Is this really ANNE BOLEYN’S LAST LETTER, written on 6 May 1536, while she was imprisoned in the Tower of London, or is it one of history’s most famous forged letters? In this six wives documentary from History Calling we look at what happened to Anne Boleyn in the days after her shock arrest and at whether she was able to compose a remarkable letter to her husband, Henry VIII, in which she pleaded her innocence of any wrongdoing against him, admonished him for his treatment of her and reminded him of his paternal duty to their daughter, the two year old Princess Elizabeth, later Elizabeth I. Anne’s death, which is arguably one of the most famous executions in history, was and is a great Tudor scandal, but did she try to save herself by one last appeal to her husband before she became the first queen ever executed in English history and if so, did Henry even receive the letter?
I’ll take you through the provenance of this missive (including the story that it was found in the papers of Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex after his own execution in 1540) and at what modern historians have made of its handwriting, contents and style and the likelihood that Anne was allowed to write it. If it was composed by this doomed queen, we’ll also think about how much it tells us about what Anne Boleyn was like. Along the way we’ll look at the conditions of Anne’s imprisonment and at how she acted during the final days of her life.
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