The execution of Anne Boleyn.
29 year old Anne, Henry VIII's second wife had been convicted on trumped up charges of adultery and treason  and was sentenced to death by burning at the stake or beheading at the Kings pleasure. Fortunately he chose  the latter and perhaps through a pang of conscience imported a skilled headsman from Callais in France to  ensure the ceremony was performed as humanely as possible. British hangmen normally got the job of  beheading those condemned but were generally very poor at it due to the rarity of such sentences.  On the 19th May 1536 Anne was led onto Tower Green with an escort of two hundred Yeoman of the Guard  (Beefeaters) wearing a loose ermine trimmed grey damask robe over a red underskirt. Her hair was "up"  covered with a white coif and a small black cap and she wore a cross on a gold chain at her waist and carried a white handkerchief and a prayer book.
She had to climb 5 feet (1500 mm) up the steps to the scaffold to meet her headsman who was wearing a black  suit and half mask covering the upper part of his face. The long two handed execution sword was concealed  under the straw on the scaffold.
Anne made a short speech to the assembled witnesses and then removed her cape and her hair coif and cap which was now replaced by a white cap. She knelt on the platform and prayed with her chaplain. When she had finished one of her ladies in waiting blindfolded her with a large handkerchief. All was now ready and the headsman took up the sword and beheaded her with a single blow.
Her ladies in waiting recovered her head and as there was no coffin provided she was placed in an old arrow  box and duly buried in the in the Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vinicula after a short service.