Thursday, February 21, 2013

THE LADY IN THE TOWER by Alison Weir (non-fic)

Alison Weir is the author of a number of books on medieval royalty.  This time she has focused on Anne Boleyn.  Anne Boleyn is a romantic figure in British history and there have been a number of biographies and novels written about her.  As most know, she was the second of Henry VIII's wives and was beheaded on what appear to be bogus charges.  Because of the paucity of actual facts of these early figures, they are often more suited to romances than biographies.  However, Alison Weir has taken a small window of time in Anne's life and researched it thoroughly, including plenty of original and primary sources.  Weir has concentrated on the four month period when Anne was accused of infidelity with five men including her brother George while plotting against Henry.  All were subsequently sent to the Tower of London and beheaded.
If you have read the brilliant "Wolf Hall" by Hilary Mantel, and are interesting in this period of history, you may wish to check this book out.  Weir is meticulous in presenting all the available sources: letters, legal documents, court proceedings, first and second hand references.  She traces the motives of Henry, who was at that time already involved in a relationship with Jane Seymour and her rapacious family, as well as the wily Thomas Cromwell who was fighting to maintain his own position in the dangerous court of Henry.  Weir debunks a lot of popular myths that grew around Anne who was not a popular figure in her time.  She also tries to cut through some of the whitewashing that was done during the reign of her daughter Elizabeth I. 
All in all this is an interesting and well written book if you are interested in the scholarly aspects of Anne's fall from grace and the horror dangers of finding oneself too close to the throne and Henry's ire. 

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