Anne Boleyn: The Young Queen to Be

by Josephine Wilkinson

Anne Boleyn is perhaps the most engaging of Henry VIII's Queens. For her he would divorce his wife of some twenty years standing, he would take on the might of the Roman Church and the Holy Roman Empire; he would even alienate his own people in order to win her favour and, eventually, her hand. But before Henry came into her life Anne Boleyn had already wandered down love's winding path. She had learned its twists and turns during her youth spent at the courts of the Low Countries and France, where she had been sent as a result of her scandalous behaviour with her father's butler and chaplain. Here her education had been directed by two of the strongest women of the age - and one of the weakest.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Tudor Period, Historical, Biography, Pop Culture, Royalty

192 pages, Audiobook

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Dr Josephine Wilkinson received a First Class Honours degree from the University of Newcastle. She was the winner of the Third Year Prize for her work on The Little Apocalypse, which placed Mark chapter 13 into its historical context, and the Jewish Studies Prize for her historical study of the community at Qumran. She remained at Newcastle, earning an MPhil for her thesis on the historical John the Baptist (as close to a biography as is possible to do); her PhD traced historical traditions and legends of John the Baptist across several cultures as well as art, literature and film.

She was a scholar-in-residence at Gladstone's Library in Hawarden (formerly St Deiniol's Library), Britain's only residential library. This was founded in 1898 by the great Victorian statesman, William Gladstone. Great Britain's only Prime Ministerial library, it is based on Gladstone's personal collection. Dr Wilkinson has also held an honorary post at the University of Glasgow.

The recipient of a British Academy award, she is the author of a two volume biography of Richard III, the first volume of which, Richard III, the Young King To Be, has been published by Amberley. She is currently writing volume two. Other books are Mary Boleyn: The True Story of Henry VIII's Favourite Mistress, The Early Loves of Anne Boleyn and The Princes in the Tower. She lives in the attic of a mediaeval house within the city walls of York.

Follow her blog: http://josepha-josephine-wilkinson.bl...

Reviews

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Judging how people would have thought in families, allegiances.
My favourite bits were with Anne as a child and at the French court. I liked that Wilkinson acknowledged that Mary Boleyn was Henry's mistress and so marriage to Anne was not allowed.
My least favourite bit was that Henry VIII wasn't characterised when courting Anne.

[Finuala · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.95

This is a jolly little book and a quick read. It's more about the men with whom she had a relationship before Henry VIII, so yes there's a lot that those interested in Anne Boleyn will already know, but there are fascinating little snippets here about the men around her. This would be an excellent book for a train journey or a holiday if, like me, you almost never read fiction.

I can recommend it.

[Mizloo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Much ado about paltry details. More a rumination on what might have been. Given the few known facts about Anne Boleyn early life (even the year she was born is uncertain) even fleshing the "stories" out to this very short book requires an overload of might-haves, could-haves, possiblys and conceivablys. The author is driven to such fillers as the genealogy of Lord Percy and the great-great grandfathers of Anne herself. There was a short section, speculative but interesting, about why Cardinal Wolsey was so nasty to Harry Percy; the facts of how Wolsey chastised him publicly were new to me, but that was a rare nugget of gold in the heaps of straw.

It could possibly have been a decent book if the author had more to work with. But the fact is I was bored by page 25. I persevered because i had nothing more interesting at hand.

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable but quite simplistic view of events. I read a lot about Anne and felt his way a very brief look at the subject. a good entry point to her story but I found it could have done with more detail, although of course little is known about her early life.

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

It's a quick little read. There are some tidbits here and there that keep the interest, but for anyone versed in the history, there's nothing new to be found here.

[Rosie Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good read

[Shiv · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anne Boleyn was the controversial second queen to the legend king that was Henry VIII. Josephine looks at Anne’s life from her birth, her life in France to her return to England, her debut at the English court, her courtship with Henry to her marriage and break with Rome until her death by at the hands of a swordsman. •
Even though I have probably read many a fiction and nonfiction book about Anne Boleyn, I really enjoyed this book! It was such a good and easy read. Josephine was able to explain many parts in Anne’s life that are not recorded but mentioned briefly in historical documents and made it an enjoyable read. Josephine wrote about Anne’s time in the Low Countries, her time in France until her departure for the English Court. She also discusses the several betrothals/suitors/relationships that Anne had throughout her life including Piers Butler; Thomas Wyatt; Thomas Percy, The Earl of Northumberland and then eventually her future husband, Henry VIII.
•
I highly enjoyed this book, as I love reading anything about Anne Boleyn, my favourite of Henry’s wives. However, I wished that the book focused more on Anne, rather than the relationship she had with the people around her. I can’t complain though, I enjoyed and savoured every moment reading this book. If you are interested in Anne Boleyn or Tudor history then I would definitely recommend to read this book!

[Helene Harrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

ISBN? - 9781445603957

General Subject/s? - History / Anne Boleyn / Tudors

Title? - The title comes from the fact that it's largely about Anne as a young woman - in France and with her first suitors.

General Analysis? - I really liked this book, but I was a bit annoyed that it skipped from 1532 to 1536. I know it was about Anne's early loves, but I at least think it could have had a chapter covering Anne's time as queen, and her developing relationship with Henry VIII, which changed England forever. But it was really interesting the way that she researched and wrote the relationships between Anne and her early loves, and the chapter on what happened after Anne's death was also interesting, as many books on Anne finish with her execution. Wilkinson writes clearly and concisely.

Recommend? - Yes, more about Anne's earlier life.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this one but the author seemed to jump to conclusions about what the various people were feeling. And why does no one consider that Anne might have lied or dissembled in her letters? People lied at court all the time and feigned friendship etc. so how does a letter Anne wrote to Wolsey prove that she didn't always hate him? There's such a thing as expediency. The last chapter didn't seem to belong with the rest of the book, but I understand it was following the lives of her previous loves/marriage candidates. Just not as interesting as the parts about Anne.

[Jasmin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really disappointed with this book. While it had some interesting snippets of information that I don't think I've come across previously, a lot of detail and context was missed while a disproportionate amount of the book seemed to be made up of speculation that had little evidence to support it. While I know that things had to be condensed in a volume this slim, and the focus was on Anne's early life, certain sections seemed to have more space than seemed relevant.

[Melanie Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

A clearly expressed study - short, but informative. Still many unanswered questions about the early life of Anne Boleyn, due to a shortage of evidence, but Wilkinson has made the best of what there is currently.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Commissioned by me at Amberley Publishing, explores the little-known early life of Anne and her relationships before she met Henry.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read, one for the Ann Boleyn groupies (Hence why I read it I suppose)

[G. Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just read again and changed my rating to 5*. Good book, not as in depth as others, but covering the story of Anne Boleyn from a different perspective. Interesting and informative

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book started off quite well, following Anne leaving Hever and arriving at Margaret's court. By the time Anne came to Henry Viii's court it started to become a bit confusing, going back and forth in history. The history of Wolsey and Anne just seemed to be random pages put together and I kind of lost the plot for a couple of pages. In the end got a bit better, revealing what happened to Henry Percy and Thomas Wyatt, which was a nice ending.
This was my first book about Anne, but I have read several other Tudor book regarding her story. Im hoping ( and looking) for other ones about Anne that might be a tad better.