"It is quite permissible for gentlemen, even married ones, to pay their addresses to you," she said. "They may express their devotion and even their passion. It is for you to have mastery over them, and in that sense the title of mistress is an honourable one. But it is never permissible for you to allow any man to go beyond the bounds of propriety. And you must keep your suitor guessing, and at arm's length, for men do not value what is easily obtained. Even the lightest kiss is a great favour, you understand. The greatest jewel you possess is your honour..."
(Margaret of Austria)
from Anne Boleyn; A King's Obsession
Anne Boleyn; A King's Obsession is the latest novel in Alison Weir's Six Tudor Queens series. It begins when Anne is a little girl of eleven years old, and follows her journey right through to her execution. The novel is nicely written, with lots of historical content that seems to have been well researched. Weir is after all, a historian first and foremost and she has written many non-fiction books on the Tudor age.
Unlike other books about Anne Boleyn, this novel does not present her as a romantic heroine. Here she is an ambitious young woman who craves power, and she uses the king to get it. She plays a long game, reeling him in and then spinning him back out again - the age old practice of courtly love, as described above in the excerpt from the book. She is ruthless in her ambitions too, having no hesitation in persuading the king to have her enemies named as traitors and put to death.
As everyone knows, Anne Boleyn achieved her dream of becoming queen of England and sitting on the throne beside Henry VIII, but as this novel recounts, her victory is short lived. Unable to bear a living, thriving son, the fickle heart of the king soon turns away from her and seeks out the love of Jane Seymour instead.
Anne's cleverness in stringing Henry along and ultimately gaining everything she wished for also proved to be her downfall, for she unwittingly sowed the seeds for other ambitious young women to follow suit, and whereas once Henry turned away from his first wife Katherine to her, soon he turns from Anne to seek out another potential new queen. Anne learns that her power is only as strong and as lasting as the king's love for her, and as his love wanes, so too does her power and more importantly, her safety.
I like this novel because it illustrates perfectly what happens in a relationship when a man no longer has to chase the attentions of the woman he claims to love - in short, when she stops being his girlfriend who he would travel miles to spend a few hours with, and instead becomes his wife who is always on hand, waiting for him at home. She goes from being a mysterious creature he can't wait to be with, to a familiar convenience and from there, inevitably at some point, she becomes inconvenient and a nuisance he wants to shake off.
This is an uncomfortable truth of marriage, or cohabiting, that is rarely addressed in women's fiction. It is one of the reason's I will never live with a man again! Courtly love, remaining somewhat unavailable, rather than being at his beckon call, is the only way to keep a man's interest high and his affection strong.
When Anne is being pursued by the king, she is the flower of the Court. She is surrounded by handsome young courtiers, who pay her flattering attentions, write love poetry and songs for her, while Henry sends her billet-doux by the score. She is given little gifts and tokens of affection, and all this is acceptable, because she lives a chaste and virtuous life. Yet still her enemies call her a whore and a harlot.
In truth, I think Anne Boleyn was an exceptionally clever and strategic woman, who got everything she wanted from the most powerful man in the country. She used her sharp tongue and clever wit to ensnare the king and feed his infatuation with her, but once enthroned, she challenged him too much and made the mistake of outshining the master. If only Henry could have foreseen what a queen Elizabeth was going to be, he might have cherished Anne for the rest of his days. Alas, her star had to fall as quickly as it had risen and so the novel ends at the scaffold.
I have enjoyed reading this book and I am looking forward to the release of the next novel in the series, which is published in May. I have to say though, that Anne Boleyn is my favourite of all Henry's queens and one of my heroines, so I love reading new books about her. Having said that, I am interested to read Alison Weir's take on Jane Seymour next month. If you are a fan of Tudor fiction, you will probably like the Six Tudor Queens series, which promises to be every bit as enthralling as Phillipa Gregory's Tudor series. Enjoy!
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