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30 | <p align="center"><b><FONT size=+1>Letter from Anne Boleyn to Cardinal Thomas Wolsey<br>
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31 | </FONT></b><font size="+1"><b>1529</b></font></p>
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32 | <p><FONT size=-1><b>Background<br></b>The tone of this letter differs remarkably from the
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33 | preceding letter. The disastrous and humiliating legatine hearings at
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34 | Blackfriars in May 1529 had finally convinced Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn that
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35 | Wolsey could not secure the annulment. Anne now believed, and with good
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36 | reason, that the Cardinal had never intended for her to be queen of England
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37 | and had hoped the endless delays of the annulment would cool Henry's passion
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38 | for her. She was angry, and now more receptive to the anti-Wolsey
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39 | machinations of her uncle, the duke of Norfolk, and other other noblemen who
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40 | resented Wolsey's influence with the king. Anne now became their willing
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41 | partner in destruction; they had their way and in October of 1529,
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42 | the Cardinal fell spectacularly from grace.</FONT> </p>
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43 | <p><FONT size=-1>Upon
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44 | Wolsey's fall, his position was filled by his far less ostentatious and more
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45 | cunning protégé, Thomas Cromwell. He learned the lessons of Wolsey's
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46 | life well, and his initial support of Anne Boleyn was tempered by a realistic
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47 | understanding of Henry VIII's temperament.</FONT> </p>
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48 | <hr>
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49 | <p>My lord, <BR>Though you are a man of great understanding, you
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50 | cannot avoid being censured by every body for having drawn on yourself the
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51 | hatred of a king who had raised you to the highest degree to which the
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52 | greatest ambition of a man seeking his fortune can aspire. I cannot
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53 | comprehend, and the king still less, how your reverent lordship, after
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54 | having allured us by so many fine promises about divorce, can have repented
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55 | of your purpose, and how you could have done what you have, in order to
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56 | hinder the consummation of it. What, then, is your mode of
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57 | proceeding? You quarreled with the queen to favor me at the time when
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58 | I was less advanced in the king's good graces; and after having therein
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59 | given me the strongest marks of your affection, your lordship abandons my
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60 | interests to embrace those of the queen. I acknowledge that I have put
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61 | much confidence in your professions and promises, in which I find myself
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62 | deceived. But, for the future, I shall rely on nothing by the
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63 | protection of Heaven and the love of my dear king, which alone will be able
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64 | to set right again those plans which you have broken and spoiled, and to
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65 | place me in that happy station which God wills, the king so much wishes, and
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66 | which will be entirely to the advantage of the kingdom. The wrong you
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67 | have done me has caused me much sorrow; but I feel infinitely more in seeing
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68 | myself betrayed by a man who pretended to enter into my interests only to
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69 | discover the secrets of my heart. I acknowledge that, believing you
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70 | sincere, I have been too precipitate in my confidence; it is this which has
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71 | induced, and still induces me, to keep more moderation in avenging myself,
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72 | not being able to forget that I have been Your servant, <BR>Anne
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73 | Boleyn.</p>
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74 | <p> </p>
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75 |
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76 | <BLOCKQUOTE>
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77 | <P>
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78 | <HR width="100%">
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79 | </BLOCKQUOTE>
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80 | <p align="center"><FONT size=-1><A
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81 | href="letters.html">to Letters of the Six Wives
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82 | of Henry VIII</A></FONT></p>
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83 | <p align="center"><FONT size=-1><A href="primary.html">to
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84 | Primary Sources</A></FONT><BR><FONT size=-1><A
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85 | href="http://englishhistory.net/tudor.html">to Tudor England</A></FONT><BR><FONT size=-1>
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86 | <a href="monarchs/boleyn.html">to Anne
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87 | Boleyn website</a>
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88 | <a href="citizens/wolsey.html"><br>to Cardinal
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89 | Thomas Wolsey website</a></FONT></p>
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