Did Henry write Greensleeves for Anne Boleyn?
This is, unfortunately, probably not the case.There has been a legend that Henry wrote Greensleeves since the late 16th century, when Greensleeves appeared in a collection of songs called A Handful of Pleasant Delights, printed in 1584. In this book, Greensleeves is described as “a courtly sonnet to the Lady Greensleeves, to the new tune of Greensleeves”. Shakespeare also mentions Greensleeves. This was many years after Henry’s death, and no previous mention of the tune or poem has been found in earlier works — nor has it been found among Henry’s manuscripts. Also, there are some musical intervals in Greensleeves that were not used in Henry’s time. For these reasons, most historians and musicians feel that Henry did not write the song that we know as Greensleeves.But there are those who do believe that he did, as there has been considerable mention of him having done so in biographies and historical fiction based in the Tudor period. The legend is a strong one, and there is some evide
