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.