Anne Boleyn the woman that captivated King Henry VIII, but refused to sleep with him for six years until he made an honest woman of her. The woman that inspired the break with Rome and encouraged Henry to issue his act of supremacy and saw herself as the patroness of protestant reformers. A queen who was the innocent victim of a king that tired of her or was brought down by factions of courtiers who made malicious and false accusations against her. This is the popular view that now holds sway and is supported by many historians. Readers of C J Sansom’s Shardlake historical detective novels will be familiar with this view, but G W Bernard in Fatal Attraction says very loudly; REALLY!

G W Bernard is a historian who has specialised on the reformation in England. He is therefore familiar with many of the primary and most of the secondary sources relating to Ann Boleyn and so one could say that he is in a perfect position to debunk the myths that have surrounded this now popular queen. There are however many gaps in the primary sources that will probably never come to light, for example there are no details of Anne Boleyn’s trial. However we do know the indictments against her as set out in the charges:

“On 6th October 1553 and several days before and after, Anne by sweet words, kisses, touches and otherwise seduced Henry Norris to ‘violate’ her on 12 October 1533. They had illicit intercourse at various other times., both before and after sometimes on her instigation sometimes on his., Anne had incited her own brother to have sex with her, alluring him with her tongue in his mouth and his in hers and also by kisses presents and jewels, George on 5 November 1533 and on several other days before and after made love to his sister at Westminster, sometimes at his sometimes at her instigation, despising the commands of God and all human laws”

Indictments against William Brereton, Sir Francis Weston and Mark Smeaton were then set out in identical ways. They were all found guilty and paid with their lives. G W Bernard says that many historians have concluded that these charges are surely preposterous and therefore Anne Boleyn must have been framed. Of course there is much circumstantial evidence for this view: Henry VIII had already made overtures to Jane Seymour, Anne now seemed to be past child bearing age and had not given Henry a son. Henry perhaps was being influenced by the Howard and the Seymour families at court and was concerned that the protestant reformers were gaining too much power.

Lets look at the facts says G W Bernard and his book is a sifting of those pieces of evidence written with a view to making his book palatable for the general reader. He does of course get to choose which pieces of evidence he prioritises, but because there is relatively little of it there are no major omissions as far as I can see. He is not able to prove one way or the other the extant of Anne’s culpability, but he does enough to make the reader stop and think that maybe Anne was guilty to some extent of the crimes of which she was accused. He does a good job in debunking the myth that Anne held Henry at bay for six years until he promised to marry her and he also casts doubt on any leading/inspirational role that Anne had in Henry’s break with Rome. He makes the very valid point that Henry VIII was very much his own man and it is difficult to imagine Anne leading him by the nose even for a short period of time.

G W Bernard’s book serves as a biography of Anne Boleyn but written with an historians perspective; he is careful at all times to refer to his sources and where there are conflicting views, he will weigh up the likelihood of the true nature of events, but is not afraid to admit that he cannot give answers to all the questions raised. This is a book which could be of interest to the general reader with an interest in Anne Boleyn, but because of its determination to sift through the evidence, it does this at the expense of portraying a clear pictures of the protagonists. Bernard leaves the readers themselves to fill in the gaps and so this is one for those people that are more interested in the history. 3.5 stars ( )

In the epilogue, G.W. Bernard tells us
"My concern, quite simply ,has been to recover the historical Anne Boleyn."
----
His study is very readable and definitely thought provoking and prompts us to investigate some commonly held "beliefs" we may have about Henry VIII's most controversial wife.

At 195 pages, this biography is definitely worth reading. ( )

The author of this book dismisses most previous recorded accounts of the life of Anne Boleyn insisting that 1) that the entire decision to divorce Catherine and to marry Anne, thus leading to the break with Rome was initiated by Henry entirely (as was the decision to hold back consumating the relationship), 2) that there was no conspiracy in regards to Anne's downfall, 3) that Anne was guilty of the accusations brought against her.
In the first instance the author makes a plausible case, but in the other two she is unable to make a valid argument to convince the reader of such, while insisting that she has---her case to prove Anne's guilt depending mainly on the confession of Mark Smeaton and the Countess of Worcester's remark that she had made to justify her own infidelity. The author is most adamant that Anne had had a relationship with Smeaton.
As stated above, although it is possible that it was the king was the one holding back affection in order to ensure any children he and Anne had together would be legitimate, and it is possible that she may have had sexual relations before being made queen/having become involved with Henry, but I was not convinced that Anne was guilty of adultery, especially with one so far beneath her in social status. I believe all that she was guilty of was having a flirtatious nature, and of occasionally having made remarks that were made too much of.
I equate the Tudor court with.the office politics we have to have to put up with from day to day---except for the punishments being considerably less severe (firing or not being promoted versus beheading or imprisonment) a remark taken out of context or confiding in the wrong person can have dire consequences, and advancement may not always depend on skill, but on intrigue and making sure the person in charge is only being told what they want to hear by whom they want to hear it. ( )

I would not recommend this book to readers not already familiar with the story of Anne Boleyn's rise and fall, as I don't think it gives a broad enough picture. For those who are already knowledgeable about Anne, I'm still not sure I would recommend this book.

I found the author's reasoning flawed and his habit of criticizing other historians without naming them or their works (which he quotes from) annoying. It seems almost as if he made these arguments more to be contrary than for any other reason -- the entire book had this defiant "prove me wrong" attitude about it. I also noticed certain errors -- very small ones, it's true, but they still made me doubtful of Bernard's research. (For instance, he said Anne's dog Urian was a "lapdog." I highly doubt this. The reason we know the dog existed was because there's a record of Henry compensating a farmer after Urian killed the farmer's cow.)

I think this book would be for Tudor completists only. Bernard's arguments are worth thinking about, but I can't really take any of them seriously. ( )

A refreshingly iconoclastic view of Anne Boleyn - viewed as an Protestant martyr, key to the overthrow of English Catholicism and innocent of adultery, by generations of writers - maverick historian Bernard suggests Anne was indeed the ‘whore’ described by her contemporaries.



And far from being a keen Evangelical, she was an old-fashioned Catholic with old-fashioned lusts and it was Henry who held back from consummating their relationship in the early days, unwilling to sire a potential heir out of wedlock. Later it was probably Henry’s impotence that led Anne to a succession of lovers, including perhaps her own brother. Easy and interesting – Anne Boleyn is well worth reading ( )