Over to Sandi…
There are many perplexing questions which arise when considering the letter I believe Anne Boleyn composed while in the Tower. One is how and why there appears a postscript, on the very back of the original document held at the British Library. This postscript, today, is barely legible because of the damage it sustained in the Cotton Library fire of 1731. However, the antiquaries who saw the original document before it was damaged, and who transcribed it, saved the words for us. This paragraph is the famous one in which Anne describes Henry VIII raising her from a lowly estate, eventually making her a martyr. Many historians have mentioned this comment, but few realise that it was captured as an added statement in Anne’s letter to her husband.
How do I think it got there?
I believe that a messenger arrived at the Tower seeking Anne’s final and last true confession. She offered these words and they were added to the letter before it was sent on its way to, as Anne thought, the King. Here is the text of that postscript:
“The King sending a message to Queen Anne, being prisoner in the Tower, willing her to confess the Truth, she said she could confess no more than she had already spoken. And she must conceal nothing from the King, to whom she did acknowledge herself so much bound for so many favours, for raising her first from a mean woman to be a Marquess, next to be his Queen, and now, seeing he could bestow no further honour upon her on earth, for purposing to make her, by martyrdom, a saint in heaven.”
Who do I believe was both messenger and scribe?
Ralph Sadler, Thomas Cromwell’s trusted and devoted servant.
You can read more about the letter and see a video in today’s other article – click here.
You can find out more about Sandi’s research in her book Anne Boleyn’s Letter from the Tower: A New Assessment – click here.
Photo: © 01/09/2015 The British Library Board, Cotton Otho f232v.
