Hi Suzanne,

First of all, the sources we have are not ideal; don't let one alleged story ruin your opinion of Anne. It could have been Anne–and it could easily have been Henry's faction. As his wife, she could have sent Fisher this letter after knowing he had someone do it; or (in my opinion, this is what happened; it's my belief) someone unknown poisoned Fisher and his household and, when Anne found out, she used this as a threat though she did not actually commit the crime. I also think, candidly, that Anne would have been more subtle. Is there the chance she did attempt to poison Fisher? Well of course. But ask yourself–if this is what you really believe, because it's not what I believe–whether or not, in the same position, the Katherine/Mary group would not have done the same thing. That being said, I don't excuse the possibility Anne tried to poison Fisher, I just don't think it's something characteristic of her.

I agree.  Had Anne been involved in the poisoning or those men, you can be sure Henry would have made Cromwell charge her with murder.

Wreckmasterjay, when it comes down to it, while we obviously can't know Anne's inner thoughts and feelings, I too believe Anne was too nice for that! Also, you're completely right about the “milking it” point: if Henry or Cromwell thought Anne had tried to poison KoA, Mary, or Fisher, she would have had attempted murder charges brought against her.

I made my peace with this a long time ago.  Regardless of whether Anne herself had a hand in the incident or not, it was clearly factionally motivated (though I did read somewhere that the man executed for the poisoning claimed it had been meant as a joke).   Whether Anne personally ordered the poisoning, or Henry, or Thomas Boleyn as shown on The Tudors, or someone else entirely, it was clearly meant to scare Fisher into taking the oath or to get him out of the way so he wouldn't vote the wrong way.  His death would have been beneficial to Anne's position.  People would therefore always associate the incident with Anne because she was the figurehead of the Boleyn faction.  She was The Boleyn as the Irish would say.  Personally, I don't think she knew ahead of time what was going to happen to Fisher.  But she threatened him after the incident so clearly she wasn't above threatening murder.