Anne Boleyn was tried before a court of peers at the Tower of London and found guilty of treason, adultery, and incest.
On 15 May 1536, Anne Boleyn was tried before a specially convened court of twenty-six peers at the Tower of London, presided over by her own uncle, Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk. She was charged with high treason, including adultery with five men (one of them her brother, George Boleyn) and conspiring to bring about the king's death.
Anne defended herself with composure and dignity, and many observers, both then and since, have expressed skepticism about the strength of the evidence presented against her. Nonetheless, the court unanimously found her guilty, and she was sentenced to death, with the manner of execution — burning or beheading — left to the king's discretion. Her brother George was tried separately the same day and also convicted.
The trial exemplified the vulnerability of even the highest-ranking women to the political machinations of Tudor court politics; a queen consort could be swiftly stripped of power and condemned when she no longer served the dynastic or personal interests of the king. Modern historians widely view the proceedings as a predetermined outcome driven by Henry's desire to remarry and secure a male heir, rather than a genuine pursuit of justice. The trial remains a focal point of study in the history of law, gender, and monarchical power in early modern England.