I know many of you were interested in what Sandra Vasoli had to say about the letter said to be written by Anne Boleyn to Henry VIII from the Tower on 6th May 1536 (click here to read that) so I just wanted to let you know that the kindle version of Sandi’s book is available for pre-order now.
Anne Boleyn’s Letter from the Tower: A New Assessment by Sandra Vasoli will be released as a kindle and paperback on 14th September but you can pre-order the Kindle version on Amazon now – click here. I am reading it now and it really is an excellent piece of detective work. Sandi’s work has changed my mind about the letter!
Sandi also shares an intriguing source regarding Henry VIII’s later feelings about Anne Boleyn’s fall.
Here’s the book blurb:
“Sir, Your Grace’s Displeasure and my Imprisonment are Things so strange unto me, as what to Write, or what to Excuse, I am altogether ignorant.”
Thus opens a burned fragment of a letter dated 6 May 1536 and signed “Anne Boleyn”, a letter in which the imprisoned queen fervently proclaims her innocence to her husband, King Henry VIII.
This letter “from the Lady in the Tower” has divided historians in recent years, with some dismissing it as a fake. There has been no definitive study of the letter or its mysterious provenance… until now. In Anne Boleyn’s Letter from the Tower, Sandra Vasoli provides an in-depth investigation of the individuals who may well have kept the letter safe for nearly 500 years, from author to its present home in the British Library.
– Did Anne Boleyn actually compose the letter from the Tower?
– Did Henry VIII regret his final tragic actions against Anne Boleyn?
Sandra Vasoli unravels the mysteries of this letter and also reveals a startling comment found buried in an age-old document which gives us a cryptic clue into Henry VIII’s anguish over his second wife. The culmination of this research may well alter the accepted view of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII’s doomed marriage…
Sandra Vasoli, author of Anne Boleyn’s Letter from the Tower, earned a Bachelor’s degree in English and Biology from Villanova University before embarking on a thirty-five-year career in human resources for a large international company.
Having written essays, stories, and articles all her life, Vasoli was prompted by her overwhelming fascination with the Tudor dynasty to try her hand at writing both historical fiction and non-fiction. While researching what would eventually become her Je Anne Boleyn series, Vasoli was granted unprecedented access to the Papal Library. There she was able to read the original love letters from Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn—an event that contributed greatly to her research and writing.
Vasoli currently lives in Gwynedd Valley, Pennsylvania, with her husband and two greyhounds.
File Size: 4299 KB
Forthcoming Paperback page count: 84 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Publisher: MadeGlobal Publishing (September 14, 2015)
Publication Date: September 14, 2015
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B014R7227A
ISBN: 978-84-943721-5-5
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
Having seen the letter I noticed she had signed her name Anne Bullen, I’m not sure but didn’t Anne use the French version of her name ‘Boleyn’, ?
The original is fire damaged so it’s difficult to see the signature and it’s one of the copies that clearly has “Bullen”. “Boleyn” wasn’t really a French version of the name, or “Bulllen” an English version, they are just alternate spellings at a time when there was no standardized spelling. See https://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/boleyn-bullen-spelling-boleyn-myth-anne-boleyn-changed/
Thanks Claire did Eric Ives think it’s genuine? I no Alison Weir thinks it’s a forgery, Anne was over bold but I don’t think she would have been allowed to write to Henry anyway, it’s tempting to think it was written by her but I don’t think she would have quite used those choice of words eg, ‘his great sin theirin’, throughout history documents have appeared allegedly written by prominent people, like the Hitler Diaries and they were proved to be fake, this one by Anne is certainly a mystery, perhaps one day we will know for certain if she did indeed write it or if it’s the work of a forger, wish people wouldn’t do things like that, it’s exasperating.
I don’t believe that Ives mentions it at all. I used to think it was a forgery, but Sandi’s detective work has persuaded me otherwise. I think too many historians have relied on the later copy rather than the fire-damaged original, and also haven’t dug as deeply into the provenance as Sandi.
Decided to do some detective work, Ives does indeed mention the letter and his opinion is that ‘Its elegance has always inspired suspicion’ , apparently Warnicke Fraser and Loades don’t even mention it in their biographies of Anne so their silence does appear to imply that all three have completely dismissed it as a forgery, iv read it several times and to be honest, it’s sounds a bit melodramatic but yes she probably thought she had nothing to lose, I I agree with what you say about historians not paying much attention to the original piece, I was reading one of her letters addressed to Cardinal Wolsley after he had failed to secure the divorce and she upbraids him quite bitterly, the tone of that letter is not dissimilar to the Tower letter, if it is a forgery than it could be that it was written by some one who had studied her previous letters, maybe some one who was a secret supporter of hers and who wanted to shame Henry maybe into granting her a reprieve or maybe wanted it left lying around so others could draw their own conclusions of her guilt or innocence?
But perhaps that sounds a bit far fetched, although human nature can be devious.
I’m very much looking forward to reading this book. Good on Sandi for her detective work.
Oh, I am so intrigued about the contemporary notation Sandra found about Henry mentioning Anne on his deathbed! That little gem alone has put this book on my list!
Henry never mentioned Anne on his deathbed, he mentioned the word monks in his ramblings but Anne’s name never passed his lips, that was just in a novel, we will never know if Henry felt guilt or remorse for beheading her, personally I don’t think he did, I think he most likely regretted executing Catherine as his feelings were so raw about her, but Anne he thought of as a huge mistake who had promised him much but not delivered, who had torn the country apart and because of her, he had put eminent men to death, given him a girl instead of a son, and had refused to merge Into the role of a submissive Tudor wife and Queen acting instead like she was the mistress still, demanding and complaining of Henrys infidelities, therefore I think the hatred he had for her he carried to the grave, he may have felt sorry for Elizabeth but no doubt told himself that it wouldn’t affect her, a lot of historical fiction writers do like to put in their novels that Henry never stopped loving Anne but it’s just a romantic notion, i think the reality is very different, it was Jane whose death he regretted and whose memory he revered up till the end of his days.
Sandi has found a primary source that is very intriguing and which says that Henry did, in fact, express regret.
Wow, that’s interesting Sandi appears to have an amazing amount of research.
Is the story of the monks not apocryphal? But then, Henry was on his death bed for a month, although it was not till the last few days that he was finally dying and aware of this. I doubt that everything Henry said was recorded or survived. Henry was a man who had a real sense of his personal relationship with God, to whom he believed he was a conduit. I believe Henry had both a sense of his approaching end and the impending judgement that faced his immortal soul. Henry could have showed a sign of regret for Anne, for many things, it would be exciting to read a source and to know more. For years Henry would not even allow Anne to be mentioned, but he saw her every time he looked at Elizabeth. Who knows what was in his heart, deep down he could have regretted many things. His full dying words may be lost. Besides, by the time he could make confession to Cranmer, he was void of speech, he could merely squeeze his hand to show faith in Christ.
There is a great deal of debate over this letter, until now I have accepted the letter as genuine. It will be interesting to read the research of someone who has studied the original letter to see her conclusions and new insight into the textual analysis of the letter. Am I right in believing that this letter was removed from the collection of official papers by Cromwell, scribbled or annotated by him or others and then returned to the collection? Is the title added later by Cromwell? Sorry thought I read that in an earlier post.
Also can you give a date when Sandra will be publishing her sequel to Struck by the Dart of Love?
Regards on an excellent work and articles
Good stuff
Claire,
This post made me revisit some older posts regarding the authenticity of this letter. One of the arguments against the authenticity is the spelling of Anne’s name “Bullen” instead of “Boleyn”. I read Anne’s letter from 1526 to Henry VIII (when she was appointed to be maid of honor to Queen Catherine) and noticed she spelled her name “Bulen”. I wondered, in what collection is the letter from 1526? I don’t seem to recall where it located, nor can I find an image of the letter online. I did find your older post on the subject:
https://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/resources/anne-boleyn-words/anne-boleyn-letters/
I love her line “The warrant of maid of honor to the queen induces me to think that your majesty has some regard for me, since it gives me means of seeing you oftener, and of assuring you by my own lips (which I shall do on the first opportunity) that I am,
Your majesty’s very obliged and very obedient servant, without any reserve, Anne Bulen” – she was intriguing for sure, I can just imagine how excited the “dart-stricken” Henry was to receive this letter!
Hi everyone and thank you for your interest, and thanks as always to Claire for posting the preorder notice for the book! Just a few comments for now, more later…
First, Eric Ives did mention the letter. He was so wonderful and such an accomplished historian, that he was very careful about how he ascribed its origin. BUT, he addressed the emotions expressed in the letter, and he had a hard time imagining that Anne would have described them as such. I, on the other hand, feel that the way she expressed herself was very very typical of a woman to her husband. I explain some of this in the book, and I will be writing a blog post for The Anne Boleyn Files telling in more detail why I think the emotions she expressed are one of the main keys to the mystery.
Second, re the spelling of her name… it was commonplace for individuals to spell their own, and other people’s names differently all the time. In one document you can find several spellings of a given name – not unusual. Cromwell, for instance, spelled his own name Cremwell, Crimwel, and Crumwell variously. Anne was no different in this regard. back in the day, spelling didn’t matter!
Thank you BanditQueen – the second book, Je Anne Boleyn: Truth Endures will be out by end of year or very early 2016!
Once you have read it, I would love to hear from you as to your views! Thanks again!
Sandi
Cool, look forward to reading it.
Hi BQ… great observations, by the way, on your comments about Henry on his deathbed! Let’s discuss further as soon as the book is released… I think you have your finger on why this particular comment became common or public knowledge. !
Thanks, that would be a pleasure.
I will definitely be ordering this book especially to read the mention of Henry’s later feelings about Anne . Regarding the various spellings of her surname, I always wonder how she herself pronounced it when speaking it – Bullen or Boleyn?. If only we knew how she sounded.
I agree, wouldn’t it be wonderful? Henry too… and thanks – the comment I found about Henry’s deathbed grief was a shocker to me, but was beyond fascinating to research!
There is other letters written by Ann, could not a hand writing expert say its her hand her or not, Has it ever been done by one. With equipment of today a photo is all that is need. I grew up think she had written that letter. so did my father wh was a great Henry man
Henry VIII’s alleged ‘deathbed confession’ is in Agnes Strickland’s section on Anne Boleyn in ‘Lives of the Queens of England’.
Strickland refers to a quote by Andre Thevet, a Franciscan monk who said that “he was assured by several English gentleman that Henry VIII, on his deathbed, expressed peculiar remorse for the wrong he had done Anne Boleyn by putting her to death on a false accusation”. (from ‘Universal Cosmography’, XVI, 5).
The question is whether Thevat’s claim is true. John Foxe (in his ‘Acts and Monuments’), who described the King’s death in great detail – such as his holding Cranmer’s hand as he lay dying, made no mention of Henry saying anything about Anne.
Hi! I really want to buy the book but I live in Mexico and I don’t have a computer, I only have my smartphone, do you think I’m able to download it and read it in my cellphone? Because I read it’s for kindle and I’m confused. Also I’ve always believe the letter to be true and now that’s there’s a book to speak about it. I’m more than desperate to read it, specially for what Sandra found in that old paper.
Hi Mayra,
There are free kindle apps for reading on smartphones – see https://www.amazon.com/gp/digital/fiona/kcp-landing-page?ie=UTF8&ref_=kcp_pc_mkt_lnd, but it also comes out as a paperback on 14th September.
Thank you very much Claire! I would love to have it in paper but it would take more time to arrive so for the moment I will buy it online.