Anne Boleyn ‘conspired to kill Henry VIII’ expert reveals
King Henry VIII famously had six different wives during his tumultuous 36-year reign over Tudor England. The Monarch’s Second Wife Anne Boleyn had been queen for less than three years when she was beheaded in the Tower of London in 1536. Her execution came after she was found guilty by a jury of treason for her alleged sexual relations with five of Henry’s courtiers, including her brother, George Boleyn, a close friend of the king.
Anne also allegedly conspired with the men to kill Henry.
The Queen had already fallen out of favor with Henry for her inability to fulfill his wish to give birth to a male heir to succeed him to the throne.
But despite Henry’s barbaric treatment of Anne, the king regretted his actions until the day he died in 1547, according to a leading figure. historian†
Sandra Vasoli, who has studied little-known accounts of the monarch’s final hours, has uncovered details that show his grief for Anne is “eating away”.
Ms Vasoli, who wrote the book ‘Anne Boleyn’s Letter from the Tower: A New Assessment’ in 2015, is an expert on Tudor history, specializing in Henry and Anne.
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Henry VIII’s Breakthrough: King’s Dying Regret Over Anne Boleyn Ate ‘Away To Him’ (Image: GETTY)
Illustration: From Henry and Anne (Image: GETTY)
Speaking to Express.co.uk about Henry’s love for his wife, she said: “There is no doubt about it, and I think most historians would agree.
“That she was his one true love. Yes, he had her beheaded for many, many reasons.
“But the epilogue of this story, especially the expression of his grief on his deathbed, is – this is my theory – that for the rest of his life he thought he could recreate that love.
“He thought, ‘Oh, I will definitely meet someone else, and it will be an equally passionate and equally idyllic love’, but he never succeeded.
“And so I think in part that and his grief and his bitterness about the people he chose to have executed is one of the main things that eats into him.”
Henry VIII: The Former King of England (Image: GETTY)
The romance between Anne and Henry first blossomed in the 1520s when she was a lady-in-waiting to Henry’s first wife, Catherine of Aragon.
Henry went to extraordinary lengths to cancel his marriage to Catherine so that he could marry Anne.
After his appeals to Pope Clement VII fell on deaf ears, the king famously split from the Catholic Church and seized control of the Church of England, allowing him to marry the woman he loved.
Mrs. Vasoli claims that Henry was unable to recreate the passion he shared with Anne with any of his other wives.
During her research, the historian came across a book called ‘biographical memorials’ in the British Library, which contains an important piece of evidence about Henry’s regret about Anne.
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Anne Boleyn: Portrait of the Former Queen (Image: Hever Castle)
The author of the book, a man named Bishop White, quotes André Thevet, a sixteenth-century French explorer, who had contact with Henry’s courtiers.
Thevet, who wrote the book ‘Cosmographie Universalle’, was a Franciscan friar, who according to Mrs Vasoli lived with the king in the monastery next to Greenwich Palace.
Thevet’s account of Henry’s last words is quoted by Bishop White on an untidy piece of parchment in his volumes, which Mrs. Vasoli translated from the old French.
It reads: “The King acknowledges with great sorrow at his death the injuries he inflicted on the Lady Anne Boleyn and her daughter.”
Ms Vasoli said: “And then, below that, in French, it reads: ‘Several English gentlemen have confided to me that on his deathbed he had repented of the wrong done to Queen Anne Boleyn.
Performance: From Anne Boleyn at Tower of London (Image: GETTY)
“’Being falsely accused, and for the punishment inflicted upon her, that she died in good Christian standing, and shall be buried in accordance with the Church of Rome.
“’It is in connection with this situation that he – Henry – has sought to rectify these injustices, and with all his heart signs his name on this testimony’.
‘So, in other words, this Franciscan friar, who was a contemporary of Henry, and his closest courtiers, reports that some of those courtiers told him – the monk – this.
“That at Henry’s death he regretted with great sorrow the injustice he had done.”
‘Anne Boleyn’s Letter from the Tower: A New Assessment’ was written by Sandra Vasoli and published by MadeGlobal Publishing in 2015. It is available here†