Due to the wild success of The Other Boleyn Girl, Philippa Gregory embarked on creating an entire Tudor series. Although published fifth, The Boleyn Inheritance is chronologically third in the series, following The Constant Princess and The Other Boleyn Girl. Unlike the two previous books, it centers on three female protagonists (Anne of Cleves, Katheryn Howard, and Jane Boleyn) and shifts between these three perspectives in alternating chapters throughout the novel.
As I mentioned in the last post, Gregory did not write a novel focusing on the story of the rise and subsequent death (in childbirth) of Queen Jane Seymour, Henry's third wife and mother of the future King Edward VI. I must admit I wonder why she skipped over Jane when she has previously stated she likes to tell the stories of women overlooked in history. I find the oversight hypocritical as well as leaving a gap in Tudor history. Jane married Henry only eleven days after the execution of Anne Boleyn in May,1536 and died in October 1537. During the interim he formally removed Mary and Elizabeth from the line of succession and declared them both illegitimate. It wasn't until January 1540 that Henry married Anne of Cleves.
With that said, I found The Boleyn Inheritance more satisfying than The Other Boleyn Girl. In some ways, I think Gregory improved in developing characters, especially when considering that The Boleyn Inheritance was published five years (and four books) after the debut of The Other Boleyn Girl.
Gregory manages to create sympathetic depictions of the eager-to-please and goodhearted Anne of Cleves and shows the complicated feelings and motivations driving Jane Boleyn's sometimes amoral behavior (rather than simply being a villain motivated by spite and jealousy). Jane is also depicted as still being in love with and missing her late husband, remembers her sister-in-law Anne fondly, and is immensely proud of her successful family, but nevertheless has a very complicated relationship with the manipulative Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. She is his most loyal servant but he cold-heartedly strings her along, knowing her value of "the Boleyn inheritance" (her title and lands), and does not lift a finger to save her or Katheryn. Although more competent in running a royal household because of her years of service, she becomes increasingly jaded and weary of court life, spying, and bringing about the downfall of Henry's queens. Despite this, she acts as the double agent--confidant to the queen and spy for the Howard family--and she does her job chillingly well. When she eventually must pay for her accumulated sins, she fakes madness, thinking she won't be killed, but it was evident that she was mentally unhinged--but sound enough to know what she was doing--well before this. The punishment for the guilty is swift and terrifying, cementing Henry's volatile wrath and ruthlessness.
It is interesting to see how some characters write off Anne of Cleves as stupid (due to her knowing little English) and a foolish spectacle (due to her frumpy clothes and lack of worldly sophistication). Her ladies-in-waiting do not take her seriously, the king immediately dislikes her, and her few friends disappear (i.e. imprisoned) or are otherwise unavailable. Her family life doesn't fare any better. In the novel, her brother is depicted as a spiteful, obsessively controlling, and petty individual, and their mother is hyper-critical, abusive, and equally controlling, yet the two send Anne incompetent ambassadors and very little preparation for her role as queen. Her sisters Sybilla and Amelia are colorless, fading quickly from the narrative and offering little to no help for their sister's plight in England when her marriage fails. Despite all of this, Anne is depicted as a sincere, thoughtful, and gracious person who is eager to please but more astute than many give her credit for, comes to love England, wishes to develop genuine relationships with her stepchildren, and is ultimately a survivor.
The maturity of these two women is starkly contrasted with Katheryn Howard (spelled Katherine in the novel, although she spelled it Katheryn in real life), and the language Gregory uses brilliantly illustrates Kitty's youthful selfishness and vivaciousness. She is a great foil because she is very young, sometimes outlandishly immature, capricious, flirtatious, and determinedly self-involved, primarily motivated to get as much attention and swag as possible. At the same time, since she is not motivated by political ambition or the desire to gain power for her family, she also disdainfully thought of as a slut and idiot by her manipulative relatives who use her for their own gain.While ill-suited to the position of queen, Katheryn manages to turn the palace upside down through her wild ways. Her adulterous affairs doom her, and to her terror, she realizes too late what a dangerous game she had been playing and how her relatives exploited her.
HBO's "The Tudors" also brilliantly displays these women, especially Joss Stone's interpretation of Anne of Cleves and Tamzin Merchant as Katheryn Howard. Keep in mind that Jonathan Rhys Meyers' Henry VIII is not obese like the historical king, but his festering leg wound still pains him and his mood swings wide and volatile. His charismatic screen presence makes him a lot more likable than his historical counterpart and less comical (but more dangerous and politically ruthless) than the king was depicted in the novel. Additionally, Thomas Cromwell's role in arranging the political marriage between England and Cleves is given more prominence, giving a balanced narrative.
The show first presents Anne living with her brother, who is brusque and uncooperative when Henry's ill-suited ambassadors try to see the potential bride and stumbled all over themselves during the negotiation process. Unveiled at Calais, she is a shy, self-conscious young woman who tries very hard to learn both the English language and English manners in order to please her new husband and his court. Unlike Henry's previous queens, Anne of Cleves' education was primarily domestic; she was not a witty, worldly, widely read, philosophical beauty like Anne Boleyn, a dignified, magnanimous lady raised from an early age to be a ruler like Katherine of Aragon, nor a sweetly diplomatic peacemaker like Jane Seymour. Anne of Cleves, being from a foreign court, lacked these skills and authority in the court. Due to her unfamiliarity with English and its customs, along with general nervousness, her first meeting with Henry is awkward and hampered. Henry quickly decides that he doesn't like her and doesn't find her attractive at all, despite having a willing, if sheltered, bride. Trying to improve herself in the eyes of the king, Anne endeavors to act as a mother to Henry's children, considering that all three of them have lost their own mothers and rarely see their father. She introduces a charming duke to Mary with the hope of arranging a marriage for her, but Henry sends him back to his country. Joss Stone accurately conveys Anne's increasing concern that Henry may kill her if she fails to please him. Shocked by the abrupt dissolution of her marriage, Anne still maintains a sense of graciousness and keeps in contact with her former stepdaughters.
Tamzin Merchant presents Katheryn Howard as a poorly educated but flirtatious and naive girl farmed out to live in the lax household of her step-grandmother. Her beauty and youth are her best assets according to those who arrange her meeting with the king (Charles Brandon and Thomas Seymour in the show). When she finally meets Henry, her flirting is girlish, full of giggling and whispers, but also awkward--she is not the refined, cosmopolitan Anne Boleyn who was educated in a French court and inflamed Henry's desires by refusing to be intimate for years. Initially, Henry doesn't seem to care beyond the fact that she's pretty and good in bed; who was he to ask questions? Clearly, Katheryn's young age and inexperience in courtly wiles make her a very different bride for Henry, and he fails to see Thomas Culpepper's fierce blue-eyed leers and near stalking behavior and remains ignorant of her dubious sexual past at first. It is a mistake that has devastating consequences later in the fourth season.
I must note that I haven't seen many episodes of the last season of the show. The Anne of Cleves character arc is fully contained in season three, although Anne makes brief appearances in the fourth season. Katheryn Howard is introduced at the end of the third season. Her rise and fall as queen, along with Henry's sixth and final marriage to Catherine Parr, dominates the last season. Apparently there will be a dream sequence where all of Henry's past queen appear to their former husband. I'm curious to see how that plays out. In any case, I'll probably make observations when I see the whole fourth season on DVD and compare what I've seen to what I've read.
As I mentioned in the last post, Gregory did not write a novel focusing on the story of the rise and subsequent death (in childbirth) of Queen Jane Seymour, Henry's third wife and mother of the future King Edward VI. I must admit I wonder why she skipped over Jane when she has previously stated she likes to tell the stories of women overlooked in history. I find the oversight hypocritical as well as leaving a gap in Tudor history. Jane married Henry only eleven days after the execution of Anne Boleyn in May,1536 and died in October 1537. During the interim he formally removed Mary and Elizabeth from the line of succession and declared them both illegitimate. It wasn't until January 1540 that Henry married Anne of Cleves.
With that said, I found The Boleyn Inheritance more satisfying than The Other Boleyn Girl. In some ways, I think Gregory improved in developing characters, especially when considering that The Boleyn Inheritance was published five years (and four books) after the debut of The Other Boleyn Girl.
Gregory manages to create sympathetic depictions of the eager-to-please and goodhearted Anne of Cleves and shows the complicated feelings and motivations driving Jane Boleyn's sometimes amoral behavior (rather than simply being a villain motivated by spite and jealousy). Jane is also depicted as still being in love with and missing her late husband, remembers her sister-in-law Anne fondly, and is immensely proud of her successful family, but nevertheless has a very complicated relationship with the manipulative Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. She is his most loyal servant but he cold-heartedly strings her along, knowing her value of "the Boleyn inheritance" (her title and lands), and does not lift a finger to save her or Katheryn. Although more competent in running a royal household because of her years of service, she becomes increasingly jaded and weary of court life, spying, and bringing about the downfall of Henry's queens. Despite this, she acts as the double agent--confidant to the queen and spy for the Howard family--and she does her job chillingly well. When she eventually must pay for her accumulated sins, she fakes madness, thinking she won't be killed, but it was evident that she was mentally unhinged--but sound enough to know what she was doing--well before this. The punishment for the guilty is swift and terrifying, cementing Henry's volatile wrath and ruthlessness.
It is interesting to see how some characters write off Anne of Cleves as stupid (due to her knowing little English) and a foolish spectacle (due to her frumpy clothes and lack of worldly sophistication). Her ladies-in-waiting do not take her seriously, the king immediately dislikes her, and her few friends disappear (i.e. imprisoned) or are otherwise unavailable. Her family life doesn't fare any better. In the novel, her brother is depicted as a spiteful, obsessively controlling, and petty individual, and their mother is hyper-critical, abusive, and equally controlling, yet the two send Anne incompetent ambassadors and very little preparation for her role as queen. Her sisters Sybilla and Amelia are colorless, fading quickly from the narrative and offering little to no help for their sister's plight in England when her marriage fails. Despite all of this, Anne is depicted as a sincere, thoughtful, and gracious person who is eager to please but more astute than many give her credit for, comes to love England, wishes to develop genuine relationships with her stepchildren, and is ultimately a survivor.
The maturity of these two women is starkly contrasted with Katheryn Howard (spelled Katherine in the novel, although she spelled it Katheryn in real life), and the language Gregory uses brilliantly illustrates Kitty's youthful selfishness and vivaciousness. She is a great foil because she is very young, sometimes outlandishly immature, capricious, flirtatious, and determinedly self-involved, primarily motivated to get as much attention and swag as possible. At the same time, since she is not motivated by political ambition or the desire to gain power for her family, she also disdainfully thought of as a slut and idiot by her manipulative relatives who use her for their own gain.While ill-suited to the position of queen, Katheryn manages to turn the palace upside down through her wild ways. Her adulterous affairs doom her, and to her terror, she realizes too late what a dangerous game she had been playing and how her relatives exploited her.
HBO's "The Tudors" also brilliantly displays these women, especially Joss Stone's interpretation of Anne of Cleves and Tamzin Merchant as Katheryn Howard. Keep in mind that Jonathan Rhys Meyers' Henry VIII is not obese like the historical king, but his festering leg wound still pains him and his mood swings wide and volatile. His charismatic screen presence makes him a lot more likable than his historical counterpart and less comical (but more dangerous and politically ruthless) than the king was depicted in the novel. Additionally, Thomas Cromwell's role in arranging the political marriage between England and Cleves is given more prominence, giving a balanced narrative.
The show first presents Anne living with her brother, who is brusque and uncooperative when Henry's ill-suited ambassadors try to see the potential bride and stumbled all over themselves during the negotiation process. Unveiled at Calais, she is a shy, self-conscious young woman who tries very hard to learn both the English language and English manners in order to please her new husband and his court. Unlike Henry's previous queens, Anne of Cleves' education was primarily domestic; she was not a witty, worldly, widely read, philosophical beauty like Anne Boleyn, a dignified, magnanimous lady raised from an early age to be a ruler like Katherine of Aragon, nor a sweetly diplomatic peacemaker like Jane Seymour. Anne of Cleves, being from a foreign court, lacked these skills and authority in the court. Due to her unfamiliarity with English and its customs, along with general nervousness, her first meeting with Henry is awkward and hampered. Henry quickly decides that he doesn't like her and doesn't find her attractive at all, despite having a willing, if sheltered, bride. Trying to improve herself in the eyes of the king, Anne endeavors to act as a mother to Henry's children, considering that all three of them have lost their own mothers and rarely see their father. She introduces a charming duke to Mary with the hope of arranging a marriage for her, but Henry sends him back to his country. Joss Stone accurately conveys Anne's increasing concern that Henry may kill her if she fails to please him. Shocked by the abrupt dissolution of her marriage, Anne still maintains a sense of graciousness and keeps in contact with her former stepdaughters.
Tamzin Merchant presents Katheryn Howard as a poorly educated but flirtatious and naive girl farmed out to live in the lax household of her step-grandmother. Her beauty and youth are her best assets according to those who arrange her meeting with the king (Charles Brandon and Thomas Seymour in the show). When she finally meets Henry, her flirting is girlish, full of giggling and whispers, but also awkward--she is not the refined, cosmopolitan Anne Boleyn who was educated in a French court and inflamed Henry's desires by refusing to be intimate for years. Initially, Henry doesn't seem to care beyond the fact that she's pretty and good in bed; who was he to ask questions? Clearly, Katheryn's young age and inexperience in courtly wiles make her a very different bride for Henry, and he fails to see Thomas Culpepper's fierce blue-eyed leers and near stalking behavior and remains ignorant of her dubious sexual past at first. It is a mistake that has devastating consequences later in the fourth season.
I must note that I haven't seen many episodes of the last season of the show. The Anne of Cleves character arc is fully contained in season three, although Anne makes brief appearances in the fourth season. Katheryn Howard is introduced at the end of the third season. Her rise and fall as queen, along with Henry's sixth and final marriage to Catherine Parr, dominates the last season. Apparently there will be a dream sequence where all of Henry's past queen appear to their former husband. I'm curious to see how that plays out. In any case, I'll probably make observations when I see the whole fourth season on DVD and compare what I've seen to what I've read.
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