#that latimer was one that probably wasn't as familiar with anne's vindictive streak/dark side as it is called... i mean ; sure

[fideidefenswhore]

thoughts on william latimer on a source on anne boleyn?

oooo, thanks <3

i think maria dowling has argued pretty convincingly that to dismiss his work as panegyric is fairly specious?

latimer did, for one, actually know anne pretty well (he was her chaplain), his sources are people that actually knew anne pretty well, too (one of them, mary fitzroy, likely her favorite lady-in-waiting).

now, does this preclude that it's a biased source, that latimer is probably putting the best spin on things his retelling, of course not, but none of the anecdotes he provides have been unequivocally disproved, if that makes sense? and many of them even have corroboration.

an excerpt/example from dowling:

Anne Boleyn's fondness for scripture was paralleled by her interest in scholarship. William Latimer states that she asked the King to excuse the universities from the payments of tenths and subsidies; that she gave substantial sums of money to Oxford and Cambridge for the maitenanceof poor scholars: and that she granted a student named Beckynsall [funds] for a year to study abroad

The first claim is confirmed by a letter of thanks to her from Cambridge university, and the second is supported by William Barker. In the dedication of his Nobility of Women to Elizabeth I in 1559, the latter recalled the Anne had 'employed her bountiful benevolence upon sundry students that were placed at Cambridge, among the which it please Her Highness to appoint me." Further, when Barker was forced to beg for Elizabeth's mercy in 1571 for his involvement in the Ridolfi plot, he again harked back to Anne's generosity, and asked that 'as by Her Majesty's noble mother I first began at Cambridge tasting of her munificence, so by Her Majesty's clemency I may end the rest of my sorrowful days there."