On 6th May 1536, Anne Boleyn wrote a letter to her husband King Henry VIII from the Tower of London where she was awaiting trial, accused of adultery, incest with her brother, diabolical witchcraft and imagining the King’s death.

But did Anne truly pen the letter? This question has divided historians for years.

The letter, said to be the last written by Anne, was reportedly discovered among the papers of the King’s master secretary and chief minister Thomas Cromwell after his death. However, historians have questioned the authenticity of the letter since it is not her handwriting. The letter could, however, have been dictated to a scribe; this would not have been unusual.

During Anne’s imprisonment in the Tower of London, Cromwell had the Constable of the Tower, Sir William Kingston, report to him in a series of letters everything Anne said and did. Sir Robert Cotton, who collected rare documents in his lifetime, acquired the letter along with Sir Kingston’s dispatches to Cromwell.

Cotton may have received the documents from his close friend William Cecil, chief advisor to Anne Boleyn’s daughter, Queen Elizabeth I, who possibly acquired them from Ralph Saddler, the executor of Cromwell’s Will who was a close friend of Cecil’s. And it is the very uncertainty of the letter’s journey through time that causes some historians to doubt its authenticity. I do not believe this is a good reason to dismiss the letter’s authenticity since many documents and artefacts take precarious journeys through the ages, passing through various hands. It is also possible that  these individuals with a direct relationship to Anne and her daughter, Elizabeth I, and Cromwell, took pains to preserve it along with Kingston’s letters. And to dismiss the letter on the basis of this uncertainty ignores the evidence of its contents.

Despite the letter’s authenticity being questioned, the Cotton Library (the institution that would become the British Library) were glad to take possession of it and preserve it for the nation after Cotton’s death in 1631. The British Library also acquired the letters said to be from Kingston to Cromwell and the many other documents Cotton had amassed.

Interestingly, while historians have questioned the authenticity of Anne’s last letter, they accept the authenticity of Sir Kingston’s letters to Cromwell, both of which were found together. In one of Kingston’s letters he records that Anne would like him to bear a letter for her.

Turning to the letter’s contents, most historians agree that it is an articulate, heartfelt plea of innocence. The letter begins with Anne questioning her imprisonment.

Your grace’s displeasure and my imprisonment are things so strange to me, that what to write, or what to excuse, I am altogether ignorant. Whereas you send to me (willing me to confess a truth and so obtain your favor), by such a one, whom you know to be mine ancient professed enemy, I no sooner received this message by him, than I rightly conceived your meaning; and if, as you say, confessing a truth indeed may procure my safety, I shall with all willingness and duty, perform your duty.

On 16th May, Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, visited Anne in the Tower of London. Cranmer asked Anne to annul her marriage. Anne agreed. Anne’s action aligns with the letter author’s willingness to procure her safety—if Anne had never been legally married to Henry, the trial verdict would be meaningless—she might have been sent away to live out her days in a covenant.

While historians agree the letter is compelling, I believe the reference to judgement in the second to last paragraph has been somewhat overlooked.

But if you have already determined of me, and that not only my death, but an infamous slander must bring you the joying of your desired happiness, then I desire of God that he will pardon your great sin herein, and likewise my enemies, the instruments thereof; and that he will not call you to a strait account for your unprincely and cruel usage of me at his general judgment-seat, where both you and myself must shortly appear; and in whose just judgment, I doubt not (whatsoever the world may think of me), mine innocency shall be openly known and sufficiently cleared.

During her lifetime, Anne wrote in her Book of Hours, her personal prayer book displayed at her childhood home, Hever Castle, le temps viendra, which translate as ‘the time will come’. She wrote this beneath a scene of the final judgement, where the angels are calling up the dead to answer for their sins. Anne’s earlier inscription is significant in establishing Anne as the author of the letter from the Tower. We know Anne wrote the inscription because she believed in a direct relationship with God and personal accountability. Her inscription aligns with what the letter’s author says about divine judgement.

On 14th April, before her arrest, Anne had her chaplain John Skip preach an audacious sermon in the Royal Chapel at Greenwich Palace. It was a strike against her enemies at court, and it caused something of a sensation.

Skip used the Bible story of Queen Esther as a metaphor to convey the current political-religious scheming taking place under the disguise of reform for the New Religion.

Queen Esther was the Jewish wife of King Xerxes. She discovered a plot by her husband’s wicked counsellor Haman to destroy the Jews and take their wealth and she begged her husband to spare them. There could have been no doubt to those present in the Royal Chapel for Skip’s sermon that Haman represented Thomas Cromwell and his evil counsel, while Anne was Esther and Xerxes was Henry.

It is reported that terrified, since Haman paid with his life in the story, Cromwell removed himself from the court, feigning illness and plotting Anne’s demise. Yet some historians have questioned whether Skip’s sermon has bearing on Anne’s fate. I believe it does, because Anne’s letter ends by using an adaptation of the words Queen Esther spoke to her husband, King Xerxes, when she begged for her life.

Esther’s words: “If I have found favour with the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my request…’

Anne’s Quote: If ever I have found favor in your sight – if ever the name of Anne Bulen have been pleasing in your ears – then let me obtain this request.’

Anne goes on to request that the men accused with her should be spared death and only herself receive punishment.

Is it a coincidence that the author has chosen to echo the story of Queen Esther? This choice of wording at such a time is highly personal as well as referring to contemporary events. It could also be argued as evidence of another much-debated question: Was it Henry or Cromwell who orchestrated Anne’s downfall? If the letter is from Anne, it demonstrates that Anne thinks it is Cromwell since she uses the story of Esther again, metaphorically.

Two further points persuade me that Anne is the author of the letter because they support the evidence we have of Anne’s faith and align with the contents of the letter.

After the guilty verdict was passed, it was reported that she lifted her hands to heaven and said: O Father, O Creator! Thou who art the way, the truth, and the life, knowest that I have not deserved this death!

My lords, I do not say that my opinion ought to be preferred to your judgement; but if you have reasons to justify it, they must be other than those which have been produced in court, for I am wholly innocent of all the matter of which I have been accused, so that I cannot call upon God to pardon me.

What Anne says here after the guilty verdict is passed supports what is written in the second paragraph of the letter from the tower.

Letter: But let not let your grace ever imagine that your poor wife will be bought to acknowledge a fault, where not so much as a fault ever existed.

In her speech Anne goes on to say: Think not, however, that I am so bewildered in mind that I do not care to vindicate my innocence. I knew that it would avail me little to defend it at the last moment if I had not maintained it all my life long…

In referring to her ‘bewilderment’ in her speech after the verdict, Anne supports what is written in the opening paragraph of her letter: Your grace’s displeasure and my imprisonment are things so strange to me, that what to write and what to excuse, I am altogether ignorant.

Lastly, in her speech Anne, reaffirms the plea in the letter asking that only she receive punishment to save the men accused with her.

Letter: My last and only request shall be, that myself only bear the burden of your grace’s displeasure, and that it may not touch the innocent souls of those poor gentlemen, whom, as I understand, are likewise in strait imprisonment for my sake.’ (Anne goes on here to use the same words as Esther).

Speech: As for my brother and the other gentlemen who are unjustly condemned. I would willing die to save them; but as that is not the King’s pleasure, I shall accompany them in death. And then afterwards I shall live in eternal peace and joy without end, where I will pray to God for the King and for you, my lords.

Anne’s speech is compelling evidence when compared against the letter. Not only do they sound so similar, Anne, in her speech acknowledges that her plea, in her letter, for the men’s lives has gone ignored. Since the letter was written before the speech, the speech suggests the letter was from Anne.

Finally, below Anne’s signature, there is a paragraph that reads:

“The King sending a Message to the Queen Anne, being Prisoner in the Tower; willing her to confess the Truth, she said, ‘She could confess no more, then she had already spoken. And she said, she must conceal nothing from the King, to whom she did acknowledge her self so much bound for 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 Martrydom, a Saint in Heaven.”

Given the events that led to Anne’s demise, it seems highly plausible that she thought of herself as a martyr for the new religion, especially given that events flowed from the sermon in which she struck out at Cromwell over religious reform.

Further reading about Anne Boleyn’s letter, I recommend reading The Letter from the Tower – By Sandra Vasoli. Sandra is a historian and author who has spent extensive time researching the letter’s journey through time.