Anne Played Hard to Get
The stories of Katherine of Aragon protecting a coy Anne Boleyn are not the only evidence that Anne Boleyn played hard to get. None of Anne’s love letters to Henry VIII survive. However, 17 of Henry’s do remain. Written between 1527 and 1528, they show from the King’s responses that Anne did not make their early courtship easy. Henry’s first love letter sees him “beseeching” Anne to“let me know expressly your whole mind as to the love between us two.” Henry’s tactics then moved on, with the Kings essentially trying to talk Anne into bed as he promised he would not call her his, ‘mistress” until she gave herself up to him “body and heart.”
However, Anne was not about to become another notch on the royal bedpost. So Henry promised she would be his only lover. Still, the King met with no success. However, he must have had some encouragement because, y July 1527, he sent Anne a letter stating “Shortly, you and I shall have our desired end,” This indicates that by this time, Henry had relented and stopped asking Anne to be his mistress and instead to become his wife. Anne had played her cards in this game very cannily, winning herself a King by denying him.