The Printed Page

Loved it though it is some heavy duty reading! You won’t be rushing through this one as you don’t want to miss the fine print. The Lady in the Tower by Alison Weir provides a front row seat to Anne Boleyn’s tragic fall from grace. You get an in-depth look at Master Secretary Thomas Cromwell’s methodical if somewhat flawed destruction of the Queen. Before reading The Lady in the Tower I believed Anne wholly guilty of the charges leveled against her but the author gives us a different take on the whole sordid affair. Ms. Weir isn’t saying that Anne’s completely innocent but she does present a very compelling case for the Queen being framed. I really do view this situation in a much different light now. As if I wasn’t fascinated enough with this cast of characters before I’ve even more so now, especially Thomas Cromwell. I’m grateful to have Ms. Weir’s excellent interpretation of the language employed back then otherwise I’d have been lost trying to make heads or tails of numerous historical letters, speeches, quotes and references as they spoke and wrote so differently than we do today.

At the end the author includes some legends surrounding Anne Boleyn sightings. I have to admit I love a good ghost story but even these sent shivers through me and raised goose bumps.

The imprisonment and execution of Queen Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s second wife, was unprecedented in the annals of English history. It was sensational in its day, and has exerted endless fascination over the minds of historians, novelists, dramatists, poets, artists, and filmmakers ever since.

Mystery surrounds the circumstances leading up to Anne’s arrest and imprisonment in May 1536. Was it Henry VIII who, estranged from Anne, instructed Master Secretary Thomas Cromwell to fabricate evidence to get rid of her so that he could marry Jane Seymour? Or did Cromwell, for reasons of his own, construct a case against Anne and her faction, and then present compelling evidence before the King?

Following the coronation of her daughter Elizabeth I as queen, Anne was venerated as a martyr and heroine. Over the centuries, she has inspired many artistic and cultural works and has remained ever-present in England’s, and the world’s, popular memory. Alison Weir draws on her unsurpassed expertise in the Tudor Period to chronicle the downfall and dramatic final days of this influential and fascinating woman.

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