Henry Percy, Lord of Northumberland, was a peer of the realm and was actually forced to attend Anne’s trial. (He died a few months later. His forced marriage to Mary Talbot was a nightmare for both of them by all accounts.)
And in a final twist, just before Anne’s execution, Anne was forced to sign papers that acknowledged her marriage to Henry invalid, based on–(you’ll love this)–the fact that she had a ‘precontract with Henry Percy’. This, of course, had been denied by Henry and Anne, because a precontract would have been an impediment to their marriage (although Henry Percy, in his interview with Cardinal Wolsey when he was told to give up Anne and marry Mary Talbot, had tried to plead that they did have a precontract. Of course this was denied by Wolsey and H.Ps father at the time.
And, of course, if Anne had indeed had a precontract, her marriage to Henry was invalid, she was not the queen and never had been, and as such would not have been guilty of treason against the king by adultery, since she would technically not have been his spouse. Some authorities think this may have been the reason Anne signed the document, thinking that this would have freed her, possibly to live in France, or at least saved her life. It did not. Henry’s wrath, once aroused, was not so easily assuaged.
