Mary Boleyn: The Mistress of Kings

by Alison Weir

Mary Boleyn (c.1500-1543) was no less fascinating than her ill-fated queen consort sister Anne. In fact, her own claims to fame are numerous: She was not only an influential member of King Henry VIII's court circle; she was one of his mistresses and perhaps the mother of two of his children. In addition, the apparently prolific Mary was rumored to have been also a mistress of the King's rival, Francis I of France. Alison Weir's Mary Boleyn substantially redeems her subject's reputation by disputing her scandalous portrayal in Philippa Gregory's novel The Other Boleyn Girl. Our most detailed view yet of a power behind the throne. With titles like Elizabeth and The Lady in the Tower, Weir has carved out a niche as one of the foremost biographers of British royalty.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Historical, Tudor Period, British Literature, Royalty

364 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Alison Weir is an English writer of history books for the general public, mostly in the form of biographies about British kings and queens, and of historical fiction. Before becoming an author, Weir worked as a teacher of children with special needs. She received her formal training in history at teacher training college. She currently lives in Surrey, England, with her two children.

Reviews

[Jemidar · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the real problem with biographies of lesser known women in history, is that there just isn't enough known information out there about them to make their biographies interesting. Women's lives just weren't recorded in any detail so there is often no "paper trail" to follow and we just don't know what they thought or even where they were at any given time, so a biography like this one comes pretty much down to speculation from very little hard evidence or the author has to admit that we just don't know. Neither really makes for riveting reading.

While Mary Boleyn lived in interesting times and belonged to a family which was at the heart of politics at the time, she herself seems to have made very little impact. There are two extant letters, some legal paperwork to do with an annuity and her inheritance, and a whole raft of rumours. Not much for any biographer to go on, and Weir struggled to make much of it.

The good bits though, were the fact that Weir did seem to do thorough research and did turn up some interesting facts about Henry VIII and the Boleyn family that I was unaware of. And although she didn't "explode the mythology" or "present compelling new evidence" as claimed by the jacket blurb, she did reach some credible conclusions regarding Mary's life. It is not to say however, that I agreed with all the conclusions she came to in regards to Mary, as a lot of the stuff just can't be proved either way (there is really just not enough evidence or information) and it mostly comes down to an educated guess.

It was nice to see Weir take a more even handed approach in this biography as a common complaint about her work is bias, but in doing so she seemed to loose something because despite what others have said about her historical accuracy, I have always found her biographies very readable and at times, page turners. This one however felt like it was missing something, and I fear her efforts to be taken seriously as an historian has been detrimental to her writing style.

On the whole though, this biography was an enjoyable read and probably the most comprehensive book on Mary Boleyn available at this time.

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rating Clarification: 2.5 Stars

I've enjoyed reading Alison Weir's non-fiction books for a long time, but sadly have to say that I think she did her fans a disservice with the publication of this book.

There is just too little known about the life of Mary Boleyn, and although I'm confident Weir did her best with the mountains of reference material culled by and available to her, this book suffered from far too much conjecture, speculation, and educated guesses. In the end, all Weir (and we as readers) can really be sure of is:

1. Mary was a Boleyn.
2. Mary had sex at least once with the French king, Francois.
3. Mary had sex at least once with King Henry VIII.
4. Mary had an arranged marriage to William Carey.
5. Mary married William Stafford on the sly (and for love) and pissed off her entire family as a result.
6. Mary had children.
7. Mary died in 1543.

Everything else, (and I mean seriously everything else) about Mary's life was a series of "what if's", "what may have happened", "what could have been", and "what appears to have been".

Sorry, but that makes for tedious reading. And anyway, who really cares about Mary anyway? She was the boring sister to the fascinating Anne Boleyn. This nonentity lived and loved and died without creating much historical excitement, and I say let her rest in peace. If, however, you need a Mary Boleyn fix, and don't mind all the creative and historical license taken with her story, I much preferred the fictional book: The Last Boleyn by Karen Harper.

In the end, I'd much rather Weir had focused any novel related to Mary Boleyn on her granddaughter, Lettice Knollys. Now that would make for some entertaining reading!

[Rick-Founder JM CM BOOK CLUB · Rating 1 out of 5]

too too too much facts and names and no narrative- I do not need to read 10 pages about what year Mary might have been born

[Jocelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book, and came away with a lot. Tudor history is fascinating and one of my favorite topics in general. One thing that struck me though is much of this book was devoted to people who may or may not have played a role in Mary’s life. It was less a biography and more a general history with Mary as a middle. It’s hard to know a lot about Mary because much of the information about her has been lost. The book on a whole is very interesting!

[Orsolya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anne Boleyn this, Anne Boleyn that. Everyone always focuses on Anne. What about her sister, Mary? Alison Weir’s latest historical effort, contrives to bring some attention to Mary Boleyn.

The book begins with a slow start, as the first chapter focuses on whether Mary or Anne was the eldest sister. Unless you consider this crucial information you just can’t live without or if you have already made up your mind on the statistic; then this chapter isn’t vital to the whole of the book and you can skip it, if you please. In fact, the entire beginning is somewhat disjointed and “jumpy” (going back and forth with dates and events); which causes a disconnection to the reader.

Before examining Mary, Alison Weir describes Henry VIII’s relationship with Bessie Blount, validating that this relationship impacts his future possible pairing with Mary. Although I can see the connection, it resulted in a feeling that the book was more of an encircling of Henry’s affairs than Mary’s life. It wasn’t until chapter four, that things “got juicy” beginning with Mary’s time in France and possible affair with Francis I. Before this chapter, the focus was on Mary’s upbringing, however very sparse due to a lack of primary (and even secondary) resources. At this point, Weir did finally begin to present research and examinations of evidences to help debunk some of the Mary Boleyn myths. Although, I wouldn’t say they blew the myths out of the water; but they certainly presented some connections/strong points which would provide a starting argument in a historical debate. Sadly, these points were brief and would welcome more explanation which Weir failed to elaborate on.

Much of the text felt off-course and following tangents (which could be due to the absent information surrounding Mary’s life). Further, Weir’s assertions weren’t full of conviction and encompassed contradicting opinions. For example, Weir would describe how Mary’s relationship with Henry was brief and perhaps even a one-night stand but then declares that the Boleyn family was appalled and embarrassed by the situation and basically shunned Mary. Why would they be so horrified if it was a one-night stand that the court wasn’t even aware of?

Although I disagreed with some of Weir’s claims, such as Thomas Boleyn having a son (with the same name) who lived until adulthood (see youtube video entitled “The Lost Boleyns”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loGyBq... there were some very resonating points including that royal favors bestowed on Thomas Boleyn can’t authenticate the beginning or duration of Mary’s possible relationship with Henry since Thomas received titles and grants long before the possible affair. Plus, Henry didn’t even bestow titles on Bessie Blount’s father (and she gave him a son) so we can’t assume he gave Thomas grants merely due to Mary.

Simply, the book did not flow as smoothly as other Weir works and included too many speculation statements (should have, would, have, etc). Sadly, Weir wasn’t as convincing with her research as usual which was displayed with her conviction that Etheldreda was Henry’s bastard child merely based on one letter and because Henry wouldn’t “normally bestow grants on her if she was just the daughter of a tailor and laundress”, is not conclusive to me. Furthermore, Weir continues to contradict when she makes a comment that because Henry didn’t acknowledge Etheldreda, then this is evidence that he would be capable of not acknowledging a bastard begotten onto Mary even though one could exist. Yet, on the very next page, Weir avows that because Henry granted such extravagance to Henry Fitzroy and not Mary’s children (Henry or Katherine), that this proves that there was no bastard of his blood. Make up your mind, Weir!

Weir went on to state that “one of the most compelling arguments for Henry’s paternity of Katherine Carey” is the “substantial annuity of 100 pounds that he granted to Mary after William Carey’s death at Anne’s bequest”. Ummm… maybe Anne simply asked Henry to help her sister financially based on Carey’s service to the crown during his living years. You DID just say, “…at Anne’s bequest”. Until more depth is considered, I am not convinced that this proves Katherine Carey’s father was the King.

The view throughout the book seemed to be that Mary was a dullard (and possibly a whore) while Anne and the rest of the Boleyns disapproved of her with great embarrassment. None of these claims felt validated and, by the way, since when is Anne a godly child, anyway? All the while, at the end of the text, Weir states that she hopes she debunked the myth that Mary was a great whore. Although I never thought she was (and still don’t), I don’t feel Weir “debunked” this effectively and rather presented arguments for discussion. I just can’t solidly say that all readers would be convinced one way or another.

The most interesting parts were in Appendix I which described the famous descendents of Mary Boleyn and Appendix II, debating the existence of any Mary portraits. Overall, not as solid as other works by Weir, but it was a good effort to bring Mary Boleyn to the forefront. The book isn’t terrible, but not 100% compelling.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before you read this book, you need to decide whether you want a romanticized but historically inaccurate interpretation of what Mary Boleyn might have been like, or a serious historical biography that debunks myths and gives "just the facts, ma'am." If you are interested in the latter, then and only then should you dive into this book. I have been reading a lot about the Tudors and was perfectly happy to take a historically-based, no-myths-allowed look at what we know about Mary Boleyn, Anne's sister. Weir is an excellent researcher and writer, and she does a terrific job of looking at all the evidence, putting aside descriptions of Mary that aren't supported by fact, and then drawing conclusions from what remains. Unfortunately, there just isn't that much that remains in the historical record to give us a very definitive idea of who Mary Boleyn was. Weir gives us a lot of her best guesses and forcefully rejects overdramatized but unsubstantiated looks at Boleyn's character. Interesting for the sincere student of Tudor history, but probably not for dilettantes.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

It doesn't grab you by the throat and shake you the way her Lady in the Tower does, but it is very, very thoughtful, leaving the reader pondering possible new angles of the Tudor court and Mary Boleyn.

Also, I have never seen so many question marks in a book *ever*, which probably makes this the most honest history book ever.


EDIT:

Just bought a copy. Review of second-time-round thoughts to come.


EDIT:

For a long time, the British Historians Bathroom had graffiti scrawled on the stalls reading: ‘For a good time, call Mary B.’

Alison Weir snickered along with the rest of the pack, adding little doodles of Tudor roses doing suggestive things with melons, but, now, like a reformed bully, she is here to try and scrub the lewdness away, and to try and tell an accurate portrait of a real, complex, three dimensional woman, without all the crass innuendo. Finally, someone is here to do more than brush Ms. M. Boleyn off with a joke and a stereotype.

Weir digs down deep through the tertiary, secondary and primary sources, taking a hard look at the characters of the sources as well as bringing a modern day police investigation level of attention to means, motive and opportunity, putting special emphasis on issues of timing and motivation.

She starts with an aggressive look at when Mary might have been born and moves on from there, applying the same attitude of –do-we-know-this-or-are-we-just-repeating-gossip? throughout as she tries to figure out where – and when – Mary spent her girlhood, teenage years, and early twenties.

She puts a lot of effort into establishing when a woman was pregnant, since a woman in her third trimester was 99.9 % most likely not engaging in any extra-marital affairs and would restrict other activities, such as galloping across the countryside, which helps establish where a woman was in the months right before giving birth.

She examines what “everyone knows” about May – that she slept with the King of England and the King of France – and comes to the conclusion that just becomes “everyone” says so… doesn’t necessarily make it true. She finds a little evidence that Mary could, maybe, have slept with the two kings – but not as much as you’d expect, give how sure historians have been about those “facts” for the past 400 years.

If she did sleep with Henry VIII, then it was an extremely well-kept secret, an affair conducted with absolute discretion – and with virtually no material gains for Mary.

Then a very close examination of who was the father of Mary’s two children. Basically, short of time machine and a DNA kit – we don’t know. I think the historical fiction book Doomed Queen Anne, summed it up best when Mary is asked who is the father of her son, she says in a rather miserable voice: I don’t know.

Then, as Anne takes center stage, Weir follows Mary along in the back wings, explaining how Mary played some part in support staff to Anne’s rise, but was just as much shoved to the side by the rest of the family.

When she marries William Stafford we get the extra fun tidbit of the fact Mr. Stafford was a solid 10 years younger than her (YOU GO GIRL!) and after an exhaustive look at all the fact Weir can come to no other conclusion than it was an honest to goodness love match, a true case of choosing love over the 1001 Practical Real World Reasons This Can Never Work.

Good for Mary – no matter what people say about her, she had the courage to make her own choice and not be afraid. A rare quality in this world.

So, there’s fallout, and yes, love is grand, but there was that money issue, and it looks like Mary spent pretty much the rest of her life living down a few pegs on the social notch, since most of the paper trail after her marriage is about job postings, inheritance squabbles, and disputed annuities.

Also, big surprise, Weir dug up evidence on were, exactly, Mary was when the execution of her sister went down and found some very hard evidence that points to Mary being in Calais at the time, of all places. Of course, it makes sense, since Calais was a good place to set out for if a.) you needed a job and b.) it was prudent to be out of the country for a few years.

Mary might very well have passed in the street the executioner on his way to the dock to set sail for England to kill her sister!

After that, Weir is left with not much more on Mary, but does a decent job examining what became of the rest of her family, tied as they were to Tudor politics, what with the never ending Howard-Tudor connection that always lead to some interesting epsidoes in history, of which Mary was only one.

So, the graffiti remains (thanks Philippa), but at least this has been added to try and balance things out.

Of course, no one is in a hurry to do anything about the crude drawings of Henry VIII holding a bloody ax in one hand and a phallic shaped chicken leg in the other…

[Iset · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since Philippa Gregory published the populist fictional novel The Other Boleyn Girl in 2002, the book has been turned into a BBC television series and a Hollywood movie, but as interest in Tudor England has experienced an upturn so too has the fog of myth and misconception surrounding the history. The blurb of this latest historical non-fiction claims to "[explode]... the mythology" surrounding Mary Boleyn and "[uncover] the facts", and I must admit I was curious to see what conclusions Weir's research had made.

Reading Weir’s introduction, I agreed with a lot of the sentiments she expressed and admired her goal of redressing the misconceptions and attempting to find the facts. However, I didn’t agree with all of Weir’s conclusions - namely the 1501 birth year that Weir gives to Anne Boleyn, Weir's argument that Anne was euphemistically "corrupted" whilst at the French court, and her argument that Catherine Carey was the daughter of Henry VIII - the latter two, in my opinion, are based far too much on circumstantial evidence alone and unreliable sources. There were also what appeared to be one or two genuine factual blips during the course of the text. However, I also found it easy to read; flowing style, clear, understandable - in contrast to some of Weir's other non-fiction works which in the past I have found at times to be a bit of a dry read. And whilst I didn't agree with some of Weir's conclusions, she definitely addressed the misconceptions, and brought to light some misplaced information. In particular I thought Weir's arguments addressing the "great and infamous" notoriety of Mary Boleyn were well-argued and thoroughly plausible. And credit to Weir for taking on an undoubtedly difficult subject and trying to cut through the shroud of myth to produce this biography of Mary Boleyn.

[Wealhtheow · Rating 2 out of 5]

Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII had a love affair that catalyzed a political and religious revolution in England. But years before they married, Henry had an affair--no one knows for how long, or how serious--with Anne's sister Mary. After writing numerous books about Henry VIII and his wives, Weir has set out to delve into the history of Mary Boleyn.

The problem is, there isn't much history to delve into. We have two letters by her, and some information about her travels during young adulthood. But we don't know what she looked like (no portrait has been authenticated, and the portraits associated with her have a very low probability of actually being her), or what color hair she had, or when she was born, or if she was older or younger than Anne, or when she left France, or what her feelings were about any of the men in her life, or who fathered some of her children, or how many children she had, or anything at all, really. And that's my issue with this book. Weir has clearly put in due diligence to discover everything she can find about Mary, but there just doesn't seem to be much known. And so instead the majority of this book is taken up with either mocking other scholars' theories about Mary (and rightfully so--the fanciful, downright prurient language they use to describe this woman they know nothing about, whose sex life is a near complete mystery to everyone, is shockingly unprofessional) or making up her own theories.

I've been impressed with Weir's scholarship and careful weighing of fact vs possibilities before, but I think she goes a bit overboard into fiction here. She theorizes all sorts of things, based on very little evidence indeed. One of Mary's children named one of her children "William," and from this Weir concludes that William Stafford was a good step-father to the Mary's children and that they loved him. What the heck? William is a perfectly ordinary, very common name! Or Weir uses the royal imagery in a poem by Sir Philip Sidney (when he was courting Katherine Carey, Mary's eldest child) as proof that Katherine was secretly Henry VIII's bastard daughter. Again, that's very flimsy indeed! By the end of the "biography," I was very frustrated with Weir. I think she did her reputation more harm than good with this book.

[Marian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very informative, if you are interested in Tudor England. Well written and researched as all of her books are. She presents convincing arguments as to the misconceptions that have persisted over the centuries about "the Other Boleyn Girl".

[Paige · Rating 4 out of 5]

We love a book dismantling misogynistic views of historical women!!

[T.E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, then.
My life is a lie--as is everything I thought I knew about Mary Boleyn. Turns out Jean Plaidy's thoughtful portrait of her as this sweet, vague bed-hopper is just not on--unfortunately, nor is Plaidy's portrayal of Anne as a clever, intuitive person seeking to avoid sexual promiscuity because of what happened to her sister. Shame, because that was my favorite portrayal so far.
But helas...Anne's a bitch.
On the plus side, however, Mary's not a whore. Much. And she actually had a really adorable marriage with William Stafford.
A meticulously researched book which forced me to reevaluate my opinions of everyone in the period--except Henry VIII. Still kinda hate him.

However...
I understand that many of Weir's sources are very inconclusive, and I love and respect that she's not pulling conclusions out of her ass just to make a better story...
But the fact remains that VERY little is known about Mary, so much of the book begins with sentences like 'we can only speculate...' which is a bit annoying. However, as stated before, not her fault.
All in all, 4 stars, chirr'ns. 4 stars.

[poorvi cowkur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obscured by the Henry and Anne Boleyn epic love saga, the story of Mary Boleyn has been lost to us,much of historical works relegating her to an insignificant character, popular as Henry's discarded mistress,in her family's sudden rise to fame and the cataclysmic fall that soon followed. Although this can be due to the fact that much of Mary's story is left incomplete in contemporary Tudor archives and only a few of her letters survive, it can be hard to identify, through the prejudiced voices of many who have attempted to uncover her story and helped create an image of Mary Boleyn which, further popularized through movies and TV shows,couldn't be further from the truth.This book does an excellent job in examining the various imprecise claims attributed to Mary and helps paint a clear picture of the real Mary Boleyn, the living witness to the horrors that inflicted her family.Through historical examination the book helps put a lot of rumors to rest about Mary and is a great read for anyone interested in learning about the other Boleyn girl.

[Kimberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

My problem with this book is that Weir's summation of Mary Bolelyn's life is based on speculation. While Weir provides some interesting tidbits regarding Henry's affair with Mary's sister, Anne, she seemed to get bogged down with inconclusive research. I didn't need to read ten pages about the year Mary may have been born. In Weir's defense, Mary is merely a footnote in history, with little hard core evidence pertaining to her life. In this respect, I think Weir would have been wiser to write a historical fiction account of Mary's life. I know I would have been more generous in my rating had she chosen that genre.

[Susanna - Censored by GoodReads · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

I commend Weir for doing a lot with incredibly little information to rely on.

For a further review: http://susannag.booklikes.com/post/80... .

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved learning more about Mary Boleyn and I admire Alison Weir's writing but sometimes it can go off point, and start talking about other things. Besides that, I enjoyed it.

[Steven Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice biography--especially with so little information about its subject:

his is a well written book. It focuses on the life of Mary Boleyn--Queen Anne Boleyn's sister. The author, Alison Weir has a major challenge, though: There simply is not a great deal of information on the subject of this biography. And what there is is often contradictory, sketchy, political polemic of the time. . . .

The subtitle, "The Mistress of Kings," refers to alleged liaisons with French king Francois I and English king, Henry VIII. And, at that, there is not a great deal of hard evidence. Weir suggests that there is more evidence than not that she was, however briefly, a lover of King Francois I. But the evidence is sketchy at that. Weir does a nice job of trying to separate wheat from chaff among the various stories of their relationship.

The same with Henry VIII. There is more evidence than not that she served as the king's mistress. Again, though, Weir has a challenge in separating out the various stories of many different people.

There are many times in the book that Weir will say something like "she might have spent the winter in. . . ." There is little firm information about so much of Mary Boleyn's life that a biography becomes difficult to craft. However, Weir does give a clear sense of the political context in which Mary lived and the dynamics of her ambitious family and its role at court.

In the end, this is a very nicely done book, although the information void about its subject is an issue. But Weir works around that nicely and still giving us a good sense of Mary Boleyn and her times.

[Peter Weissman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book because I was asked by the publisher to copyedit it (which I do freelance, for several publishers). More precisely, in this case, to "unanglicize" the English version of Mary Boleyn for the American edition.

Though while editing I'm more involved in the text than the average reader--albeit less than usual on his assignment, which had been edited before and thus called for no "styling" from me--I do actually read the books I edit. (I'm asked about this often.) And as a reader, my guess is that many might find this and other Weir books dry, given their speculations about the motives behind certain decisions (court intrigues, hidden motives, etc.) and whether this or that historical source is more or less believable. Also, there are a ton of footnotes in most Weir books, this one included.

Honestly, I can't say I'd have bought this had it not come my way as an editor. On the other hand, I enjoy the Weir books--this one four stars worth--because I learn things about the period and I do like history and its characters: Mary and Henry VIII in Mary Boleyn.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weir is fantastic at making history readable and showing her research. I can see why she felt this book needed to be written but I haven’t partaken of all the pop culture around the other Boleyn girl etc so I mostly felt I didn’t need to read a whole book on Mary Boleyn. But Weir does make the sparse details around her life thick with details by and about those she interacted with. And more than most of her books, this is a historiography with lots of discussion about how previous historians dealt with the subject.

[Meaghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is quality I've come to expect from Alison Weir's royal biographies. Little is known about Mary, and there's much more conjecture than fact, but Weir was able to put together a detailed and reliable account of her life and the (tiny) part she played in Tudor history. I was surprised to see Weir listed Ethelreda Malt among Henry VIII's bastards, but whatever. A not-to-miss for Tudor junkies.

[Lilli · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed learning more about Mary Boleyn. Despite her close proximity to the crown—through her affair with Henry VIII and more famous sister, Anne Boleyn—it’s always surprising how little concrete information we have about her life.

This book is carefully researched, drawing from a wide range of sources and thoughtfully addressing contradictions to piece together what we can reasonably know about Mary. Alison Weir does a commendable job of exploring historical gaps while distinguishing between fact, assumption, and speculation.

I listened to the audiobook version and found it quite engaging. The light dramatization of quotes from historical figures added a nice touch without being overly theatrical.

[Margaret Ciolino · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved Weir’s Lady in The Tower the biography of Anne Boleyn or rather her life leading up to her downfall. I found the biography on Mary to be a bit lacking but it had its highlights.

Highlights:
Weir skillfully dispels the myths that Mary was a notoriously promiscuous woman and backs her claims with a lot of evidence. We learn that that in all likelihood Mary is the eldest sibling - she likely had affair with King Francois I while in France, she certainly had an affair with Henry VIII (Weir brings evidence this was not a drawn out episode but probably fairly brief.)
I felt this book did help fill in gaps in my knowledge of the Tudor era, it’s customs like inheritance and burials.

Not so great aspects:
A lot of the book is about the characters around Mary instead of her - so to call this a biography is a stretch.
There is just a lot of proper noun soup - between lists of people and names of various estates this book often felt like a mind field and as a reader I felt confused to what names and places I should remember.
So little is known about Mary it just doesn’t feel like there was enough here.


All in all- I will gladly and happily read more of Weir’s biographies and histories and I appreciate her research and work.

[Rebecca Huston · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fairly good look at the life of Mary Boleyn, with some attempt at accuracy. Weir sifts through what is actually known about Mary Boleyn, and works hard to dispell most of the more wild stories. On the other hand, there is so very little that is confirmed fact, that there's a lot of repetition and padding in this. Depending on how much you actually know about the time and history of the Tudors, you might or not like this book. I found it to be fairly readable, but the best part was actually in the afterword when Weir looks at the various novels and films that feature Mary Boleyn. Over all this one gets three and a half stars, rounded up to four.

For the longer review, please go here:
http://www.epinions.com/review/Alison...

[Rio (Lynne) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't think I had much interest in this book. After being bored to death, by another book I was reading last night, I scanned the kindle looking for something else and this popped up. I decided to download a free chapter, next thing I knew I wanted to read the whole thing. I pretty much wanted to see if my beliefs about Mary coincided with Alison Weir's.......after all the false information out there about The Boleyns...thank you Ms. Gregory. The author's findings and theories paralleled to mine. For a bio on Mary, this book actually covered a lot of other people, but the characters go hand and hand, so I was OK with that. I learned some new things about Thomas Boleyn. I loved Karen Harper's The Last Boleyn and her book pretty much agrees with Alison's findings.

[Maja - BibliophiliaDK ✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

What is great about Alison Weir's biographies is her research that she very clearly accounts for all throughout her books; not only is she familiar with the primary sources, she also knows the secondary ones and is able to put those two side by side and compare them in a resonable manner. It's not Weir's methods I have a problem with; it is her writing. Weir has a very unfortunate habit of getting ahead of herself and constantly uses variations of the phrase; "as we will soon see!, which makes for a very annoying read in the long run.

[Helen Azar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although it cannot be called a terribly "exciting" book, I feel I learned enough about Mary Boleyn from this one to give it full 5 stars. There is such paucity of information about this Boleyn sister out there, that to even read a few new things is really saying something, and there are several new things in this book, as well as a somewhat different perspective on the old story...

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

An underwhelming read from one of my favorite historical nonfiction authors. I give Alison Weir props for trying to get the facts straight about Mary Boleyn's life, especially in light of the rampant myths spread by certain works of poorly written fiction (*cough*The Other Boleyn Girl*cough*). People will probably be drawn to this nonfiction book based on that alone (I know I was). Unfortunately, there's just not much here- and I can now understand why Mary Boleyn has been such an appealing target for works of Tudor fiction. It's difficult to dispute the facts when there's very little of them to begin with.

There's simply not enough hard evidence (letters, etc.) to compose an entire full-length biography of Anne Boleyn's sister. Alison Weir critiques the theories of other scholars (based on the sheer lack of evidence), but does not put forward a convincing portrait of Mary on her own. Do not expect to get a better sense of Mary's personality or feelings from this book. There's just so little solid information to go off of that Mary fades into the background of her own biography, and what is presented is often speculation. There are also a lot of tedious tangents that, far from providing context, just feel like filler. I wish I could recommend this - but unfortunately, I think the lack of certainty and rather dry writing is likely to turn audiences away.

[LibraryCin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

This is a nonfiction “biography” of Mary Boleyn. Mary lived during the first half of the 16th century, and was most likely a mistress to Henry VIII before he divorced his first wife, Kathrine of Aragon, and married Mary’s sister, Anne Boleyn.

There really isn’t a whole lot known about Mary, so the author took a lot of sources, both primary and secondary, and analyzed them to figure out what she could of Mary’s life. I expected this. She did also explain why she thought some of the sources were (likely) correct or not. So there is still much speculation, but the author did want to correct some obvious things that people think about Mary due to recent popular movies and tv shows (that, yes, I also enjoyed!).

I did learn a little bit, too: apparently, the likely affair between Henry and Mary was the same in the minds of people at the time, with regard to not allowing Henry and Anne to marry, as Henry marrying Katherine (his brother’s widow), which is what Henry used to annul his first marriage – it was considered incest, and shouldn’t have allowed him to marry Anne. But no one (at least who was willing to outwardly oppose Henry and Anne’s marriage) knew about it to bring it up.

This is, of course, a bit of a longer read, not in terms of pages, but it’s nonfiction, so a little more dense. But, still interesting!

[Nicola Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Any book on the Tudors is an automatic tick for me. And if it’s written by Alison Weir - bound to be an automatic read! They’re always so enlightening and well written, so well researched and really well executed. I haven’t met an Alison Weir book yet I haven’t liked!

It was an interesting read and I learnt a lot about Mary Boleyn. She’s somewhat overshadowed by her more famous sister, Anne Boleyn, Queen of England and Henry VIII’s second wife.

I listened to the audiobook on this one but also have the physical book on my shelf as they’re definitely books that I find easy to go back to. You can really tell how much time the author puts into the background research for these books and they seem so thorough and well brought together.

Made up of letters, accounts, historical recordings and what we’ve come to know throughout history, it’s the most comprehensive biography on Mary Boleyn of the time. She’s come to be known as the infamous whore but how truthful and accurate is that? I have to admit to being wrongfully informed on her character myself.

Really great book all in all and glad I finally got round to this one.

[Marilyn Boyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this history. Unfortunately, I read it on my Kobo reader, a rookie mistake for a new e-reader. I missed being able to easily flip back and forth through the pages and didn’t have an ease with the reader mechanisms. I still have it in my library, though, and it’s at my fingertip if I ever need to go back again. I don’t recommend readers for reference non- fiction.

I’m guessing at the dates I read it. I remember not letting up on the reading, as it had grabbed my attention at the time plus a novelty to read online. It’s a great book if you like Tudor history. Weir is a master.