Editing Anne Boleyn (section)

=== Death and burial ===
[[File:Thomas Cranmer by Gerlach Flicke.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|[[Thomas Cranmer]], Anne's sole supporter in the council]]

The ermine mantle was removed, and Anne lifted off her headdress and tucked her hair under a [[coif]].{{sfn|Ives|2004|p=358}} After a brief farewell to her weeping ladies and a request for prayers, she knelt down; one of the ladies tied a blindfold over Anne's eyes.{{sfn|Ives|2004|p=358}} She knelt upright, in the French style of beheadings.{{sfn|Weir|2010|pp=338, 343–344}} Her final prayer consisted of her continually repeating, "[[Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament#"Jesus" forms|Jesu]] receive my soul; O Lord God have pity on my soul."{{sfn|Ives|2004|pp=358–359}}

The execution, which consisted of a single stroke,<ref>{{harvnb|Hibbert|1971|p=60}}.</ref> was witnessed by Thomas Cromwell; [[Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk]]; the King's illegitimate son, [[Henry FitzRoy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset|Henry FitzRoy]]; and Sir [[Ralph Warren (Lord Mayor)|Ralph Warren]], [[Lord Mayor of London]], as well as aldermen, sheriffs and representatives of the various craft guilds. Most of the King's Council was also present.<ref>Bruce, Marie Louise (1973). ''Anne Boleyn''. New York: Warner Paperback Library Edition. p. 333.</ref> Cranmer, who was at [[Lambeth Palace]], reportedly broke down in tears after telling [[Alexander Ales]], "She who has been the Queen of England on earth will today become a Queen in heaven."<ref>{{harvnb|MacCulloch|1996|p=159}}.</ref> When the charges were first brought against Anne, Cranmer had expressed his astonishment to Henry and his belief that "she should not be culpable".<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Nicholas|editor-first=A. H.|year=1835|title=The Republic of Letters: A Republication of Standard Literature |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ob84AQAAMAAJ |location=New York |publisher=George Dearborn |page=70 |language=en |volume=III |quote=And I am in such a perplexity, that my mind is clean amazed: for I never had better opinion in woman than I had in her; which maketh me to the that she should not be culpable.}}</ref>
 
[[File:Tomb of Anne Boleyn.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|Anne Boleyn's grave marker]]
Cranmer felt vulnerable because of his closeness to the Queen; on the night before the execution, he declared Henry's marriage to Anne to have been void, like Catherine's before her. He made no serious attempt to save Anne's life, although some sources record that he had prepared her for death by hearing her last private confession of sins, in which she had stated her innocence before God.<ref>{{harvnb|MacCulloch|1996|p=159}}</ref>

She was buried in an unmarked grave in the Chapel of [[Church of St Peter ad Vincula|St Peter ad Vincula]] at the Tower of London. Her skeleton was identified during renovations of the chapel in 1876, in the reign of [[Queen Victoria]],<ref>{{harvnb|Warnicke|1989|p=235}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Bell|first=Doyne C.|title=Notices of the Historic Persons Buried in the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula in the Tower of London|publisher=John Murray, Albemarle Street|year=1877|location=London|pages=20–21}}</ref> and reinterred there in 1877. Her grave is now clearly marked on the marble floor, although the historian Alison Weir believes that the bones identified as belonging to Anne might in fact be those of [[Catherine Howard]].<ref>{{harvnb|Weir|2010|pp=411–415}}</ref>