of a cell at the Tower and seeing the execution of Anne Boleyn who, unlike the men accused of being her lovers, was executed within the precincts of the Tower. One of the most interesting aspects of this poem is the Latin tag, ‘circa Regna tonat’ (‘it thunders around the Crown’ or translated a little more freely ‘lightning strikes around the Crown’), which concludes all the verses. The implication of this phrase is that Anne Boleyn’s execution and, indeed, Wyatt’s imprisonment is part of the sudden destruction risked by those close to the King. This has the effect of creating a sense of inevitability in terms of Wyatt’s current predicament, but it also implies that Henry as monarch is a force of nature. It suggests that Henry is powerful but arbitrary; he is dangerous but like a force of
nature unaccountable. One can no more stand in way of a thunderstorm then turn back the tide. And it would be ridiculous to accuse thunder or lighting of acting unlawfully or of being evil. One can also, however, see the thunder as a power that Henry himself cannot control. Around the throne it thunders and in the process the person sitting on the throne is rendered passive, even irrelevant. In this poem Wyatt encapsulates a set of issues relating to Henry’s status as a king, ruler and man that have continued to perplex and fascinate historians, serious and popular, from John Foxe and William Shakespeare to G. R. Elton and Philippa Gregory.
