Chapter 2

The letters of Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn, perhaps the most remarkable documents of the kind known to exist, were published at Oxford in 1720 by Hearne, in a volume entitled _Roberti de Avesbury Historia de mirabilibus gestis Edwardi III_, and inserted in the third volume of the Harleian Miscellany, 1745. These two editions differ considerably from each other, and still more so from the transcripts here given, which are taken from the edition printed at Paris by M. Meon, who held a situation in the Manuscript Department of the Bibliothèque de Roi. The fifth and thirteenth, however, which are not comprehended in the Vatican collection, are supplied from Hearne's work. Of the seventeen letters of which the series consists, eight are written in English and nine in French.

They appear to have been written after Anne Boleyn had been sent away from court, in consequence of reports injurious to her reputation, which had begun to be publicly circulated. Her removal indeed was so abrupt that she had resolved never to return. The king soon repented his harshness, and strove to persuade her to come back; but it was a long time, and not without great trouble, before he could induce her to comply. Her retirement did not take place before the month of May, 1528; this is proved by a letter from Fox, Bishop of Hereford, to Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, dated the 4th of May, in that year, in which the writer, who had just returned from Rome, whither he had been sent to negotiate the king's divorce, gives an account of his landing at Sandwich on the 2nd, of his arrival on the same night at Greenwich, where the king then was, and of the order he received from him to go to the apartments of Anne Boleyn, which were in the Tiltyard, and inform her how anxious he had been to hasten the arrival of the legate, and how much he was rejoiced by it. This letter, formerly in the collection of Harley, Earl of Oxford, is now at Rome.

It must have been very soon afterwards that Anne Boleyn left the court. In fact, in the first letter (4 of this series) the king excuses himself for being under the necessity of parting from her. In the second (6) he complains of the dislike which she shows to return to court; but in neither of them does he allude to the pestilential disease which in that year committed such ravages in England. In the third (10), however, he does advert to it as a disorder which has prevailed for some time, and on which he makes some observations.

Between this letter, probably written in the month of July, and the sixth (17), in which the king speaks of the arrival of the legate in Paris, and which must have been written about the end of September, there are two letters (1 and 5) certainly written within a few days of each other. In the second of these two, _viz._, the fifth of this series, the king expresses his extreme satisfaction which he has received from the lady's answer to his request. In the effusion of his gratitude, he pays a visit to his mistress, and both address a letter (8) to Cardinal Wolsey, in which Henry manifests his astonishment at not having yet heard of the arrival of Campeggio, the legate, in Paris. The date of this letter may thus be fixed in the month of September.

The fourth (1), apparently written in August, is the most interesting of the whole collection, inasmuch as it fixes the period of the commencement of the king's affection for Anne Boleyn. He complains of "having been above a whole year struck with the dart of love," and that he is not yet certain whether he shall succeed in finding a place in the heart and affections of her whom he loves.

The last letter (18), which makes mention of the illness of the legate as the cause of the delay in the affair of the divorce, shows that this correspondence ended in May, 1529, at which time the court of legates was open for the final decision of that point.

Anne, daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn, subsequently created Earl of Wiltshire, after passing many years at the court of Claude, queen of Francis I of France, returned to England about the end of the year 1525, at the age of eighteen. Here she was soon appointed maid of honour to Queen Katherine, and attracted the particular attentions of Henry VIII, who was then engaged in soliciting a divorce from the Pope. The marked preference shown by the king for Anne Boleyn raised so much jealousy and slander that it was thought advisable by her family to remove the new favourite from the court; and it was during this retirement at Hever, a seat of her father's in Kent, that these letters were addressed to her by her royal lover. It was no doubt to render them the more agreeable that he wrote some of them in French. They breathe a fondness and an ardour which could scarcely leave room to doubt the sincerity of his love.

¶

We have reprinted Mr. Halliwell Phillips to call attention to the change in order in this edition. A very little study of the letters themselves showed that the old order was impossible. The first six fall into a group by themselves, the 6th being the first to which we gave a nearly approximate date (July, 1527), before Anne's return to court. Henry's passion must date therefore from 1526. The 7th is fixed by references in other correspondence to February, 1528, and the 8th to June before she left the court. The 9th, 10th and 11th relate to the sweating sickness (end of June, order fixed by incidental references), and the 12th is after July 5th; the 13th and 14th are before her return. The reference to his book in No. 15 fixes the date as August, and No. 16 is fixed for August 20th, by Wolsey's finding a lodging for Anne. No. 17 is fixed for September (16th?) by Campeggio's arrival at Paris (September 14, 1528), and No. 18 by his illness as towards the end of October. The scheme had been partly worked out when the editor observed that Mr. Brewer had already arranged them in his Calendar of State Papers, and to him therefore this order is due.

The old arrangement was 4, 6, 10, 1, 5, 17, 16, 2, 11, 3, 13, 9, 12, 7, 14, 15, 18, 8.

_Page_ x. _Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn._ Written July, 1527. "Aut illic, aut nullibi." Either there, or nowhere.

The signature means "H. seeks no other (heart). R."

xiii. _Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn._ This letter was written in July, 1527.

xvi. _Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn._ Written February, 1528. "Ultra posse non est esse." One can't do more than the possible.

xviii. _Anne Boleyn to Cardinal Wolsey._ MS. _Cott. Vitellius_, B. xii. f. 4. Written June 11, 1528. Printed by Ellis as from Katherine of Arragon. There is another letter from Anne to Wolsey, thanking him for a present. It is very similar to this, and is found in MS. _Cott. Otho._ c. x. f. 218 (printed in _Burnet_, i, 104, and in _Ellis_, Original Letters, vol. i).

xxii. _Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn._ Written June 16, 1528.

xxv. _Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn._ This letter was written June 20. "It." The sweating sickness. This is the 1528 epidemic.

"Your brother." George Boleyn, afterwards Viscount Rochford, executed 1536 on a charge of incest.

xxviii. _Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn._ Written about June 22, 1528. "Welze" is the same person as "Welshe" on p. xxx.

xxx. _Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn._ Written July 6 (?), 1528. "Suche" is probably Zouch.

"Destain." Stain.

xxxiv. _Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn._ Written July 20, 1528.

xxxvii. _Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn._ Written July 21, 1528.

xxxix. _Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn._ Written August, 1528. "Elengeness." Loneliness, misery.

"My book." On the unlawfulness of his marriage with Katherine.

xli. _Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn._ Written August 20, 1528.

xliii. _Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn._ Written September 16, 1528. Campeggio actually arrived at Calais on Monday, September 14.

xlv. _Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn._ Written at the end of October, 1528.

Transcriber's Note:

The original text contains decorative illustrations that are not represented in this text file.