My Mistress And Friend My Heart

This line comes from one of Henry VIII's seventeen surviving love letters to Anne Boleyn, held in the Vatican Library and written in his own hand in French around 1527–1528. The letters document a prolonged courtship during which Henry was still legally married to Catherine of Aragon; Anne's continued refusal to become his mistress — insisting on marriage — created the political and religious crisis that led to the English Reformation. The tender register of the letters is strikingly at odds with Henry's later treatment of Anne: he had her executed on charges of adultery and treason in May 1536.