12.06 - The Dream or Vision of Alesius Concerning the Decapitation of Annie Boleyn

[APPENDIX F (p. 267). THE DREAM OR VISION OF ALESIUS CONCERNING THE DECAPITATION OF ANNE BOLEYN.

I take to witness Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead, that I am about to speak the truth. On the day upon which the Queen was beheaded, at sunrise between two and three o’clock, there was revealed to me (whether I was asleep or awake I know not) the Queen’s neck after her head had been cut off, and this so plainly that I could count the nerves, the veins, and the arteries.

Terrified by this dream, or vision, I immediately arose, and, crossing the river Thames, I came to Lambeth (this is the name of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s palace), and I entered the garden in which he was walking. When the archbishop saw me, he inquired why I had come so early, for the clock had not yet struck four. I answered that I had been horrified in my sleep, and I told him the whole occurrence. He continued in silent wonder for a while, and at length broke out into these words, "Do not you know what is to happen to-day?" and when I answered that I had remained at home since the date of the Queen’s imprisonment, and knew nothing of what was going on, the archbishop then raised his eyes to heaven and said, "She who has been the Queen of England upon earth will to-day become a queen in heaven." So great was his grief that he could say nothing more, and then he burst into tears.

Terrified at this announcement, I return[ed] to London sorrowing. Although my lodging was not far distant from the place of execution, yet I could not become an eye-witness to the butchery of such an illustrious lady, and of the exalted personages who were beheaded along with her.—(Foreign Calendar, Elizabeth, i. 528).]