Tudor Time with my Aunt Marcia
My Aunt Marcia is an avid reader and has a special love for the time period in which The Other Boleyn Girl takes place. As a favor to me, she wrote up a brief summary of the time period so that I could better follow along with the book. If you are new to this time period, you might enjoy it as well.
WARNING: This contains some book spoilers.
Henry Tudor, Henry VIII, 1491-1547, was a renaissance king--he was tall, red-haired, athletic and intellectual. He began his reign with hopes of a golden age, where England would dominate Europe. He ended it as a despotic, dissipated brutal rotting enormous hulk. The hows and whys of this transformation are one of the reasons he is so fascinating. That, and the fact that the ruler who achieved his goals was his younger daughter, child of his marriage with Anne Boleyn, the great Elizabeth I who ruled from 1558-1603. She never married and was known as the Virgin Queen--probably influenced by her father's disastrous marital career.
Anne was the daughter of a lesser branch of the Seymour family--Henry's fifth wife, also beheaded, was her cousin. She was probably born around 1509 ( there is some controversy on her birthdate), and spent her youth in the French court, becoming well educated, sophisticated and alluring. She caught Henry's eye when she returned to the English court in the mid to late 1520s. Henry wanted to make her his mistress, but Anne held out for being his wife and queen. This period is the focus of The Other Boleyn Girl. Anne was probably less than 30 when she died.
Henry changed history to marry Anne--he split the Church of England from the catholic church, so he could control the church hierarchy after the Pope refused to let him divorce his first wife. After Anne's death, he removed her initials--an entwined H and A from all public buildings. Here and there, in an old tomb or tomb chapel you can still find an example of this fatal match.
If you like this book, Gregory has written about the Henry's other Wives--The Constant Primness(Katheryn of Aragon), and the Boleyn Inheritance (Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleve, Katherine Seymour and Katherine Parr). Her The Queen's Fool writes about Henry's oldest Daughter, Mary aka Bloody Mary. If you love the period, I have an extensive bibliography!
WARNING: This contains some book spoilers.
Henry Tudor, Henry VIII, 1491-1547, was a renaissance king--he was tall, red-haired, athletic and intellectual. He began his reign with hopes of a golden age, where England would dominate Europe. He ended it as a despotic, dissipated brutal rotting enormous hulk. The hows and whys of this transformation are one of the reasons he is so fascinating. That, and the fact that the ruler who achieved his goals was his younger daughter, child of his marriage with Anne Boleyn, the great Elizabeth I who ruled from 1558-1603. She never married and was known as the Virgin Queen--probably influenced by her father's disastrous marital career.
Anne was the daughter of a lesser branch of the Seymour family--Henry's fifth wife, also beheaded, was her cousin. She was probably born around 1509 ( there is some controversy on her birthdate), and spent her youth in the French court, becoming well educated, sophisticated and alluring. She caught Henry's eye when she returned to the English court in the mid to late 1520s. Henry wanted to make her his mistress, but Anne held out for being his wife and queen. This period is the focus of The Other Boleyn Girl. Anne was probably less than 30 when she died.
Henry changed history to marry Anne--he split the Church of England from the catholic church, so he could control the church hierarchy after the Pope refused to let him divorce his first wife. After Anne's death, he removed her initials--an entwined H and A from all public buildings. Here and there, in an old tomb or tomb chapel you can still find an example of this fatal match.
If you like this book, Gregory has written about the Henry's other Wives--The Constant Primness(Katheryn of Aragon), and the Boleyn Inheritance (Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleve, Katherine Seymour and Katherine Parr). Her The Queen's Fool writes about Henry's oldest Daughter, Mary aka Bloody Mary. If you love the period, I have an extensive bibliography!
I really love this description:
"He ended it as a despotic, dissipated brutal rotting enormous hulk."
Thank you for this 'era description' - very helpful actually.
I've finally started the book and made some good headway last night. The thickness was daunting but so far, like butter to get through.
Reply to this