On this day in 1536, Anne Boleyn waited for death… but it didn’t come.

Her scaffold was being erected within the Tower grounds. The swordsman of Calais, specially summoned for a swift and merciful beheading, was en route. Anne’s execution had been scheduled for 9am. She had prepared herself, spiritually and mentally, for death.

At around 2am, her almoner John Skip arrived to pray with her. Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, who had only the day before obtained an annulment of her marriage to Henry VIII, came at dawn to hear her final confession and celebrate Mass. It was a sacred moment, and for Anne, a final chance to speak her truth.

As she prepared to receive the sacrament, she asked for Sir William Kingston, the Constable of the Tower, to be present. Then, in a deeply solemn moment, she swore on the consecrated host not once, but twice, that she had never been unfaithful to the King.

But her oath made no difference. Anne’s fate had already been sealed.

Henry had discarded her. Her marriage had been declared invalid. Five men, including her brother George, had been executed just the day before. Now Anne waited for the same fate.

But 9am came and went. And the silence must have been unbearable.

Eventually, Anne sent for Kingston and asked why she was still alive:

“Master Kingston, I hear say I shall not die afore noon, and I am very sorry therefor, for I thought to be dead by this time and past my pain.”

Unbeknownst to Anne, orders had come from Thomas Cromwell to delay the execution. Kingston had been instructed to clear the Tower of foreigners before it took place, likely to prevent sympathetic accounts of Anne’s death from reaching Europe. Anne, however, remained in the dark, left to endure the agony of waiting.

Kingston tried to reassure her. He told her the execution would be swift, that the blow was “so subtle.” With her characteristic wit and black humour, Anne replied: “I heard say the executioner was very good, and I have a little neck,” and then, laughing, she placed her hands around her throat.

Even on the brink of death, Anne retained her composure and her courage.

She did not die on the 18th of May. Her execution was postponed by another day. But for Anne, that delay was not a mercy; it was a prolonging of suffering, an extra 24 hours to sit in limbo between life and death.