THE OTHER BOLEYN - MARY

Everyone told me not to see The Other Boleyn and so I didn't. I bought the book however. It's historical fiction by Philippa Gregory.

What can I say? The book is readable; it's light reading; the characters do not have a lot of complexity to them, but it's engaging. I'm actually enjoying the book. Each scene has a beginning, buildup and end. The characters have clear motivation and are easy to tell apart. It goes from scene to scene, and it sucks you along. Even though you know the overall plot, it's fun to read the book. But there's nothing complex about the characters or situation. It's linear and the characters are what they are; there are no underones, no hidden selves. The Howard family (i.e. the Boleyns because their mother was a Howard) are all ambitious and will do anything to climb socially. Anne Boleyn is clever, conniving and manipulative, all for the greater glory of the Howards. Mary is a pawn of the family; she's the one with some heart. Henry VIII wants a son and will do anything to try and get what he wants. So most everyone is intriguing and plotting, and using one another to get what they want.

I didn't know about Mary Boleyn. I thought I knew my English history, the Tudors, Plantagenets, Stuarts and all of that. I could rattle off the names of the six wives of Henry VIII, and knew about Sir Thomas More, Cromwell, etc. For some reason, I missed hearing about Mary Boleyn, the sister of Anne Boleyn.

(Remember the ditty? - Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived - so that would be Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard, and Katherine Parr. Hmmm, I've just noticed that Henry had three wives named Katherine. I note also that Jane Seymour became queen after Anne Boleyn. The Seymours and Howards were political rivals. I note that Katherine Howard, a first cousin of Anne Boleyn, also became queen and also got herself beheaded. The two cousins are buried together in a chapel in the Tower of London.

The English do this thing about burying people together as some kind of statement. Consider how they buried together Queen Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen and her cousin Mary Queen of Scots - side by side, in Westminster. It was Elizabeth who had Mary Queen of Scots beheaded. So, the English put the two right beside each other.)

Anyway, the story of Mary Boleyn is interesting. She became a mistress of Henry VIII and had two children by him - Catherine and Henry. Her husband, who lent his family name to the Royal bastards, received many royal gifts and became wealthy. Very little of this wealth ended up with Mary when he died, and she was destitute for many years until Anne asked Henry to help her. While she had low moments in her life, she seemed to have had the best deal in the end. She literally kept her head (her sister didn't),married a man she loved, and had a private life somewhere with her family. Her three children went on to serve their cousin or half-sister, Queen Elizabeth.