One King, Two Wives and a snake in the grass (The Boleyn Inheritance - Philippa Gregory)

Member Name: Tracy_1127

Product:	The Boleyn Inheritance - Philippa Gregory
Date:	13/02/09 (110 review reads)
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Ok, it seems I've been on Amazon again, unsupervised, which means I've been able to indulge one of my obsessions; Henry VIII and his six wives. Having recently read a few books on the subject, one of which was The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory I came across this by the same author and just had to have it.

The Boleyn Inheritance is written in Philippa Gregory's usual style of turning history into a dramatic novel which mostly stays true to the real events. This book is written from the viewpoint of three different women, Jane Boleyn who was George Boleyn's wife, Anne of Cleves who was of course Henry's 4th wife and Katherine Howard who became his 5th wife.

We begin with the King minus a Queen. Jane Seymour has been dead a while and Henry has been casting his net around for a new wife only to find they aren't in as plentiful supply as they were before he divorced one, beheaded another and left a third to die alone. Finally he sends a painter to Cleves to paint Anne and her younger sister Amelia to see if either take his fancy.

As we all know he took a liking to the portrait of Anne and decided he would marry her. So she sets off for England to become Queen, Jane Boleyn is called back to court to become her Lady In Waiting and Katherine Howard is dreaming of becoming a Maid In Waiting.

As we all know Henry didn't take to Anne of Cleves. Their first meeting was a disaster as Henry impulsively decided to meet her unannounced but the wedding went ahead anyway as Henry was short of alliances at the time and feared war.

The story told through the eyes of Anne is probably fairly accurate in how she felt. Married off to a by now obese, bad-tempered, aging King with a constant open wound on his leg that often smelt rotten wouldn't have filled her with joy! She came to England unable to speak hardly any of the language and completely ignorant of fashion and the duties of a wife. Henry didn't like her much and his advisors daren't tell her. She had no inkling of this for some time and must have been humiliated when she found out Henry was saying she smelt terrible, had a fat stomach, slack breasts and repulsed him to the point of being impotent to anyone who would listen.

In fact she was very lucky to escape the axe as Henry thought it couldn't possibly be his fault he couldn't perform with her so therefore she, or someone else close to her, must have been a witch and cursed him. Typical Henry VIII, by this time even thinking the King may one day die was considered treason.

So Anne became Queen but not for long and Henry was rapidly plotting how to be rid of her right from the start. Luckily for her at that point in time it was illegal to marry if you'd previously been betrothed to someone else so Henry used that as his get out clause along with the fact the marriage was never consummated. Had he managed to perform in the bedroom her fate may have been very different.

So Henry being Henry decided to annul the marriage and make her his sister. Only Henry would be able to change his wife to his sister! She is portrayed as being initially upset about this but rapidly liking the idea of not being married to Henry and being her own woman. She could never marry of course as she was officially still betrothed to the person Henry decided she had been betrothed to before their marriage so as long as this man lived Anne had to remain either a spinster or marry him! How times have changed!

It didn't end there for Anne though, as the King's "sister" she would be invited to court at regular intervals and lived her life in fear of Henry changing his mind and deciding she was the wrong faith, had been improper with men or well, had dared to even think bad thoughts about him and being executed. Philippa Gregory does build up tension around Anne very well and you can almost feel the fear she must have lived with while Henry was alive. He verged on insane at this point, was prone to bouts of dark moods, outbursts and impulsive behaviour that often led to violent consequences. Considered the lucky wife at the time she must have always had to be on her guard and was never really free of Henry.

Jane Boleyn was of course George Boleyn's wife. George was the brother of Anne Boleyn for anyone who doesn't know. Jane was intensely jealous of George and Anne's close relationship, George wasn't happily married to her, and her evidence during their trials really sealed their fates. She is known to be a nasty piece of work who only ever thought of herself and frankly was perfectly happy to send her own husband and sister-in-law to the block. So imagine my surprise when the first few sections from Jane's point of view imply she missed them both terribly and felt she had tried to save them from death. What? And again, what?

I nearly didn't read this book because of this. I thought if the author had decided to completely transform the personality and behaviour of Jane Boleyn I couldn't have read it with any sort of belief. Fortunately I read on and soon discovered we were sticking to the true events of the trial but Jane was kidding herself with regards her role.

So Jane is now Lady In Waiting to Anne of Cleves. She spies on Anne and reports back to her uncle who is the Duke of Norfolk and head of the Howard family. Her information is going to be used against the Queen (again!) by her uncle should it be necessary or advantageous to the Howard family. She is portrayed as devious, experienced at court which she must have been by that point, always watching for an opening to cause trouble for the Queen and ready to trick her into a wrong move at every turn. And yet at the same time helpful and efficient which of course could have led to Anne trusting her implicitly. But Anne was no fool, she had a sharp mind and it was merely the language barrier which made her seem less than bright so Jane failed to bring this Queen to the block.

Jane did sign a statement against Anne at one point but it was never used. So Jane could only cause minimal trouble for Anne until Katherine Howard, of course part of Jane's family by marriage, came to court to be a Maid In Waiting.

Katherine was a silly young girl, beautiful but uneducated, lively but materialistic and caught the eye of the King. He thought he could regain some of his youth through her and had to have her. Jane and the Duke seized the opportunity and thrust Katherine into the King's sight whenever possible knowing if she behaved tempting but virginal he would want her. This was of course the tried and tested method used by her cousin Anne Boleyn and then again by Jane Seymour so they knew it would succeed.

Jane had the task of making sure this happened and she came through. Katherine became the next Queen. Most of Katherine's chapters begin with the line "Now what do I have?" which makes her seem only interested in the gifts the King gave her. She is known to have been nothing like the other Queens and lacked proper behaviour, intelligence and a sharp tongue but she was attractive, vivacious and obedient to a point.

We do get to share some of the horror of her having to sleep with the King with his huge fat body and stinking leg wound and her repulsion of him but she played her part very well until a young man called Thomas Culpepper caught her eye and a previous lover called Francis Dereham came to work for her. These two proved to be her downfall.

Francis knew her years before she became Queen and she had slept with him and referred to herself as his wife. This in itself meant she would have fallen out of favour with Henry and been divorced but she also had a love affair with Thomas, one of the King's favourites, whilst married to Henry and we all know what that meant for her! Jane helped her arrange secret meetings with Thomas, which is a fact, but the speculation in this book is that Jane thought Katherine would get pregnant by Thomas and Henry would think it was his baby thus strengthening the position of the Howard family. This is confirmed as speculation at the back of the book, all we know for a fact is Jane helped Katherine meet Thomas in secret.

Naturally it all came out and Henry found out the truth, Thomas and Francis were tortured and confessed and Katherine didn't have enough wits about her to save herself. Jane began by denying the affair then threatened to tell the truth but by that time the truth was already out there and she was implicated because she'd helped the affair happen.

Thomas and Francis were executed first followed by Katherine and then Jane Boleyn. So Jane got her dues in the end and her devious scheming became her own downfall.

The book really makes you feel the fear of everyone in England at this point. Henry had gone quite literally mad with power and he could change the law at the drop of a hat to suit the situation so no-one was safe. Those closest to him seem to have been in the most danger. Anne could quite easily have been killed but instead had to live a life of fear. Katherine was executed before she reached seventeen and although the King's last real love and his little darling it didn't save her life. Jane of course deserved all she got and the only question seems to be why it took so long for Henry to realise what she was like.

The author really makes you feel this fear and danger and it's fast-paced and hard to put it down. We alternate between the three women and their views on the current situation which is a really interesting way of writing the story. We get snippets about Henry's health, descriptions of various palaces and the finery, but most of all a real feel of the time.

This book is as good as The Other Boleyn Girl even though Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard aren't as documented as Anne Boleyn. Even though this is written in the style of a novel it is mostly factual and I suspect the way the women are portrayed is quite accurate.

If you like the Tudors this is one to read. I bought mine on Amazon Marketplace for a few pennies secondhand but new it sells for £4.90 from Amazon. It is over 500 pages long but don't expect it to last long, you won't be able to put it down!

Thanks for reading.

Summary: Highly Recommended