Anne Boleyn in London

by Lissa Chapman

Romantic victim? Ruthless other woman? Innocent pawn? Religious reformer? Fool, flirt and adulteress? Politician? Witch? During her life, Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII s ill-fated second queen, was internationally famous or notorious; today, she still attracts passionate adherents and furious detractors. It was in London that most of the drama of Anne Boleyn s life and death was played out most famously, in the Tower of London, the scene of her coronation celebrations, of her trial and execution, and where her body lies buried. Londoners, like everyone else, clearly had strong feelings about her, and in her few years as a public figure Anne Boleyn was influential as a patron of the arts and of French taste, as the center of a religious and intellectual circle, and for her purchasing power, both directly and as a leader of fashion. It was primarily to London, beyond the immediate circle of the court, that her carefully 'spun' image as queen was directed during the public celebrations surrounding her coronation. In the centuries since Anne Boleyn s death, her reputation has expanded to give her an almost mythical status in London, inspiring everything from pub names to music hall songs, and novels to merchandise including pin cushions with removable heads. And now there is a thriving online community surrounding her there are over fifty Twitter accounts using some version of her name.This book looks at the evidence both for the effect London and its people had on the course of Anne Boleyn s life and death, and the effects she had, and continues to have, on them."

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

248 pages, Hardcover

First published January 30, 2017

Reviews

[Juliew. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The use of first hand accounts,fairly accurate historical portrayals and unbiased writing makes this book about Anne Boleyn very good.Unfortunately,it wasn't necessarily what I signed up for as I was expecting lots of descriptions of places Anne stayed and visited while in London.There is a little of this in the beginning as well as at the end otherwise it is mainly a biography of her life.I really enjoyed the section called" Ever After,"at the end detailing the continuing story of Henry VIII and Anne's legend as it has come down to us through the ages.The drawings and photos were also stunning.

[Olga Miret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Plenty of information on the court and the London of the era and a balanced view of Anne’s historical figure. Thanks to Pen & Sword for providing me with a copy of this book that I freely choose to review.
I have recently read a number of books about the Tudor era, mostly historical fiction novels and I was intrigued to see what this book might offer.
The author has researched the topic well and discusses what London was like in Anne Boleyn’s time and describes the changes that not only London, but also the rest of England, experienced during this time, and in some cases, later. Even if those changes were not directly influenced by Anne’s role, it is clear that this was a momentous time for British history and Anne’s history is inextricably linked to them. Although London was not as important internationally as other cities at the time (Paris, for instance) it was the seat of power and influence of the kingdom. Most important people would have a residence in London at the time, and the book mentions the different properties the king had in the city and surrounding area and how those were renovated or abandoned according to the needs of the period. The fact that Anne’s family didn’t have a house in London is remarkable considering the ambition Thomas Boleyn had for himself and his children. As we know, that didn’t stop him but perhaps meant that he had not as many allies in the capital as he would have wished.
I was fascinated by the accounts of the never-ending moves of the court from residence to residence (due to sanitation and problems with the water supply, no single place could accommodate the king and his entourage for lengthy periods of time, and once they left the cleaning process would start again), by the way in which properties and alliances swapped and changed hands (the Queen is Dead, God Save the Queen indeed, as most of the women who had been ladies in waiting of one of the queens would end up serving the next one or even several in a row, whatever their personal sympathies or feelings might have been. And, of course, everybody would hope to get their hands on the property and positions of those now out of favour with the king) and by details such as how expensive it could be to be called to court (as you had to adjust your dress, carriages, etc., to the requirements) but also profitable if you managed to advance your position and you played your cards right. Some of the historical figures were remarkably resilient and managed to survive changes and whims, although those closest to the king were at highest risk. We learn about the roles of the different Lords and Ladies at the King and Queen’s service, we hear about the strict rules on hygiene, we learn about illnesses and mishaps…
The book does not go into detailed descriptions of places or events, but manages to recreate the atmosphere of the era and gives a good indication of the politics and how the different factions played against each other. The author suggests that to be successful and to survive close to the king, one needed to know how to move and behave both in London and in court. Anne was very familiar with the court’s inner workings (she’d been educated in the courts of Austria and France from a very young age) but due to her time away and to her birthplace, she didn’t know London well. Cromwell knew the ins and outs of London (and was very good at managing the crowds, getting money for coronations and other events, gathering information…) but was not so adept at the ins and outs of court. Ultimately, Henry VIII’s main interest seems to have been to please himself and if somebody stopped being useful or interesting to him, there were plenty of others happy to take their place and try their luck.
Chapman tries to provide an objective and even-handed view of Anne’s historical figure, not adopting sides or taking us on any flights of fancy. She quotes the sources for comments, anecdotes and stories about the queen, always documenting how much weight we can set by them, because much of what has been written about Anne dates from years or centuries after her demise and it was penned by people who did not know her. Even the people who were documenting the events as they occurred tend to be either pro or against Anne rather than neutral observers, and there is little doubt their accounts are coloured by their loyalty and feelings. When possible, the author provides more than one source or interpretation on the events and her sources will be of interest to anybody looking to make their own minds up (although, in my opinion, the book provides a balanced account).
The early chapters flow better and this is, perhaps, because the chapters seem to be designed to work if read separately, providing enough background and references to each period of Anne’s life. A reader who goes through the whole book in a relatively short period of time is bound to notice some repetitions. For example, discussions as to when the court became aware that Anne was pregnant, or descriptions of the chambers of the king and queen appear in more than one chapter. Despite that, I enjoyed learning how the court was organised and the roles others who were not of noble blood played in keeping everything running smoothly.
The last chapter makes a point of updating us on the changes to the properties of the period that have survived to this day. I had to chuckle at the comments about the re-Tudorisation of quite a few buildings in the Victorian Era (the Tower of London, Hampton Court and Windsor in particular).
This book is a good resource for people who are interested in the history behind the figure and are looking for an even-handed summary and account of the events. It will also be of interest to those who want to learn more about the society of the time and how it worked. It offers factual information (such as it exists) and allows us to put into context some of the stories and legends that circulate about Anne to this day. It might be too basic for those who’ve read extensively on the subject but will be a great addition to those who love the period and are looking for reliable data presented in an easy to read and engaging manner.
As an aside, I had access to a hardback copy and it contains black and white pictures that go from drawings of London and supposed portraits to modern-day reminders of Anne's figure.

[Kara · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent biography of Anne Boleyn, digging into details of life around her - the people, high and low, the politics, the everyday life, and the architecture. Despite the depth, its written in an easy to read, breezy style, casually taking pot shots at various lurid writers and biased historians, calling out b.s. and misogyny or just plain stupidity, which was awesome.

[Hanna (lapetiteboleyn) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This had the potential to be a genuinely interesting and insightful biography of an extraordinary woman who over the space of five hundred years, has lost none of her ability to fascinate. Unfortunately, it needed to be about a hundred pages shorter - I frequently found myself suffering déjà vu as I reread arguments for the second or third time (complete with the same joke.)
I also felt a real opportunity was missed to offer insight into the current phenomena of an international obsession with Anne, and instead it was glossed over in a couple of pages of complaints about the number of twitter accounts using variants of Anne's name and the Christmas tree decorations available (a side note, the Christmas decorations are brought up more than three times. I want to offer my condolences to Chapman who seems to have a very real problem with them.) Given that she herself is a woman marketing a book about Anne Boleyn her snide comments in the last chapter all feel very bitter and unnecessary.

[David Allen Hines · Rating 4 out of 5]

Regular people with little interest in or knowledge of medieval English history nonetheless know two names: King Henry VIIIth and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. King Henry's impact on English, European and indeed world history--he was the first European monarch to break free of the control of the Catholic Church--is still felt today. And as for Anne Boleyn, at a time when women were literally the property of their husbands, her influence and effect still reverberates more than 500 years after her death.

Why was Anne Boleyn so impactful? It's easy to dismiss her as a home-wrecking mistress and of course that she was. But at a time when kings had to have sons to pass their throne to or their realm face the threat of civil war at their death, Henry 8th's lack of a living son by his loyal first wife, Catherine of Aragon, now past child-bearing years, was a huge concern to him. Along came the well-educated, cultured, youthful Anne Boleyn at just the opportune moment. Unlike her sister Mary, and others who previously served as mistress to Henry, Anne evidently held off on having sex with the king and persuaded him they needed to be married for her to birth him a legitimate male prince. At the time Henry already had a bastard son by another mistress. Ann actually used religion as part of the persuasion, evoking the ban in the old testament over marrying the widow of your brother. Initially, Catherine had been married to Prince Arthur, Henry's older brother, who had abrubtly died soon after the marriage.

Henry then directed his Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey, to obtain the Pope's ruling in his "Great Matter" that his marriage to Catherine had been invalid so he could marry Anne. But Catherine, a strong woman herself, would not give in to abandoning her marriage and two Popes who served at this time, Clement VIIth and later Paul IIIrd, ruled in favor of Catherine under pressure from her nephew the Holy Roman Emperor. At this point, Anne showed her strength and resolve. She refused to be the mistress. She finally had sex with the king, swiftly became pregnant, and Henry decided to break the English Catholic Church free of the Pope and the Angelican church of England, headed by the King was established. The Anglican church continues in England to this day and this break began the fracture of the separation of church and state in Europe. Of course the new bishops of the Anglican church soon ruled Catherine's marriage was void and the King married and crowned Anne Boleyn as queen. Catherine was exiled to a house in the country and died soon after.

Anne however birthed a daughter not the hoped for son and while she worked to become pregnant again she engineered an even greater impact on history. For Anne not only wanted Henry to run the church of England, she was actually a promoter of the new "reformed" religion of Martin Luther-- the "protestant" religion that rejected the dogma of the rites of Catholicism, the power of bishops, cardinals and popes, that promoted the Bible being published in English for everyone to read free of the filters of the catholic priests, and said that each person could be saved through faith alone and not needing the church. Anne worked hard to promote this change to reformed religion even though King Henry actually still supported catholic dogma. No queen in English history had worked so hard to establish policy.

Excpet for bad luck or fate, Anne Boleyn might have suceeded. But after Henry suffered a severe concussion in a joust that may have affected his personality, Anne miscarried a son. In the meantime, Henry having sexually conquered Anne, had become interested in a beautiful blone, Jane Seymour. Defenders of Catholicism worked to oppose Anne and soon persuaded Henry her inability to produce a living son was due to her being a heretic or even a witch. Anne was deeply unpopular with the public and many of the establishment males of the court also opposed her.

Henry had Anne arrested on trumped up charges that included cheating on him and even incest with her own brother. Before a treason court comprised of establishment nobles and catholics, and with Henry ready to marry and bed Jane Seymour, Anne never stood a chance. Convicted and sentenced to death, Henry at least allowed her to be be-headed by a French swordsman rather than the more typical being hung and literally ripped apart ("drawn and quartered).

Despite Anne's execution, the Protestantism became a mainline religion in England and continues there to this day.

Jane Seymour did birth Henry a prince, though the boy, who became King Edward VI, died as a teenager without having children and Jane died soon after the birth. Famously, Henry would have 3 more wives, but no more children. Catherine's daughter became England's first female monarch, Queen Mary I, but history has savaged her because she was a devout Catholic who literally burned protestants at the stake trying to re-establish Catholicism in England, an effort which failed.

Anne's daughter became Queen Elizabeth I, one of the most powerful and effective rulers in English and indeed world history.

Despite being in power for only a few years over 500 years ago and being of questionable personal morals in terms of marriage and sex, at a time when women were considered literally the property of males, Anne Boleyn had a huge impact on English and world history whose effects are still with us today and whose actions are still widely known and discussed. This book is well-written, very readable and of high quality and is an important and informative read on a very influential woman of history.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since I've read nearly everything there is to read on the Tudor's, I didn't think this book could offer anything new, and yet, I was pleasantly surprised. A more condensed version of the life and death of Anne Boleyn, it was still a fascinating read with a lot of extras about London at the time.

[Brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Thanks to Pen & Sword for the review copy*

At just over 230 pages, this concise book manages to cover everything from the sights and sounds of Tudor London to the daily lives of Tudor courtiers, and from the story of Henry VIII's and Anne Boleyn's (and their relatives') lives to their impact on modern popular culture and tourism. Although the action necessarily wanders away from London from time to time, Chapman makes it clear that Anne's rise and fall took place in a heavily London context, a fact which I feel is often forgotten in favor of the more secluded (at the time) sites of Hampton Court and Greenwich. Chapman is careful to avoid definitive statements when it comes to the gossip surrounding Anne and notes which sources may be biased and which events are recorded in multiple yet differing ways. If you've read a lot about the Tudors, you will likely be familiar with most of the material but still find this book to be enjoyable thanks to it being neither speculative historical fiction nor simply another straightforward biography. Some of the writing was repetitive, but Chapman does offer one of the best summaries I've seen of Henry VIII's modus operandi: "But then, Henry never allowed consistency to get in the way of what he wanted."

[historic_chronicles · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are such a plethora of resources documenting the monumental significance in which Queen Anne Boleyn lived and died that you have to be willing to show what is a deeply researched story in a different light.

Chapman provides an unbiased, unfiltered and convincing portrayal of the controversial Tudor Queen through the period in which she returned to London in the early 1520s until her shocking and scandalous execution in 1536.

By exploring, arguably, what were the most important years of Anne's life, Chapman provides a fascinating insight in the power play surrounding her in the form of courtly structures and public perception.

Tudor London is explained beautifully as the apex of power for the Tudor King in order to retain influence and was further highlighted by the sheer number of properties owned not only by the Royal Family, but also by courtiers in order to stay close to power.

Chapman is wonderfully informative and artfully recreates the turbulent atmosphere of the Tudor Court and while I did find the writing repetitive at times, this was of no detraction against the balanced nature to the subject, making it a truly welcome addition to my "Boleyn Books".

Thank you so much to @penswordbooks and @what_rosie_read for being so kind to send me a copy of this fantastic book to review.

[CrabbyPatty · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this is not an extensive biography of Anne Boleyn, where this worked for me was as a companion piece. The author gives us a general sense of London, the role of the livery companies, what the City looked like during Anne's time, the role of various City officials and commissions, an in-depth breakdown of life at Court as a courtier.

Against this background, the life of Anne Boleyn is placed, and I found her family background and their circumstances very interesting, as well the underlying power struggle in court between the Boleyn family and all the various factors and families vying for influence and power. The final chapter "Ever After" is especially poignant - "From the day of her arrest, Anne Boleyn became a non-person, a subject best avoided. At court, her memory was not so much obliterated as covered over." The chapter covers changing historical interpretation of her life and role, as well as current media.

This book needed a good editor to sharpen the focus on various topics, and cut out the repetition of information (sometimes almost word for word) throughout the book. Otherwise, an interesting historical resource that definitely held my interest.

[Joyce A. Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting, from the background of the time period through the soap opera of Boleyn's life to the aftermath of her execution. The only problem with an otherwise very well written book is a sudden lapse, about halfway through, into repetition: it's as if the editor suddenly went on vacation and nobody noticed that the same topic was covered three times in as many pages. It's odd and it throws off the flow of the discussion. Other than that, though: a fascinating read, full of gripping information.
As a side note: the details of the excesses of the ruling class, especially the monarchy, reinforced my disdain for such a method of government. The idea that a handful of people are "royal," and therefore entitled to all this power and luxury, is demonstrably ludicrous.....What a pack of dangerous grifters! It might not be the takeaway the author expects to me to get, but, to me, it stands out in any discussion of royal families, and Henry VIII is one of the poster boys for excess, viciousness, egotism, and lack of qualification for the job.....

[Helene Harrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review - I wouldn't call this book so much a look at Anne Boleyn in London, but more a historical biography of Anne Boleyn, focused on her time in London from 1522 and her first court appearance to her death in 1536. It has obviously been well-researched and there is plenty of reference to the primary sources, as well as to how reliable they may be, and cross-referencing different sources. There is a short look at Anne's earlier life, but it more focused on what we know about her later life. I was expecting more about Anne's involvement in different London locations like Whitehall, Westminster, Hampton Court, Hatfield, Eltham, Greenwich and Richmond, but this part I felt was a little lacking.

General Subject/s? - History / Biography / Tudors

Recommend? – Yes

Rating - 16/20

[Jim Swike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Returned by Library. Well-written and detailed book about Anne Boleyn in London. Provides great insights in the London of the era she lived in, which I learned a lot about. Great Resource for further research and / or a term paper. Enjoy!

[Donna Marie Pingry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly enjoyed this book. Gave me a far better perspective of Tudor times, London and Anne Boleyn.
I've been spoiled by so many series that took dramatic license. I believe much research went into the making of this book. Thank you's go to the author.

[Mrs S Ruck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

Wonderful background to the time .of Anne. I felt it covered a background of London as it was around Anne's time

[Ardently_Adele · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review to come!

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review from blog:
https://lifeandteablog.wordpress.com/...

[Mich Must Read · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are many books, movies and TV shows now about Anne Boleyn or King Henry VIII. So, we all have some knowledge of their lives to a certain degree. But lets face it, the reason why we seem to keep looking into it is because it’s an epic soap opera. I think when we examine Anne Boleyn we see her in the lens of those who wrote history and in this case it’s colored in rumors; It’s hard to decide what it true and what is not. Anne Boleynn in London is not just a bunch of historical, catty courtiers or religious leaders achieving political agendas using heresy or rumors. Every aspect of Tudor life is examined including rumors, therefore giving a better context to place some of what was reported about Anne.

This book has detailed workings of everyday life in the Tudor era Anne’s early life, her family and where she came from and many of the influential people that she interacted with. This also includes the ordinary citizen not just royalty and the upper-crust of society. Great pains are made to describe the people in their cultural context. For instance, The riots of Evil May Day and the inter-woven superstructure of the church and government are laid out so the reader might fully understand the mind-set of individuals at the time. This helps us to understand perhaps the reasoning of King Henry and his distrust of the city of London.

There is a dizzying amount of information in here, but the author is able to thread it in a way that is mesmerizing. The impact of sumptuary laws and how they impact everyday society is covered and seems to be a big theme. Certain people can only wear certain colors and certain pieces of clothing. Everything you wore and did was a reflection of where you stood in society. This is even more imperative in court life, which is covered here: The Inner workings of court and the daily life of Courtiers. This also includes the king and queen and some of the rituals that they were to have been prescribed. For instance, the maternity rituals for the queen are almost bizarre. The queen was basically in solitary confinement or away from men prior to and after birth. The later because she needed to “purify” herself after the ordeal of childbirth.

This is one of those books that you savor. I did not want it to end simply because I felt I was in Tudor England. This is what I really want from a history book, which is a very tall order. Lissa Chapman creates a visual sensation from the very first page that plops you down like a child for story time mode. I loved this! I look forward to seeing what else she publishes.

michmustread.com