On this day in 1536, Anne Boleyn wrote a letter to Henry VIII from her prison in the Tower of London.

By the 6th of May, Queen Anne Boleyn had been locked away in the Tower of London for nearly a week. Isolated, frightened, and surrounded by rumours, it is on this day that tradition claims she wrote a letter to her husband. King Henry VIII.

The letter, preserved in the Cotton Manuscripts and titled “To the King from the Lady in the Tower”, is one of the most poignant documents associated with Anne’s fall. Whether or not Anne truly wrote it has long been debated. Some believe it was composed by her, while others suggest it may have been a forgery, perhaps written by Thomas Cromwell. The handwriting is not hers, and it survives only in a copy, not an original.

But authorship aside, the letter captures something very real: Anne’s voice, or at least how people imagined it.

In it, she pleads her innocence, questions the King’s justice, and defends her past love and loyalty. She reminds Henry of their years together, their shared faith, and even expresses concern for his soul. One line reads:

“Never prince had wife more loyal in all duty, and in all true affection, than you have found in Anne Boleyn…”

If the letter is genuine, it shows Anne trying to assert dignity and agency in the face of utter ruin. If it’s a fabrication, it still reflects the myth-making that was already swirling around her figure, even before her death.

What is certain is this: by the 6th of May, Anne’s situation had grown increasingly desperate. Her enemies were closing in. More men had been arrested. Her chances of release were slipping away.

And so, whether with pen in hand or only in spirit, the “Lady in the Tower” reached out to the man who had once loved her enough to change the course of England’s history.

But Henry never replied.