Weekly Reader Philippa Gregory Edition: The Last Tudor (The Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series Vol. XIV) by Philippa Gregory; The Tudor Family Line Ends on an Average Note

Weekly Reader Philippa Gregory Edition: The Last Tudor (The Plantangenet and Tudor Court Series Vol. XIV) by Philippa Gregory; The Tudor Family Line Ends on An Average Note




By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




Spoilers: It's fitting that The Last Tudor is the final book written and the penultimate chronologically in The Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series. It presents the best and worst qualities that the previous books had in one book. This book alone is a checklist of what Phillippa Gregory did right and wrong in the entire series.




This time the book focuses on Jane Grey and her sisters, Katherine and Mary. Jane was the cousin of King Edward VI whom he declared his heir after his death instead of his sisters, Mary and Elizabeth. After, Edward's death, his guardian Lord Dudley connived to have Jane and her husband, his son, Guildford, put on the throne. Jane was queen for only nine days when supporters of Mary Tudor intervened, dethroned Jane, and declared Mary queen. Jane was eventually executed along with her husband and both of their fathers.



Jane Grey probably gets a minor footnote in history if that, but her sisters get barely any mention at all. Katherine Grey married Ned Seymour, a courtier and distant cousin by marriage, despite refusal from Queen Elizabeth. She eventually got arrested and gave birth to one son while in prison. She was released, but ended up giving birth to a daughter and spending the rest of her life separated from her husband and son while under house arrest.

Mary Grey's story was even more interesting. She was a Little Person, under 4" tall. She too married without the Queen's permission to Elizabeth's sergeant porter, Thomas Keyes who stood at 6"7. Mary served as lady in waiting under Elizabeth, but eventually she too fell out of favor and both she and her husband were arrested. Keyes was reportedly confined to a cell much too small for his large body. While Mary was under house arrest, Elizabeth eventually had her released.


The Last Tudor covers many of the themes that make the Gregory novels so great. Among them is the strength and rivalry of sisterhood. Unlike the previous sisters, the Boleyns, the Nevilles, and the Tudors, the Greys don't bare any animosity towards each other. Oh, they have differences of opinion, but those are mostly confined to just conflicting personalities rather than any real attempt to steal the throne or a position from each other. It's nice to see at least one Gregory sorority act like real sisters instead of sworn enemies.


Part of the way that Gregory does this is contrasting the sisters' personalities so they bounce off each other. Jane is much more bookish and studious. She is the most spiritual as she looks upon her ascendency as a calling from God to lead the English into Protestantism. Katherine is the most easy-going and dizziest. She is also an animal lover and is usually seen with different cats, dogs, birds, and a monkey that she names Mr. Nozzle. She is swept up in her love for Ned and when they are separated longs to be a family with him. Mary is the boldest and most outspoken. She constantly cracks jokes about her height or other things. She also has a steadfast determination to survive and she does everything she can, even deny her marriage, to ensure that survival.



We also see the theme of seeing historical characters through different eyes. Just like Katherine of Aragon and the players during the War of the Roses, Elizabeth is looked on differently here than she is in the previous books. The Queen's Fool and The Virgin's Lover were aware of her flaws, but also recognized her strengths as a cunning leader, a master strategist, a learned scholar, and a courageous fighter and survivor. The Grey Sisters see her as at best a frivolous egoist who values her own happiness (such as her relationship with Robert Dudley) over anything else. At worst, they see her as a cruel and capricious tyrant who turns on people for a whim and then just as quickly pardons them.

The reasonings behind Katherine and Mary's arrests are not fully explained, as they are meant to be arbitrary. Though they more have to do with being the last in the line of Protestant Tudor heirs. (Most of the others such Mary Stuart and Margaret Douglas are Catholic). While the book goes out of it's way to show that The Grey Sisters themselves are innocent of any plots against the queen, Elizabeth's haters aren't above using them as pawns in their means to dethrone her (like Jane was).

However the Gray Sisters themselves have another theory on why Elizabeth is so hateful towards thrm. Both believe that it is because Elizabeth envies their chances for happy marriages and she feels that if she has to be miserable then so do they. They think that she doesn't want the spotlight on anyone but herself. Their views are a bit childish, but they do come from fear and uncertainty. Sometimes, you don't know the specific reason why you fell out of someone's favor, so you simplify it in your head. Gregory does a good job of translating that uncertainty.

Gregory's gift for narration also falls into play here. She wisely separates the sisters' stories into three individual parts, allowing each sister to tell her story with the appropriate beginning, middle, and end. She also does some interesting framing devices that tie the three parts together. Each husband is introduced as a minor character in the previous story, only to take center stage in the next story as the intended of his Grey sister.

Some situations play out in all three stories. For example, Katherine's monkey companion, Mr. Nozzle is a source of irritation to Jane and she constantly wants to have him removed from her sight. For Katherine, he is an exotic pet to love, spoil, and let him be admired as a pet of the lady's chamber. By the time he gets around to Mary after she is under house arrest, Mr. Nozzle becomes her last link to her sisters so she keeps him into old age. One of the more delightful images in the book is the final scene in which an older Mary, still small, is dressed in black with a red petticoat underneath and walks a now gray Mr. Nozzle wearing Tudor green.


The biggest framing devices are the letters each sister writes to the next one while she is in prison. They reveal a lot about who they are as people. Jane's letter to Katherine is very clinical and impersonal. Instead of appealing to Katherine as a family member, Jane regards her just as someone that she thinks will carry on her legacy. The words that echo throughout are "learn you to die." Jane is someone who lives her life in her own head and according to her Protestant values. She goes along with her father and the Dudley family because she feels that becoming queen is God's plan. However, when it falls apart and her supporters turn against her (most heartbreaking of all is the moment when Jane's own father turns his coat and pleads for Mary), she realizes that it was brought upon by pride and ambition, things that she thought that she was against. She realizes that she too was ambitious in her own way and that she went along with the plot not for God's glory but her own. The only thing that she can do now is die for her faith as a martyr.

By contrast, Katherine's final letters to Mary are warm and filled with emotion and love, the kind of person that she was. Rather than learning to die, Katherine is more interested in learning to live or more specifically learning to love. She is someone who has a deep love for people and animals. While she is often the central

figure in plots against Elizabeth, she is never really involved in them. In fact there are several times when she states that she would rather have a happy marriage to Ned and lots of children than the throne.

Mary of course has no letter to write and no sister to receive it. But that makes sense to her character. Unlike Jane who is acted upon by the ambitions of others and her religious views and Katherine who is acted upon by her emotions, Mary is only acted upon by herself. She is the most active of the trio. When Katherine dithers whether marrying Ned is the right decision, Mary marries Thomas. Katherine languishes in prison brokenhearted, Mary remains outside still serving under Elizabeth but secretly plotting her escape. Even in prison, she manages to make the most of her survival by reuniting with the few family members that remain such as Katherine's children and trying to send letters to Thomas.


As I mentioned before, Gregory did so much right with this book, but she also did so much wrong too. One of the biggest problems with this book is that the longest story, Katherine's, is the most boring. While the early passages of Katherine and Ned's courtship is sweet, her imprisonment is less interesting and that covers most of that part. It might have been salvageable if Katherine was able to do anything while in there, perhaps but she spends most of the time in tears unable to do anything about her situation. Yes, I know prison is tough but that's no excuse to waste over 200 pages talking about it.

Jane and Mary's stories are far more interesting, but way too short.Jane's story is the most well known and Mary's not so much. But either one could have been expanded upon. For example, we get some tell of Jane's education, but we aren't shown it particularly her friendship with Kateryn Parr. Okay, she was queen for nine days but she barely sits on the throne before getting forced off. A few more chapters, even short ones, to describe her plans for ruling could have been added. And what about Mary? We are given very little of her and Thomas together. Shouldn't we get to know them as a couple before fate and Elizabeth drive them apart from each other?

Another problem in this book calls back to Lady of the Rivers, forgoing a more interesting protagonist for a lesser interesting one who only hears about the interesting one's adventures. This time Mary and Katherine get told about Mary Queen of Scot's marriages to the Dauphin of France, Lord Darnley, and the Earl of Bothwell. We are particularly given great details about Darnley's death and hints about Mary's possible involvement in it. This Reader read that section and thought, "Why aren't we reading about that?"

I know, I know. Mary Queen of Scots has been done to death but come on this is Philippa Gregory. The Cousin's War and the Six Wives of Henry VIII aren't exactly big historical secrets. Plus, there are ways that Gregory could have told that story from a fresh perspective, perhaps from Darnley himself, or Bothwell, or even Mary's ladies in waiting (who were all named Mary incidentally). She could dip into historical mystery with "Who Killed Lord Darnley?" just as easily as she did with the mysteries of the Princes in the Tower and Amy Dudley. Instead this is a missed opportunity. (That missed opportunity continues into the next book, the chronological final volume in the series, The Other Queen. More on that later.)


Above all, this book carries a sense of lethargy throughout. I compare The Last Tudor to the last time we saw the end of a family, The King's Curse. The latter carried a sense of darkness and tragedy as though an era really was dying out. It's felt through the characters as one by one they are either executed or survive by getting with the program. In the case of The Last Tudor, that despair isn't near as emotional. Instead it is muted by several pages of inaction and dullness. At least Margaret Pole tried to fight her fate by screaming and running from the executioner. The only one who really shows any spunk to challenge her situation is Mary and at least she lives.

Instead the intrigue is more stale. The characters are more predictable. The conflicts are less interesting.

It is clear that Gregory wanted to end the series and was pretty much running on autopilot throughout. She was probably looking forward to writing the words, "The End" as much as Jane Grey was looking forward to being martyred.




The Last Tudor is not the worst way to nearly end a series, but it could be better. At most it's average. However, for a series, that is so superb that makes the average worse.

Weekly Reader Philippa Gregory Edition: The Virgin's Lover (The Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series Vol. XIII) by Philippa Gregory; Gregory's Look At The Early Years of Good Queen Bess, The Not-So-Virgin Queen

Weekly Reader Philippa Gregory Edition: The Virgin's Lover (The Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series Vol. XIII) by Philippa Gregory; Gregory's Look at the Early Years of Good Queen Bess, the Not-So-Virgin Queen




By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




PopSugar Reading Challenge: Fiction or Nonfiction Book About The Leader of a Country


Spoilers: Of the protagonists in Philippa Gregory's Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series, none probably had the biggest impact in British and World History more than Queen Elizabeth I. The third longest reigning monarch (only Queen Victoria and the current Queen Elizabeth II have had longer), Elizabeth so affected the era in which she ruled that it was called the Elizabethan Age. As Queen, Elizabeth managed to soothe the religious turmoil led by her sister, Mary I whose Catholic rule involved the arrest and execution of many Protestants and the uncertainty of her father, Henry VIII who switched religions depending on wives. She did this by creating the Church of England which bore many of the same rituals as Catholicism but was Protestant in most of its tenets and beliefs. As for conversion, she insisted that "the crown did not look into men's hearts" and that as long as they payed lip service to the new church, they could believe what they want. The compromise wasn't perfect and later generations still questioned and debated the religious practises but it was what was sorely needed at the time to create some much needed stability.

She forged alliances with other countries but was bold enough to stand for battle with her soldiers when war was declared. One of Elizabeth's most famous moments is when she faced the Spanish Armada in full armor proudly declaring that she "may have the feeble body of a woman but had the heart and stomach of a king and a king of England."

She commissioned people like Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Francis Drake to go on sea voyages and explore other countries, thereby opening better trade routes and making London an important thriving city in the world market. She was also a strong patron of the arts supporting artists and writers like Edmund Spencer, Christopher Marlowe, and William Shakespeare giving her era great cultural significance.

Elizabeth affected an air of intelligence, poise, and confidence that many admired and was called various names like "Gloriana," "Good Queen Bess," and "The Virgin Queen." She did all of this, ruled her country for over 40 years, without a husband.


However, the Elizabeth that we meet in The Virgin's Lover is not the bold confident epoch making leader from history. She isn't even the brazen flirtatious self-centered princess that was last encountered in The Queen's Fool. Instead, she is someone who projects an image of self assured leadership but inside is quaking with fear, uncertainty, and deep emotion.


From the moment the bells ring to announce Mary's death and Elizabeth's reign, Elizabeth knows that she has to prove herself. She has to add to a treasury that has been depleted by funds used by the vacated Prince Phillip for the disastrous War for Calais. She has to maintain broken alliances with not only other countries but within her own as Protestants and Catholics have turned against each other. She also has to lead the Privy Council who since the last female leader proved to be a huge disappointment are not too willing to be led by another woman. All Elizabeth sees are fears and challenges towards her right to ascend the throne.


Two other characters hear the bells and have their own emotional connections to them. Robert Dudley hears them and sees his chance for love and advancement. A childhood friend of Elizabeth's, Robert has grown to become Elizabeth's Master of the Horse, strongest confidant, and secret lover. He knows that Elizabeth would be overwhelmed by her new role and will need a shoulder to cry on. Robert's shoulder will be conveniently there when she needs it. The ever ambitious Dudley also sees a chance for his family to retrieve much of the wealth and prestige that they once had under King Edward but lost under Queen Mary. Robert longs for a chance to be accepted into Elizabeth's Privy Council as well as her bed and who knows maybe king.


Unfortunately, Robert has a very specific reason that prevents him from openly courting Elizabeth: his wife, Amy. Amy Dudley hears the bells announcing Elizabeth as Queen and reacts with loathing, disgust, and the certain fear that her husband will leave her. Unlike her husband who lives to be center stage, Amy is content to remain in the country of Norfolk at her estate and away from palace life. She wants Robert to remain with her. However, she knows that Robert is going off to be with Elizabeth and there is nothing that she can do about it but seethe with hatred towards the Queen.


Robert's influence on Elizabeth begins during her coronation. Despite the tight budget, Robert wants to make it a coronation to remember. He arranges the various details such as the gown Elizabeth will wear, the stops that she will make, and the alleged "spontaneous" outpourings of praise such as a peasant shouting for God to bless her. There has never been a more rehearsed bit of spontaneity.

From the coronation, it's clear that Robert wants to make Elizabeth the center of attention and in turn himself. He is in love with Elizabeth and they have some romantic moments together such as when they lie in bed and declare themselves husband and wife in God's eyes. But Robert is also arrogant, conceited, and always on the lookout in his own self interest. He creates rivalries within the Council, particularly with Elizabeth's chief advisor, William "Spirit" Cecil. Robert can't resist lording any victory over Cecil such as when Elizabeth gives him the Order of the Garter.

But every victory makes Robert greedy for another. While Robert loves Elizabeth, it is also clear that he also loves power. If Elizabeth were just a peasant woman or a minor courtier, Robert would quickly bed and then discard her. He loves Elizabeth's beauty, intelligence, and personality, but he also loves her crown. And it is entirely possible that it's the crown he loves more.


Robert's hold on Elizabeth is great, partly because of her own uncertainty in her role. Elizabeth's nervousness makes sense when we take her upbringing into consideration. She was the third choice for the role and sometimes not even that. Once her brother was born, she was dismissed for being a girl and once her sister was restored to the family line, dismissed for being the second girl. She had been bastardized and many questioned her paternity. She lost her mother at three and was distant from her stepmothers except Kateryn Parr, her last one. She did not have the royal training nor the assumption that she would ascend the throne until Mary did not produce heirs. She barely lived at the palace, a fact made painfully clear when she enters for the first time, unsure about where to go. Whereas Robert who had lived there expertly guides her as though he already sees himself as king consort.

Every major test seems to show Elizabeth looking around and asking, "How am I doing?"


When she was princess everyone thought that Elizabeth's most important duty would be to have an advantageous marriage, something that she doesn't mind playing as Queen. Several times she offers her hand to Europe's Most Eligible Royal Bachelors in acceptance for alliances. Many of her advisers especially Cecil pester her about which man she should marry believing that Elizabeth could never possibly lead on her own.

On the contrary, the debacle about her marriage ends up being the moment that Elizabeth is able to come into her own as a leader. She courts various royals such as Prince Erik of Sweden, the Earl of Arran of Scotland, and even her former brother-in-law, Prince Phillip of Spain. She claims to consider marriage just long enough for an alliance to form, but then withdraws it once the alliance is officially secured. It becomes a clever force of diplomacy that Elizabeth grows into.


Meanwhile, Robert hypocritically stews in jealousy over Elizabeth's various marriage proposals conveniently forgetting about his wife nestled in the country. To her credit while Gregory writes Amy as sometimes a clingy jealous bitch, she also makes her sympathetic partly because Robert is such an arrogant piece of work. Instead of placing blame entirely with either one, it becomes clear that their marriage is one of complete incompatibility. This is evident in the passages when Amy looks for a country home and believes that Robert's interests match her own. She selects a small home in the heart of the country far away from palace life. Not surprising to anyone but Amy, Robert dismisses the house as a hovel and doesn't even stay a day.


Amy and Robert are so different that it's hard to understand why they got married in the first place. We are told that they were in love when they were wed and Amy still continues to be obsessed with him, putting friendships, her relationship with her bitter stepmother, and her own health at risk. Perhaps their marriage is a good reason for Elizabeth not to marry. She doesn't want to be that dependent on a man. Elizabeth sees who she could be if she married not just Robert but anyone else.

Amy clings to her Catholic faith as a balm to soothe her ache from her loveless marriage but also because the priest tells her what she wants to hear. He agrees with her opinion that Elizabeth is a whore and that Robert can never divorce her. When Robert tells Amy that he wants a divorce, she refused citing the Catholic prohibition against it. The Dudley marriage is one that has made both miserable and cannot end, as many observe, until one or the other is dead.

As she did with the Princes in the Tower, Gregory offers another potential solution to History's Mysteries. This one is "Who Killed Amy Dudley?" What is known is that Amy Dudley tumbled down a flight of steps, breaking her neck and killing her instantly. What is also known is that despite the opportunity, Robert Dudley did not marry Elizabeth. Instead their relationship cooled and Robert ultimately married Elizabeth's second cousin, Lettice Knolleys who bore a strong resemblance to the Queen. Elizabeth had other lovers including Robert's stepson, the Earl of Essex but when she died she had her last letter from Robert by her side.

The Virgin's Lover offers a possible answer to this mystery that also answers why the pair broke up. It takes into consideration Robert's ambitious interest in the throne and Elizabeth's unwillingness to surrender her hard won leadership over to anyone especially to someone who shows signs of making decisions on his own without consulting her though she is Queen. Robert wants the throne and for Elizabeth to give up her independence. Those are things that she cannot and will not surrender even for him. This leads to not only Amy's death but the inevitable end of their relationship.

The Virgin's Lover gives us an inside look at the early years of one of the most famous female monarchs in history to show us the woman underneath that reputation as well as the love that shaped her and the actions that led to the making of a great Queen.

Weekly Reader Philippa Gregory Edition: The Queen's Fool (The Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series Vol. XII) by Philippa Gregory; Fictional Protagonist Sees Reign of Queen Mary I Up Close

Weekly Reader Philippa Gregory Edition: The Queen’s Fool (The Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series Vol. XII) by Philippa Gregory; Fictional Protagonist Sees Reign of Queen Mary I Up Close


By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews


Spoilers: Of Philippa Gregory's The Plantagenet and Tudor Court books, The Queen's Fool has a peculiar legacy. It is the only one of the entire series that tells the book through the eyes of a fictional character.

The advantage of this unique volume is that the fictional character is just as well-written and developed as her real-life counterparts.

The fictional character is Hannah Verde, also known as Hannah Greene, a young Jewish woman. Hannah has fled Inquisition-era Spain with her father and Daniel Carpenter, her betrothed. They now live in an England that is reeling from the death of King Henry VIII and ascension of his frail son, King Edward VI.

Hannah tries to settle into life in England by working in her father's print shop making and selling books and not looking forward to her upcoming wedding. One day three men stroll into the shop. Two are Robert Dudley, the son of John Dudley, King Edward's regent and the most powerful man in England, and John Dee, astrologer and advisor to the king. However, the third man gets the most attention when it is revealed that only Hannah can see him and no one else can. Dee reasons that she must have seen an angel and that Hannah possesses clairvoyant abilities, called the Sight.

Seeing a distinct advantage to having a psychic friend, Robert begs for Hannah's services as a fool to King Edward. Hannah finds herself acting as a fool to Edward then after his death to Edward's sister, Queen Mary I. Hannah then is recruited as a spy and go-between among Mary and her younger sister, Princess Elizabeth. She then finds herself caught between worlds:. Raised Jewish but forced to conform to the religions that the Royals practice, arranged to marry Daniel but falling in love with Robert, and becoming a close confidant and unofficial advisor to both Queen Mary and Princess Elizabeth.

Hannah is a fascinating protagonist in that she is completely different from the other narrators of these books. For the first time, we see the court through the eyes of a commoner with no noble or royal distinction. It's interesting reading about how the average working person lived and survived in Tudor England.

We also get to see what it is like to be an outsider and minority in this era. Hannah and her friends and family have to hide their Jewishness from the outside world. They practice their religion in secret by celebrating the High Holy Days in dark rooms behind locked doors and closed drapes. They whisper Hebrew prayers and only privately call one another by secret names that reveal their religion. They hide all of their Torahs and Hebrew language books away from curious customers. It gets to the point where Hannah is ashamed of all of this hiding and becomes dismissive of her religion. She later recants these feelings to the point that she proudly insists that the child who is put into her care is circumcised.

In one heart tugging moment, Hannah is left alone with her father's books and considers destroying them. She can't bring herself to do it, because she realized that she would be no better than the Inquisition that burned her mother and considered “ideas to be dangerous.” As a woman who has a deep thirst for knowledge and learning that is found in books, she cannot bear for that to happen.

Through Hannah's narration, we meet three rulers of England and hear about a fourth. King Edward is young and sickly and unfortunately dies before he can leave any lasting impact. However, he is ruled by regents who use the prince to get their way. After Edward's death, Dudley tries to get his Protestant daughter in law, Jane Grey to become queen and gets her on the throne for nine days before they are arrested and executed. (We only hear about Jane and get no sense of her as a character. Her story is saved for The Last Tudor).


However, we do get to meet Mary and Elizabeth who are interesting in their characterization. Mary is written as a woman who has a full awareness that time is running out for her. She does not ascend the throne until she is in her late-30’s so she is desperate to create a lasting legacy after years of being disgraced, bastardized, and ignored.

She throws herself into a hasty marriage to Prince Phillip of Spain and is desperate to conceive a child. Even though Hannah's Sight warns Mary that this is a marriage destined for heartbreak, Mary doesn't care. She placates her young husband and looks the other way when he flirts with other women including her own sister. On two emotional occasions, she announces that she is pregnant and goes into seclusion to deliver. Both times, no baby appears and she stays in seclusion long after the believed due dates.

Mary is also fervently devoted to her Catholic religion considering it the only comfort in her tumultuous past of the banishment and death of her mother, the disgrace and dismissal by her father, and the revolving door of stepmothers. Mary's Catholic faith was the one constant in her life, so it's no surprise that she would find solace in it upon adulthood.

However as Mary's life implodes she becomes more ruthless and fanatic. She constantly pressures Elizabeth to convert to Catholicism not listening to the princesses’ claims of illness and not knowing the catechism. Even though she is concerned for her sister's soul, she is still highly suspicious of her and has her put under house arrest numerous times.As her marriage to Phillip disintegrates, Mary becomes a dictator putting Protestants to death if they do not conform to Catholicism. Hannah is horrified as the Queen that she once loved and respected becomes another Inquisitor in her life.

By contrast, Elizabeth gives Hannah someone to admire. Unlike Mary who is dour and shriveled up from all of the waiting, Elizabeth is young and has plenty of years ahead of her. She is vibrant, witty, and alive with fire and passion. When she enters a room, she makes everyone else fade away by her brilliance, especially her sister. (Hannah realizes that Mary had better marry Elizabeth off and fast otherwise she will be in complete competition against her.)

While Hannah looks at Mary as a mother figure and pities her because of her sorrows, she sees Elizabeth as almost an older sister, someone whom Hannah could be like. She sees Elizabeth's independence and how she carries herself at court and wishes she could be that self-assured. She sees how Elizabeth openly flirts with men, loving the attention but refusing to give her heart to them and wishes that she didn't have to be tied down and married. Elizabeth is a woman that Hannah hopes to become.

Elizabeth is a shrewd game player. Her every move, word, and action is calculated to ensure her survival. She will do anything from remaining bedridden from stress related illness to studying the catechism while greeting Protestant ministers in secret, to not only play the game, but to win.

This plays into her romantic relationship. When she lives with her stepmother, Kathryn Parr and Kate's fourth husband, Thomas Seymour, Elizabeth allows Thomas into her bed and plays sexual games with him. Then when Thomas is arrested for treason, Elizabeth denies being with him. (In reality, no one is sure how active Elizabeth was in Thomas's Seymour's seduction of her. Most of her enemies said she was a willing participant. Supporters believed her. Most modern historians believe at the very least, Thomas had committed statutory rape with her and she was a victim who was coerced into being with him.)

Elizabeth pulls the same trick with other men including Prince Phillip and Robert Dudley. She flirts with them to gain powerful allies and the upper hand in her rivalry with Mary. However, what is clear is Elizabeth is a woman with her own mind and will not allow any man to rule over her.

Mary and Elizabeth's influence play into Hannah's life as well. As the Fool, her role in court is to wear men's clothing, tell jokes, and predict the future using cryptic clues. Since she can say whatever she wants, she has the unusual task of being blunt and honest to the monarchs and keep her head. Her gift of the Sight also holds great interest in court.

Through her involvement with Mary and Elizabeth, Hannah sees other alternatives to how a woman could live her life. She had been reluctant to marry Daniel in the first place, and now likes the freedom this strange role as a Fool gives her. Not to mention that she harbors a crush on the handsome and charismatic Robert Dudley. For a time, Hannah is separated from her father and Daniel as they move to Calais and then Genoa. Hannah enjoys her independence and freedom that comes with the territory of being the Fool.

Unfortunately, Hannah's happiness is short lived when Mary suspects her of treason. Hannah flees to Calais and settles into marrying Daniel, giving up her former life of palace intrigue and friendships with the Queen and Princess.

In some of the slowest portions of the book, Hannah has to uncomfortably settle into the life of a Jewish wife and then later, after the English lose possession of Calais, has to go into hiding in the country home of Robert’s wife, Amy. However, they both reveal Hannah's difficulties of conforming to the life of a normal woman of the Tudor era. They also show her reconciliation with her Jewish heritage as she begins to find common ground with Daniel and her father and cares for a young abandoned boy.

While Hannah Greene was not a real person, Philippa Gregory's writing makes her a compelling character that is just as real as everyone else around her.

Weekly Reader Philippa Gregory Edition: The Taming of The Queen (The Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series Vol. XI) by Philippa Gregory; Story of Henry VIII's Sixth Wife Tells of a Woman of Great Intellect and Independence

Weekly Reader Philippa Gregory Edition: The Taming of the Queen (The Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series Vol. XI) by Philippa Gregory; Story of Henry VIII's Sixth Wife Tells of a Woman of Great Intellect and Independence

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews


Spoilers: One thing can be said about King Henry VIII is that he loved variety. No two of his wives were exactly alike. There was the strong-willed warrior, Katherine of Aragon. Followed by the seductive and conniving, Anne Boleyn. Then the sweet domestic, Jane Seymour. Then came the willful and independent, Anne of Cleves. Followed by the dizzy romantic, Katherine Howard.

We now come to the last wife, Kateryn Parr. What set her apart from her predecessors was her age and experience.

Parr was the oldest of Henry's wives at the time of her marriage. She was 30-years-old and unlike her predecessors had been married before. Twice. She also had an understanding with Thomas Seymour, a courtier and brother of the late Wife #3 Jane Seymour. Of course that understanding came to an end when Henry came a-courtin’. (Only to reconvene after Henry's death.)

Also what set Kateryn Parr apart from the previous five were her literary and scholarly ambitions. While Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn were both highly intelligent women with various talents and abilities, they used those skills and learning mostly to serve as aides to Henry.

Parr however was not only well-read, but she was also a good writer. In fact, she published three books in her lifetime and became the first queen of England to have a work published under her own name.


In her final work on the wives of King Henry VIII, Philippa Gregory describes in great detail not only the marriage of Parr to Henry but her impact as a writer, an intellectual, and a woman of great thought and independence.


In the Taming of the Queen we first encounter Kateryn right at the point where she is proposed to by Ol’ Henry. She isn't exactly excited at the prospect of marrying a man who beheaded two wives, divorced two, and was away as another died in childbirth. Really, who could blame her?

In fact, Kate has dreams that she is Tryphine, the wife of Bluebeard, and she sneaks to his secret room where all of his wives’ bodies are stored. Kate is naturally terrified that she could be next.


Kate is haunted by the ghosts of the former wives. Everyone compares her to them. Her sister, Nan, served under the various wives and tells her about them. Kate tries to choose a motto that is different from the other wives’. (She settles on “To be useful in all that I do.”)

She goes through the jewelry and decor and find that the other wives have left their styles behind, to the point that Kate can't go anywhere or find anything that a former wife hasn't owned or touched. (Helpfully, Nan reminds Kate that she is the first to collect clocks.)

In one of the most difficult passages, Kate poses for her family portrait with Henry, Prince Edward, and Princesses Mary and Elizabeth. She is stunned when the portrait is revealed and instead of her, it shows Jane Seymour, the wife that Henry claims that he has always loved and still grieves for. Though the book implies that he only misses her because she gave him the long awaited living son.


Kate has to make her mark. One of the ways that she does this is successfully compartmentalizes her emotions. While yes, she had to leave Thomas Seymour behind, she remembers the troubles that Anne Boleyn and Kitty Howard had when they took on lovers. Even though, she sees Thomas quite often, she keeps her emotions in check so as not to betray her true feelings or get caught.


She also develops close bonds with Henry's children. She becomes a surrogate mother to Edward by caring for the young boy. She is a confidant to Mary when the princess confesses her concerns over the marriages that her father arranges for her as well as her determination to stay true to her mother's Catholic religion.

Kate also serves as a mentor to Princess Elizabeth. When Kate is declared regent in Henry's absence, Elizabeth watches in amazement to see a woman take power, rule the country, set laws, and control the various advisors and councilman on her own. Throughout the book, Kate gives Elizabeth advice that echoes in the young woman's future career as queen. Once, Kate tells Elizabeth that people may think that she has the frail body of a woman, but that she must have the heart and stomach of a king of England. Of course this would be the famous speech that Elizabeth would later give to the English troops when they faced the Spanish Armada.


Like the other books in the Tudor portion of the series, religion is an important issue and in this case plays into Kate's literary and scholastic impact. She was from a once-Catholic family that converted to Protestantism. However, she questions Catholic teachings herself such as why do people need to confess sins to a priest? Why do they have to buy indulgences to get out of Purgatory? Why can't the Bible be in English or any other language? Why can't women be permitted to lead the church?

These questions concern Kate so she begins to form a study group of religious scholars, intellectuals, philosophers, and other thinkers to get some opinions. One of the people that visits is Anne Askew, an outspoken woman who preaches at her own religious groups and holds definite opinions about women's role in church. Because Anne is such a controversial figure and is arrested quite often, Kate is wary about her friendship with the woman. However, she also is in awe of her faith and confidence.


Kate also takes leadership within the church. Her studies inspire her to write and she has a book called Psalms published anonymously and later writes another called Prayers or Meditations, this time published under her own name. (A third, Lamentations of a Sinner, is published after Henry's death.)

Unfortunately, it is her religious studies and works that make her a target especially with their ever changeable king. One minute Henry is encouraging her studies by saying how much he loves intelligent women. The next he is publicly chastising her for her opinions.

In one awful passage, he plays psychological mind games with her by whipping her in public and calling her the lead in his new play, The Taming of the Queen.

In fact Kate is almost arrested and it is only Henry's death that keeps her from following the path of her predecessors.

The Taming of the Queen makes a great end to Gregory's books about Henry VIII's Wives. Kateryn Parr was an intelligent and literary woman of strong opinions and forthrightness. Above all, she did what very few of her predecessors did: She survived.

Best of the Best Part 2: Weekly Reader and Beyond

Best of the Best 2019 Part 2: Weekly Reader and Beyond

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




Spoilers: This has been an interesting year for books written between 2000-2018. I experimented with some ideas so the individual books aren't near as many but I had two favorite series that made up for it.




I also am using this page to feature books that I reviewed for other sources. Because of restrictions with the sites, I won't post the reviews. I will only post the titles and links to the reviews that I did for those sites.

10. You Got To Read This Book: 55 People Tell The Story of the Book That Changed Their Life Edited by Jack Canfield and Gay Hendricks-The title says it all. Several writers, actors, speakers, artists, musicians, entrepreneurs, athletes, philanthropists, and business people talk about different books that helped them through various crises and how they offered solutions. This is a beautiful encouraging book that reveals the transformative power of reading and how the right book at the right time could shape your life. What can I say but you got to read this You Got to Read This Book book?

9. Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales by Stephen King-Just as brilliant with his short works as he is long, King's anthology makes for perfect horror reading. The suspense and terror is filled in every situation from haunted houses, to portraits that come to life, to frightening psychic abilities, to hostels full of vampires, to encounters with Death. King is still a master at sending that chill down your spine.

8. Greenspell: A Fantasy Anthology by Kathy Ann Trueman-As she did last year with her Stories of the Vale novel, Trueman reveals that she knows how to turn the epic fantasy genre on its head. These stories feature women who either use magic or encounter magical beings and objects. The stories present a nice variety of characters and situations that don't feel repetitive and make for clever brilliant reading. This anthology is a truly magical read.

7. All Aunt Hagar's Children by Edward P.. Jones- This anthology features stories that transcend genres to tell about the experience of African-American people in Washington DC. Jones sends up and uses various means from historical fiction, to mystery, to magical realism, to science fiction parallel universes to comment on his characters and their struggles with life, love, and acceptance.

6. Julien's Terror by Laura Rhame-This engaging novel about the French Revolution is a unique read. Julien and his wife, Marguerite are on opposite sides of the Revolution and the subsequent Reign of Terror. There are suspicions, accusations, and questions abound. Things take a particularly bizarre turn as the couple become literally haunted by the ghosts of their past.

5. Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly-This is a brilliant novel of three women who are on opposite sides during WWII: Kasia Kuzmerick, one of several Polish women sent to the Ravensbruck prison camp to be experimented on, Dr. Herta Oberheuser, the woman who oversaw the experiments on the women, and Caroline Ferriday, the American actress who helped the women receive treatment. Each character is individualized as they recount their conflicts, struggles, and their relations. It is a fascinating book that tells all sides of the story.

4. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon-The ultimate must read for Comic Book fans. Chabon brings to life two cousins Joseph Kavalier and Sammy Clay as they change the comic works with the creation of The Escapist. The book covers various events and people from the 1930’s-’50’s from Superman, to Salvador Dali, to Citizen Kane, to World War II. He also gives us two memorable leads as they struggle with love and maturity.

3. Circe by Madeleine Miller-A magical novel in which the sorceress from Homer's The Odyssey has the floor. Circe recalls the various myths like Prometheus, Theseus and The Minotaur, Daedalus and Icarus, and of course The Odyssey. Her narrative calls to question the various characters and their actions as well as how she sought her own power and independence from her disapproving family.

2. The Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series by Philippa Gregory-One of two series which I read this year. Gregory covers various events during the history of the English monarchy from the War of the Roses, to the six wives of Henry VIII, to the reigns of Queens Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I. Gregory writes full developed characters, particularly the women making them individuals in their personalities and behaviors. These books cover war, political intrigue, sibling rivalry, generation gaps, infidelity, and religious struggles all with an adept and detailed hand.

Even though I have not finished posting the reviews at the time of this writing, I have read the series in its entirety and the order of the books from least to most favorite are as follows: The Lady of the Rivers, The Other Queen, Three Sisters, Three Queens, The White Princess, The Constant Princess, The Virgin's Lover, The Last Tudor, The Kingmaker's Daughter, The Red Queen, The King's Curse, The Queen's Fool, The Taming of the Queen, The Other Boleyn Girl, The Boleyn Inheritance, The White Queen

The Thursday Next Series by Jasper Fforde-If you are a book lover, you have to experience the Thursday Next Series at least once. This brilliant imaginative original series is every book lover's dream come to life.

Thursday Next is a clever tough intelligent protagonist as she explores various literary crimes in and around her native Swindon. Things take a really epic journey when her adventures take her into the Book World, the world inside books where all our favorite literary characters hang out when they aren't being read. This series is the ultimate tribute and love letter between Author, Book, and Reader.

The order from least to most favorite in this series are as follows: The Woman Who Died A Lot, First Among Sequels, Something Rotten, One of Our Thursdays is Missing, The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots




Honorable Mention: The Twilight Zone Companion by Marc Zircee, Maggie Elizabeth Harrington by D.J. Swykert, Cogrill's Mill by Jack Lindsey, Emmie of Indianapolis by Kay Castaneda, Alpha Wolves by D.J., Swykert, Succubus Affair by R.E. Wood, Voodoo Warning by R.E. Wood




Elsewhere

10. The Cult Next Door: A Manhattan Memoir by Elizabeth R. Blanchard

9. Of Myriad Paths/Wind in the Flute by Saal Baraan

8. World Incorporated by Tom Gariffo

7. The Place of Quarantine by Vadim Babenko

6. Exuberance: The Passion for Life by Kay Redfield Jamison

5. Cycles of the Phoenix: The Whole Interlaced Series by C.A. Nicholas

4. The Marvelous Adventures of Gwendolyn Gray by B.A. Williamson

3. Sharp: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion by Michelle Dean

2. Wise Women: Over Ten Thousand Years of Spiritual Writing by Women Edited by Susan Cahill


The Creative Process: Reflections on Invention in the Arts and Sciences Edited by Brewster Ghiselin

Weekly Reader Philippa Gregory Edition: The Boleyn Inheritance (The Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series Vol. X) by Philippa Gregory; One of the Best Books in the Series Covers Least Known of Henry VIII's Wives

Weekly Reader Philippa Gregory Edition: The Boleyn Inheritance (The Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series Vol. X) by Philippa Gregory; One of the Best Books in the Series Covers Least Known of Henry VIII's Wives

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Of the six wives of King Henry VIII, probably the least known are Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard.

Henry VIII first encountered Anne of Cleves when he observed her portrait by Hans Holbein. Liking the look of her, he proposed from a distance. No sooner than they were wed, than Henry derided her as “fat” and called her “the Flanders Mare.” They were married less than six months when Henry divorced her citing a previous betrothal between her and the Duke of Lorraine which declared her not free to wed. She agreed to the divorce and accepted the title as “The King's Sister.”

Katherine Howard, was sixteen and Anne of Cleves’ lady in waiting when the fiftyish Henry set his eyes on her. They were wed after Henry's divorce but their marriage lasted over a year. She was arrested with her lover, Thomas Culpepper and beheaded.

Told at face value, many would think of Anne of Cleves as ugly and Katherine Howard as stupid. But in her usual gift for writing, Gregory gives these two wives a lot of depth and character making them some of the best protagonists and this one of the best books in the Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series.

In many of the novels in the series, Gregory plays with the narratives. For example, The Virgin’s Lover and The Other Queen use male viewpoints. The Queen's Fool's narrator is a fictional character. With the Other Boleyn Girl, Gregory did the insurmountable task of making Anne Boleyn alternately detestable and fascinating. With, the Boleyn Inheritance, Gregory juggles three narratives of three different women all with their own agendas to be a part of King Henry's court no matter how dangerous it may be.

Anne longs to be free from her oppressive family particularly her mentally ill father, cold mother, and abusive brother. Her family are strict Protestants and they believe that Anne's marriage to Henry will not only ally England with Germany but permanently bring England into the Protestant religion. (Henry waffled his religious persuasion with his wives from Catholic with Katherine, to Protestant with Anne, back to Catholic sort of with Jane.)

However, Anne's brother may claim religion, but his actions suggest otherwise. He is physically and mentally abusive towards Anne and implied to be sexually as well since he constantly orders Anne to cover up to hide her body from men's lustful eyes including his own. Anne's family order her to wear plain tightly constrained gowns and covered hoods, that look frumpy and dowdy and cause her to be derided by the people around her.

However, once Anne sees her adopted home country of England and the freedom that women have as compared to her rigid upbringing, Anne does not want to return to Cleves and her family's cruelty. She looks forward to the independence that she hopes to get as Queen.

Kitty Howard also wants to fulfill family obligations and obtain romance and excitement. Kitty is cheerful, romantic, beautiful, and not entirely bright. She has been trained and educated to be a lady in waiting for the queen and can't wait to fill that role. Her Uncle Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk eyes her appreciatively and wants her to fulfill the family interests. If she catches the king's roving eye so much the better.

Kitty enjoys the attention that is bestowed upon her as a lady in waiting and then as Queen. She constantly itemizes and counts all of her material items no matter how high or low her status is. She also has qualms about marrying a man who is abusive, sickly, perverted, who three of his previous wives died, and is old enough to be her grandfather. She likes the material possessions, but not the man that she is married to and recklessly engages in her affair with Thomas Culpepper.

The third narrator is Jane Parker Boleyn, Viscontess of Rochford widow of George Boleyn and sister-in-law of Anne Boleyn and Mary Boleyn Cary Stafford. As Uncle Thomas describes her, Jane's name is a byword for lust, greed, and betrayal. She turned evidence on her husband and sister-in-law accusing them of incest and adultery resulting in their executions. Uncle Thomas recruits her to be Anne and then Kitty's lady in waiting and his palace insider.

Jane is a particularly one-dimensional villain without the fascination of Anne Boleyn or multi layers of many of the War of the Roses antagonists. Instead, she keeps justifying her earlier actions. She was trying to save her husband. She didn't think they were going to kill them. What else could she do? etc.

Jane never takes personal responsibility in her betrayal and has selective memory about those days insisting that she, George, and Anne were the best of friends laughing, hanging out together, and were the centers of the court. Jane insists that she was passionately in love with George who would have loved her in return if not for his jealous and conniving sister.

She chooses not to remember that in the Other Boleyn Girl, George spent a great deal of time trying to get away from her, had a male lover, and confided in his sisters about his unhappy marriage and their plans to seduce Henry. Jane instead was known to the Boleyn Siblings as a pest who was constantly listening through keyholes and stealing correspondences.

Not just Jane, but Thomas Howard has emerged as the true villain. He knows what to dangle in front of people and how to use them. He guarantees freedom for Anne, pretty things for Kitty, and an advantageous second marriage for Jane to get them to do whatever he wants. He is completely malicious and hateful and unfortunately like many villains, he gets no comeuppance. He abandons others to save his skin so he can live another day. (Unfortunately, he lived well into Mary Tudor's reign and remains a key player in the next two books.)

However while Jane and Thomas are detestable with few qualities that their predecessors had, Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard more than make up for it by being outstanding. There are many chapters that show this but two passages in particular show the difference between the two in personality and in status.

The first passage happens right after Anne's arrival in England. She and her ladies in waiting, including Jane and Kitty, attend a bear baiting when a tall elderly stranger walks in and begins flirting with Anne. Anne is disgusted and bids him to leave. When he doesn't get the hint, he attempts to kiss her and Anne spits in his face. Kitty however recognizes King Henry from his arrival, stands, and says politely that she is a stranger and would this kind and handsome stranger show her around the kingdom.

This scene characterizes many of the traits that contribute to Anne's descent and Kitty's ascent. Anne was brought up very strictly and was not subjected to palace life. She would not be aware of such things as masquerades and courtly play.
Kitty's family was a central player in palace life so she has known all along that King Henry disguises himself and is pleased when people pretend not to recognize him.
This also shows Anne as willing and wanting to please the king up to a point. She is willing to argue and fight if she feels compromised.
Kitty is also given a chance to show that she is more than she seems as well. While she is still dizzy and frivolous, she has a sharp cunning side that is willing to play the game.

The other reason that this scene is important is that it foreshadows Henry's dislike for Wife #4 and favor towards Wife #5. By insulting and spitting at him, Anne's honest and forthright demeanor shows Henry as he really is: a foolish old man trying to win the favor of girls in their teens and early twenties. Anne is someone who doesn't act like a fawning courtier or tells him what he wants to hear. She is someone to tell him the truth. She is almost the voice of the people. For someone who had been spoiled, coddled, and surrounded by sycophants, yes men, mistresses, and an already revolving door of wives, the truth is the last thing Henry wants to hear. He would rather say that something is wrong with the wife than with him. Hence his mocking of her appearance and the impediment that he conveniently uses to discredit her.

Kitty however is from the family of fawning courtiers and sycophants. She knows what to say and how to say it. She knows that an older man likes flattery and wants to feel young. Put Kitty and Henry in modern day and they would definitely have a Trophy Wife/Sugar Daddy relationship. Kitty is the wild oat that an older man like Henry wants to sow and her family and she are just avaricious enough to let him have her.

The second passage shows a reversal of roles between Kitty and Anne. After Anne and Henry have divorced and Henry and Kitty have married, Anne makes an appearance at his Christmas party. Gone is the confused shy German girl with the frumpy clothing. Instead, she is dressed in a Renaissance-era gown and French hood. Where she was once mocked for her weight, instead she is seen as having strength and substance. While Kitty has the king's hand, she no longer wants it. Instead she retreats to the arms of her lover, Culpepper.

This moment reveals how much the women have changed over the book and what they consider as success. Anne has gained her independence. Because of the impediment that caused her divorce, Henry declared that she cannot remarry which is fine with her. She has thrived in England. She has her own estate and staff. She bonded with Henry's three children from his previous marriages particularly Prince Edward and has the love of the people. She has become the free beloved woman that she always wanted to be.

Kitty however has also revealed her true nature as well. It is difficult to truly hate her. She is a sweet, cheerful, frivolous, mental lightweight put in a situation in which she was unsuited. She spends all her days wearing gowns and jewelry, playing with her dogs and cats, laughing with her younger ladies in waiting, and being romanced by Culpepper. She is an eternal child who all along was much too immature and thoughtless to be the queen and in some ways she knows it too. She just doesn't articulate it. Instead she retreats into her vain desires and giggling girlfriends.

When she falls in love with Culpepper, it is almost Kitty's own declaration of independence to take a lover of her own. Ironically, this is where she gains some substance wondering if the king can have as many lovers as she wants, why does the queen have to hide her own feelings. She appeals to her own desire for romance and affection that Culpepper provides as well as the material goods Henry provides.

Of course, Uncle Thomas and Jane are there to manipulate Kitty and Culpepper’s affair so she can hopefully produce the spare to go with Prince Edward, the heir. Jane arranges Kitty and Culpepper to meet in private so they can have their liaisons.

Uncle Thomas knows that if they succeed, the Howards have a lock on the Tudor family. If Kitty fails, she is the type who is foolish enough to hang herself. He is not surprised when she gets caught and does what he does best: looks out for #1.

Jane, Kitty, and Anne handle the fallout of Kitty's arrest in their own ways. Jane is also arrested for arranging Kitty and Culpepper's affair.She feigns madness, to avoid execution. Though throughout the book, her stalkerish obsessive thoughts for George and her psychotic love and hatred for Anne Boleyn reveal that she was probably insane all along. She is surrounded by her guilty conscience and has run out of excuses to justify it.

Kitty however gains the grace and dignity that had been buried under the romantic schoolgirl frivolity. No matter what she did whether it was entering a room or addressing a dignitary, she practiced until she got it right. Resigned to her sentence, she does the only thing that she can do. She asks for a block in her cell so she can practice lowering her head upon it in front of the executioner. She wants to leave the world calm, graceful, and composed: traits that she never had in life.

Anne however emerges the ultimate victor. In an epilogue set after Henry's death, she is glad to have outlived him and most of the other wives. (Indeed she lived to see Queen Mary's coronation.) In her home and life that she has grown to love, Anne of Cleves has one of the best lines in the entire series: “I will own a cat and not fear being called a witch.” She has earned what most women long for: freedom.

The Boleyn Inheritance not only looks at Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard, but it makes them stand out as some of the best protagonists in the entire series. Philippa Gregory turned Henry VIII’s forgotten wives into women worth remembering.

Weekly Reader Philippa Gregory Edition: The Other Boleyn Girl (The Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series Vol. IX) by Philippa Gregory; Fascinating Novel of The Most Famous Wife of King Henry VIII

Weekly Reader Philippa Gregory Edition: The Other Boleyn Girl (The Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series Vol. IX) by Philippa Gregory; Fascinating Novel of The Most Famous Wife of King Henry VIII

By Julie Sara Porter

Spoilers: Of the six wives of King Henry VIII, the most well known is certainly Anne Boleyn.
The mother of Queen Elizabeth I, Boleyn was the cause of Henry's divorce not only from his first wife, Katherine of Aragon but also his excommunication from the Catholic Church and indirectly inspired Henry's creation of the Church of England.She is also known as the wife who was tried and executed for various charges including adultery, witchcraft, and incest.
In popular culture, Boleyn has been portrayed as everything from a brilliant ambitious woman dedicated to Protestant Reform to an avaricious lustful whore and just about everything in between.

Gregory favors the more villainous or rather anti-heroic approach for Boleyn by writing her as a brilliant strategist who is always looking out for #1 and get whatever she wants becoming a juicy antagonistic character.
To set this book apart from the multitudes of other historical fiction and nonfiction about Anne Boleyn, Gregory wisely tells her version not from Anne's narrative, but that of her younger sister, Mary Boleyn Cary. Mary begins the book as a 14-year-old newlywed who is assigned by her avaricious family to become the lover of King Henry VIII.

Mary is humiliated by the assignment and concerned about publicly embarrassing her husband, William. However, she knows that her mother's powerful family, the Howards particularly her uncle Thomas, have tremendous influence in England and could make things difficult for her should she refuse. Not to mention becoming the King's mistress is a frightfully easy task since Henry is on the outs with his wife, Katherine of Aragon since she couldn't bear him a healthy living son. He has had more than a few women who have warmed his bed in the past such as Margaret Shelto and Bessie Blount, the latter of whom gave birth to the king's illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy. Using tricks taught by her sister, Anne who learned at the French court in which she was educated, Mary enchants Henry and eventually joins him as his mistress.

Mary's family delights in their newfound lands and titles. Mary gives birth to two children, Henry and Catherine but starts to feel guilty about her role as the mistress of the king. She longs for a different, better life and begins to rebel against her family's commands. Sensing that May is becoming too difficult to control, Uncle Thomas sends in a relief player: Mary's sister, Anne.

While Mary is recuperating from the birth of her second child and vacations in the country to get away from the excessive demands of court and her oppressive family, Anne takes Mary's place in Henry's bed. However, she is not content just to be the king's mistress like the other women satisfied with fancy gowns and a meaningless title. Anne wants to play the long game. She wants to be Henry's wife, the queen.

While The Other Boleyn Girl is the ninth book in the series, it was actually the first written. In many ways, it sets the stage for the themes that are so prevalent throughout the series. Themes such as political intrigue within the palace walls, the strength of the women to get and hold onto their positions, and the rivalry between families particularly siblings.

The way that Gregory accomplishes this in this book is by comparing the internal personal rivalry between Mary and Anne Boleyn with the outward political rivalry between King Henry VIII and his new Protestant Reformation Church against Katherine of Aragon and the Catholic Church. There is an undercurrent of tension as people don't know who to side with, where Henry will turn, and whose life is being threatened today. With no one to oppose him and his mind ever changing, Henry once a scholarly but spoiled boy always trying to get attention transforms into an abusive tyrannical despot willing to put anyone to death if they so much as disagree with him.

Because of this, it is kind of hard to imagine the attraction that so many women had for Ol’Henry. We are told he is handsome and can be outwardly charming given to entertainments like masquerades and jousts. But as the book goes on, his good traits are swept away to reveal the temperamental cruel abusive monster underneath. The only thing that could possibly draw so many women is the power that they would have as Queen of England.

The Boleyn Sisters are well-written because Gregory plays with the whole good sister/bad sister dichotomy. They both pretty much act as prostitutes receiving sexual favors in exchange for their family to receive prominence. Neither can take the moral high ground and they are controlled by a family that acts almost like a Renaissance-era Mafia. They are good at emotionally blackmailing and manipulating the sisters and their bisexual brother, George, to get their way.

What makes Mary and Anne stand out is how they use their status as mistresses for their benefit. Mary finds a life outside of the palace intrigue in the country estate of Hever. She understands the farming cycles and talks to the locals about their crops. Her children thrive in country life away from judgmental prying palace eyes. After her husband's death, Mary even finds love with a minor courtier who is willing to give up his life at Henry's court to be with her. Mary sees a life outside of King Henry's court.

Anne however only sees King Henry's court and she wants to lead it. She does this very skillfully by playing King Henry like a fiddle. Anne has plenty of sexual experience, but unlike her mistress predecessors, she chooses not to act upon it. She gives Henry a little bit to entice him, but refuses to go all the way unless he marries her and makes her queen.

Anne is a very different queen from the previous ones in the series. She doesn't have the lust for battle like Margaret D’Anjou, the patient resilience and second sight of Elizabeth Woodville, or the religious certainty of Margaret Beaufort. She doesn't have the loyalty of Anne Neville nor the kindness of Elizabeth of York. She certainly does not have the fire of a warrior and steely determination to be regent like Katherine of Aragon, the sweet shyness of Jane Seymour, or the strong willed resourcefulness to go beyond failure like Margaret Tudor.

Instead of the advantages in contacts, wisdom, and personality of her predecessors or the sweetness of her immediate successor, Anne has to rely on her wit and cunning nature.
Anne is a manipulative schemer, a femme fatale. She is very observant and uses any secret that she can to move allies to her side. She is very subtle as she gives Henry books on the Protestant Reformation that challenge the Catholic Church specifically it's stance on divorce. She also passes rumors that since Katherine of Aragon was married to Henry's brother Arthur, then according to Biblical standards, it was forbidden for Henry to marry his brother's widow. This plan allows Henry to think, “Hmm, maybe a religion that allows me to divorce my wife and get another isn't such a bad idea after all. Hey, what do you know there is a beautiful intelligent woman who gave me the idea. Wouldn't she make a good second queen?”

Since we see her through Mary's eyes, we see Anne as an irredeemable bad girl and in many ways she is. But like many villainous characters in literature, Anne Boleyn is fascinating because she is so bad. We don't want to be her. We don't root for her but damn it all we enjoy the trouble that she puts us Readers through.

Anne is very haughty and impatient and loses as many allies as she gains. Partly from Henry's caprices which she encourages and partly from her own arrogant nature. She also shows very little compassion for her rivals, almost like a general seeing their enemy soldiers as less than human. She is practically giddy when Katherine of Aragon is banished from court and seethes when her jewels aren't returned to court for Anne to wear. She and Henry make public spectacles of themselves when they wear yellow and dance in jubilation after Katherine's death is announced. (A true event. However in Spain, yellow was the traditional color of mourning and both Henry and Anne were said to grieve for Katherine in private. So this gesture could very well have been a lot more complex and empathetic than Gregory's writing hinted.) Anne is a woman consumed by ambition that takes her to frightening almost inhuman levels.

Unfortunately, that ambition is short-lived once Anne becomes queen. Like all leaders who schemed to get their way to the top, she is on the lookout for anyone else to topple her from her throne using the same tricks that she did to get there. She is highly suspicious of her ladies in waiting particularly the shy devout Jane Seymour which history (and the previous volume The King's Curse) tells us, she has every right to be.

Anne's suspicions and ambitions change into desperation with each miscarriage that she delivers and no son to show for it. Even when her daughter, Elizabeth is born healthy, it's not a cause for celebration for Anne. She knows without a son, her days will be as numbered as Katherine's. Now that Henry has grown accustomed to the idea of trading one wife for another, nothing will stop him from doing it again.

This desperation leads to Anne to commit some scandalous and disgraceful acts in one last ditch attempt to give birth. The birth is graphic as Anne gives birth to a malformed dead baby. (There is no real proof this happened in real life, but was used as evidence against her in her subsequent trial.) This last attempt to maintain her loosening grip ends in failure as Anne and her closest allies including her brother, George, are arrested, tried, and executed. Mary is left alone as the sole Boleyn Sister and only blood heir, free to claim the country life she wanted. Away from the court life that consumed and ultimately destroyed her sister.

The Other Boleyn Girl is among the best books in the series because it covers such a fascinating colorful character. Anne Boleyn had an allure that made her stand out from the other wives: a sophisticated wit, an elegant style, and a cunning nature that made her stand out even long after she died.

Weekly Reader Philippa Gregory Edition: Three Sisters, Three Queens (The Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series Vol. VIII) by Philippa Gregory; Sisterly Competitiveness Reaches It's Zenith Between King Henry VIII's Wife and Sisters

Weekly Reader Philippa Gregory Edition: Three Sisters, Three Queens (The Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series Vol. VIII) by Philippa Gregory; Sisterly Competitiveness Reaches It's Zenith Between King Henry VIII's Wife and Sisters




By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




Spoilers: Many of the Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series books have an ongoing theme of sisterhood by blood or friendship, and for better or worse. Quite a few of the books deal with the jealousy and competitiveness that sisters share. When those sisters are members of a Royal family, that competitiveness can be very public, costly, and catastrophic.

The eighth volume of the series focuses on Margaret Tudor, second child of King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York and older sister of King Henry VIII. Her lot in life has always been to be the second and overlooked in any situation. She is not in the line of succession because she is a girl so she is not held in as high regard as her brothers, Princes Arthur and Henry. She is not thought of as a great beauty like her younger sister Princess Mary so she is not a serious contender for marriage. When Arthur marries Katherine of Aragon, all eyes and eventual power go to the new arrival from Spain so Margaret is overlooked in her own country.

It's no wonder that she looks forward to her arranged marriage to King James IV of Scotland. She may not know the country that well and it won't be a match made for love but at least she will be the most important woman in her own country.

When the book begins, Margaret is not a pleasant person. While many of the books in the series begin with the protagonists as children, they show a level of maturity that is to be expected of a preteen-teenager of that period. Here Margaret acts like a shrieking vain spoiled brat. She constantly judges Katherine for her clothes, piety, and accent even though she can't help but inwardly admire her composure and how she carries herself as a queen. She also constantly craves attention to the point of demanding it.
It is understandable, given her situation as the unfavorite in the family but it still is annoying to read.
After the difficulties that her predecessors suffer from political intrigue, child marriages, and warfare at young ages, Margaret Tudor is the first chronological Royal in the series that actually behaves like an Entitled Royal Pain.

Thankfully, she doesn't stay that way and the book is just as much about Margaret's path to maturity as it is about her carving her own destiny from underneath her sister's shadows.
After she marries James, she is bemused by his abrasive brusque nature and his freer sexuality. Part of that sexuality is to not only openly admit his various love affairs but to accept his illegitimate children into her household. While Margaret is aware of royal extramarital affairs and knows that male royals often have mistresses, she won't have that at her house. She orders James’ illegitimate children out of the castle and back with their mothers or other relatives. James grumbles but willingly accepts. Margaret for once is not content to play second fiddle to anyone and commands that at least as far as Scotland and her marriage bed are concerned, she comes first.

James and Margaret get through that first hurdle fairly well and settle into a fairly happy ultimately loving marriage in which they have two sons and one daughter. Though one son and the daughter die in infancy, Margaret's third son, James survives to become the heir. Just when Margaret and James are contemplating a bright future, King Henry VIII declares war on France and as part of the Auld Alliance, Scotland has to assist France. So James is called to lead the troops and Margaret is declared regent in front of a council of very suspicious old school male nobles who are none too keen about being led by a woman.

Remember how one of Philippa Gregory's strengths in this series is in telling multiple viewpoints of the same events? Well she brings that in full force in this book. What in The Constant Princess was a military triumph for Katherine of Aragon to show her strength and leadership becomes a moment of agony for Margaret Tudor. When English troops kill James, bury him in England, and send his bloody coat to Henry as proof, Margaret is in anguish and is filled with hatred at the smug English queen who caused this. Her rivalry with Katherine turns to grief and hatred.

It is fascinating how Katherine of Aragon transforms from a feisty spiritual warrior in her book to a bloodthirsty villain in Margaret's. That's the true talent in Gregory's book how a savior in one book turns into a terror in another.

Now Margaret has to rule by herself while privately mourning for the husband that she had grown to love. Her widowhood and rule is made more difficult by her council who challenge her every rule, don't care for how she tries to make peace between the feuding clans, and consider the official male regent the Earl of Albany a better potential ruler. However despite the stumbling blocks, Margaret is able to use her leadership skills and forceful nature to make things happen.

One development that occurs because of the war is the importance of Princess Mary’s love life. Suddenly the young unmarried English princess and the recently widowed Scottish queen are debating potential partners. Okay, the King of France Louis XII is old enough to be their grandfather but he has wealth, power, and whichever sister he marries will be in charge of one country or in Margaret's case two. Margaret's claim on Louis ends however when the King sets his interest on the younger more beautiful Mary.

While the title of the book is Three Sisters, Three Queens, Mary probably gets the least amount of development in this book. Most of her story is told through letters to Margaret.
In these letters and in Margaret's recollections, Mary is childish, vapid, and more concerned with fashionable gowns, romance, and looking pretty. As we saw earlier Margaret was the same way, but she goes through a lot of growth and development in her book. Mary however does not.

Mary marries Louis for the financial benefits and to be taken care of even though she has a lover, Charles Brandon waiting in the wings. She doesn't care about ruling, she just wants to be admired and appraised because of her appearance and sunny disposition. Mary's extreme vanity is made apparent after Louis dies and she immediately leaves for England with Charles Brandon and marries him. This sudden marriage incense Harry and Katherine to the point that they estrange from Mary and Charles. It takes a papal dispensation before they forgive the duo.

They are ultimately forgiven, and their money is restored. Charles is accepted into Henry's inner circle despite having no interest in politics, religion, or the monarchy. He is solely seen as merely a charming courtier and Mary is seen as a pretty ornament in the castle. They contribute nothing but good looks and amiable companionship and that is a-okay with them.

Mary's two marriages and her closeness with Katherine, the woman whom Margaret blames for her husband's death reignites her rivalry with them. This causes Margaret to make the most reckless decision of her rulership: to fall in love with and marry Archibald Douglas, the 6th Earl of Angus.

Douglas is at first a supportive courtier, listening to Margaret's troubles and opens up her passionate desires. The first sign that all is suspicious is at their wedding when Douglas tells her that he doesn't have a ring so she supplies him with one. This little moment establishes his character as a moocher and freeloader who abuses his wife's trust for his own benefit.

Douglas does show some positive characteristics however. When the Earl of Albany displaces Margaret and her son James in a coup, Douglas does some quick thinking such as feigning loyalty to her anatgonists to ensure her safety and survival. When Margaret complains about Mary and Katherine again, Douglas brutally sets her straight by reminding her that this fight isn't just about her rivalry with the two women, this is about their kingdoms and she just really needs to shut up about them.

However, Douglas's bad qualities outweigh his good and this becomes noticeable in their marriage. Douglas convinces Margaret to favor his family members causing the clan rivalries to come into focus again undoing the work that she and her late husband,James did to bring those rivalries to an end. Margaret is so blinded by her attraction to Douglas, that she gives him whatever he wants and he slowly gains power through his wife.

During the coup, Margaret is left isolated and dependent on Douglas, even removed from her son. She is forced to appeal to her brother for assistance. While she is in exile, Douglas seizes her throne and shacks up with a mistress that he was once betrothed to.

Historically, Margaret Tudor was the grandmother of Mary Queen of Scots and the parallels are evident. Both had an arranged first marriage that ended with the death of their husbands. Both had unwise second marriages to opportunists who used their marriages as platforms for their own gain. Both had third marriages but ended up exiled from Scotland and separated from the throne and their sons.

However, what separates grandmother and granddaughter is the end results of their exile. Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned while in England and spent much of her time in captivity and becoming the center of various plots and conspiracies. Ultimately, Queen Elizabeth signed her death warrant and she was executed.

Margaret however takes a different tactic becoming a bolder character by taking control of her life. She divorces Douglas. Despite objections from Douglas, the council, and her family Margaret fully intends to see the divorce through. It becomes particularly hypocritical when Henry insists that “marriage is ordained by God” you know despite his various lovers and him wanting to separate from his own lawfully wedded wife. This hypocrisy makes Margaret even more determined to divorce Douglas. She declares that she will never again “believe that rules should be separate between men and women.”

Margaret manages to divorce Douglas and get him exiled. She falls in love for a third time with Henry Stewart, 1st Earl of Methvan whom she marries. The books ends things on a happy third marriage though in reality, Margaret's third marriage was just as stressful and she separated from him as well.

However, Margaret does create a lasting legacy for her son when King James V is settled into his throne. Margaret becomes instrumental in restoring peace between England and Scotland and arranges her son’s marriage to the French princess, Marie of Guise.

Margaret reaches the end of her book sympathizing with Katherine who is cast aside for Anne Boleyn and Mary who is estranged from her brother when she supports Katherine. Mary also reveals in her final letter to her sister that her looks have faded, and that she is ill and dying.

Margaret realizes that in the three-way competition between the three sisters, Margaret's the only one that came out on top. However, it's a hollow victory as she sincerely mourns how low her sisters have fallen and that instead of enemies and rivals, they could have been friends.

Three Sisters, Three Queens develops Margaret Tudor into a memorable character that can be spoiled, jealous, headstrong, but also forceful, determined, and independent. She goes from a jealous princess into a great queen.

Weekly Reader Philippa Gregory Edition: The King's Curse (The Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series Vol. VII) by Philippa Gregory; Dark End to the Plantagenet Family Focuses on Survival in Drastically Changing Times

Weekly Reader Philippa Gregory Edition: The King's Curse (The Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series Vol. VII) by Philippa Gregory; Dark End to the Plantagenet Family Focuses on Survival in Drastically Changing Times

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Historians know Lady Margaret Pole, the Countess of Salisbury for how she left the world rather than her involvement in it. The oldest of King Henry VIII's victims, she was executed in the Tower of London at age 67. When she was ordered to lower her head on the execution block, she refused and ran shrieking through the Tower. The executioner finally caught up to her and killed her on the spot. Ghost hunters, paranormal investigators, and believers of the supernatural have reported hearing, and sometimes seeing, her ghost haunting the Tower and reenacting her grisly death.

Philippa Gregory gives Lady Margaret great significance to her life than just her death. Instead she is the last remnant of the old guard: the final member of the Plantagenet immediate family that was directly involved in the War of the Roses (some descendants still remain to this day.) who sees the world that she once knew slowly dying around her, making way for a world she doesn't recognize.

In the previous books, Margaret was a supporting player in other's stories. She started out in the White Queen as the daughter of George Duke of Clarence, younger brother of King Edward IV. She was very young when her father was embroiled in an attempt to seize the throne and was executed by drowning in a vat of malmsy wine. In the White Princess, she was the friend and companion of Elizabeth of York as her brother became the center of a conspiracy to take the throne from Henry VII. She was then forced to watch as history repeated itself and her slow-witted brother was executed. Finally, in The Constant Princess, Margaret is older and charged with guarding the newlyweds Prince Arthur and Princess Katherine of Aragon forming a strong bond of friendship with them though they are the son and daughter-in-law of the king that executed her brother. In her old age, she learned to forgive.

Because that part of the story is well documented in the other books and doesn't offer anything new in the way of her friendships with Elizabeth of York and Katherine of Aragon, Margaret's chapters with the royals are probably the least interesting aspects of the book with one notable exception which I will get to later.
The more interesting parts to this book are the chapters in which Margaret is away from the Royal family and is involved in conflicts within her own family and the people on her lands.

Similar to Jacquetta of Luxembourg, the protagonist of Lady of the Rivers, Margaret spends a great deal of time helping her children receive advantageous positions and marriages. She is also in despair after the death of her husband, Sir Richard leaves her destitute. She appeals to King Henry VIII for help. In exchange, he appoints her oldest son, Henry 1st Baron Montague to become his friend and confidante and her second son, Reginald to Oxford to become a scholar for the king. These positions become useful after the king's noted marital troubles become public and Henry decides to declare his marriage to Katherine no longer valid. Montague becomes Margaret's palace insider letting her know the situation with the royals and Reginald gives her the official opinion from the Catholic Church.


Much of the book deals with the conflict of staying silent or speaking out. Margaret lies when she is asked whether Katherine and Arthur consummated their marriage. She tells the court that it was never consummated so Katherine can be cleared to marry Henry, even though she knows full well that it was.

She also claims to not know anything about whether Elizabeth Woodville and her daughter, Elizabeth of York cursed the Tudor family as the murderers of the Princes in Tower. She says this despite Elizabeth of York confessing to her about the curse.

Margaret has to make a difficult choice when everyone in England is forced to swear an oath that Henry's marriage to Katherine was invalid so he can marry Anne Boleyn. Margaret swears the oath and feels guilty because of her friendship with Katherine. However, she does this to protect her family.

She also questions when family members become more vocal against Henry. Her cousin, Edward Stafford is executed for treason and her son, Reginald becomes an outspoken critic against Henry when the king declares himself Supreme Head of the Church in England putting him in direct conflict with the Pope. The events with Stafford and Reginald put Margaret's family under suspicion and both times she reluctantly distances herself from them. Margaret's despair is particularly felt when she mourns her estrangement from Reginald who was her quiet serious boy that she can no longer associate with.

It makes sense that Margaret is not willing to lose any more family members after the loss of her parents and brother. Her strong familial relationship propels her to sacrifice the truth, honesty, her friendship with Katherine, when the former queen is exiled and her relationship with her cousin and one of her sons for the rest of the family. For Margaret survival of her family is first, last, and always the most important goal.

Margaret's despair and loss throughout her long life and her nostalgia for days that will never return make The King's Curse one of the darkest books in the Plantagenet and Tudor Court Series.
Margaret holds onto the ideal that she is from an old royal family of the Plantagenets, so she bears a lot of animosity towards the young upstarts like Anne Boleyn. There is a real strong sense of the old generation dying and forced to make way for the young ones.

While the other books speak of horrible things like war, infanticide, spousal and child abuse, most of them carry a sense of hope and pride, particularly in the ambitions of the characters. Most of these ladies are not content to wait for better days. They take charge and make them happen. But with Margaret, there seems to be little that she can do, thereby increasing the hopelessness that someone in her position feels as the world changes without her involvement or input.

This helplessness increases the darkness in this book as we see the world not from the throne but the people on the outside.
Since Margaret is a Countess not a Queen, we get to view the people dwelling in her lands and learn how the instability in the Royal household affects them. Priests refuse to compromise their beliefs despite threats. Tenants worry when crops decrease and prices go up. Family members argue and break ties with each other over the oath.
All Margaret can do is help her people as much as she can.

Besides the outsider perspective, this book fills another need, one that Philippa Gregory omitted. Gregory never wrote a book from the perspective of Jane Seymour, feeling that her story had been told in The Other Boleyn Girl. Unfortunately, we get very little sense of her as a person in that book.

We finally get that much needed portrayal as Margaret gets to know Henry's third wife. As compared to the firy Katherine and the conniving Anne, Jane Seymour is depicted as a shy mousy girl who is kind but terrified of her new role and with good reason after one wife was exiled and another beheaded. Margaret is very protective towards her like a surrogate daughter that she feels is in over her head particularly when she asks for pardons for the participants in the Pilgrimage of Grace, a Catholic uprising against Henry. Jane also gives Henry, the long awaited legitimate son, Prince Edward before dying of childbirth.

Among the darkest aspects of the book is the repetition of the family tree. In most books in the series, a family tree is only in the frontispiece. But in The King's Curse, it is present throughout the book with roses colored in black to represent Plantagenet family members that die. As various members die either from illness, execution or other means another rose is darkened. When Margaret's youngest son, Geoffrey is arrested for treason, (it becomes punishable by death to speak against the king), he implicates his brother, Montague and other family members based on various conversations. All but Geoffrey are executed and the black roses continue.

Finally, Margaret is arrested, stripped of her title and land, and held in the Tower to meet her grisly final end. It is no surprise that the final page is the Plantagenet family tree filled with black roses as if sounding the death knell for the family.

The title the King's Curse is fitting not just for the curse that Elizabeth Woodville and Elizabeth of York give the Tudors that their oldest son and grandson will die young (Prince Arthur and King Edward VI) and end with a barren girl (Queen Elizabeth I). But the curse is also within King Henry VIII and how he curses his own people and himself. Lady Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury certainly saw that.