ANNE BOLEYN & ELIZABETH I

A new look at the Tudors from the prolific author of Crown & Sceptre and The Private Lives of the Tudors.

Borman, the joint chief curator of England’s Historic Royal Palaces, delves deeply into two of the most influential women of the era. Anne Boleyn may have been a minor historical figure compared to her daughter, but the author delivers an insightful portrait. Spirited and cultured from many years in France, she fascinated Henry VIII, who was bored after 15 years with his first wife, Catherine, and frustrated by the lack of a male heir. As king, he had little difficulty acquiring mistresses, so her refusal to go to bed with him increased his ardor, and he married her. Her first child, Elizabeth, wasn’t male, several miscarriages followed, and “the qualities that had made Anne so alluring as a mistress—her…passionate nature, her obstinacy and outspokenness—had quickly become irksome in a wife.” Attracted by the more placid Jane Seymour, Henry had Anne beheaded in 1536. Royal children were raised by an army of attendants; their parents lived elsewhere, so readers should take with a grain of salt Borman’s statement that Anne was a major influence in her daughter’s life. Elizabeth spent her first 14 years dealing with her father’s frightening mood swings and then another decade under two half siblings (Edward VI and Mary) who were no improvement. When she assumed the throne in 1558, she could learn from three predecessors, and historians agree that perhaps her most important decision was to treat them as bad examples. Borman’s detailed biography of Anne gives a minor role to politics and European affairs because she exerted little influence. Although Elizabeth I was a powerful world figure, the author gives her the same treatment, concentrating on her private life, family quarrels, and life at court. Readers will learn more about her wardrobe than the ongoing Reformation.

Very personal lives of two famous Elizabethans.