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Author | Philippa Gregory |
---|---|
Language | English |
Series | Tudor Series |
Genre | Novel |
Publisher | Scribner |
Publication date | 2001 |
Publication place | United Kingdom |
Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
Pages | 664 |
ISBN | 0-7394-2711-3 (hardcover edition) |
Preceded by | The Constant Princess |
Followed by | The Boleyn Inheritance |
The Other Boleyn Girl (2001) is a historical novel written by British author Philippa Gregory, loosely based on the life of 16th-century aristocrat Mary Boleyn (the sister of Anne Boleyn) of whom little is known. Inspired by Mary's life story, Gregory depicts the annulment of one of the most significant royal marriages in English history (that of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon) and conveys the urgency of the need for a male heir to the throne. Much of the history is highly distorted in her account. [1]
Reviews were mixed; some say the book was a brilliantly claustrophobic look at palace life in Tudor England, while others are troubled by the lack of historical accuracy.
The novel was twice adapted into films of the same name.
It was followed by a sequel called The Queen's Fool , set during the reign of Henry's daughter, Queen Mary. The Queen's Fool was followed by The Virgin's Lover, set during the early days of Queen Elizabeth I's reign.
In 1521 England, Queen Catherine of Aragon's failure to provide King Henry VIII a male heir has strained their marriage. Thomas Boleyn and his brother-in-law, Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, plan to install Boleyn's youngest daughter Mary, wife of courtier William Carey, as the king's mistress. Mary's sister Anne, who recently returned from the French court, and brother George help Mary prepare, and Henry soon takes a liking to Mary, who despite her devotion to Queen Catherine falls in love with Henry. The affair strains Mary's friendship with the queen, especially after Mary becomes pregnant by the king.
Henry rewards Mary's family with lands and titles, elevating their status amongst the other noble families of the royal court. Anne catches the eye of Henry Percy, heir presumptive to the Duchy of Northumberland, and marries him in secret. Percy, however, is set to marry Mary Talbot, the daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury. Cardinal Thomas Wolsey has the marriage annulled and "restores" Anne's virginity. She is sent away from court to their estate, Hever Castle as punishment.
Mary gives birth to a daughter in 1524 and names her Catherine. The king is somewhat indifferent to their daughter, who is presented as Mary's child with her husband, and they continue their affair. George reluctantly marries lady-in-waiting Jane Parker, and eventually admits to his sisters that he has romantic feelings for a man: Sir Francis Weston. Mary becomes pregnant by the king again, and her family returns Anne to court so that she can maintain the king's interest until the baby is born. Instead, Anne succeeds as seducing the king away from Mary just as she gives birth to a son, who is also presented as her husband's child.
The family's attentions shift to supporting Anne, who the king now favors. She resists his desires to make her his mistress, instead pressuring him to set Queen Catherine aside and marry her instead. Mary reconciles with her husband, William, and they share a brief period of happiness before he dies from the sweating sickness. She continues to support Anne, but longs to be with her children at Hever, which she is only permitted to visit each summer. Mary observes as Anne, for seven long years, strives to maintain the king's interest.
Eventually, Queen Catherine stands trial for the validity of her marriage to Henry. The king believes she consummated her previous marriage with his dead brother, Prince Arthur, and did not come into their marriage a virgin. The Queen is banished, and Anne, now engaged to marry Henry, adopts Mary's son to ensure she has a male heir to the throne.
Anne suffers a decline in popularity during her travels abroad, culminating in the King and Queen of France, who do not tolerate her position, refusing to meet her. She eventually sleeps with Henry after he grants her a title and marries him when he installs a new archbishop and proclaims himself Head of the Church of England. Anne gives birth to a daughter in 1533, who she names Elizabeth. Anne, however, starts to lose the king's favor after several miscarriages and stillbirths.
Mary begins a relationship with Essex landowner William Stafford, despite their difference in rank. She marries him in secret and only tells her family when she becomes pregnant and can no longer hide the truth. Anne reacts with anger, jealous of Mary's pregnancy after her own repeated miscarriages and stillbirths.
Henry suffers an injury to his leg while jousting in 1536, and his time recovering stokes worries that public sentiment is turning. Meanwhile, Anne grows increasingly paranoid, convinced she has lost the support of her family and the country and that Henry is in love with her lady-in-waiting, Jane Seymour. She rejoices in her new pregnancy after hearing news of Queen Catherine's death. Mary meanwhile notices Anne's closeness with George, especially after Anne suffers another stillbirth and the child is deformed, leading to suspicions of incest or witchcraft.
Mary makes plans with William to travel for the country to avoid the turmoil. Before they can do so, Henry places Anne and George under arrest on charges of adultery and incest due to widespread belief that they slept together to give Anne her much-needed son. Anne later presents herself before the Privy Council, which finds her guilty. George and Weston are also convicted and beheaded.
Mary attends Anne's execution, believing that the king will spare her sister and send her to a nunnery, but Henry does not appear and her sentence is not commuted. Anne is executed and Mary swiftly leaves London with her husband and children.
Anne Boleyn was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and execution, by beheading for treason, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that marked the start of the English Reformation.
Anne of the Thousand Days is a 1969 British historical drama film based on the life of Anne Boleyn, directed by Charles Jarrott and produced by Hal B. Wallis. The screenplay by Bridget Boland and John Hale is an adaptation of the 1948 play of the same name by Maxwell Anderson.
Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wiltshire, 1st Earl of Ormond, 1st Viscount RochfordKGKB, of Hever Castle in Kent, was an English diplomat and politician who was the father of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII, and was thus the maternal grandfather of Queen Elizabeth I. By Henry VIII he was made a knight of the Garter in 1523 and was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Rochford in 1525 and in 1529 was further ennobled as Earl of Wiltshire and Earl of Ormond.
Philippa Gregory is an English historical novelist who has been publishing since 1987. The best known of her works is The Other Boleyn Girl (2001), which in 2002 won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award from the Romantic Novelists' Association and has been adapted into two films.
Jane Boleyn, Viscountess Rochford was an English noblewoman. Her husband, George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford, was the brother of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII, and a cousin to King Henry VIII’s fifth wife Catherine Howard, making Jane a cousin-in-law. Jane had been a member of the household of Henry's first wife, Catherine of Aragon. It is possible that she played a role in the verdicts against, and subsequent executions of, her husband and Anne Boleyn. She was later a lady-in-waiting to Henry's third and fourth wives, and then to his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, with whom she was executed.
Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire was an English noblewoman, noted for being the mother of Anne Boleyn and as such the maternal grandmother of Elizabeth I of England. The eldest daughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk and his first wife Elizabeth Tilney, she married Thomas Boleyn sometime in the later 15th century. Elizabeth became Viscountess Rochford in 1525 when her husband was elevated to the peerage, subsequently becoming Countess of Ormond in 1527 and Countess of Wiltshire in 1529.
Catherine Carey, after her marriage Catherine Knollys and later known as both Lady Knollys and Dame Catherine Knollys,, was chief Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth I, who was her first cousin.
In common parlance, the wives of Henry VIII were the six Queen consorts of King Henry VIII of England between 1509 and his death in 1547. In legal terms, Henry had only three wives, because three of his marriages were annulled by the Church of England. He was never granted an annulment by the Pope as he desired, for Catherine of Aragon, his first wife. Annulments declare that a true marriage never took place, unlike a divorce, in which a married couple end their union. Along with his six wives, Henry took several mistresses.
William Carey was a courtier and favourite of King Henry VIII of England. He served the king as a Gentleman of the Privy chamber, and Esquire of the Body to the King. His wife, Mary Boleyn, is known to history as a mistress of King Henry VIII and the sister of Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn.
The Other Boleyn Girl is a 2008 historical romantic drama film directed by Justin Chadwick. The screenplay by Peter Morgan was adapted from Philippa Gregory’s 2001 novel of the same name. It is a fictionalised account of the lives of 16th-century English aristocrats Mary Boleyn, mistress of King Henry VIII, and her sister, Anne, who became the monarch's ill-fated second wife.
The Boleyn Inheritance is a novel by British author Philippa Gregory which was first published in 2006. It is a direct sequel to her previous novel The Other Boleyn Girl, and one of the additions to her six-part series on the Tudor royals. The novel is told through the first-person narratives of – Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard, and Jane Boleyn, who was mentioned in The Other Boleyn Girl. It covers a period from 1539 until 1542 and chronicles the fourth and fifth marriages of King Henry VIII of England.
The Constant Princess is a historical fiction novel by Philippa Gregory, published in 2005. The novel depicts a highly fictionalized version of the life of Catherine of Aragon and her rise to power in England.
Doomed Queen Anne is a young-adult historical novel about Anne Boleyn by Carolyn Meyer. It is the third book in the Young Royals series. Other books are Mary, Bloody Mary, Beware, Princess Elizabeth and Patience, Princess Catherine. The book was originally published in the U.S. in 2002 by Harcourt/Gulliver Books.
Lady Margaret Boleyn was an Irish noblewoman, the daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond. She married Sir William Boleyn and through her eldest son Sir Thomas Boleyn, was the paternal grandmother of Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII of England, and great-grandmother of Anne and Henry's daughter, Elizabeth I of England.
Sir William Stafford, of Chebsey, in Staffordshire was an Essex landowner and the second husband of Mary Boleyn, who was the sister of Anne Boleyn, Queen of England. Mary was one-time mistress of King Henry VIII of England.
The Other Boleyn Girl is a 2003 BBC television film directed and written by Philippa Lowthorpe, adapted from Philippa Gregory's 2001 novel of the same name. It centres around courtier Mary Boleyn and her sister Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII, King of England, and their competition for his affections.
Mary Boleyn, also known as Lady Mary, was the sister of English queen consort Anne Boleyn, whose family enjoyed considerable influence during the reign of King Henry VIII.
Lady Mary Percy, Countess of Northumberland was a courtier and noblewoman during the reign of Henry VIII of England. She was the daughter of George Talbot, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury. Her husband, Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland, had wished to marry Anne Boleyn instead of her.
The mistresses of Henry VIII included many notable women between 1509 and 1536. They have been the subject of biographies, novels and films.
The King's Curse is a 2014 historical novel by Philippa Gregory, part of her series The Cousins' War. A direct sequel to The White Princess, it follows the adult life of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, the daughter of George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence and Isabel Neville.