The second volume in the series of "King's Classics" (Alexander
Moring) is Royal Letters, Edited by Robert Steele (2s. 6d. net). The volume contains thirty-two letters written by Henry VII., or addressed to him, or immediately referring to him, and twenty-one written by Henry VIII. The first of Henry VII. is addressed "to his friends in England " ; the second was written after Bosworth Field. As a rule the letters are formal, some of them being legal documents, and hardly in their proper place (as the petition of the widow Amy Thornton to the Lord Chancellor complaining that she had been constrained by force to sign certain documents alienating property). Henry VIII.'s letters are far more interesting. They are arranged in chrono- logical order, and end with a brief epistle to Katharine Parr. The "love letters" to Anne Boleyn come after.
Previous page
