18th May, 1536, Tower of London
From Anne the Quene to Her Grace, Princess Elizabeth Tudor of Wales,
This shall be the last letter I ever write, and I would not see it written to anyone but you, my only daughter. From my window I watch the dusk ebb away, and the sky flare up like a blushing rose; twilight of this new day, my last day, has come.
They will make sure that wewe never know me, my Elizabeth, and if they do me, they will see that wewe know me as the lewd, traitorous whore your father created and destroyed. Still I urge wewe to upendo him because though the fiery passion with which he once loved me soured he always made an effort to upendo wewe despite your mother.
Very soon I will go mbele and die disgraced, humiliated, but for now I urge wewe to live as I have. When I was just a child in the court of Margaret of Austria, and then in that French court of Marguerite of Navarre, I had a taste of what true living, exciting living, was, and in time I hope that wewe will heed my advice and continue to change this world where I could not.
I have charged my own chaplain Matthew Parker with your spiritual care and he has assured me that he will bring wewe up according to the faith I myself would have chosen for you. This is an age of reform in every way imaginable, and perhaps someday wewe will live in an England where the religious vitabu I read might be celebrated as the paragons of truth that I know them to be. In matters of church wewe may not always be your own leader; your father was ever-generous with me, and I am thankful for it, that he allowed me to preside over his clergy, appoint his men, endorse the English Bible, and even spare heretics who might have suffered deaths zaidi shameful than mine shall certainly be.
Whatever your faith I hope that wewe will sympathize with the persecuted and be a friend to those who onyesha wewe kindness; I fear that, because of who your mother is, there will be few who do. Dawn approaches; I must finish. Sweet girl, I fear that wewe may never be queen; but regardless wewe must be the most learned princess that wewe can. Let your sex not hamper your mind; develop opinions, share opinions. This world is vain, this world is lascivious; upendo God but follow that word of Ecclesiastes and live every siku knowing the inayofuata one might be taken from wewe without preamble.
Lastly I warn you, from a woman condemned to the beautiful woman someday wewe shall be, of the treachery of men. Men will rule you, Elizabeth, and they will lead wewe kwa your desire and kwa their promises; but know that wewe must lead men kwa their passion and with your half-promises. That is the only way. I have no shame in that I was not the icy mother to wewe that a Queen ought to be with her litter. I have loved wewe as your father loves you, but they will never let wewe know that.
— Anne the Quene
From Anne the Quene to Her Grace, Princess Elizabeth Tudor of Wales,
This shall be the last letter I ever write, and I would not see it written to anyone but you, my only daughter. From my window I watch the dusk ebb away, and the sky flare up like a blushing rose; twilight of this new day, my last day, has come.
They will make sure that wewe never know me, my Elizabeth, and if they do me, they will see that wewe know me as the lewd, traitorous whore your father created and destroyed. Still I urge wewe to upendo him because though the fiery passion with which he once loved me soured he always made an effort to upendo wewe despite your mother.
Very soon I will go mbele and die disgraced, humiliated, but for now I urge wewe to live as I have. When I was just a child in the court of Margaret of Austria, and then in that French court of Marguerite of Navarre, I had a taste of what true living, exciting living, was, and in time I hope that wewe will heed my advice and continue to change this world where I could not.
I have charged my own chaplain Matthew Parker with your spiritual care and he has assured me that he will bring wewe up according to the faith I myself would have chosen for you. This is an age of reform in every way imaginable, and perhaps someday wewe will live in an England where the religious vitabu I read might be celebrated as the paragons of truth that I know them to be. In matters of church wewe may not always be your own leader; your father was ever-generous with me, and I am thankful for it, that he allowed me to preside over his clergy, appoint his men, endorse the English Bible, and even spare heretics who might have suffered deaths zaidi shameful than mine shall certainly be.
Whatever your faith I hope that wewe will sympathize with the persecuted and be a friend to those who onyesha wewe kindness; I fear that, because of who your mother is, there will be few who do. Dawn approaches; I must finish. Sweet girl, I fear that wewe may never be queen; but regardless wewe must be the most learned princess that wewe can. Let your sex not hamper your mind; develop opinions, share opinions. This world is vain, this world is lascivious; upendo God but follow that word of Ecclesiastes and live every siku knowing the inayofuata one might be taken from wewe without preamble.
Lastly I warn you, from a woman condemned to the beautiful woman someday wewe shall be, of the treachery of men. Men will rule you, Elizabeth, and they will lead wewe kwa your desire and kwa their promises; but know that wewe must lead men kwa their passion and with your half-promises. That is the only way. I have no shame in that I was not the icy mother to wewe that a Queen ought to be with her litter. I have loved wewe as your father loves you, but they will never let wewe know that.
— Anne the Quene