Francis Weston

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Sir Francis Weston (* 1511 ; † May 17, 1536 on Tower Hill , London ) was an English nobleman at the court of King Henry VIII. Originally a favorite of the king, he fell victim to the same intrigue as Henry's second Queen Anne Boleyn . Together with her brother George Boleyn , the musician Mark Smeaton and the Chamberlain Sir Henry Norris and William Brereton, Francis Weston was charged with adultery with the Queen and thus with high treason. On May 17, 1536, he was beheaded with the other men on Tower Hill.

Life

Francis Weston was the son of Sir Richard Weston, an influential nobleman in the court of King Henry VIII, and Lady Anne Weston, nee Sandys, who may have been a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth of York . The only son he was heir to the Weston family, which also included his sisters Margaret and Catherine. According to the historian Eric Ives , Francis was brought to the royal court almost at the same time as the musician Mark Smeaton .

Rise at court

Possibly Francis Weston by an unknown artist

Despite the age difference, Francis Weston quickly became a close friend and favorite of the king. His name was first mentioned in 1526 at court, where he was a page. In the same year his father became treasurer of Calais . His contemporary Thomas Wyatt extolled Weston's skill in physical activity. The records at court show that Weston won several tennis matches against the king and that the king paid him his winnings from the royal exchange. In card games and when rolling the dice, the king repeatedly lost large amounts of money to Francis Weston. He was also paid a sum of money from the royal purse at Weston's wedding to Anne Pickering in 1530.

On April 10, 1532, Henry VIII determined that he should always have a lord and six gentlemen at his disposal. Francis Weston was one of these gentlemen. For six weeks he served with Sir Nicholas Carew and Sir Henry Norris, among others , before they were replaced for an equally long period by another lord and six other gentlemen, including Sir Francis Bryan , Sir Edward Neville and Anne Boleyn's brother George Boleyn Lord Rochford . In the event of illness or if he had to leave the court for just cause, Francis was obliged to organize a deputy so that the service to the king was guaranteed. In the six weeks off, he was free to manage his lands and devote himself to his family.

On May 30, 1533 Francis was at the coronation of Anne Boleyn the accolade for Knight of the Bath , among others, together with Charles Brandon's sons- Henry Gray (father of nine days queen Jane Gray ) and Thomas Stanley Baron Monteagle (husband Mary Brandon). Part of the ceremony was that the candidates for knighthood were ritually bathed the night before and made confession so that they could spend the night praying and receive the accolade from the king the next day.

In November 1533, Francis Weston and his father were appointed captain, overseer and governor of the island of Guernsey by the king . Thus the castle fell Cornet Castle in the possession of the family, as well as belonging to the government area Guernsey Islands Alderney , Sark and Herm . When his father-in-law died, Francis Weston also inherited the lands from his wife's inheritance in June 1534. The king's benevolence was also shown in the fact that he pardoned Weston's servant Morgan ap Griffith ap Enyon when he was accused as an accomplice in a murder case.

Fall and execution

In 1535, an incident which was harmless in itself occurred, but which ultimately claimed the life of Francis Weston. Like his comrade Henry Norris, Francis frequently went to Queen Anne Boleyn's apartments to flirt with her ladies. One of these ladies was Margaret Shelton, a relative of the Queen, for whose hand Henry Norris had asked. Anne Boleyn confronted Francis about why he was neglecting his wife and not leaving Margaret Shelton, known as Madge, to Henry Norris. Francis replied that Norris was here so often for her, the Queen, rather than Madge Shelton. He, too, Francis Weston, claimed to love another lady in this household more than Madge. When Anne Boleyn asked "Who is that?" Weston replied nonchalantly, "You yourself".

According to the custom of courtly love, in which the chaste adoration of a noble lady played a central role, it was a harmless battle of words, which Anne Boleyn answered accordingly. When on May 2, 1536, however, the queen was accused of adultery and locked in the tower, the incident was reinterpreted. By this time Henry Norris was already in the Tower, whom the Queen had reprimanded for his feelings for her with sharp, thoughtless words. "If something happened to the king, you would try to have me." These words were undoing for you and Norris, since wishing the king to die was considered treason.

Queen Anne Boleyn , Francis Weston's co-defendant

Completely dissolved and frightened, Anne gushed out the entire story in the Tower and explained that she feared Weston most, since he was aware of Norris' feelings for her and could be very dangerous for her as a witness. In her fear she also mentioned how Weston had brawled with her a year ago and jokingly declared his love for her. For Thomas Cromwell , who was looking for evidence against Anne, another defendant had emerged. Just two days after the Queen's arrest, Francis Weston was also in the Tower, as a co-accused and alleged lover of Anne Boleyn. Although Norris was initially the prime suspect, Weston's silence about Norris' feelings for Anne could be blamed as complicity, and evidence soon became available against him as well. His parents, Sir Richard and Lady Anne Weston, desperately tried to persuade the king to spare their only son and offered him a large ransom for his life, a practice not uncommon at the time. But Heinrich refused.

On May 12, Francis Weston, Henry Norris, William Brereton and Mark Smeaton were tried for treason and adultery with the Queen. Smeaton made a partial confession that might have been extracted from him under torture, while Weston, Norris and Brereton protested their innocence. The court found them all guilty of adultery and high treason and sentenced them to death by hanging, disembowelling and quartering , the usual punishment for high treasoners, which, however, was converted by Henry VIII into the much more gracious punishment of beheading .

On May 13, one day after the conviction, the court speculated whether all of the accused would actually die. "If anyone escapes, it is young Weston, whose life is being persistently asked for." After Anne Boleyn was also sentenced to death, the date for the execution of Francis Weston and the other men was set for May 17th. Twenty-four hours in advance, the convicts were told when the execution would take place. Two days before Weston's execution, the French ambassador, the Bishop of Tarbes, tried to save the young man's life, but in vain. A few days before his death, Francis Weston wrote his parents and his wife Anne Pickering one last letter, enclosing a list of his outstanding bills:

“Father, mother and wife, I humbly ask you, for the sake of the salvation of my soul, to settle these bills for me and to forgive me for all the wrong I have done to you. I especially ask my wife, for the sake of God's love, to forgive me and pray for me, because I believe prayers will do me good. God bless my children and mine. Of me, a great wrongdoer of God "

His self-accusation as a wrongdoer does not necessarily mean that he is actually guilty of the crimes he has been charged with. It was much more a tradition to make one's peace with God and the world shortly before death, to make confession and to receive the sacraments. In keeping with the belief that all men are sinners, and bearing in mind that the average courtier does not necessarily lead a godly virtuous life, it was only natural that Francis Weston should be repentant shortly before his death.

It was completely unthinkable to plead innocence on the scaffold. The condemned man was expected to repent of his sins and submit to the law and thus to the king. Francis followed this custom, as did his fellow convicts. He climbed the scaffold after George Boleyn and Henry Norris. In his last speech on the scaffold, the twenty-five year old declared:

“My fate is a warning to others not to simply presume life. I thought I might live in sin for twenty or thirty years and then repent for it. "

His body was buried with Henry Norris' body immediately after the execution. After his death, Francis Weston's possessions reverted to the Crown as the property of an executed traitor. However, since his father was still alive, not much of the family's possessions were lost. Henry Weston, Francis' only child known by name from his marriage to Anne Pickering, was initially excluded from the line of succession, but his rights were restored in 1549.

obituary

In contrast to Anne Boleyn, who was called by her enemies only "the concubine" or "the whore" during her lifetime, Francis Weston was already considered innocent among his contemporaries. Letters between different courtiers show that hardly anyone believed the allegations for which they lost their lives. The poet Thomas Wyatt , who was also arrested in the course of the intrigue against Anne Boleyn, dedicated an elegy to the most likely innocent men. The verse about Francis Weston says:

Ah! Weston, Weston, that pleasant was and young,
In active things who might with thee compare?
All words accept that you diddest speak with tongue,
So well esteemed with each where you diddest fare.
And we that now in court doth lead our life
Most part in mind doth thee lament and moan;
But that thy faults we daily hear so rife,
All we should weep that thou art dead and gone.

Ah! Weston, Weston who was kind and young,
who could have measured you in active matters?
All the words you spoke were recognized,
So popular with everyone wherever you have been.
And we, who now lead our lives at court,
mourn and complain mostly in silence;
If we didn't hear about your numerous missteps every day,
we would all cry violently that you are dead and gone.

Some historians believe that Francis Weston, unlike his co-defendants Norris, William Brereton and Mark Smeaton, was one of the parties hostile to the Boleyns. His father, Sir Richard Weston, was a close friend of Cardinal Wolsey , whom the Boleyns had overthrown. Francis' uncle, Sir William Weston, was prior of the English branch of the Order of the Hospital of St. (St.) John in Jerusalem , the predecessor of today's Order of Saint John . As early as 1531, William Weston had complained to Cromwell about the unfair means by which lands had been taken from him and his church.

The Weston family would have had good reasons to be skeptical of the Boleyns as supporters of the Reformation. Hence, it is argued that Francis Weston's arrest served Cromwell more than his testimony against the Queen. In this way, the theory goes, Cromwell was not suspected of simply trying to get rid of the Boleyns and their followers. According to this thesis, Francis Weston was a pawn sacrifice Thomas Cromwell to destroy Anne Boleyn and her family.

Representation in art and culture

Since Francis Weston's fate is so closely linked to Anne Boleyn, he appears in various adaptations of the material. In Philippa Gregory's novel The Other Boleyn Girl (German title: The Queen's Sister ), Francis Weston is George Boleyn's secret lover and close friends with Anne Boleyn. Despite his frowned upon love for George, he also flirts with the Boleyn sisters. According to Philippa Gregory, the love affair with George Boleyn depicted in the novel can be traced back to the theses of the historian Retha Warnicke, which state that George and his fellow accused were accused of homosexuality. However, there is no historical evidence for this thesis.

In the BBC adaptation of the novel, Francis Weston is played by Geoffrey Streatfield.

In the 2008 film The Queen's Sister , Andrew Garfield played the role of Francis Weston. However, his character remains nameless and is only listed by name in the credits. In contrast to what actually happened, unlike George and Anne Boleyn, he was not executed in the film.

Web links

literature

Eric Ives: The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn . 2009: Blackwell Publishing.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII , Volume 1: 1509-1514
  2. ↑ Royal Berkshire History: Sir Richard Weston (1465-1541)
  3. ↑ Eric Ives: The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn . Pp. 325-326
  4. ↑ "... young Weston to be the King's page"
  5. ↑ Privy Purse Expenses In: Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 5: 1531-1532
  6. ^ Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII , Volume 5: 1531-1532
  7. ^ Coronation of Anne Boleyn "… Friday, 29th, the following gentlemen, who were appointed to be knights of the Bath, served the King at dinner, and were bathed and shriven according to custom; the next day they were dubbed: —The marquis of Dorset, the earl of Derby, lords Clifford, Fitzwater, Hastings, Mountaigle, and Vaux, Sir Henry Parker, Sir Wm. Windesour, Sir John Mordaunt, Sir Francis Weston, Sir Thos. Arundell, Sir John Hudelston, Sir Thos. Poyninges , Sir Hen. Savell, Sir George Fitzwilliam, of Lincolnshire, Sir John Tyndall, Sir Thos. Jermey, and one other, heir to lord Windsor. "
  8. ↑ Grants in November 1533 In: Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 6: 1533
  9. ↑ Privy Purse Expenses In: Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 5: 1531-1532
  10. ^ "... Morgan ap Griffith ap Enyon, servant of Francis Weston, gentleman of the Household. Pardon as accessory to the murder of Ric. ap Yevan ap Jenkyn "
  11. ↑ a b c Eric Ives: The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn p. 335
  12. ↑ Eric Ives: The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn p. 346
  13. ^ Eric Ives: The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, p. 351
  14. ↑ Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 10, January-June 1536 "If any escape, it will be young Weston, for whom importunate suit is made."
  15. ↑ Henry VIII: May 1536, 11-15 “Father and mother and wife, I shall humbly desire you, for the salvation of my soul, to discharge me of this bill, and for to forgive me of all the offenses that I have done to you, and in especial to my wife, which I desire for the love of God to forgive me, and to pray for me: for I believe prayer will do me good. God's blessing have my children and mine. By me, a great offender to God "
  16. ↑ Eric Ives: The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn p. 334
  17. ↑ Eric Ives: The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, p. 359
  18. ↑ Royal Berkshire History: Sir Richard Weston (1465-1541)
  19. ^ Letters and Paters, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII , Volume 5: 1531-1532
  20. ↑ Eric Ives: The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn. P. 336.
personal data
SURNAME Weston, Francis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Weston, Sir Francis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English nobleman
DATE OF BIRTH 1511
DATE OF DEATH May 17, 1536
Place of death Tower Hill