Anne Boleyn's Letter from the Tower: New Updated Edition

By Sandra Vasoli

The British Library Archives protects a fragile, burned fragment of an impassioned letter. The document concludes,

"From my doleful Prison the Tower, this 6th of May. Your most Loyal and ever Faithful Wife, Anne Boleyn."

The year was 1536. This letter, possibly the final words from Queen Anne Boleyn to her h

• Language: English
• Publisher: CrownedFalcon Press
• Release date: Apr 13, 2024
• ISBN: 9798990058316

Sandra Vasoli

Sandra Vasoli grew up in an historic area just outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. She developed a deep and abiding fascination for all things archival: documents and language, but also events, fashion, mannerisms, houses. Earning a Bachelor's degree from Villanova University majoring in both Biology and English, followed by graduate studies, she initially did scientific research, and then embarked on a long career in human resources for the R&D division of one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies. Her observations of people and their behaviors inform the development of characters in her writing.A favorite historical period, Tudor England, prompted Vasoli to pursue her keen fascination for the breathtaking life of Henry VIII's second queen, Anne Boleyn. She recreated a love story for the ages in her most recent novel, Truth Endures: Anne Boleyn's Memoirs. The dramatic highs and lows which marked the relationship between Anne and Henry-as narrated by Anne-draws the reader into the lives of a couple matched in brilliance but ultimately tortured by their liaison.Vasoli visits the sites frequented by her stories' heroes. Viewing letters and documents they touched and wrote, seeing the locations in which they lived and worked, she delights in sharing that thrill with her readers. Highlights include the opportunities to hold the beautiful Book of Hours in which Anne and Henry wrote messages of love to one another, and the rare privilege of visiting the Papal Archives in the Vatican Library twice, to study the original love letters Henry penned to Anne over 480 years ago. That extraordinary experience forms the subject of her next, ongoing, project.Her books also include an epic historical mystery: Pursuing a Masterpiece, and the definitive study of an enigmatic letter purportedly authored by Anne Boleyn as she awaited execution: Anne Boleyn's Letter from the Tower. All three books are published by CrownedFalcon Press.Vasoli lives in Gwynedd Valley, Pennsylvania.

Book preview

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ANNE BOLEYN'S LETTER FROM THE TOWER

Copyright © 2023 Sandra Vasoli

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form on by an electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. For more information, address:

ISBN (paperback): 979-8-9900583-0-9

ISBN (ebook): 979-8-9900583-1-6

Book Design: Domini Dragoone/Sage Folio Creative

Tower of London cover photo: © Iakov Kalinin

Published by CrownedFalcon Press

Gwynedd Valley, PA

www.SandraVasoli.com

"These bloody days have broken my heart.

My lust, my youth did them depart,

And blind desire of estate.

Who hastes to climb seeks to revert.

Of truth, circa Regna tonat."

—Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder

OTHER BOOKS BY SANDRA VASOLI:

Pursuing a Masterpiece

Truth Endures: Anne Bolyen's Memoirs

Contents

Foreword

Anne Boleyn’s Tower Letter

The Marriage Collapses

Anne’s Brave Assertion

The Letter’s Many Mysteries

Cromwell’s Great Crime

The Bequest of Thomas Cromwell and the Letter’s Path

Henry’s ‘Great Griefe’

Afterword Anne's

Letter: The Legacy

Timeline and Provenance of Anne’s Tower Letter

Resources

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Foreword

Since its initial publication in 2015, this brief treatise on a fascinating letter has sparked discussion, debate, and a notoriety I would never have expected. What I’ve discovered is that so many people find the letter as mysterious and compelling as I do. The enigma persists, for in the years since I first wrote about the ‘Tower Letter’, I’ve had interesting dialogue about it with many individuals, among them notable experts, but no definitive conclusions have been reached. Are we ever able to say with exactness and certainty that we know what occurred during those turbulent times? Aspiring to shed additional light on the subject of the letter, I offer readers the second edition of Anne Boleyn’s Letter from the Tower. It includes fresh thought, opinions of scholars, new consideration, and the current results of research I’ve conducted.

There are as many opinions regarding how this letter was created as there are historians who have written about it. However, a good number of them do believe that Anne was its author. I am firmly committed to that view. There are varying, but equally strong reasons I hold which bolster my belief. Simply the fact that so very many records of the letter exist, and have been debated and discussed by eminent authorities, encourages me to think that this is a document which has something important to say to the ages. After having studied Anne for many years, the emotional content of the letter and how it is expressed at its particular moment in time to her husband—a man who had loved her to distraction—rings absolutely true to me as Anne revealing herself. Some say it is too well composed to be written by Anne. I contest that notion—especially keeping in mind that she probably knew it would be her final communication with her husband, and that her words might likely be preserved for the future. The language, the syntax, all is commensurate with that of the early to mid-1500’s. In seeking possibilities for the provenance of the document, I began by learning as much as I could about Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, in whose original collection within the Library the manuscript exists. I studied the world of the 17th and 18thc. antiquaries, including the eminent William Camden. And from that point on, the letter’s derivation, as I present my findings to the reader, evolved.

In truth, we do not know unequivocally the origin of the scorched parchment in the library. And the world may never know who did compose those words without any remnant of doubt. But I believe it was Anne Boleyn, and I offer readers a credible scenario to contemplate as they decide for themselves.

Part Two reveals the story of an admission of grief by the dying King Henry VIII:

While conducting my searches in the British Library, I did a literal double-take as I spotted an old entry in a volume of handwritten parchment pages. The words which jumped out at me were toward the bottom of a page headed ‘Memoirs of Queen Anne Boleyn.’ I saw the phrase the King acknowledges with great griefe… I continued reading—and staring—realizing the passage referred to Henry’s remorse over Anne’s death. I had never heard or seen anything about this before, and I urgently scribbled everything I could in my notebook with regard to that page while in the Library. Once home, I began to search for references to it, or for explanations of it. I have found enough information about this inscription to build on my fascination with the words and their provenance. There is a peculiar, but compelling possibility that the author of the passage did, in fact, have personal contact with men who surrounded Henry while he was close to death. It’s a captivating thread of history, and not one that has been widely disclosed. It is a fragment, though small and seemingly inconsequential, which deserves attention.

The ever-enthralling story of Henry and Anne holds so many people in its grip the world over, and for no small reason. Two charismatic, larger than life figures, whose brief time together changed the world, and whose lives both came to tragic ends—this is the material for endless speculation and retelling of tales. I hope the information I present in this book might add to how we perceive both of them.

—Sandra Vasoli, 2022

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