Henry VIII love letter exhibited

Source: BBC

It seems even one of history's most notorious womanisers had a romantic side - at least in the beginning.

Concealed in the Vatican for almost five centuries, a love letter from King Henry VIII to his second wife Anne Boleyn is to go on display at the British Library in London.

Probably written in January 1528, it shows a softer side to the infamously bloodthirsty royal as he pursues her.

He assures Anne that "henceforth my heart will be dedicated to you alone," and apologises profusely for ever suggesting she could be a mere mistress.

Unfortunately, that devotion did not last and as school children learn, things ended badly for Anne.

Photo of the letter at the link

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7887826.stm

"but, of course, your head belongs to me!"

- your dearest henry

Very interesting.

I'm not meaning that in a freeperish way. Her sister was his mistress.

You never know who will find them, and you cannot be sure you will always "have time" to deal with them later:)

Henry VIII ssw himself as the total Renaisance Ruler, an athelete, warrior, patron of the arts and sciences.

He seems to have originally loved his first wife Catherine of Aragon. He wasn't exactly faithful to her, mind you, but then royal misstresses were an expected feature at any court in those days. Compared to other royal womanizers, he was pretty discrete. His passion for Ann Bolyn coupled with his determination to have a son who could carry on his dynasty and keep England strong and united, led him on a path that destroyed everything and everyone he ever loved. When a powerful man starts thinking with his dick, watch out. Big Henry let little Henry take him down some paths from which there was no return.

In his younger days he was a athelete king who could spend the day hunting and dancing and then take a couple of hours off for philosophical discussions with his very dear friend the Humanist philosopher and author of Utopia, Sir Thomas More (I've always wondered if Henry actually READ More's book which describes a society in which all wealth is held in common and no one is rich or poor). Of course that relationship turned sour when Henry, who was outraged by More's refusal to support Henry's divorce of Catherine of Aragon, ordered More tried and executed for treason.

His love for Ann Boleyn also turned to hate. Maybe it was when she gave birth to a daughter, the future Queen Elizabeth. Maybe she was a bitch on wheels as her enemies said. Maybe it was the excecution of More and others and the reaction around the world. Whatever, the charges against her were almost certainly trumped up--no matter--a few sessions on the rack and guys she never met were willing to confess to having sex with her.

Maybe if Jane Seymour (wife #3) had survived giving birth to his only son, things would have been better. The debacle regarding the search for and Henry's disappointment with wife #4 (Anne of Cleves) led to a new round of purgees. Thomas Cromwell, who engineered Thomas More's and Ann Boleyn's trials and executions went to the block--his descriptions of the distinctly homely Princess Anne really were too good to be true. Fortunately, the artist Hans Holbein the Younger, who provided the painting of her that helped sway Henry's decision to marry her, managed to keep his head--and his reputation--the paiting shows a plain looking woman in a really fancy & colorful dress--or maybe Holbein ratted out Cromwell. Anne of Cleves also engineered a favorable divorce settlement and got to stay in England as the "King's Dear Sister".

Wife #5 Catherine Howard was an airheaded teenage girl thoughtfully provided by the same noble family who'd brought Ann Boleyn to Henry's attention. By this time Henry was so fat he had to be hoisted onto his horse by a crane. Said Wife #4 of Wife #5. "What a burden she takes on--and she's so small." Catherine Howard also took on a hot young lover and was beheaded.

Wife #6 Catherine Parr was a mature women with good sense. She was also a little too Protestant for Henry's tase. Fortunately for her, he died before he could throw her in the tower.

Henry VIII was a character you couldn't have begun to make up in a million years.

Henry not only destroyed everything he loved because he was thinking with his dick (and because he was obsessed with the idea that it would ruin England if he were unable to provide a male heir to the throne), he invented a new church (required in order for him to obtain that first divorce) and called for the executions of countless people for failing to hew to its principles--either because they clung to the old Roman Catholicism or because they were too interested in the new Protestant teachings. Either way, he had an excuse to have them killed. He also figured out how to turn his destruction of the Catholic Church in England to his advantage by giving the monasteries and nunneries he closed to favored courtiers, and using church money to enhance his own depleted coffers.

And Catherine Howard didn't get in trouble only because she took on a hot young lover--she would have eventually been in trouble regardless, because she was hardly pure as the driven snow when she took the throne. She was quite the teenager who got around, only Henry found out about it too late. But like all too many men at that age, he was so tickled with the idea of this sweet young thang actually wanting HIM (yeah, as if she wanted nothing else from the relationship!--and as if her FAMILY wanted nothing else from it!) to see straight until the evidence was laid out so that even he couldn't deny it.

You know, you'd think we'd learn. Torture was a common means back in those days of getting the kind of information one wanted to get out of people--true or not. Give 'em a little time in the torture chamber and most would confess to anything, up to and including sex with their own sister, as George Boleyn did. But after all these years, some people continue to laud torture as a necessary means of obtaining information. *sigh* We haven't learned a damn thing.

Elizabeth I turned out to be one of England's greatest monarchs and she did it all without any dangling body parts.

have gotten a hold of Ann Boleyn's letter? The Catholic Church didn't make another appearance in the English Court until after Henry's death and the very Catholic Mary took over. Hmmmm.

for monster husbands. :hi: