Author: Boadicea

On This Day – 30th May 1381

On the 30th of May 1381, a chief tax-collector went to Fobbing in Essex to levy the second installment of the third Poll Tax. He was told in no uncertain terms where he could go, and the villagers refused to pay. This incident is seen as the starting point of the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381.

Much has been written about this tax; it is said that it was onerous, that it was inequitable and that there was widespread evasion. Poll taxes were certainly ‘new and novel’, and, like all new taxes, were designed to ensure that those who did not normally contribute to taxation did so in future.

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On This Day – 19th May 1536

A little before nine o’clock on the morning of the 19th of May 1536, Anne Boleyn was executed on a low scaffold inside the Tower of London’s walls.

The execution had been timed for the previous day, but it was hoped that if the exact time were unknown there would be few spectators. Anne had requested decapitation by the sword, rather than an axe, a French custom, and Henry had agreed. She had, as always, dressed for the occasion: a grey damask robe with a low neck and her hair tied in a net. She had been granted permission to speak and although her words have been variously reported all agreed that she claimed to have ‘come to die and not to preach’ and that she blamed no man for her death.

Her head and trunk, placed in a plain coffin, were buried in front of the altar of the Tower Chapel. The place was not marked.

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