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Loading... Love Letters of Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn114 | 1 | 241,250 |
(3.45) | None | The king and his wives-letters and documents History is full of notable figures, but far fewer in number are those who have become iconic. An indisputably iconic figure, even among the many great kings of England, is the towering figure of the Tudor monarch, King Henry VIII. He was, of course, the father of Queen Elizabeth I, Gloriana, an equally renowned monarch of her own golden age. She sought always to be and be seen as her father's daughter, but posterity preserves what it will of a life in the public consciousness and so aside from Henry's unmistakable and imposing personal appearance what is most remembered of him by many is that he was married on six occasions and habitually terminated his relationships with an axe at the executioner's block-though this occurred only twice perhaps indicating more moderation in Henry's character as a husband than he is usually credited with. There has always been something seductively attractive about this powerful man, capable of great tenderness and romance, an artist, poet and musician-and yet a ruthless and unscrupulous tyrant capable of incredible insensitivity and cruelty. This volume contains an engrossing selection of correspondence, reports and other documents concerning Henry and his wives. The central part of the book is a famous collection of love letters sent by the king to his second wife Anne Boleyn, one of his spouses who lost her head to be superceded by another beauty of the court Jane Seymour, one of Anne's ladies in waiting. In this special and unique Leonaur edition these letters are added to by the inclusion of correspondence and other documents concerning the fate of Henry's sometimes unfortunate women and the events that surrounded them. Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket.… (more) |
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▾References References to this work on external resources. Wikipedia in EnglishNone ▾Book descriptions The king and his wives-letters and documents History is full of notable figures, but far fewer in number are those who have become iconic. An indisputably iconic figure, even among the many great kings of England, is the towering figure of the Tudor monarch, King Henry VIII. He was, of course, the father of Queen Elizabeth I, Gloriana, an equally renowned monarch of her own golden age. She sought always to be and be seen as her father's daughter, but posterity preserves what it will of a life in the public consciousness and so aside from Henry's unmistakable and imposing personal appearance what is most remembered of him by many is that he was married on six occasions and habitually terminated his relationships with an axe at the executioner's block-though this occurred only twice perhaps indicating more moderation in Henry's character as a husband than he is usually credited with. There has always been something seductively attractive about this powerful man, capable of great tenderness and romance, an artist, poet and musician-and yet a ruthless and unscrupulous tyrant capable of incredible insensitivity and cruelty. This volume contains an engrossing selection of correspondence, reports and other documents concerning Henry and his wives. The central part of the book is a famous collection of love letters sent by the king to his second wife Anne Boleyn, one of his spouses who lost her head to be superceded by another beauty of the court Jane Seymour, one of Anne's ladies in waiting. In this special and unique Leonaur edition these letters are added to by the inclusion of correspondence and other documents concerning the fate of Henry's sometimes unfortunate women and the events that surrounded them. Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket. ▾Library descriptions No library descriptions found. ▾LibraryThing members' description
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These 17 love letters from King Henry VIII of England to Anne Boleyn were written in French and English. They are undated, but appear to have been written after Anne was sent away from court in about 1527, as the king is trying to persuade her to return. Scholars have noted that the letters attest to the king's passion for Anne because he hated writing letters and very few other documents in his handwriting survive. They were found in the Vatican Library and first published in the 18th century. | |
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This is a neat and slim little volume, containing the seventeen letters written by Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn in the 1520s which somehow mysteriously found their way to the Vatican archives, where they still remain. None of Anne's letters to Henry during their courtship survive; but the collection includes a letter she wrote to her father as a child, two letters from her to Cardinal Wolsey, and finally a letter of disputed authenticity from Anne to Henry a few days before her execution, pleading for mercy and a fair trial (she got neither). Finally, we get a surviving love letter from Henry to Jane Seymour, commiserating with her about "a ballad made lately of great derision against us" so presumably written after their relationship had become public but before Anne's execution.
There is an illuminating introduction by Jasper Ridley, including also the introduction to the 1745 edition of the letters, by William Oldys, and plenty of illustrations. The letters themselves are not immensely interesting, but do convey Henry's passion and general intense activity - two of them apparently came with a dead deer attached, personally hinted by the king and sent to Hever for the Boleyns' dinner table. I was pleased to recognise several authentic phrases from the letters in the episode of The Tudors we watched last night (episode 7, the one with the outbreak of sweating sickness and the Pope), so the writers clearly did their research.
A nice little presentation of some primary source material. ( )