The idiom “don’t judge a book by its cover” sits well with this wonderful work of fiction by Philippa Gregory. When we think of inheritance in general, we think of wealth, fame, title etc. passed down to successive generations. However, towards the end of the book, readers get to understand what the real inheritance is.
Set in 16th century England when it was ruled by King Henry VIII, it revolves around the lives of three women - Anne of Cleves, Jane Boleyn and Katherine Howard and how their lives are dramatically impacted by the actions of Henry for better or for worse. At the English Court, women were mere pawns in the games the men played for either pleasure or profit.
King Henry of England was driven by two primary motives - producing a second heir to ensure continuity of his dynastic rule and to guard his kingdom against the geopolitical tensions across Europe due to struggle for supremacy between the Papists (those who bore allegiance to the Pope in Rome) and the Reformists (those who rejected the Pope’s authority). He was willing to go to any length to safeguard his crown even if that involved declaring his daughter an illegitimate child, imprisoning his niece, executing his trusted advisors, friends, noblemen and even his Queens on mere suspicion of disloyalty. He had changed the religion by rejecting the authority of the Pope and declared himself as the Head of the Church and all his subjects were required to follow his diktats. Churches across the country had been converted into royal residences and inns. After all, the King was the God’s representative on Earth and the King’s will was the God’s will. Laws had been amended to make disagreement with the King an act of treason and thus punishable by death. People were unhappy but nobody dared to defy his will for it meant the hangman’s axe on the neck. Rebellion in the North was put down ruthlessly and the rebels ended up in the gallows. He was a man paranoid of conspiracies against his throne that turned him into a tyrant and a monster.
The well known aristocratic families such as the Howards, Seymours, Percys and several others vied among themselves to gain the King’s favour for it enhanced their influence, social standing and brought in financial rewards in the form of land grants. One family ascended at the downfall of the other. And this made the English Court such a treacherous and dangerous place because conspiracies and plots were hatched to undercut each other and even innocence was no guarantee of safety when caught in the cross hairs.
The story begins around July 1539 when Henry , on the advice of his most trusted advisor Thomas Cromwell, forms an alliance with the Duke of Cleves, a tiny German speaking Protestant Dutchy and agrees to marry the Duke’s sister Anne as a part of the deal. It is an alliance of the unequal for the Duchy of Cleves in nowhere near England in power and resources. But Henry needs the Protestant alliance against Rome and her Catholic allies such as France and Spain and so Anne sets sail for England.
Anne, the Duchess of Cleves, was of twenty four years of age and had a strict German speaking Lutheran upbring with a very strained relationship with her brother the Duke and considered this marriage a way out of her exile like existence of her home and genuinely looked forward to adopting her new country and her culture, being a dutiful wife to the King and a good stepmother to her stepchildren, her negligible knowledge of English notwithstanding. To add to her burden, her brother had made it clear that he expected her to influence Henry in matters of religion so that the King remained an ally of the Reformists and that her position as Queen should be of benefit to Cleves. Anne was under no illusion that she would need to produce a second heir to the throne for her long term prospects as a Queen. After they were married in January 1540 and Anne settled down into her new life as the Queen of England that her troubles began. Three months into the marriage and it had not been consummated. Henry’s repeated failures to consummate the marriage and make a child had left her worried and anxious. He was nearly fifty, very fat and crippled by a recurring wound to his leg which was poisoning his body from leg upwards. To make matters worse for her, England’s relations with France and Spain had improved, giving Henry the impetus to get rid of the Cleves alliance and the wife. After Thomas Cromwell, architect of the Cleves alliance, was executed for treason and Anne put under an undeclared house arrest at Richmond, she felt a sense of entrapment. Having endured years of hatred and bullying at her brother’s home, she was a resilient woman but Henry was a known wife-killer and it made her sink in fear for her life as she doubted whether her brother William, the Duke of Cleves would come to her rescue. Her world had come crashing down in a matter of six months into the marriage and all her dreams about her new life had fallen apart. So when Henry and his Privy Council accused her of dishonesty on the grounds that her previous engagement to the son of Duke of Lorrain was not annulled and thus she was not free to marry Henry, she acts with courage and accepted the verdict (despite it being false) for survival against a known wife-killer & monster was the most important thing. She surrendered to a life of a spinster at Richmond Palace as a part of the King’s generous terms of separation and to be known as the King’s sister. She couldn't go back to her brother in Cleves so this was the price she had to pay to stay alive. She was the epitome of grace no matter the situation.
The Queen’s household comprised a number of female attendants in sequence of seniority. The senior ones were known as ladies-in-waiting and were responsible for her bathing, dressing and make-up and were permitted to enter her private chamber whereas the junior ones were known as maids-in-waiting who were to run errands and cater to all her trivial needs. Therefore, all the noble families tried to get their girls appointed to the Queen’s household who were expected to curry favour from Her and also double up as informants to pass on discreet information back to their families about the goings on in the Queen’s chambers.
That was how the other two women - Jane Boleyn and Katherine Howard entered the Queen’s household. Jane, a widow of about thirty years of age, was living at her father’s home in the countryside when she was summoned by the Duke of Norfolk, her uncle-in-law, to be part of the household. Having served the previous Queens, Jane was appointed as a lady-in-waiting. Katherine Howard, the Duke’s niece, was appointed a maid-in-waiting. Jane Boleyn, being well versed with palace intrigues, was required to keep an eye on the Queen and Katherine and discreetly pass on information to the Duke of Norfolk and carry out his commands while being in the service of the Queen.
Katherine Howard, belonging to the aristocratic Howard family was a carefree and fun loving girl of fourteen who was overjoyed at being appointed as one of the Queen’s maids for it let her escape the dull and boring life at her grandmother’s home at Lambeth. So when the King looked for a reason to get rid of his Cleves wife, Katherine Howard with her youthful exuberance and flirtatious nature caught the King’s roving eye. Sensing an opportunity, Thomas Howard, instructed Katherine to use all her charm to keep the King enticed and do what it takes to make him fall in love with her. Little Kitty made him feel young again with her tempting talk and sensual acts. The King adored her and called her his “rose without a thorn”. So when King Henry married Katherine Howard in July of 1540, it did not matter that the King was near about fifty years of age and she was just a girl of fifteen because what mattered was that the Howard family had managed to put another girl on the throne for their profit. Little Kitty had no idea what it takes to be a Queen for she thought being a queen meant having many dresses, diamond studded necklaces, good food, music, dance and merriment. It was not easy for Katherine to be married to a man thrice her age. Despite playing the part of a dutiful and obedient wife, she longed for the love and romance of a man of her age like any other girl. Her lonely heart could not resist the temptation and a secret romance with one of the King’s aides, Thomas Culpepper led to her downfall and a life cut short. She held on to a flicker of hope till her last that her uncle Thomas Howard would come to her rescue, that she would be forgiven and her ordeal would be over.
Jane Boleyn was the woman with a dark past and a very bad reputation. She was the Duke of Norfolk’s partner in crime for she carried out the dirty works the Duke commanded her to do. She gave evidence against Anne of Cleves when the King was looking to get rid of her. Shockingly, she had also given evidence against her own husband George Boleyn & sister-in-law Anne Boleyn for adultery which sent them to the gallows. George Boleyn never loved Jane, never cared for her and always prioritized his sister Anne’s happiness over his wife’s. This drove Jane Boleyn so mad with jealousy and revenge that she gave false evidence against him to teach him a lesson. It did not matter to her that her evidence led them to their deaths. No wonder she was despised by her other sister-in-law Mary Boleyn for her spiteful actions. She prided herself for being a survivor in a treacherous court. However, it was her personal ambition of wealth and position that brought about her own downfall when she took part in a very sinister plot to fool the King. Imprisoned and waiting for her sentence in the Tower of London, she did self introspection and admitted that she was a vile woman with irrational jealousy who had done some very bad things. Her acting mad to evade the sentence was no good at the end.
Thomas Howard, the Duke of Norfolk was the ultimate survivor. He was an embodiment of wickedness and betrayal. When rebellion broke out in the North against Henry’s religious reforms, he swore pardon in the name of the King and after the rebels laid down their arms, he had them butchered ruthlessly. He was the one who poisoned the King’s mind against Thomas Cromwell and the Cleves alliance and brought about the downfall of Anne. Aware that Katherine giving birth to an heir would cement his own position, he devised a jaw dropping sinister plan. So when Henry was confined to his bed around March 1541 due to his leg wound and the King and Queen weren’t able to get intimate, he devised a plan to have Katherine get into a discreet affair with a handsome young man which would result in pregnancy and the child would be declared the KIng’s child. As Katherine was already besotted with Thomas Culpepper, he entrusted Jane Boleyn with the task of arranging frequent discreet rendezvous between the two young love birds. However, when Henry set up an inquiry to find out about the Queen’s activities, Thomas Howard vanished and left both Katherine and Jane Boleyn to die a disgraceful death. He had no qualms about using his family members as sacrificial lambs to save his skin and fortune. He was a whispering death to many.
About the author’s writing style, Philippa Gregory has a doctorate in 18th century literature and her writing style is very much reflective of that. I find her use of literary devices to be skillful. She has used subtle sarcasm frequently when narrating the incidents from Anne’s perspective. For example, when Anne of Cleves observes the shrine of St. Thomas a Becket, once visited by the King frequently, had been torn down on his orders. She has used the dialogue to good effect as it helps to bring those historical characters back to life. Her use of the flashbacks to move the narrative of Jane Boleyn is interesting. For example, Jane continued to remember her past life and wondered how her life would have been different had Thomas Howard died instead of her husband George Boleyn. The use of imagery helps readers to comprehend the socio-religious and socio-economic times of 16th century England and the position of men and women in those times. Gregory has also used anaphora to convey the tension, the jitteriness the women characters felt when sick with fear as she takes the narration towards the climax.
As for the plot structure, she has clearly used the episodic plot structure for each of the characters has a beginning, middle and an end and yet they are connected to each other because each one is also impacted by the actions of the other.
Given her academic background in Literature and History, Philippa Gregory seems to have made the genre of historical fiction her own as all other novels are set in the times of Tudor England.
If you enjoy historical fiction, then “The Boleyn Inheritance” is surely a recommended read.
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