Many speculate that the highly popular English folk tune “Greensleeves” was composed by Henry VIII of England for Anne Boleyn, his lover and future queen consort. The fact that Anne rejected Henry’s advances is said to be written about in the song, when the writer’s love cast him off “discourteously.” No one knows if the legend is true, but the song is often associated with Boleyn in the public mind. The song likely circulated in manuscript form, as most social music did, long before it was actually printed. A tune by this name was registered at the London Stationer’s Company in 1580 as “A New Northern Dittye of the Lady Green Sleeves.” No copy of that printing is known.
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