Free Anne Boleyn: Henry VIII's Obsession by Elizabeth Norton

stopped sleeping with his wife by around 1524, Anne would have known that Henry was still very much married and unavailable for anything more than the kind of affair that her sister had enjoyed. Mary Boleyn had been Henry’s mistress for several years but, by 1526, she had been discarded with little to show for her intimacy with the king. Anne knew from her own sister’s example that the position of royal mistress was both fleeting and dangerous. Mary Boleyn had entirely lost her reputation and Anne, as the more ambitious sister, was not prepared to follow.
    Although Anne is usually criticised for her overweening ambition it is very likely that thoughts of marriage did not, at first, enter her mind. As the niece of the Duke of Norfolk and the great-granddaughter of the Earl of Ormond, Anne had a high opinion of herself and she knew that her virtue was one of the best ways of securing a husband. Since Henry could not marry her she probably enjoyed a mild flirtation with him but, ultimately, stopped short of agreeing to become his mistress. Anne followed the example of Henry’s own grandmother, Elizabeth Woodville, another Englishwoman who had attracted the interest of a king. According to Thomas More in his History of Richard III, Elizabeth also flirted with her king, Edward IV:
‘Whose appetite, when she perceived, she virtuously denied him. But that did she so wisely and with so good manner, and words so well set, that she rather kindled his desire than quenched it; And finally after many a meeting, much wooing and many great promises, she well espied the king’s affection towards her so greatly increased that she dared somewhat more boldly say her mind, as to him whose heart she perceived more finally set than fell off for a word. And in conclusion she showed him plain that as she wist herself too simple to be his wife, so thought herself too good to be his concubine’.
     
    The difference between Elizabeth Woodville and Anne Boleyn was that Anne’s king was certainly not offering her marriage in early 1526. Wearied by her attempts to keep the king at a distance, Anne retired home to Hever, perhaps hoping that he would find some other interest at court. Henry was unable to forget the aloof and mysterious Anne and he quickly inundated her with a series of letters. In these, Henry poured out his feelings towards Anne and, ultimately, made his decision concerning her and their future together. No one had ever said no to Henry before and it only served to fuel his passion and to ensure that his relationship with Anne was anything but short-lived. Anne was like no other woman Henry had ever met and with her dark, foreign looks, graceful manner and high-estimation of her own selfworth, she drove the king into a wild and uncontrollable lust for her.
    Seventeen of Henry’s letters to Anne survive, showing just how deeply in love with her he had become. These can be dated to 1526 and 1527 when Henry and Anne were often apart and chronicle the king’s growing obsession with the exotic and elusive Anne Boleyn. Although Anne’s own replies do not survive, it is possible to gain some idea of her response from Henry’s letters. It is also clear that Henry was completely confused by the signals that Anne gave him and desperate for her to love him in return. All Henry’s letters are in his own handwriting. This in itself shows something of the depth of his feeling for Anne as Henry hated writing and would dictate both private and public correspondence. For Henry, Anne was worth the discomfort of picking up a pen himself.
    Anne was constantly on Henry’s mind whether she was at court or away and in one letter he wrote stating that ‘I and my heart put ourselves in your hands, begging you to recommend us to your good grace and not to let absence lessen your affection, for it were a great pity to increase that pain, seeing that absence does that sufficiently and more than I could ever have thought possible’. Henry was in an