Entertainment : Books & Poetry
Philippa Gregory: the queen of historical fiction
By Michelle Davey, Staff Writer
April 29, 2008 | noon
“The Other Boleyn Girl” is not the only novel Gregory has written about the exciting and extravagant court life of Tudor England. She has written four other books about the Tudor court, with another soon to be released, that all center on the women during a time when kings and men dominated and controlled their lives.
“The Other Boleyn Girl”
Siblings are born to be rivals within their own families, but when born into a powerful family in Tudor England, that rivalry can be for the ultimate prize: the crown. The Boleyn sisters, Anne and Mary, are the nieces of the power-hungry Duke Howard. He uses the girls as pawns in his court games. As mere teenagers, they travel to court for the first time, and the board is set for a most dangerous game.
King Henry VIII is still a young, athletic monarch as Gregory’s novel opens in 1522, while his wife Katherine is nearly 37 years old. As she loses her youth, her chances of bearing a male heir for England go with it.
Henry’s eye soon wanders to the novel’s narrator Mary Boleyn. Mary holds the king’s attention for a few years, even bearing him two illegitimate children. But it is Anne, her ambitious sister, who will catch not only the king’s attention but also the attention of all of Europe.
Gregory’s book easily flows through the many plot lines, twists and characters without losing the reader along the way. She conveys the stifling and dangerous nature of court life for women with a claustrophobic atmosphere that would make any modern woman glad not to have lived during the 16th century.
“The Queen’s Fool”
During the Spanish Inquisition, Jews were arrested and burned at the stake. A young Spanish girl’s family is torn apart when her mother is discovered and burned. The girl, Hannah Green, and her father flee to England, ultimately pretending to be good Christians.
Hannah, who possesses the “sight,” sees glimpses of the future. When the handsome Sir Robert Dudley meets Hannah and discovers her gift, he brings her to court as a “holy fool” for Queen Mary, a zealous Catholic.
Mary’s half sister, the Princess Elizabeth, is waiting in the wings, hoping her spinster sister will die without producing an heir. Fearing treasonous plots, Mary sends Hannah to serve and to spy on Elizabeth.
Gregory portrays the Tudor half sisters in a unique way. The good Queen Elizabeth, beloved by her people and honored by historians, is cruel and uncaring in the face of her enemies and is painted as an ambitious and selfish young woman. Mary, known for killing hundreds of accused heretics, is portrayed as a motherly figure who cares for all her subjects, even her ungrateful sister.
Gregory’s second foray into Tudor England proves the old saying: “like mother, like daughter.” After “The Other Boleyn Girl” examined the lives of Katherine and Anne, “The Queen’s Fool” takes a good look at their daughters. Mary, daughter of the kind and religious Katherine, and Elizabeth, born of the ambitions and selfishness of Anne, partially live up to their mothers’ reputations, while simultaneously carving out their own places in history.
“The Virgin’s Lover”
In 1558, bells rang throughout England to proclaim the crowning of Elizabeth I. For most, the bells were a happy sound— but for Amy Robsart, wife of Sir Robert Dudley, the bells were anything but happy.
“The Virgin’s Lover” depicts the first year of the reign of Elizabeth I as a time on shaky ground. Distracting her from these trying times is her childhood friend, Robert Dudley. A charming man from a once-powerful family, Dudley is looking to increase his status and fortunes once again.
Elizabeth and Dudley begin a dangerous love affair, all while the queen is stringing along European princes and nobleman in a search for a husband to rule beside her. After tasting this small measure of power, Dudley craves more and plots to rid himself of his wife, Amy, and marry the queen.
Gregory switches the focus in each chapter from the fast-paced court life around Elizabeth to the quiet, country life of Amy. Elizabeth, historically known to change moods quickly, is an unstable and emotional queen trying to pull her kingdom together. Amy is a quiet woman who is uneducated and not the least ambitious. Both are madly in love with Robert Dudley, and it could be the downfall of either woman.
“The Constant Princess”
Set during the reign of Henry VII, the first Tudor king, “The Constant Princess” travels back in time to the origins of Queen Katherine. The old Katherine, introduced in “The Other Boleyn Girl,” was once the young, beautiful Princess Catalina of Spain.
Catalina was promised to the young English heir Arthur at the age of three. For her whole life, Catalina has known her destiny was to be the queen of England. At 15, she finally crosses the waters that separate her home from her destiny to marry her betrothed.
Then, tragedy strikes. Arthur falls ill and, before succumbing to death, forces Catalina to promise she will marry his brother Henry and follow through with their plans for England. Catalina, as much in love with Arthur as she is set on her destiny to be queen, can do nothing but agree.
Catalina mourns for her husband but begins to plan her next move carefully. She knows she must lie— she must say that she and Arthur were never intimate, never truly husband and wife.
Gregory’s novel is woven with Spanish influences. The first chapter follows a 5-year-old Catalina and her family as they fight to rid Spain of the Moorish invasion. Catalina tells Arthur stories of her childhood and sings battle songs that weave a cultural tapestry for the reader. Gregory’s novels are usually so securely set in glum, rainy England that the glances at a different culture bring a freshness and liveliness to this novel that cannot be felt in her earlier Tudor books.
“The Boleyn Inheritance”
After the fall on Anne Boleyn, life for women in the England of Henry VIII was never the same. Safety and security are hard to come by, especially for women who have caught the eye of the King.
Gregory uses three women to tell the story of Henry VIII as an aging, glutinous and increasingly mad monarch. The first is the widowed Jane Boleyn, who gave evidence against George and Anne, and has been shunned by the court and her family since the death of her husband and sister-in-law. But her kinsman through marriage, the Duke Howard, finds use for her when the king seeks a wife again.
Anne of Cleves, a young noblewoman from a German principality, has been betrothed to Henry for political gain. Her arrival means the return of a queen to the court, and young English ladies are eager to come serve the new queen. The clever duke brings Jane to court to spy on the new queen and to keep an eye on the duke’s newest chess piece, his niece Catherine Howard.
History has not been kind to any of these three women, and Gregory shows her usual disregard for accepted characterizations and shows a side of these women that cannot be read in a single paragraph description in a history textbook.
Anyone who has had to memorize the six wives of Henry VIII in school knows the order: divorced, beheaded, died in childbirth, divorced, beheaded, outlived. The fun in Gregory’s books is finding out how each meets her end.
“The Other Queen”
Slated to come out in early September 2008, Gregory’s next royal undertaking will chronicle the life of Mary Queen of Scots. Cousin of Elizabeth I, Mary of Scots was an emotional and passionate young woman who grew up in France and came to rule Scotland as practically a stranger. Like most of the women who star in Gregory’s work, Mary’s life was lived in danger and scandal— a story just aching to be told.
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