This and Ives' biography of Anne Boleyn and Norton's Boleyn Women are the best books on Anne Boleyn and her family. The first one is entirely about Anne, the second about her direct family and all her ancestors and connections through marriage or blood -be it through her father or mother. This book focused ENTIRELY on George which was very refreshing and one theme that kept repeating itself were the two authors, Claire Cherry and Claire Ridgway, stressing that this was a different period and that for someone to appreciate George he must accept that he was a human being with passions, arrogance, and a deep religious fervor that ran as deep as the Catholic opposition. The rumors that George was a womanizer might have some grain of truth in them and the two authors ask us to take these into consideration but always ask when we are analyzing sources regarding this enigmatic figure, who, when, and why did that person wrote it? A lot that has come from contemporaries that were hostile to his family, yet others were neutral and some such as the French ambassadors sang praises of them. Chapuys (though I didn't quite agree with their assessment of him) regarded George as a bright and promising youth, many regarded him the same way and mentioned how intelligent and astute he was. And if you don't believe it, let the facts speak for themselves. I wasn't aware how deeply religious George was and how committed he was to the religious reforms that he and his sister -with their father- worked so hard to install once she became Henry's Queen. As Henry's ambassador he also enjoyed a great amount of power and while in France, he managed to persuade Francois' (various times) to lend his support (albeit indirectly) to Henry and Anne. And here is where I come to my second point, secondary sources that allegedly thought they were doing a service to George ended up doing him a great disservice by blending truth with fiction -among them twentieth century biographers which formed their own conclusions about George and said that he was a sexual deviant and painted his rivals -including his wife- as evil. In reality, it is impossible to know just what role did Jane Parker play in her husband's demise, if she played a roll at all! "That woman" George wrote when he testified before his trial, denounced him as a traitor and they were willing to believe her before him. He never says his wife, which he would've if it was his wife who denounced him, he just says "that woman". And notice the tone of his statement when you read the book, the authors point that out too. Jane was very loyal to George and visited him and he even wrote to her before he died. The only thing she is guilty off is declaring that Henry was impotent, but this was done without any malice and she might not have had any choice when the investigations began. She as George, was looking to her own survival and George probably understood that as he also lived by the same standards.
His fall is one of the greatest injustices of the time, and it is a great tragedy that a lot of his poems do not survive. There are a lot of anonymous poems that are said to be his but we will never be sure, nonetheless the authors point out the subtle hints in each of them, suggesting they could be.
His last speech is given in full in the Appendixes and it is something both wonderful and sad that makes you almost cry when you finish.
I recommend this book for anybody who loves history as much as I do and want to learn more about the Boleyns.
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Top reviews from other countries
maraka
Von der blassen Randfigur zum Helden. Diese Biografie macht den Unterschied
Reviewed in Germany on October 4, 2019
