Allegory of the Crowned Head

"Gentle visitor pause awhile, where you stand death cut away the light of many days. Here jewelled names were broken from the vivid thread of life, may they rest in peace while we walk the generations around their strife and courage under these restless skies." Sculpture by Brian Catling at Tower of London

Anne Boleyn... An outstanding woman of her time that made Henry the VIII start the reformation in England and changed the fate of the whole country. From 1526 to 1533 until her coronation she was able to prolonge Henry's rather unstable desire towards the women. She was a well educated, charming and a witty woman with high amount of self confidence that her contemporary ladies lacked. It was not her beauty that attracted Henry to her, but her intelligence and teasing manner in the confidence. The more she refused to become the mistress the more the king craved for her and finally annulled his marrige to Catherine of Aragon. He prepared the long neglected Tower of London for the coronation of his new Queen Anne and her waiting before the event. On 1 June 1533 her head was crowned but she was not able to give the Henry what he wanted, a son as an heir, in her short three years of reign. As soon as his interest moved to another woman, Henry accused her with adultery, witchcraft and incest in order to legitimise her beheading. Though she made a perfect and wise defense to all charges during her judgement, the final decision was to behead her with a sword inside the courtyard where today this sculpture stands. It was a privilege for a person to be executed inside the walls for other events used to take place outside and the choice of the tool was rather kind. When she was informed that there will be little pain she replied : 

‘I have heard that the executioner is very good. And I have a little neck.’

She was imprisoned in the same rooms where she prepared herself for the coronation, and she was beheaded at the same place where her head was crowned leaving only a girl behind unlike Henry's wish, a girl ruled England for 44 years with prosper... The glass pillow resting in the watch of the crows, silently whispers the failure of Henry's judgement of women, both his wife and daughter, and the allegory of the trust put in a crowned head.