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9 | <title>Primary Sources - Letter from Anne Boleyn to Cardinal Thomas Wolsey,
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10 | mid-summer 1528 </title>
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30 | <td valign="top" width="70%" height="610" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
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31 | <p align="center"><b><FONT size=+1>Letter from Anne Boleyn to Cardinal Thomas Wolsey<br>
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32 | mid-summer 1528</FONT></b></p>
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33 | <p><FONT size=-1><b>Background<br></b>This letter was written in the summer of 1528, as
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34 | indicated by its reference to the sweating sickness. When a servant of
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35 | Anne's became infected at court, Henry VIII reluctantly sent her away to Hever
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36 | Castle. Most of his famous love letters to Anne were written during this
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37 | period of forced separation.</FONT></p>
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38 | <p><FONT size=-1>Anne did become ill, but
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39 | survived. She wrote this letter to Wolsey in thanks for the gift and
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40 | letter he sent her while she was ill. The great Cardinal and Anne have
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41 | often been placed at perpetual odds in history books, but in 1528 their
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42 | relationship was still amicable enough. Anne and Henry both believed the
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43 | Cardinal would be able to secure Henry's annulment from Katharine of Aragon;
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44 | when he eventually failed, both were disillusioned - and Henry's
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45 | disillusionment led him to arrest his old friend. Only Wolsey's natural
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46 | death saved him from certain execution.</FONT> </p>
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47 | <p><FONT size=-1>Wolsey was
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48 | pro-French and wanted to marry Henry VIII to a French princess when his first
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49 | marriage was annulled. He was discomfited by the rise of Anne Boleyn,
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50 | and her many relatives. Naturally enough, opposition to the Cardinal's
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51 | policies centered around the only other person who so completely dominated
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52 | Henry VIII's life - Anne herself. In the beginning, both Anne and Wolsey
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53 | realized they could not afford to offend each other. But just a year
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54 | after this letter was written, after the disastrous legatine hearing at
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55 | Blackfriars, Anne realized Wolsey could not secure the annulment. And
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56 | she suspected, quite correctly, that he had never intended for her to marry
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57 | Henry. </FONT></p>
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58 | <p><FONT size=-1>Wolsey had hoped the delays in securing the annulment would
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59 | outlast Henry's passion for Anne; he only later realized the annulment itself
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60 | would be impossible.</FONT> </p>
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61 | <hr>
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62 | <p>My lord, <BR>In my most humble wise that my poor heart can
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63 | think, I do thank your grace for your kind letter, and for your rich and
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64 | goodly present, the which I shall never be able to deserve without your
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65 | help, of which I have hitherto had so great plenty, that all the days of my
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66 | life I am most bound of all creatures, next the king's grace, to love and
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67 | serve your grace, of the which I beseech you never to doubt that ever I
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68 | shall vary from this thought, as long as any breath is in my body. And
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69 | as touching your grace's trouble with the sweat, I thank our Lord that them
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70 | I desired and prayed for are escaped; and that is the king's grace and you,
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71 | not doubting that God has preserved you both for great causes known alonely
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72 | of His high wisdom. And as for the coming of the legate, I desire that
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73 | much. And if it be God's pleasure, I pray him to send this matter
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74 | shortly to a good end; and then I trust, my lord, to recompense part of your
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75 | great pains. In the which I must require you, in the mean time, to
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76 | accept my goodwill in the stead of the power; the which must proceed partly
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77 | from you, as our Lord knoweth, whom I beseech to send you long life, with
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78 | continuance in honor. Written by the hand of her that is most bound to be
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79 | your humble and obedient servant, <BR>Anne Boleyn.</p>
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80 | <p> </p>
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81 |
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82 | <BLOCKQUOTE>
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83 | <P>
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84 | <HR width="100%">
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85 | </BLOCKQUOTE>
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86 | <p align="center"><FONT size=-1><A
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87 | href="letters.html">to Letters of the Six Wives
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88 | of Henry VIII</A></FONT></p>
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89 | <p align="center"><FONT size=-1><A href="primary.html">to
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90 | Primary Sources</A></FONT><BR><FONT size=-1><A
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91 | href="http://englishhistory.net/tudor.html">to Tudor England</A></FONT><BR><FONT size=-1>
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92 | <a href="monarchs/boleyn.html">to Anne
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93 | Boleyn website</a>
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94 | <a href="citizens/wolsey.html"><br>to Cardinal
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95 | Thomas Wolsey website</a></FONT></p>
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96 | </td>
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