At the time of his downfall, Mark Smeaton was the court musician at the court of Henry VIII. There is very little known about Mark Smeaton's early life. This is largely down to his low status. Even though Mark Smeaton was privileged enough to have a position in the Royal Court. He wasn't regarded as having a high position in the court, he was not thought to be part of Anne Bolyen's inner circle. Smeaton was unlikely to have been born into the nobility. He was likely to have been born into a low status family. Most of what we do know about Mark Smeaton is about his talents. He was thought to be very talented in the arts. Smeaton was a very talented musician. However, he is also thought to have been a talented singer and dancer.
Even though Smeaton was well established, and probably well known, in the court, there is not much known about him. This is likely to be for two reasons. The first, is that he was of low social birth. And the second was that given he was only 23 years old at the time of his execution, it probably did not spend that long at court.
Smeaton was one of the five men which was accused of having an affair withQueen Anne Bolyen. All five men, which included Mark Smeaton, were executed on the 17th of May 1536. There was little to no evidence against the men. Most historians agree that Smeaton, Anne, and the four other men, including her brother, were all innocent.
Interestingly, Smeaton was the only man who confessed to having an affair with the Queen. The confession which came from Smeaton, came when he was being tortured. Smeaton's confession likely came through wanting the torture to stop, rather than it being something of genuine meaning. Because of his perceived low status, Mark Smeaton was the only man to be tortured. Nobility could not be tortured. And therefore, the other four men never were tortured. Smeaton was executed along with the other four men on May 17th 1536.
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