Off with her head! (The Other Boleyn Girl - Phillipa Gregory)

Member Name: thehonesttruth

Product:	The Other Boleyn Girl - Phillipa Gregory
Date:	13/10/07 (106 review reads)
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I adore reading and learning about all things historical, especially Tudor and Elizabethan times, I frequently get my hands on historical novels, and just recently I’ve discovered one author I just cant get enough of. Having already read the Queens Fool, set in the time of Edwards reign, lets step back in time slightly to when Eddies father was head bigwig, and just beginning his famous reign as the Elizabeth Taylor of Tudor times. This is the other Boleyn Girl, the story of Anne Boleyn (who lost her head over the king) told from the point of view of her sister Mary.


The Story

Mary Boleyn is in her teens, and in the style of the day has already been married off when she catches the attention of a married man, who is becoming disillusioned with his ageing, barren wife and frustrated by her inability to give him an heir. Did I happen to mention the married man is none other than Henry V III, and the barren wife of course Catharine of Aragon.

Mary being young and innocent, she is easily persuaded by her family to act as the kings’ whore in order to gain advantage, lands and money for the rest of her family. She is made to do everything the king desires in the bedchamber, and to request payment in the form of favours for her family. Her family, along with the extended Howard branch are not content with this though. With power gleaming in their eyes, they plot for bigger things. What if Mary was to give the king what the queen could not? What if Mary was to bear an heir?

Although she goes along with the wishes of her family, Mary’s young heart lacks the ambition to succeed at court, and soon she goes to his bed only because she loves him. But love is not enough, when her charming and seductive sister Anne comes to court. For the kings roving eye is quick to fall on her, and it’s clear she has the ambition to take the family far in the kings favour, but on one condition... she will not be the kings whore, only his wife.

The Characters

In most of her books, Philippa Gregory tells the story with the primary focus upon one young woman, and there is no change to the tried and tested format here. In this case, Mary is the main protagonist, and we follow the story with her as she learns to discard her young innocence and becomes in every detail the young courtier of the day. Mary comes across as an innocent but very likeable young girl, who lacks the backbone to stand up to her family and refuse their bidding. She’s by no means a spineless twerp though, and although in most situations she does her family proud, she can stand up for herself if it’s something very important to her. As the story progresses, she leaves her innocence behind and becomes a lot more worldly wise.

Anne by contrast is portrayed as a scheming vixen, a woman who knows exactly what she wants and what she must do to achieve it. She has ambition by the bucketload, and no morals to stop her from achieving her desires. Although the story focuses on things from her sisters point of view, Anne is the true star of the novel, and the book follows her rise from sister of the kings whore, to queen, and then her spectacular fall from grace amid accusations of incest, treason and adultery.

George, the brother of Anne and Mary, is shown as a rampant homosexual in a time when homosexuality was frowned upon as an evil act. As well as being gay and struggling to hide it in a court where no secret is safe from gossip, he also has a strong desire to advance the cause of his family through his sisters, even going so far as to lie with his sister Anne in order to conceive an heir for the king. George’s age is not known, but he seems to have been the youngest of the three siblings.

Throughout the tale the two sisters are competing against each other with different reasons, one for love and one for ambitions sake only, and it makes for an exciting (if shocking at times) read. While one sister is in the spotlight, the other lurks in the shadows waiting to take the lead. The style of writing makes the story exciting without dulling it with overmuch description and fact.

Fact versus Fiction

As with much of Gregory’s work, although the story is based on historical events, there is a lot of guesswork thrown in to fatten the story out. No one knows whether Anne and her brother George were really lovers, but it certainly adds a twist to the story.

Also, little is really known about Mary Boleyn, and in fact it is not agreed whether she is the elder or younger sister, as records from the time are gappy and vague. Most reports place her as older, due to the fact that she was married first, but another reason she was married first could be that while she returned to England Anne remained in the French court for a few more years. It is known is that she was the kings lover, as records show that in 1528, a member of Parliament insulted the king's morals by accusing Henry of sleeping with Anne's mother and sister. The king replied: "Never with her mother."

She was indeed married at the time to William Carey, although whether this was a true marriage or given her age a betrothal in name only is also not known.

Mary’s innocence at the start of the novel may not be strictly true either, as there are records of Francis I referring to her as his ‘English Mare’ and from another source the comment that she was an ‘infamous whore’. Given that these comments were made during the time of her stay at the French court, perhaps she was not as innocent as Gregory suggests.

It is not known whether Mary gave birth to the kings’ son. Certainly she had a son, Henry, with similar colouring, but rumour of the time suggests that Mary was not as pure as Gregory would make out, and that she perhaps managed some marital relations with William Carey after the commencement of her affair with the king. This certainly seems plausible, as due to Mary’s liaisons with the king, the nobly descended but relatively poor Carey received large sums of money, titles and land for turning a blind eye. As well as her son, Mary had a daughter Catherine, (named after Queen Katherine of Aragon) whose true paternity is unknown, although again, both the king and Carey are contenders.

Similarly, there is no proven record of George Boleyn being homosexual, although this storyline may have stemmed from one of the theories in a book called the Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn, by
Retha M. Warnicke, as to why George was charged with Anne for adultery. A more likely reason for him to have been charged in real life would have been simply that King Henry wanted to remove all opposition to his marriage to Jane Seymour, so that the child they had conceived together would be legitimate rather than another royal bastard.

But it makes interesting reading, and I think Gregory did an excellent job of filling in all the gaps.

Summary

This is an excellent book for anyone interested either in Tudor history or stories of passion and intrigue. I can’t recommend it highly enough, and I hope you’ll all read it. It is available for 6.99 from all good bookshops, and is perhaps the most widely known of Gregory’s historical fictions.

However, due to some very graphic scenes of incest and one or two other disturbing chapters, it is perhaps not for the fainthearted. I loved it though, so it gets the full five stars from me!

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