I think I might be Professor Eric Ives’s number one fan as I constantly recommend this book, along with his book on Lady Jane Grey, to Tudor fans. I’m always having emails from people asking for book recommendations, help with their homework, tips for Anne Boleyn projects etc. and this is the book that I always say is a “must-read”. Every Anne Boleyn fan should have it hand-cuffed to their wrist and sleep with it under their pillow, you just can’t live without it!

So, what makes “The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn” such a must-read and must-have? It is the fact that it is a comprehensive, detailed account of Anne Boleyn’s life based on real, solid historical evidence - not conjecture, rumour or myth - and Ives does a fantastic job of citing his sources, so it’s perfect for people like me who are researching Anne’s life and who want to go back to the primary sources, and it’s great for students writing essays or dissertations. Unlike some authors, the notes at the end don’t just say LP (Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII) and leave you to guess which part of which volume, Ives gives you the full reference, e.g. LP vi 700. This brilliant referencing, combined with Ives’s readable style, wealth of knowledge and balanced views, make this the number one Anne Boleyn book in my view and nothing comes close to it.

“The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn” - Contents

In the preface of “The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn”, Eric Ives says:-

“This book is structured in four parts. “Background and Beginnings” deals with Anne’s origins, her education, her launch into English court life and the reasons for the impact she made. That leads on to a discussion of the romantic relationships which she had or is supposed to have had, and hence to her agreement to marry the king. “A Difficult Engagement” looks at the oft-told history of Henry VIII’s attempt to free himself to marry, but with a focus on Anne which undermines male-dominated interpretations of tradition. Part III, “Anne the Queen”, examines Anne’s marriage and consequent lifestyle, offering a picture of what it meant to be the consort of an English king at a magnification well in excess of what is possible for almost all her predecessors. Illustrating this is is a nearly complete display of such visual evidence as has survived, which, in turn, supports detailed discussions of Anne’s portraiture, of her role as an artistic patron, of the day-to-day context of royal living and of her mind and beliefs. The final section, “A Marriage Destroyed”, concentrates on the closing months of the queen’s life, demonstrating the sudden and unexpected nature of her fall, the coup which precipitated it, the dishonesty of the case against her and the tensions of her last days.”

That is a pretty good precis of the contents of this 400+ page book (2004 revised version), but I know that some of you appreciate more detail, so here is a rundown - I’ve just listed what each chapter covers:-

Beginning

• List of Illustrations - Details of all 64 portraits, sketches and photos.
• Preface - Here, Ives explains exactly why he is writing a book on Anne Boleyn when there is so much already out there and every Anne fan will understand his comment “it is true that once she [Anne] interests you, fascination grows, as it did for men at the time, and finally for Henry himself”! He also argues Anne’s worth, why she matters and why she is an icon. This preface is spine-chillingly good and sets the scene for the whole book.
• Titles and Offices - A “who’s who” of the characters mentioned in the book - very handy!
• Family Trees - The Royal Houses of Europe, the Nobility of Henry VIII’s Court and the Boleyn and Howard Families.

Part I Backgrounds and Beginnings

• A Courtier’s Daughter - Anne’s family background, who the Boleyns were, the Tudor Court, Thomas Boleyn and his role at court, and the Boleyn family.
• A European Education - Anne’s education at the Habsburg Court under the care of Margaret of Austria, the skills Anne would have learned, life at the Habsburg Court, her time in France in the household of Queen Claude and the recalling of Anne to England to marry James Butler.
• Debut at the English Court - The Shrove Tuesday pageant “The Chateau Vert” and Anne’s debut as Perseverance, Anne’s appearance and the myths surrounding her, and Anne’s style.
• Sources - A look at the controversies over Anne and how historians and sources disagree over her. Was she “the cause of all evil”? Was she like Salome in wanting Fisher and More dead? Was she a Protestant martyr? Ives looks at the different sources that biographers can draw on to build up a picture of who Anne was.
• Passion and Courtly Love - Between 1522 and 1527, Anne was linked to Henry Percy, Thomas Wyatt the elder and Henry VIII, and Ives looks at what sources say about these 5 years.
• A Royal Suitor - How Henry turned his attentions from Anne’s sister to Anne herself, how Anne responded, what Henry offered Anne, Henry’s letters to her and how the relationship developed.

Part II A Difficult Engagement

• A Marriage Arranged - The divorce, Anne’s role in the divorce, Tudor factions in regards to Anne, Catherine and Henry’s divorce plans , and Wolsey’s role.
• Anne Boleyn and the Fall of Wolsey - Ives starts this chapter by saying that “it is tempting to draw a straight line - and a short one - from the events of July-September 1527 to Wolsey’s fall in 1529. The battle had been arrayed: Wolsey against Anne and her allies…” but what exactly was Anne’s role in Wolsey’s fall, what happened and why?
• Stalemate, 1529 - 1532 - The struggle between Henry VIII and the Pope, Anne’s sharing of “The Obedience of the Christian Man” and Simon Fish’s work with Henry, the role of Thomas Cranmer, the “Collectanea” and how Henry came to believe that he was “an emperor answerable only to God”, the “Pardon of the Clergy”, factions and who supported Anne and the King.
• The Turning Point, 1532 - 1533 - The misery of Christmas 1531, Thomas Cromwell’s arrival, the change in Anne and Henry’s relationship as marriage was contemplated, Anne being given the title of Marquis of Pembroke, hr visit to France with Henry and the consummation of their relationship.
• Wedding Nerves - Anne and Henry co-habiting, a secret wedding, Anne’s pregnancy, Cranmer’s success at ruling in Henry’s favour, the demotion of Katherine of Aragon to Dowager Princess of Wales and Anne becomes known as Queen, and the different thoughts regarding Henry and Anne’s secret marriage and when it actually happened.
• A Coronation and a Christening - Preparations for the Whitsun Coronation of Queen Anne, the coronation itself and the birth of Princess Elizabeth.

Part III Anne the Queen

• A Royal Marriage - The controversy regarding Henry’s sexual problems, Anne’s first miscarriage, a discussion of the opinions on when a rift in the royal marriage began, Henry’s affairs, what Anne and Henry’s relationship was like, Anne and Mary, and the problems Anne faced.
• Influence, Power and Wealth - Anne’s position as Queen Consort, Anne as patron, Anne and Cromwell, Anne’s influence and Anne’s finances.
• Image - Anne’s love of finery, Anne’s coronation and the analogies between Anne, St Anne and the Virgin Mary, Anne’s white falcon heraldry, and how Elizabeth I drew on her mother’s use of iconography and symbolism.
• Art and Taste - How Anne had learned from Margaret of Austria and Queen Claude that “magnificence was a regal virtue”, Anne’s ownership of gold and silver plate, Anne’s patronage of Holbein, Holbein’s “The Ambassadors” and its link with Anne, Anne’s Book of Hours and her interest in art and fine objects.
• Life at Court - Henry’s building projects and Anne’s involvement, Anne’s new suite at Hampton Court, Anne’s taste in furnishings and clothes, her domestic life and Anne’s interest in music.
• The Advent of Reform - Ives says “Anne Boleyn was not a catalyst in the English Reformation; she was a key element in the equation” and here he discusses Anne’s influence in the Church, her religious patronage, the Boleyns’ links with reformers abroad, what reform meant to Anne, and her link with French reform.
• Personal Religion - Anne wrote “le temps viendra”, “the time will come”, in her Book of Hours so what did this mean for her personally? How did Anne become interested in French reform? What was her personal faith? Also, Anne’s involvement in poor relief and her patronage of education.

Part IV A Marriage Destroyed

• The Rival, 1535 - 1536 - When did the rift in the royal marriage happen and when did Jane Seymour come into it? Katherine of Aragon’s death, Henry VIII’s jousting accident, Anne’s miscarriage  and the deformed foetus story, the stories regarding Anne, Henry and Jane Seymour, and Henry’s new love interest.
• The Response, January - April 1536 - Jane Seymour and her backers versus Anne Boleyn and supporters, Anne’s quarrel with Cromwell and its cause, how Anne became a threat to Cromwell, and Cromwell’s decision to remove Anne.
• The Coup, April - May 1536 - How Cromwell’s decision turned to action, the sequence of events leading up to Anne’s downfall, Smeaton’s confession and the evidence gathered, the stories and rumours, who provided the Crown with evidence, and Norris and Anne.
• Judgement - The trial of Norris, Smeaton, Brereton and Weston, details on the jury, the pleas of the men and their conviction. This chapter also covers Anne’s trial, her behaviour, her conviction, George’s trial and the executions of the five men, it then goes on to examine the Crown’s case against Anne and the men, looking at the dates of the offences on the indictments and how the majority could be disproved, and the annulment of Anne and Henry’s marriage.
• Finale - Anne’s execution, her appearance, her behaviour, her speech, the moment of execution, her burial and the consequences of her death.

Epilogue

In this final part of the book, Ives writes of Anne’s legacy, Elizabeth I, and concludes by saying:-

“In 1558, however, the miracle happened. On Monday, 28 November, to the cheers of the the London crowd and the roar of the Tower artillery, Elizabeth came through the gates to take possession of the fortress as queen. The bastardized daughter of the disgraced Anne Boleyn, with her father’s complexion but her mother’s face, splendidly dressed in purple velvet: Elizabeth, by the grace of God, queen of England, France and Ireland, defender of the faith. Is it fanciful to feel that after twenty years, the mother in the nearby grave in the chapel of St Peter was at last vindicated?”

No, Professor Ives, it is not fanciful, and I like to think of Anne smiling down from Heaven at that point. She had the last laugh don’t you think? It was her daughter who became one of England’s greatest monarchs and not the son that Henry so desperately wanted.

Final Thoughts

What else can I say about this book? Only that if you have only got enough money for one Anne Boleyn book then this is the book to buy. I also use the books by Alison Weir, Retha Warnicke, Elizabeth Norton, Josephine Wilkinson and the many six wives books that are out there, and they all have their good points and their own unique perspectives, but this book is the one that I use every single day and the one that I trust when I really need to know something.

It is a book that recognises Anne’s importance as Queen, her impact on England and her legacy, and it is also a book that gives you an inkling of what the real Anne was like, it will satisfy you.

“The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn” by Eric Ives is available from Amazon UK or Amazon.com, or your favourite book store.

You would be mistaken if you thought that this was a children’s book, although the title and cover may make you think so, because it is a serious, but highly readable, history book which sets out to sift through the mystique of royalty and separate fact from fiction, truth from myth, and history from legend. It does a wonderful job.

The book is divided into nine sections which each have questions within them, along with very detailed answers which draw on historical evidence. Here are the nine sections with some examples of the questions explored in them:-

• Royal Conundrums - Includes “How fat was Henry VIII?”, “Did King Canute harness the waves?”, “Why did Charles II hide in an oak tree?”, “What was the real relationship between Queen Victoria and her Highland servant John Brown?” and “Was Elizabeth I a Virgin Queen?”.
• Pretenders and Usurpers - Includes “Was Empress Matilda an early promoter of women’s rights?”, “Was Lady Jane Grey a rightful queen or a child victim?”, “Who was England’s lost queen?” and “Which rival queen disturbed Elizabeth I’s peace of mind?”

• Royal Marriages and Romances - Includes “Which king expressed his love in stone monuments?”, “Why did Henry VIII marry six times?”, “Was George III a bigamist?”, “Were Queen Victoria and Prince Albert the perfect couple of her diaries?” and “Did British monarchs use contraceptives?”
• Murders, Plots and Assassinations - Includes “Could Richard III be innocent of the death of the Princes in the Tower?”, “What made Queen Mary I “Bloody”?”, “How many plots were there to kill Elizabeth I?”, “Which monarchs were deemed “bumped off” by their doctors?” and “Was Amy Robsart, Lady Dudley, murdered by a queen’s command?”
• Farms and Fads, Values and Vinegar Bibles - Includes “Why was George III called Farmer George?”, “Who rank as the most superstitious monarchs?”, “Why does Queen Elizabeth II have corgis?” and “Which monarch had the most hobbies?”
• Courtiers, Crowns and Coronations - Includes “Did King John lose the Crown Jewels?”, “Which kings pawned their crowns?”, “Who stole the Crown Jewels?”, “Who was the first woman to have a coronation” and “When were jesters and dwarves made courtiers?”
• Quaint and Quirky - Includes “Who was the last British king to lead his troops into battle?”, “Which king invented the handkerchief?”, “Which queen pretended to be invisible?”, “Was King Richard III really a hunchbacked monster?”, “Which monarchs had nicknames or were immortalised in nursery rhymes?” and “Which king joined a sex club?”
• Palaces, Castles and Love Nests - Includes “Which monarch built a love nest for his mistress?”, “Which royal built the most bizarre residence?”, “How many prisons held Mary, Queen of Scots?” and “Which railway station can be dubbed the most royal?”
• Rumour and Scandal - Includes “Which monarch topped the list for siring royal bastards?”, “Which British monarchs were put in prison or appeared in court?”, “Was there a case of incest in the royal family?”, “Which reigning English, Scottish and British monarchs were rumoured to be homosexual?” and “Did the House of Windsor leave their royal Russian cousins to be murdered?”

It is fascinating stuff and I particularly enjoyed the sections related to Tudor history and the question “Which monarch topped the list for siring royal bastards?” - Henry I had 25, Charles II had 16 and William IV had 10! Wow, they were busy kings!

There is something to interest everyone in this book and you’ll find that you just can’t help reading bits out to your nearest and dearest and stunning them with your history knowledge!

But not only does it provide answers to all of these very interesting questions, Lamont-Brown also uses real historical evidence to back up the answers and provides handy charts and lists giving dates and sequences of events etc. There is also a comprehensive bibliography. So, a fun book but also a great history resource and I have found myself dipping into it regularly when researching Elizabeth I and Henry VIII.

So, would I recommend it? You bet! It’s interesting, readable and rather addictive, just don’t blame me if your family flush it down the toilet when they get fed up of you reading bits out!

Availability

“How Fat Was Henry VIII?” is published by the History Press and is available from both Amazon UK and Amazon.com, as well as from your favourite book store.

UK Version

With it being the anniversary of Lady Jane Grey’s execution tomorrow I thought it was fitting for me to publish my review of Eric Ives’s biography “Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Mystery”.

If you keep up with my posts on The Anne Boleyn Files, you will know that I am Professor Ives’s number one fan as I am always recommending his biography of Anne Boleyn, “The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn”, and I am just as pleased with this biography. Why do I like Eric Ives’s work so much?:-

• Ives is fair and balanced
• His research is meticulous
• He bases his views, theories and opinions on historical sources
• He cites his sources - and accurately too! No just saying LP, he tells you which part of which volume.
• Although his books are history text books they are wonderfully readable
• He looks at every part of his subject’s life and also the context, the times they lived in
• He sifts through myths, legends, chronicles and sources to get to the truth

Those are just a few of the reasons why I love his work and I cannot recommend his biographies enough.

What’s the Mystery

So, “what’s the mystery?”, you may ask, “why the strange title”. Well, although we know that Lady Jane Grey, or Jane Dudley, was monarch of England for a short time, what do we really know about her? Not a lot. We can’t even get her nickname right, she ruled for thirteen days, yet we insist on calling her “The Nine Days Queen”!

In his biography, Eric Ives attempts to solve the mystery surrounding Lady Jane Grey, to introduce us to the real Jane and to answer the following questions:-

• What did Lady Jane Grey look like?
• When was she born?
• What were her family like?
• Was Frances Brandon really a tyrant?
• Was Lady Jane Grey manipulated by those around her?
• Was she forced into marriage?
• Did she want the crown or was she forced into being Queen?
• Was she a Protestant martyr? A Victorian heroine? An innocent? A scapegoat?
• Just how intelligent was she?
• Why did Edward VI choose her as his heir?
• Why did Mary I finally execute her?

The Book

“Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Mystery” is divided into the following sections:-

Beginning

• List of Illustrations
• List of Figures
• Preface
• Titles and Office - A very useful section on principal characters and the dates they were given titles and offices
• Figures - These include The Tudor Family in June 1536, The Succession According to Henry VIII’s Will, Edward VI’s “deuise” (Devise) version one, version two and Edward VI’s “declaracion” of 21st June 1553.
• Map - A map of the movement of forces in July 1553
• Prologue

Part I - The Scene

This first part of the book does a fantastic job at setting the scene and context of Jane’s short reign and why she is such a mystery.

• The Year of Three Sovereigns - How the year of 1553 came to have three different Tudor monarchs: Edward VI, Queen Jane and Mary I.
• In Search of Jane Grey - Here Ives talks about the difficulty of researching Jane as “A Tudor teenager who died at the age of sixteen is very unlikely to have left much trace on the historical record, and still less if female.” Ives looks at historical evidence regarding her appearance, the portraits and likenesses that exist, and whether they are in fact Jane, and the authenticity of letters said to be written by Jane.
• Jane Grey in Context - “The 1553 succession crisis in England was the talk of Europe, but in all the contemporary comment, the person who receives least attention is Jane Grey herself” - Eric Ives asks why this is, what Jane’s political importance was and why foreign ambassadors did not report the full story.

Part II - The Protagonists

I love the way that Eric Ives takes each of the main characters of 1553 and explains who they were, what drove them and what role they had to play.

• Jane Grey: A Damnable Inheritance - Here, Ives looks at Jane’s background and is of the opinion that “Parentage too cursed Jane Grey, and she was another innocent.” Ives explains Jane’s inheritance, her background and how she came to be named by Edward VI as his heir. He talks of Jane being ” a puppet ready to hand” and I felt that this was a very different view of Jane than Leanda de Lisle’s view of her in “The Sisters Who Would Be Queen”. He also looks at Frances Grey’s reputation as “ambitious” and “cunning and predatory” and how Jane’s father was drawn into politics.
• Jane Grey: Jane the Person - In this chapter Ives examines Jane’s role in the plans of Thomas Seymour and why she became his ward, Seymour’s arrest and the implications for Jane’s family, Jane’s education and intelligence, and her attitudes to life.
• Jane Grey: Family Priorities - Here Ives looks at how the Grey family were affected by the country’s political problems and unrest, Jane’s experience at court, Jane’s father inheriting the title of Duke of Suffolk and the knock-on effect for the family, the private side of Henry Grey, and Jane as a scholar.
• Jane Grey: A Godly Upbringing - Ives looks at the England in which Jane was brought up and the religious turmoil which Henry VIII’s break with Rome had caused, the influence of Katherine Parr on Jane and how Jane would have come into contact with religious reformers like Miles Coverdale, her father’s humanist and reformist connections, and the influence of people like Martin Bucer on Jane.
• Mary Tudor: Father and Daughter - The contrast between Mary and Jane and their religious beliefs, Mary’s appearance and character, Mary’s childhood and background, and the devastating effect of her father’s actions - his break with Rome, his rejection of her mother, making Mary illegitimate and forcing her to betray her beliefs.
• Mary Tudor: Sister and Brother - Mary’s struggles when her protestant brother became King, the confrontations between Mary and Edward’s council and Edward’s final toleration of Mary and her religious convictions.
• John Dudley: The Career - Who was John Dudley? What was he like? What did he do and why? This chapter looks at Dudley’s background, his military career and how he came to be a powerful man.
• John Dudley: The Black Legend - The myths that surround Dudley (the poison story), “the black tale of Dudley’s ambition”, why he became “a popular hate figure” and what his agenda was.
• John Dudley: Motives - If he wasn’t the man of black legend, who was Dudley and what were his motives? Religion? An inferiority complex?
• Edward: The Young King - Here Ives looks at Edward’s life, the myth that he was a passive victim who was manipulated, Edward’s character and his growing independence, his involvement in policy and how he did in fact have a mind of his own.
• Edward: “My Deuise for the Succession” - How this single political paper became central to the crisis of 1553, the different versions of the “deuise” and the thoughts behind them, Edward’s “deuise” compared to his father’s will, Edward’s deteriorating health and the strong legal support that Edward had for excluding Mary - “Right was on the side of Jane Grey. Mary Tudor was the rebel.”
• Edward: King and Minister - Edward’s “deuise” and his minister, Dudley. What was Dudley’s role in the “deuise”? Did he manipulate Edward at all? Did the Dudley-Grey marriage have anything to do with Edward’s plan? Did “a Machiavellian duke…engineer the match as step one in a plan to get control of the English throne” or did he just take advantage of the “deuise”? What was the purpose of the 1553 Whitsun Weddings? Was making Jane Grey heir something that had been planned over a long time or was it a snap decision? The chapter ends with a useful sequence of events from Edward’s initial illness in January 1553 through the various version of the “deuise” to the final version four in June.
• Edward: The Will of a King - Where did Edward’s other privy councillors fit into things? How did others view the “deuise”? Eric Ives looks at various councillors, including William Cecil, and asks why they would commit to rejecting Mary’s right to succeed.

Part III - Thirteen Days

An examination of the thirteen days which made up Queen Jane’s reign.

• Preparations - What preparations were made for Jane becoming queen and why they did not take the obvious step of getting hold of Mary to neutralise her challenge.
• Jane the Queen - Jane’s ignorance at “the impending crisis”, her marriage to Guildford Dudley, her reaction to learning that she was Queen, her entrance into the Tower and how “the crown was a burden laid on her by God and one she would lay down with relief.”
• The Council in London - The events that the privy council had to deal with, the appeal to the English gentry to prepare for rebellion, the country’s reaction to Jane becoming Queen, Europe’s reaction and the recruitment of forces to deal with any rebellion.
• The March on Framlingham - The attempt to secure Mary, what happened, whether there were desertions, why Northumberland chose to retreat and why Jane’s forces could not be successful against Mary.
• A Second Front - The events of the collapse of Jane’s reign - the decision by councillors to abandon Jane and proclaim Mary as Queen, the desertion of Jane and why council switched so quickly from one queen to the other. Ives concludes that “the most convincing explanation of the dramatic collapse of Jane’s privy council is that two key earls drew back from committing themselves to military action. Called on to up their stake in Queen Jane, Arundel and Pembroke chose to fold.”
• The Rebellion of Mary Tudor - How Mary’s victory has, with hindsight, been called inevitable but was it? Ives examines Mary’s movements from the death of Edward to her proclamation as Queen and sifts through the myths. He looks at what inspired her rebellion, how she was supported and how she won.

Part IV - Consequences

We all know how the story ends but Ives gives all of the details and separates fact from fiction.

• Every Man for Himself - How Jane was left to fend for herself as the council sought to protect themselves and the fate of Jane’s supporters.
• The Tower - Jane’s imprisonment, Mary’s belief in Jane’s innocence, Jane’s trial, the death sentence, how Jane spent her time in the Tower and her faith.
• Nemesis - Mary’s plans to marry Philip of Spain, Wyatt’s Rebellion and the involvement of Henry Grey, Jane’s father, and why Mary had to finally take action against Jane.
• The River of Jordan - How Jane spent the last hours of her life and the letters she wrote, Guildford Dudley’s execution and Lady Jane Grey’s shocking execution. A brilliant chapter giving transcripts of letters and speeches, and details of the executions.
• Afterlife - How Lady Jane Grey lives on: how Paul Delaroche’s famous and poignant depiction of Jane in his painting, “The Execution of Lady Jane Grey”,  has affected how people think of her, how other artists and writers have depicted her, the Victorian idea of Jane as vulnerable and innocent and a model for Victorian women, the “romantic” story of Jane, Jane as the martyr and Jane as the heroine.
• Envoi - An excellent conclusion about how Jane’s story lives on even though “she counted for little”. Ives concludes his biography by saying that “the fundamental justification for remembering Jane is the justification for remembering Anne Frank centuries later. They speak for the multitude of brutality’s victims who have no voice.”

Notes

This is what I love about Eric Ives - his notes are fantastic! For example, one ciation reads “Cal. S. P. Spanish, xi.73: 7 Jul. 1553,  Ambassadors to Charles V” which means that if you want to check this source you know exactly where in the Calendar of State Papers (Spanish) to find the reference. Ives’s notes run from page 294-342 so they are very detailed and incredibly useful.

Ives’s book concludes with a section of biographical abbreviations and a detailed index.

Concluding Thoughts

A wonderful biography which I really did feel solved the mystery of Lady Jane Grey. I loved the way that Ives took each of the main characters in turn, looking at their motivations and their involvement, and how he challenges the myths surrounding Jane. You are, however, left with the feeling that Ives does see Jane as the scapegoat, an innocent victim of those around her, whereas Leanda de Lisle, in “The Sisters Who Would Be Queen”, paints a very different picture of Jane, saying:-

“The Victorians produced innumerable prints depicting Jane modestly shrinking from the crown as he [Winchester] offers it to her. But as Jane was signing herself “Jane the Quene” on a daily basis, she wasn’t shrinking from the crown in any meaningful sense”.

Leanda de Lisle writes that as ships were mutinying, Jane was demanding support and allegiance from her sheriffs and Justices of the Peace. She was no shrinking violet, she was a Queen in every sense of the word.

It is interesting that two historians, who have both studied the same sources and who have both meticulously researched Jane’s life, can have such different pictures of her. Perhaps we still haven’t got to the bottom of who Lady Jane Grey really was!

Availability

“Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Mystery” by Eric Ives is published by Wiley-Blackwell and is available at Amazon US - click here, Amazon UK - click here or from your favourite book shop or library.

I can’t wait to read “Henry VIII” by Eric Ives - it’s due out in October 2010!

William Shakespeare, “The Bard”, is a tough act to follow, so I must admit to being rather apprehensive and cynical when I heard that Robin Maxwell was going to be retelling his famous story of Romeo and Juliet, the “star-crossed lovers”, after all, who could compete with Shakespeare?! Also, I am a die-hard Shakespeare fan, the man can do no wrong in my eyes!  But, I had to eat my words, and my hat, when I read Robin Maxwell’s novel. It was a beautiful retelling of this story of eternal love and love against all odds, and was incredibly magical. I got hooked straight away and it is one of those novels, like Maxwell’s previous novels, where you just can’t put it down.

As the book blurb says “Their love was the stuff of legend. But the legend is only half the story.” and Maxwell’s book does a great job of turning a play, which many people are not able to see performed, or who would not always enjoy and understand the Shakespearean language, into a story and legend that is accessible to all, and giving depth to the storyline and characters. The reader is told the story through the eyes of both Romeo and Juliet and it becomes more than a tragic love story about the failure of the postal system, as my husband describes it (heathen!), it becomes a vibrant and passionate love story between two people you can relate to and who you can’t help but love. It has all the ingredients of the original - love, passion, revenge, tragedy and loss - but I love the way that Maxwell handles the ending, an ending which could be so tragic and flat, and which could leave you seriously depressed. Shakespeare ends with the words:-

“A glooming peace this morning with it brings;
The sun for sorrow will not show his head.
Go hence to have more talk of these sad things;
Some shall be pardon’d and some punished;
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”

whereas Maxwell’s last scene is an uplifting one and one that leaves you satisfied and feeling warm inside. I won’t spoil the ending by telling you whether or not Maxwell deviates from Shakespeare’s, but I closed the book feeling happy with what she had done.

If you are a fan of Shakespeare’s play, you will notice many differences in Maxwell’s account of Romeo and Juliet. For example, the names have been changed from Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet to Romeo Monticecco and Juliet Capelletti, which are far more Italian. Also, the setting has been changed from “fair Verona” to Florence at the time of the Medici, the Renaissance era which Maxwell enjoyed using in her novel “Signora da Vinci”. Using Renaissance Florence allowed Maxwell to reuse a character from her former novel, that of Lucrezia Tornabuoni, as Juliet’s best friend and confidante, and the Medici and Strozzi families of power and influence. Did I mind this change of era and setting? Not at all. Florence is one of my favourite cities in the world and I thought that this beautiful Renaissance city, with its link to the Arts, made the perfect backdrop for the world’s most famous love story.

As well as the ending, the backdrop and use of new characters, I loved the way that Maxwell gave Romeo and Juliet a shared passion, something which linked their hearts, souls and minds, and this passion is the poet Dante. Dante Alighieri is the man known as the “Father of the Italian Language” and “The Supreme Poet” and is famous for his work “The Divine Comedy. As Maxwell explains in her “Readers Guide” at the end, Dante was a bit of a “Renaissance Rock Star”, a man who was a bit of a radical and who was banished from the city of his birth, but one who had a major influence on the time. Romeo and Juliet’s shared love of his poetry ties them together from the start. Maxwell explains it well when she says:-

“For Romeo - himself an amateur poet - to find a woman who was his creative and intellectual equal, if not his better, would have shaken his world. And for Juliet to discover a soulful, wild-hearted and secretly subversive young poet determined - as few others were in those days - to be a peace-maker would have been enough to spur her on to great heights of rebellion against a killingly repressive society, even if escape from it meant her death.”

In finding each other, both Romeo and Juliet had each found their soulmate, someone who shares their dreams, and to see their love and passion flourish in this book is a real joy.

What Others are Saying about “O, Juliet”

“A reigning queen of historical fiction takes on the treasured tale of Romeo and Juliet in a tribute that would make Shakespeare stand up and cheer!” Michelle Moran, bestselling author of “Cleopatra’s Daughter”.

“Maxwell conjures up an intimate historical retelling of the timeless classic, evoking the world’s most famous lovers with breathtaking passion and literary elegance.” C W Gortner, author of “The Last Queen”.

“A page turner that will leave you breathless.” Lalita Tademy, “New York Times” bestselling author of “Cane River and Red River.”

What Do I Say?

If you want a book to get lost in, to feed your soul and to give you a warm, fuzzy feeling on these rather cold winter’s nights, then read “O, Juliet” and get transported to Renaissance Florence. It is a romance in the true sense of the word - not a trashy romance but a story of two dreamers finding their soulmate and battling against the world. Isn’t that what love is really about? Beautiful!

Sneak Peek

You can read a sneak peek of “O, Juliet” at Robin Maxwell’s website - click here to read part of Chapter 6 now.

Availability

You can pre-order “O, Juliet” by Robin Maxwell at Amazon US - click here - or at your usual bookshop. I’m sure you’ll love it. Do let me know your thoughts after you’ve read it.

Don’t forget to take part in Robin Maxwell’s special Love Games to celebrate the launch of her new book, see my post on The Elizabeth Files - http://www.elizabethfiles.com/love-quotes-competition/3473/.

I have chosen “The Queen’s Governess” as The Anne Boleyn Files Book of the Month January 2010, which you may think is a bit odd when the book focuses on Kat Ashley, Elizabeth I’s governess, but there is a good reason, I promise!

The Ring

We all know about the famous locket ring which Elizabeth wore on her finger until it was taken off her hand at her death. When it was taken from her dead body, it was found that it wasn’t just a jewelled ring but that it had a locket clasp which opened to reveal two miniature portraits - one of Elizabeth I and the other of her mother, Anne Boleyn, who had been executed as an adulteress and traitor. What we don’t know is the story behind this ring. It is thought that Elizabeth commissioned the ring to be made in 1575, but what if this was just a repair or a change of portrait? What if there is an even more interesting story behind the locket ring?

The opening scene of “The Queen’s Governess” is the Tower of London on the 19th of May 1536. The central character, Kat Champernowne (later Ashley), is there to watch the execution of Anne Boleyn. It is a moving scene and is wonderful for any Anne Boleyn fan but it is made more perfect because of the interaction between Anne and Kat. Karen Harper writes:-

“I [Kat] dared to lift my hand to hold up the tiny treasure she had entrusted to me. Perhaps she could not see it; perhaps she would think I was waving farewell to her, but I did it anyway, then pulled my hand back down.”

In response, Anne nods to Kat. She knows that Kat has the treasure and will fulfill the promise she made to Anne when she visited her in the Tower, the promise to stay close to Elizabeth and to give her a very special ring.

Obviously Karen Harper has used artistic licence here as there is no evidence that the ring was commissioned by Anne Boleyn, but it’s a wonderful “what if”!

Kat Champernowne Ashley

After the opening scene in 1536, we travel back in time to 1516 to Kat Champernowne Ashley’s childhood in rural Devon. We then follow Kat’s journey from this poor and rural background to the court of King Henry VIII during the time of Anne Boleyn’s rise.

Just how did a girl from a poor family in Devon get to be a lady at court in London, not to mention being the governess of the future Queen of England? Well, as Karen Harper points out in her notes at the end (and in her article at The Elizabeth Files), Kat’s background is quite a mystery, so Harper explains it by having Thomas Cromwell meet Kat in Devon and act as a kind of sponsor for the girl. An interesting theory and it works well for the book.

The book travels from 1516 right up to 1560, seeing the reigns of Henry VIII (and the lives of his six wives and daughters), Edward VI, Lady Jane Grey and Mary I through Kat’s eyes, with a special focus on her relationship with Elizabeth and how Elizabeth handles everything that life flings at her, including being interrogated as a suspected traitor. Eventually, Elizabeth is crowned Queen of England, but Kat’s role does not get any easier as she tries to make Elizabeth see the damage that her love for Robert Dudley is having to her reputation

The reader can’t help but like Kat. She, like Elizabeth, has lost her mother, and in suspicious circumstances, and she is an innocent who has to learn quickly to cope with the intrigue at court. When she meets the charismatic but dangerous Thomas Seymour she learns just how dangerous life at court can be and when her friend and mistress Anne Boleyn falls from favour and is executed, Kat realises just how perilous a woman’s position is. She is haunted in her dreams by Anne Boleyn and she steadfastly keeps her promise to the dead queen, protecting Elizabeth the best way that she can and even coping with imprisonment in the Tower to protect her charge. As Kat says in the book: “Any woman, but especially a woman alone, was vulnerable in this world, and, God help me, I still wanted not only to survive but thrive.”

Believability

What makes the book so alive and so believable is that Harper draws on real evidence. Poems and letters in the book are all primary sources, words that these historical characters really did write. The book is vivid, believable and the characters are so alive. I can even forgive Harper giving Anne Boleyn six fingers because her book is so wonderful.

I won’t go on anymore because I don’t want to spoil your enjoyment of the book. Obviously we all know the key events of the period but what is enjoyable is when you see them through the eyes of a character who was present and get her take on things.

The Test

So, does this book pass my historical fiction test? Of course it does!

1. Is it “unputdownable”? - Yes. You’ll read it cover to cover in a weekend and then order more Karen Harper books!

2. Does it make you want to research the characters more? - Yes. Kat Ashley has always been an interesting character to me, even before I realised that her background was such a mystery. The notes at the end, where Harper asks “Who was Kat Champernowne Ashley?” and explains the three theories regarding her background, are extremely interesting and I will definitely be looking into Kat.

3. Is it believable? - Yes. As I have already said, the characters of the book really come alive and I love the relationships and interactions, the intrigue and the tragedy that Kat sees. As Harper’s publisher says: “Kat is also an eye-witness and victim to the fate of the women in this historical era”.

Harper’s publisher describes “The Queen’s Governess” as being “filled with power struggles, intrigue, murder, betrayal, lust, loyalty and love - all the ingredients for a thrilling mystery and a superb historical novel” and that is 100% true. Sound like your kind of book?

Availability

“The Queen’s Governess” by Karen Harper is released in the USA on the 21st January 2010 in hardback. Click here to pre-order or buy it now. Do remember that Amazon US ship worldwide.

You can browse through Karen Harper’s other books, including “The Last Boleyn” and “The Queen Elizabeth I Mystery Series” in our special Elizabeth Files Amazon US Store or Elizabeth Files Amazon UK Store - see the fiction section.

I have always been interested in the whole Elizabeth/Thomas Seymour “affair” as I have never really understood it. We know from historical sources that Thomas Seymour, who was married to Elizabeth’s step-mother the Queen Dowager Catherine Parr, would enter the teenage Elizabeth’s bed chamber and get into bed with her. It is said that he would tickle her and stroke her and that once he entered dressed in just his nightshirt. If that wasn’t enough, Catherine Parr joined him on occasions and even restrained Elizabeth while Seymour slashed Elizabeth’s gown into pieces with a dagger. Completely inappropriate behaviour and very difficult to understand, particularly when Seymour was already married to a rich woman. What on earth was he up to?

That’s why I love Robin Maxwell’s novel. Robin reveals Thomas Seymour as a sociopath, a man who would stop at nothing to get power and riches, a man without conscience, morals or perhaps even a soul. It is chilling the way that he charms the women who surround him: Kat Ashley, Catherine Parr, Lady Jane Grey and even Elizabeth. Elizabeth just can’t help being attracted to this man even though she knows she oughtn’t to be, after all, he is her beloved step-mother’s husband. I know that Robin’s novel is fiction and we will never know who the real Thomas Seymour was, but this novel explains how and why he got away with doing what he did to Catherine and Elizabeth. Who knows whether Robin is correct but her Thomas Seymour and her take on events is rational and believable.

In the “Author’s Note” at the end, Robin makes the following point:-

“Even among the texts that view the Seymour affair as significant enough for a detailed account, there are next to none that go beyond the facts and provide an analysis of the individuals and relationships involved in the most fascinating psychosexual interplay…Thomas Seymour ranks as the number-one bad boy of Tudor history. A textbook-perfect sociopathic/charismatic personality, he ran roughshod over the Renaissance landscape, severely altering every life he touched.”

I agree, complete bad boy but even the reader falls under his spell!

The most chilling part of the novel for me was the scene at Catherine Parr’s deathbed. I don’t want to spoil it but it gave me goosebumps!

The Test

So, does this novel pass my all important historical fiction test:-

1. Is it “unputdownable”? - Yes. I used every excuse under the sun to hide away and read this book. It’s one of those books that you can get read in a day or a couple of days and then wonder why you have sore red eyes!

2. Does it make you want to research the characters more? - Yes. I’ve already put a lot of research into both Elizabeth I and Thomas Seymour, but this book makes you want to find out the truth about Seymour and his motives, although this might be as easy as finding the Holy Grail.

3. Is it believable? - Yes. Of course it IS fiction but Robin has obviously researched the period meticulously and just told the story in her own way, filling what she calls the “glaring omissions” in the historical sources between Henry VIII’s death in 1547 and Thomas Seymour’s execution in 1549 and making sense of the many inconsistencies.

If you want a book to cuddle up with this winter and you like romance, intrigue and history, then get “Virgin” and don’t forget the other books in the trilogy: “The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn” and “The Queen’s Bastard”.
Click on the first cover image to purchase “Virgin” at Amazon.com and the second cover image to buy from Amazon.co.uk.

UK Cover - Click to buy from Amazon UK

Anne Boleyn Files and Elizabeth Files visitor Kelly Gartland was kind enough to write this review after she had “The Lady Elizabeth” for Christmas. I haven’t read it yet but it’s on my list. If you have read it then please feel free to leave your comments below, I’d love to know what you think.

“The Lady Elizabeth” by Alison Weir, a Review by Kelly Gartland

If you’re like me and you have studied the reign of Elizabeth I many times in school, have seen countless dramas and movies of her 45 years as Queen, but feel her horrendous and eventful childhood has somewhat been neglected; then this novel is a perfect starting point in discovering the child that would grow up to be remembered as England’s greatest monarch.

The novel starts with the fateful day Elizabeth discovered the tragic death of her mother, Anne Boleyn, and ends on the day she discovers, arguably, an equally life-changing revelation; after having her title of princess stripped away, enduring the loss of countless stepmothers and surviving several plots and rebellions formed in her name, she is now Queen.

Alison Weir not only does a fantastic job of exploring the thoughts and feelings of a young girl surrounded by intrigue and people determined to destroy her, but also sets a very real tone of the uncertain circumstances which gripped Elizabeth’s life in mid-16th century England. Highlighting not only the political, but also the psychological effects, that her uncertain status and being the daughter of Henry VIII had on the innocent girl.

US Cover - Click to buy from Amazon.com

Despite brutally being torn apart from her mother in May 1536, “The Lady Elizabeth” also touches on the dramatic impact Elizabeth’s mother had on her and reveals the strong connection she felt towards the contraversial Queen, that she was forced to keep secret. However, as with many historical fiction novels, Weir is very liberal with the facts in certain parts of the book, particularly, in my opinion, with the relationship between Elizabeth and Thomas Seymour, and should therefore be taken in the same humour as other novels, such as Philippa Gegory’s “The Other Boleyn Girl”.

All in all, it’s a good read and allows you to take a break from the factual world and delight in the pleasures of “what if?”.

The Independent, the UK newspaper, said of the book:-

“Popular historian Alison Weir enters treacherous territory with a fictional re-telling of the early years of Elizabeth I and her much debated romance with Thomas Seymour, her stepmother’s husband.

“For dramatic purposes, I have woven into my story a tale that goes against all my instincts as a historian!” quips Weir, explaining why she cast the queen as a less than virginal figure.

Telling fact from fiction becomes the name of the game, and Weir employs contemporary gossip to intriguing effect. With a style that casts even Philippa Gregory’s stately gavottes in a dashing new light, Weir convinces with her scholarly grasp. “

The Autobiography of Henry VIII - US Version

The Autobiography of Henry VIII, With Notes From His Fool Will Somers, was an absolutely fascinating read. Although it is fictional it feels as though you are actually in Henry VIII’s head. It is the only book that I have read that has ever made an effort to get to know Henry, rather than the image that he created for himself. It shows vulnerability and heart, which is a rarity when reading about Henry.

The book focuses exclusively on Henry VIII, with the exception of the bits of humor and perspective interjected by Will Somers. The back drop is beautifully painted, detailed but never boring. Absolutely a must read for anyone who is interested in “getting to know” Henry VIII personally.

One of the aspects of the book that I most enjoyed was the attention paid by the author to Henry’s life before he became king, unlike other novels that I have read, that seem to gloss over the first 25 years of his life.

Henry’s personality is also much more deeply explored than I’ve ever read before. Rather than building upon his already well known public persona, the author takes the time to show some of Henry’s insecurities that he may have been trying to hide beneath the pomp and grandeur of his image. Henry is credited with enough intelligence to realize the views the people around him had about his more whimsical tendencies, whereas it is generally believed that Henry was too self involved and childish to realize that others knew it was him in a play, or knew he was the tall, red-headed, masked figure.

The Autobiography of Henry VIII - UK Version

The only part of the book that I found disappointing was that Anne and Henry’s relationship felt like it was somewhat minimised. The author gives the impression that Henry viewed Anne as more decorative, rather than an intellectual equal. It does not paint the picture of a passionate romance, more of a lukewarm infatuation that was easily moved on from.
In conclusion, this book is an absolute must read for any Tudor enthusiast. It is a challenging read, challenging in that it makes you stop and think. I found myself reading excerpts to my husband and pondering over the deeper meaning of certain quotes. It is an enormous book, but don’t be put off by that. I had an extremely hard time putting it down. While reading it, it literally feels as though you’ve gone back in time. The thoughts, feelings and situations of the “characters” have definite parallels to our own modern lives and gives interesting and poignant perspective.

Review by Christine Nicole Kimmell

You can read an excerpt from this novel and read an interview with the author at Margaret George’s website - see http://www.margaretgeorge.com/books/henry.asp

This book is available from Amazon US and Amazon UK - click on book covers above - or from your favourite book retailer.

The Sisters Who Would Be Queen - US Cover

“The Sisters Who Would Be Queen: The Tragedy of Katherine, Mary and Lady Jane Grey” is a non-fiction account of the stories of these three sisters, the times they lived in and the monarchs who reigned in their lifetimes. I was desperate to read this after reading Jeane Westin’s historical novel, “The Virgin’s Daughters”, and enjoying the fictional account of Katherine Grey’s life, and I also wanted to know what Lady Jane Grey was really like.

This book did not disappoint and I can see why it took Leanda de Lisle four years to write. My copy is nearly 400 pages and it is 400 pages of relevant information and compelling theories all backed up with historical evidence. What I like about de Lisle’s work is that she has meticulously researched these Tudor characters and her sources are well cited so you can understand why she comes to the conclusions that she does. It will be interesting to compare de Lisle’s thoughts on Lady Jane Grey with Eric Ives’s thoughts, when I have read his latest book on Lady Jane. I know that he and Leanda have had many discussions about Lady Jane.

I would recommend this book to anyone who want to know more about the Grey sisters and the reigns of Edward VI, Lady Jane Grey, Mary I and Elizabeth I. It is a huge book but it is well worth spending the time reading it, you will not regret it.

Contents

The Sisters Who Would Be Queen - UK Version

These contents are based on an early copy of the book, additions have been made to the latest edition. I have just received a US copy and have added details on the extra chapters in that version:-

• List of Illustrations
• Family Trees - The Descendants of Henry VII, the Grey Family Tree, the Dudley Family Tree and the Seymour Family Tree. These trees are extremely helpful when you’re looking at different people’s claims to the throne and how they are related to each other.
• Prologue - This section is brilliant because it explains “the Chain of Being”, the way that Tudors believed that God had ordered his creation and why women were believed to be the weaker sex. This really helps the reader understand why Henry VIII was so obsessed with having a male heir, even though he had two daughters. This prologue sets the scene for the book which tells the true story of the Grey sisters, a story which de Lisle states has been buried in “Dynastic politics, religious propaganda and sexual prejudice”.

Part 1 - Educating Jane

• Chapter 1: Beginning - As suggested by the chapter title, this chapter tells of Lady Jane Grey’s birth to her parents, the 19 year old Frances, Marchioness of Dorset, niece of Henry VIII and granddaughter of Henry VII, and Henry “Harry” Grey, the Marquess of Dorset. Leanda de Lisle challenges the myth that Jane was born during Jane Seymour’s confinement in September/October 1537 and puts her date of birth around May 1537.
• Chapter 2: First Lessons - Details on the upbringing of Jane, Katherine and Mary Grey, the family’s religious beliefs and their link to  Anne Askew who was tortured and burned for her religious views.
• Chapter 3: Jane’s Warship - This chapter starts with the death of Henry VIII and gives information on the King’s will, and what it meant for Lady Jane Grey and her sisters, Somerset’s role as Protector, Sudeley and his hopes of marrying Jane off to Edward VI, and Jane leaving her family to become Sudeley’s ward.
• Chapter 4: The Example of Catherine Parr - A chapter covering Jane’s time as Sudeley’s ward, her intelligence and education, the relationship between Sudeley and the teenage Princess Elizabeth and Catherine Parr’s death.
• Chapter 5: The Execution of Sudeley - Jane’s grief at Catherine Parr’s death, her defiant spirit and her father’s involvement in Sudeley’s plans and his eventual fall. There is an interesting section in this chapter about executions and de Lisle states that “public executions were carefully choreographed and the rituals of a beheading followed a strict code” and that even if the prisoner was innocent “they did not doubt that they deserved to die” because God was punishing them for something.
• Chapter 6: Northumberland’s “Crew” - This chapter covers the rebellions and riots sparked off by the new Prayer Book and the religious changes of Somerset’s protectorship, John Dudley’s (Earl of Warwick) rebellion and the involvement of Sir Henry Willoughby (Dorset’s brother), the arrest of Somerset and Warwick’s plans to marry Jane to his son, the Earl of Hertford. The chapter also includes a section on the Princess Mary and what she was like - an interesting mix of a “delicate frame” with a man’s strong voice!
• Chapter 7: Bridling Jane - The teenage Lady Jane Grey, her education, her impressive language abilities and her “dynamic mind”. In this chapter, de Lisle also challenges the widely held belief that Frances Grey (nee Brandon) was “an archetype of female wickedness: powerful, domineering and cruel” and that Jane was bullied by her parents.
• Chapter 8: Jane and Mary - This chapter covers Jane’s visit to Princess Mary’s home at Beaulieu and her shock and disgust at Mary’s religious beliefs, the religious differences and problems between Edward VI and Princess Mary, Mary’s treatment at the hands of Edward, Jane’s views of Elizabeth and Mary, and Somerset’s execution.

Part 2 - Queen and Martyr

• Chapter 9: A Dying King (called “Nor Poor Child” in the US version)- A chapter detailing the hope that Jane would be Queen Consort to Edward VI, Northumberland’s hopes of marrying his son Guildford to Margaret Clifford, Edward’s health problems, his will “My Device for the Succession” and Northumberland’s change of idea, his plans to marry Guildford off to Lady Jane Grey, the Earl of Pembroke’s son to Katherine Grey and Lord Grey of Wilton to be betrothed to 8 year old Mary Grey.
• Chapter 10: A Married Woman - The triple wedding of Lady Jane Grey and Guildford Dudley, Henry, Lord Herbert, to Katherine Grey and Lord Hastings and Lady Catherine Dudley, as Edward VI lay dying, the conclusion of Edward’s will which highlighted the illegitimacy of his half-sisters and praised the Grey sisters, Edward’s death and Jane’s reaction to being named heir.
• Chapter 11: Jane the Queen - We are used to thinking of Lady Jane Grey as a child Queen who was manipulated by her elders, but was she really an innocent girl who didn’t want the crown? This chapter looks at Jane as Queen and how she dealt with the threat that Mary posed. Leanda de Lisle writes “The Victorians produced innumerable prints depicting Jane modestly shrinking from the crown as he [Winchester] offers it to her. But as Jane was signing herself “Jane the Quene” on a daily basis, she wasn’t shrinking from the crown in any meaningful sense”. Even as news came in that ships were mutinying, Jane was sending out letters to sheriffs and Justices of the Peace demanding their support and allegiance - she was far from the shrinking violet, she was a Queen who was standing her ground.
  This chapter ends with Mary being proclaimed Queen after Jane had reigned for just over a fortnight.
• Chapter 12: A Prisoner in the Tower - A chapter covering Jane and Guildford’s imprisonment and treatment in the Tower, Frances’s pleas to Mary, the pardoning of Jane’s father, the dissolving of Katherine and Mary Grey’s marriages, Northumberland’s execution, Jane’s refusal to save herself by turning to Catholicism and her announcement that she would die for her beliefs, and Jane’s trial, where she was sentenced to death.
• Chapter 13: A Fatal Revolt - De Lisle looks at Mary’s intention to pardon Jane and her lack of understanding of Jane’s commitment to her beliefs and the revolt that used Jane and Guildford as figureheads and sealed their fates. In this chapter we have the details of Jane’s final letters to her father and sisters, Guildford’s execution and Jane’s execution. Jane was not the frail little girl of myth and legend, she was a strong woman who died for her beliefs.

Part 3 - Heirs to Elizabeth

• Chapter 14: Aftermath - The aftermath of Jane’s execution including the hangings of traitors, the execution of Jane’s father, Frances encouraging her remaining daughters “to play the Catholic”, the execution of Thomas Wyatt, the Greys going to court, Mary’s marriage to Philip of Spain and Frances’s marriage to Adrian Stokes, her Master of the Horse.
• Chapter 15: Growing Up - This chapter follows Katherine Grey’s time at the court of Mary I and includes Mary’s false pregnancy, the contrast between the old and ill Mary and the young vibrant Elizabeth, Katherine’s friendship with Lady Jane Seymour, the attraction between “Ned” Seymour, Earl Hertford, and Katherine, and Mary I’s death and Elizabeth I’s accession.
• Chapter 16: The Spanish Plot - A chapter covering Elizabeth’s accession to the throne, her coronation, Katherine’s involvement in proceedings, the focus on Katherine as possible heir to the throne if Elizabeth did not marry and produce and heir, the Spanish plot to smuggle Katherine out of England, the love affairs between Elizabeth and Dudley and Katherine and Hertford, andHertford’s plans to ask Frances for permission to marry Katherine.
• Chapter 17: Betrothal - In this chapter we learn of Frances’s death, Katherine’s promotion to the Queen’s Privy Chamber, the scandal of Amy Robsart’s death and the formal betrothal of Katherine and Hertford.
• Chapter 18: A Knot of Secret Might - The secret wedding of Katherine and Hertford, the consummation of the marriage, Lady Jane Seymour’s death, Katherine’s pregnancy and her plan to get Pembroke, her former husband, to marry her because there was no proof that she was married to Hertford. The chapter ends with a furious Elizabeth throwing Katherine into the Tower.
• Chapter 19: First Son - Hertford’s return home, Elizabeth’s belief in Mary Queen of Scots’ claim to the throne, the birth of Katherine’s son (Edward Seymour), a male heir to the English throne, Yuletide at the Elizabethan court, the support for Katherine’s claim to the throne, the investigation into Katherine’s marriage and the meeting between Katherine and Hertford in the Tower which results in a second pregnancy.
• Chapter 20: Parliament and Katherine’s Claim - This chapter starts with Elizabeth I fighting off smallpox, Parliament’s demand for an heir to be named, the birth of Katherine’s second son, Thomas, and Elizabeth’s fury.
• Chapter 21: Hale’s Tempest - The plague in London, Katherine’s removal to Essex (to escape the plague) and Katherine’s failed petition to the Queen.

Part 4 - Lost Love

• Chapter 22: The Lady Mary and Mr Keyes - In this part of the book, we turn to look at the life of the youngest Grey sister, Mary Grey, a small girl who was described as “crook backed and very ugly”. This chapter covers Mary’s love for an older man, Mr Keyes, Katherine Grey’s continued house arrest, the wedding between Henry Knollys and Margaret Cave, the marriage of Mary Queen of Scots and Lord Darnley, Mary Grey’s secret marriage to Mr Keys and Mary’s imprisonment in the Tower.
• Chapter 23: The Clear Choice - This chapter covers Katherine;s continued house arrest, the birth of Mary Queen of Scots’s son James, Keyes’ awful imprisonment and Mary Grey’s worries about his health, Parliament’s concerns over the succession, Darnley’s murder, Mary’s release from her prison into the care of her step-grandmother, Katherine Suffolk, and Katherine Grey’s depression as she realises she may never be reunited with her husband and children.
• Chapter 24: While I Lived, Yours - Katherine’s illness and death and her wish that her husband should have her wedding ring and a ring engraved with “While I Lived, Yours”.
• Chapter 25: The Last Sister - Mary Grey’s life with Katherine Suffolk, Mary Queen of Scots’s house arrest with the Earl of Shrewsbury and Bess of Hardwick, Norfolk’s plans to marry the Scottish Queen, Keys’ petition to the Queen to let him be with  Mary, the death of Keys and the final release of Mary in 1572.
• Chapter 26: A Return to Elizabeth’s Court - Mary’s new life as a free woman, first at Beaumanor with her stepfather, and then in her own house in London, Mary’s return to royal favour, helped by Blanche Parry, and her appointment as Maid of Honour to Elizabeth in 1577, and Mary’s death.
• Chapter 27: Katherine’s Sons and the Death of Elizabeth - Lord Beauchamp’s (Katherine Grey’s eldest son) love for the lowly Miss Honora Rogers and the trouble it caused, the execution of Mary Queen of Scots, Thomas Seymour’s (Katherine’s second son) appeals to validate his parents’ marriage, Arbella Stuart’s claim to the throne and Elizabeth’s death and following proclamation of James VI of Scotland as James I of England.
• Chapter 28: The Story’s End - In this chapter we learn of Hertford’s successful search in 1608 for the clergyman who had married him to Katherine Grey 48 years earlier, the scandal of the marriage of Arbella Stuart to William, Beauchamp’s younger son, Arbella’s death in the Tower, William’s rehabilitation in the court of Charles I, Charles I’s execution and William’s mission to give the King a proper burial, William’s death as Duke of Somerset and the legacy he left.

Epilogue

Here de Lisle talks about how Katherine and Mary Grey have been forgotten, yet Lady Jane Grey is still remembered as “an ideal of girlhood and the embodiment of innocence offended” and de Lisle is spot on when she talks of Paul Delaroche’s painting, “The Execution of Lady Jane Grey”, being evocative of a “virgin sacrifice”. However, as de Lisle quite rightly states, lady Jane Grey was much more than this and “Jane died as a leader and not merely a victim”. All three sisters had a tragic life but let’s not remember them as pathetic victims, but rather women who stood up for what they believed.

Author’s Note

Here, de Lisle, explains how she came to write the book and what drew her to the story of the Grey sisters.

“The Sisters Who Would Be Queen” also includes Notes, a comprehensive bibliography of unpublished sources and published sources, and an index.

Final Words

This is a comprehensive book on the lives of the Grey sisters and is not a work of “popular” history, but rather a textbook. I don’t mean that it is boring, far from it, but it is not light reading - great for those of us who get love getting lost in historical documents! I love the way that de Lisle challenges the stereotypes and our preconceptions of Lady Jane Grey and her family, and completely captivates the reader. Brilliantly written!

Praise for “The Sisters Who Would Be Queen”

John Guy, author, historian and Professor History at Cambridge says:

“A gripping read…Besides exploding the myths, Leanda de Lisle breaks new ground by linking Jane’s story to those of her siblings, Katherine and Mary. Her book is an unrivalled account of the struggle for the Tudor succession.”

The Daily Telegraph London says:

“Leanda de Lisle gives us the brief life and grim times of Lady Jane Grey and her family in merciless clarity and dazzling detail. This is a marvellously told and quite terrifying biography.”

Availability

This books is available to buy in the UK/Europe and the USA - simply click on the book covers to be taken to the relevant Amazon UK or Amazon US pages.

The Early loves of Anne Boleyn

I was very excited when I heard about the release of this book just a few weeks after Alison Weir’s “The Lady in the Tower”, October was a really great month for Anne Boleyn fans! However, I must admit to being rather put off by the publisher’s blurb on Amazon, which said:

“The story of Anne Boleyn’s early life, told in detail for the first time. Anne Boleyn is perhaps the most engaging of Henry VIII’s Queens. For her he would divorce his wife of some twenty years standing, he would take on the might of the Roman Church and the Holy Roman Empire; he would even alienate his own people in order to win her favour and, eventually, her hand. But before Henry came into her life Anne Boleyn had already wandered down love’s winding path. She had learned its twists and turns during her youth spent at the courts of the Low Countries and France, where she had been sent as a result of her scandalous behaviour with her father’s butler and chaplain. Here her education had been directed by two of the strongest women of the age - and one of the weakest. Returning to England she was courted by three different suitors in three very different circumstances. The first was James Butler, with whom an arranged marriage was designed to settle a family dispute over the earldom of Ormond. Anne then captured the heart of Henry Percy, whose genuine love for her was reciprocated and would have lead to Anne becoming countess of Northumberland had the couple not been cruelly torn apart in the interests of politics and worldly ambition. Lastly, Thomas Wyatt, the dreamy young poet and ambassador who was captivated by Anne but who stepped aside when he saw that he had a rival: none other than the great King Henry VIII himself.”

Anne Boleyn being sent away as a result of her scandalous behaviour with her father’s butler and chaplain?! I really did not want to read a book which took this myth as truth! But, good news, this is just publicity and Josephine Wilkinson does not believe this myth any more than I do and the book is not a collection of myths, scandals and hearsay, which it could so easily be, but is based on meticulous research and hard evidence - phew!

So, what does the book cover?

Contents

“The Early Loves of Anne Boleyn” is split into 15 chapters with an introduction, epilogue, references, bibliography and 32 pages of colour, glossy illustrations of portraits and places. Here is a rundown of the chapters and what they cover:-

1. Growing up at Hever 1501-1513 - Like Ives, Wilkinson believes that Anne was born around 1500/1501 and this chapter covers her family’s background from her great grandfather, Sir Geoffrey Boleyn, onwards, and also looks at who exactly Thomas Boleyn was.
2. The Coming of Grace: Anne and Margaret, Archduchess of Austria, 1513-14 - We all know that Anne went abroad to become a fille d’honeur to Archduchess Margaret, the Regent of the Netherlands, but who exactly was Margaret? This chapter is wonderful in that it explains exactly who Margaret was, what her court would have been like and what Anne would have learned from her time there.
3. The Rival of Venus: Anne in France 1514-1521 - Alison Weir pointed out in “The Lady in the Tower” that Anne Boleyn was corrupted by the French court so I was interested to read this chapter and find out Wilkinson’s viewpoint. Wilkinson writes of Queen Claude’s court being “run almost as a convent” and how she insisted on high morality, restraint, modesty and virtue. OK, so we don’t know whether Anne managed to escape this and have a good time in secret but I highly doubt it, and Wilkinson believes that the slander on Anne’s virtue and reputation is down to Nicholas Sander “who lost no opportunity to malign Anne”.
4. An Irish Alliance: Anne and James Butler 1521-1522 - A chapter covering the proposed marriage between Anne and James Butler, son of  Sir Piers Butler, a marriage which would have settled a dispute between Thomas Boleyn and Sir Piers Butler over the earldom of Ormond. If you’ve ever wondered who James was then this is a great chapter for you. This chapter also covers Anne’s appearance, drawing together contemporary descriptions of her.
5. An Innocent Love Affair: Anne and Henry Percy 1522-1524 - How different Anne’s life would have been if she had been allowed to marry her sweetheart Henry Percy! In this chapter we find out all about Percy and his background and Wilkinson also examines exactly what his relationship with Anne was and how far it went.
6. “Where Force and Beauty Met”: Anne and Thomas Wyatt 1524-1526 - In “The Tudors”, it implies that Anne and Thomas Wyatt, the poet, did have a relationship, but what is the real truth? Wyatt’s poems show that he obviously had some deep feelings for Anne but were they returned or were they sadly unrequited? Did Wyatt have to move over for Henry VIII and what of the story about Wyatt turning up at Hever and finding that Anne had hidden another lover upstairs?! This chapter looks at the evidence for and the rumours surrounding some type of relationship between them.
7. Anne’s Revenge 1527-1530 - Many people believe that Anne Boleyn was directly responsible for the fall of Cardinal Wolsey and that she acted out of revenge for him preventing the marriage between her and Henry Percy, but what is the truth of the matter? Wilkinson examines the relationship between Wolsey and Anne.
8. Henry Percy and the Arrest of Cardinal Wolsey 1530 - Was the sending of Henry Percy to arrest Wolsey Anne’s final act of revenge?
9. The Pre-Contract 1532 - In this chapter, Wilkinson examines the Countess of Northumberland’s (Percy’s wife, Mary Talbot)) accusation that her husband had told her that their marriage was illegal because he had already been pre-contracted to Anne Boleyn. What was the truth behind this allegation and did Mary Talbot ever actually accuse her husband of this? Wilkinson looks at this issue and how it was handled as Henry VIII strove to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn.
10. “Some Tyme I Fled” 1532-1533 - A brief chapter examining the reasons for Wyatt’s fall from grace and the Duke of Suffolk’s exile from court. Were the two things linked?
11. Al the Queen’s Men: The Perils of Courtly Love, May 1536 - A look at the fall of Anne Boleyn and the men that were accused of committing adultery with her, including those who escaped the axe man: Thomas Wyatt, Sir Richard Page  and Sir Francis Bryan.
12. “Myn Extreme Enemye”: Thomas Wyatt, May 1536 - It is strange that a man who had been linked with Anne in the past managed to escape execution, when other members of Anne’s circle were so brutally framed and executed. Wouldn’t it have been easier to link Wyatt to Anne? This chapter looks at Wyatt, his career at court, his arrest and imprisonment.
13. Circs Regna Tonat, 12 May 1536 - A chapter looking at the accusations made against Smeaton, Weston, Norris, Brereton and Rochford.
14. Persecuted Innocence, 13-16 May 1536 - In this chapter Wilkinson looks at the rumours that circulated about the King seeking a divorce from Anne on the grounds of her pre-contract to Henry Percy, Henry Percy’s health at this time, and the trials of Anne and George.
15. “The Bell Towre Showed me Such a Syght”, 17 May 1536 - A brief chapter about Wyatt, the horrors he saw from his Bell Tower window and his eventual release from his prison.
16. Epilogue: After Anne - Tis is an interesting look at what happened to the Tudor characters who had links with Anne after her death on the 19th May 1536. Wilkinson looks at the lives of James Butler, Henry Percy and Thomas Wyatt. An interesting chapter.

This book is not as long or as detailed as Alison Weir’s “The Lady in the Tower” or the biographies by Warnicke or Ives, but it is an interesting look at the men in Anne Boleyn’s life and the many scandals that surrounded this much maligned Queen. I really enjoyed Wilkinson’s insights into Anne’s life at the Hapsburg and French courts, her relationships with Percy and Wyatt, and who these men actually were. We will never know the exact truth behind the rumours and scandals that surrounded Anne, but I enjoyed Wilkinson’s examination of these rumours and her look at actual evidence.

I would highly recommend this book to any fan of Anne Boleyn and Tudor history and those researching the life of Anne Boleyn, and it makes a great companion book to Eric Ives’ “The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn”.

Josephine Wilkinson is an author and historian with a PhD in history from the University of Newcastle. She has received British Academy research funding and has been scholar in residence at St Deiniol’s Library. She has also written “Mary Boleyn” and “Richard III: The Young King to Be” which were both published by Amberley. You can read An Interview with Dr Josephine Wilinson at The Anne Boleyn Files and you can hear her speak about Anne Boleyn at Hever Castle on The Anne Boleyn Experience 2010.

Click here to buy The Early Loves of Anne Boleyn at Amazon UK or click here to buy it at Amazon US. It is published by Amberley Publishing and is available now.