In 1535, a grim prophecy circulated through England’s uneasy court:
“When the Tower is white and another place green, then shall be burned three bishops and a queen.”
— attributed to the Abbot of Garadon
Many believed the queen foretold was Anne Boleyn.
Anne’s final writ of 18 May 1536 makes the terror unmistakable:
“Anne, late queen of England… adjudged to death, that is to say by burning of fire according to the statute, law and custom of our realm of England, or decapitation, at our choice and will… We moved by pity do not wish the same Anne to be committed to be burned by fire… upon the Green within our Tower of London aforesaid, the head of the same Anne shall be caused to be cut off.”
Yet the prophecy would be fully fulfilled under Mary I’s Marian Restoration.
Three of Anne’s bishops – Hugh Latimer (16 October 1555), Nicholas Ridley (16 October 1555) and Thomas Cranmer (21 March 1556) – were burned at the stake in Oxford.
Three bishops. Burned. Two decades after Anne’s execution.
A queen nearly burned.
Three bishops who did.