The book for June The two Boleyn Girls by Philippa Gregory was over 500 pages and some of the members felt that this was rather a long book.
Those that read the book thoroughly enjoyed it, thought it was a thumping good read – the Tudor era was the background to the story with the main character being Henry VIII and those in his court vying for his attention and of course, the betterment of themselves. To this end The Howard and Boleyn family presented the King with two lovely Boleyn daughters. The uncle, the Howard side of the family, was a very unpleasant person just out for his own justification with no regard for the feelings of the girls. Mary had beautiful red hair and was the first to be presented to the King but at 13 had to marry someone before becoming the King’s mistress. Mary went on to have a son and daughter but of course, they were illegitimate and therefore unable to be a true heir to Henry. Ann the other daughter was at the French Court, again a very beautiful dark haired girl and when she came back to England, having been primed by the family, set out to become not only his mistress but his wife and Queen. At the time Henry was already married to a Spanish Princess Katherine, who was well aware of the position with regard to her husband and his numerous women. Again she had been unable to give him a male heir, in fact had Princess Mary. As various obstacles came into the path of Henry and Ann, who had all the tricks of how to beguile a man, with regard to them marrying in order that Henry have an male heir, several prominent men of the court were beheaded for simple matters no other than they had tried to flirt with the Queen. Ann was not a very pleasant person especially when the King’s interest started to wane. The book goes into great depth about the affairs of court, the various palaces where they lived throughout the year, especially Mary who desperately wanted to be with her children at Hever, but Ann who had a girl, (Elizabeth 1) said she would take Mary’s son as the heir. In time, Mary did meet someone, who had a small farm, fell in love and eventually moved to the country with him and her children.
Ann on the other hand fell out of favour with the King as she did not produce a male heir – she did have several miscarriages but this is another aspect of the story. She was beheaded together with several of her supporters.
By this time Henry was an unwell man and became very much attached to Jane Seymour who he married in due course but again no male heir.
Crowlas & Ludgvan WI 