Henry VIII’s Love Letters to Anne Boleyn
Henry VIII wrote Anne Boleyn a collection of love letters which still survive today because they are in the Vatican Library. How they ended up there, we just don’t know, but the most likely explanation is that they were stolen from Anne Boleyn to provide evidence of her relationship with the King. Unfortunately, we do not have Anne’s replies but the letters are evidence of Henry VIII’s romantic side and his strong feelings for Anne.
You can click on the following links to read these letters in their entirety. I have put them in the order that they can be found in the 1906 book published by John W Luce and Company, rather than the order of the Harleian Miscellany, because, as J. O. Halliwell Philipps points out in his notes on the letters, they only make sense in this order.
- Love Letter 1 – Written sometime after Anne Boleyn had retired to Hever after May 1527.
- Love Letter 2
- Love Letter 3
- Love Letter 4
- Love Letter 5 – July 1527
- Love Letter 6 – July 1527
- Love Letter 7 – February 1528
- Love Letter 8 – June 16th 1528
- Love Letter 9 – June 20th 1528
- Love Letter 10 – June 22nd 1528
- Love Letter 11 – July 1528
- Love Letter 12 – July 20th 1528
- Love Letter 13 – July 21st 1528
- Love Letter 14 – August 1528
- Love Letter 15 – August 20th 1528
- Love Letter 16 – September 16th 1528
- Love Letter 17 – End October 1528
I love all of these letters: it is so wonderful to be able to read of Henry’s love for Anne! Also wanted to let you know that the link to letter # 15 doesn’t work.
[Reply]
Sooooo romantic!
[Reply]
Can’t begin to express how much I’ve loved reading these letters….now I wish to marry a modern-day Henry VIII….Sigh.
[Reply]
It feels as though ever time i read these letters (and i have read them many times) it never fails to move me. The love he bore for this women is incredible, how long he waited for her, how long she waited for him didn’t seem to matter. What mattered to him most was knowing that Anne felt the same for him and would one say hopefully be his.
Reading these letters however, makes me question some Historians. Many say that King Henry VIII loved Jane Seymour above all other Queens, and I’m sure he did love her. After all Jane gave Henry his long awaited son and heir to the throne. He was even laid to rest by Jane.
But the way he loved Anne, the amount of time(and by time I mean years) he spent courting her, his break with Rome, the divisionn of his kingdom because of his love for this women speaks volumes and can not be ignored.
In my humble opinion I truly feel that Henry loved Anne is a way that he loved no other. Even though he betrayed her in such a way that can never be forgotten nor forgiven -their love goes down in history ( my mind) as one of the greatest loves of all times.
[Reply]