BOOKS: Lady in the Tower

Anne Boylen , In the Tower of London

In May 6th 1596, Queen of England Anne Boylen, now imprisoned in the Tower of London, wrote a letter to her husband King Henry VIII addressed: “To the King from the Lady in the Tower.” On May 13^th she would be executed, charged with high treason and incest. The story of Anne Boylen is well known and covered in numerous books. Unable to bear Henry a son, Henry plotted to rid himself of her and move on to his next wife. (Of course her biggest legacy is her daughter Elizabeth I). Historians have also theorized that the real cause of Anne’s execution was a falling out with Henry’s chief minister, Thomas Cromwell. Whatever the cause it was a grisly affair. Anne’s head was in the basket within months. In her recent book “Lady in the Tower The Fall of Anne Boylen,” Alison Weir joins the fray of historians offering her account of the most likely cause and course of these events. Weir concentrates on the period from January 1536 to Anne’s beheading in May of the same year. Because Weir’s takes a narrow focus her account includes a wealth of detail often glossed over in other books and it is these details that makes Boylen’s plight even more fascinating. What exactly were those intrigues concerning Thomas Cromwell? They are covered here. At one point Weir even muses about how long Anne’s eyes and lips could keep moving after her head was severed from her body! The marital and legal problems presented are also fascinating. In order to marry Anne, Henry VIII needed a divorce from Anne’s predecessor Katherine of Argon. This is of course is the famous marital conundrum that caused the break with the Roman Church and the event instrumental in making England a Protestant country. When things went sour with Boylen Henry needed an assurance of a legal annulment. Therefore Katherine must die and that she did. But how and by whose hand? Plus how could he try the barren Anne for adultery unless his marriage to her was legitimate. And what about that letter “to the king from the lady in the tower.” Was it real? Weir offers a considered opinion on all these matters based on her extensive research. This all makes out for a good story of greed, duplicity, ambition and political rivalry and Weir does well by all the facts she has assembled. One thing to note this is that this is not a biography of Anne Boylen’s entire life but only the months leading up to her death. However, Weir manages to make this short period from Anne’s trial to her execution an engrossing read. This is a perfect book for those interested in Tudor and Elizabethan history. Recommended.