The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

• Born: January 9, 1954
• Birthplace: Kenya

First published: 2001

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Historical

Time of plot: 1521–36

Locales: London; England

Principal Characters

Mary Boleyn, mistress of Henry VIII

Henry VIII, king of England

Anne Boleyn, Mary’s sister, Henry’s second wife and queen of England

George Boleyn, brother of Mary and Anne

Sir William Stafford, Mary’s second husband

The Story

Mary Boleyn is one of the most eligible young women in the politically ambitious Boleyn family, which is part of the already powerful Howard family network. The Howards and Boleyns are cousins to the second Tudor monarch, King Henry VIII, and are led by the wily and unscrupulous Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk. To Howard and the other men in his family, the Howard and Boleyn women are chess pieces to be moved at will and, in the case of young and desirable women such as Mary, to be offered as enticement to the king, who is known for his sexual appetite.

By the early 1520s, Henry has been on the throne, and married to the Spanish princess Katherine of Aragon, for more than ten years. Katherine, however, has only borne a daughter and, after numerous miscarriages, has no prospect of successfully delivering a son. Henry is deeply concerned that without a male heir, his kingdom and legacy will disintegrate. Prior history indicates to him that female heirs and rulers have sparked civil wars and interregnums, and Henry becomes increasingly desperate for a son. Mary, who has been ordered into an arranged marriage with courtier William Carey, is made lady-in-waiting to Queen Katherine, a position that brings her to the attention of the king. Her family orchestrates an affair between Mary and Henry, and as their romance blossoms, Mary bears Henry a daughter, Catherine, and a son, Henry, both of whom are officially acknowledged as Carey’s children. Mary’s cuckolded but compliant husband and her Howard and Boleyn relatives are rewarded with lands, titles, and political influence.

As Mary spends time with her children at her family’s country estate at Hever Castle, her sister, Anne, appropriates the king’s attention. Upon her return to court, Mary is relegated to waiting on Anne, who has become the favored Boleyn girl. The long-standing sibling rivalry between Mary and Anne often erupts into scenes of bitter recrimination, tempered somewhat by the calming presence of their brother, George.

Anne plays the deadly and taxing game of encouraging the king’s lust yet refusing to sleep with him until he has divorced Queen Katherine and married her. As divorce is forbidden by the Catholic Church, Henry sends representatives to negotiate with the Pope, from whom he hopes to receive an annulment. This process is complicated by Katherine’s determined resistance and by the military successes of Katherine’s nephew, King Charles I of Spain, who holds the Pope as a virtual hostage. Anne’s efforts finally pay off when the enraged Henry refuses to accept a negative answer from the Pope and breaks from the Catholic Church, establishing himself as head of the Church of England. His annulment now self-justified, he marries Anne and, through a series of executions, establishes his absolute rule.

Mary, lingering at court as Katherine’s and then Anne’s lady-in-waiting but longing for a quiet life with her family, is struck by tragedy when her husband, with whom she has begun to reconcile, comes down with the sweating sickness and dies. She becomes increasingly unhappy at Henry’s court, where she is constantly ignored, humiliated, and made to know how little she now counts for. To make matters worse, Anne has taken over legal wardship of her son, Henry. Mary eventually falls in love with and secretly marries Sir William Stafford, a gentleman who serves the king. Her family is furious that she did not seek their permission and married far below her station, and she is banished from court.

Later, Anne calls Mary back to court. Although she has attained the position of queen, Anne has failed to produce a male heir; her only surviving child is a daughter, Elizabeth. Her public displays of temper are angering the king, who is spending more time with other women, particularly Jane Seymour, one of Anne’s ladies-in-waiting and a member of a rival family. Anne becomes pregnant but miscarries a child who is grotesquely deformed. The incident leaves her and her brother, George, open to charges of incest and witchcraft, and both Anne and George are imprisoned in the Tower of London. Warned by her uncle, Mary goes into hiding and, after Anne’s execution, is taken by her husband to his farm in Essex, where they are joined by her children.

Bibliography

Denny, Joanna. Anne Boleyn: A New Life of England’s Tragic Queen. London: Piatkus, 2010. Print.

Hart, Kelly. The Mistresses of Henry VIII. Stroud: History, 2009. Print.

Loades, David. The Boleyns: Rise and Fall of a Tudor Family. Stroud: Amberley, 2011. Print.

Norton, Elizabeth. The Boleyn Women: The Tudor Femmes Fatales Who Changed English History. Stroud: Amberley, 2013. Print.

Weir, Alison. Mary Boleyn: The Mistress of Kings. New York: Ballantine, 2011. Print.