HUNTING THE FALCON: Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn

Hugely readable but also including scholarly detail and original research, this is a valuable addition to the recent explosion of interest in the Tudor monarchs. The ambitions of the Boleyn family are well documented, and Julia Fox has previously written a book on Anne's elder sister Mary, who became Henry VIII's lover in 1522. Probably about this time Anne became a lady in waiting to Queen Katherine of Aragon, although the records are unclear. Anne had spent time in Germany and France, first at the court of the powerful Margaret of Austria and then in the entourage of Queen Claude, wife of Francis I of France whose mother Louise of Savoy was a lynx-eyed hands-on politician. Francis's sister, Marguerite of Angouleme, was a more charming but equally impressive role-model, a proto-feminist who wrote frankly about relations between the sexes. Queen Claude herself created a cultured salon of men and women, taking a relaxed attitude to her husband's mistresses, and this was the model of court life that Anne brought with her to England. On her sister Mary's pregnancy Henry hoped for a dalliance with Anne, but Anne had other ideas. She had known passionate love with Harry Percy but the two had been parted by Wolsey, patron of Thomas Cromwell who a few years later finally brought Anne down. Anne now looked for a meeting of minds with Henry, who for his part opened himself in letters in a way he did with none of his other wives. Anne withheld sex until the right moment, and meanwhile negotiations with the Pope over a possible divorce were conducted by bishops Gardiner and Foxe. Anne and her brother George were purchasing Bible translations and evangelical books, and she made overtures to Protestant reformers with a view to moving away from the Catholic Church. When Francis I danced with Anne as the presumptive queen consort, her future seemed assured, but as a queen with no sons, Anne always saw Henry's daughters as a dynastic threat. The authors examine the case against Anne and ask whether she and her entourage were in fact guilty of what their accusers claimed. 581pp, genealogies, colour photos.