The Other Boleyn Girl

For the 2008 film based on the novel, see The Other Boleyn Girl (film).

The Other Boleyn Girl

Author	Philippa Gregory
Language	English
Genre	Novel
Publisher	Scribner
Publication date	2001
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	0739427113 (hardcover edition)

The Other Boleyn Girl is a historical fiction novel written by British author Philippa Gregory, based on the life of 16th-century aristocrat Mary Boleyn. Reviews were mixed; some said it was a brilliantly claustrophobic look at palace life in Tudor England, while others weren't convinced. Even so, it has enjoyed phenomenal success and popularity since its publication in 2002 and has spawned five sequels - The Queen's Fool, The Virgin's Lover, The Constant Princess, The Boleyn Inheritance, and The Other Queen.

The Other Boleyn Girl features the Boleyn-Howard family in a way that has never been used before. Based on the life of Mary Boleyn, Gregory has portrayed a time in the English Kingdom of great need and depression seeing through the divorce of one of the most significant royal weddings in English history (that of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon) as well as the great need of a male heir from the King.

Mary, the narrator of the story depicts a time of great hardship in the Boleyn-Howard family driven by the "bastardly" considered ambitions of Anne Boleyn as well as her Father and Uncle.

Literary significance and criticism

Anne's daughter Elizabeth is a major character in The Other Boleyn Girl's sequel, The Queen's Fool.

Gregory has a high rate of success with using relatively unknown characters in her historical novels - often, they are not typical historical heroines. In The Queen's Fool, she used the character of Mary I in a sympathetic light, whilst she is usually demonised by admirers of Elizabeth I. The Other Boleyn Girl was unusual not only because it centred on the relatively unknown life of Mary Boleyn; but also because of the sources Gregory listed in her author's note. Some queried if she had overstepped the appropriate limits of a historical novelist and had invited criticism precisely because she listed the sources she had consulted, thus allegedly implying that the novel's storyline was more historically accurate than its critics suggested. Her defenders argue that irrespective of the sources used, Gregory has an artistic license as an author of fiction to construct whatever story she feels is appropriate.

Despite the criticism (see below), the novel has enjoyed high commercial success and it has a large and loyal fan-base. It has appealed to popular interest in the Tudor era, which is currently high in both Britain and America. It has been followed by a sequel called The Queen's Fool, set during the reign of Henry's daughter, Queen Mary. The Queen's Fool was followed by The Virgin's Lover, set during the early days of Queen Elizabeth's reign. Less successful than The Other Boleyn Girl, The Virgin's Lover once again showed Gregory's refusal to shy away from historical controversy by suggesting Elizabeth ordered the assassination of Mary of Guise, mother of Mary, Queen of Scots and Amy Robsart, wife of Robert Dudley.

Gregory is also the author of The Constant Princess, story of Anne's predecessor, Catherine of Aragon and The Boleyn Inheritance, the tale of Anne of Cleves, Lady Jane Rochford and finally Katherine Howard's rise to the throne in 1540.

Historical accuracy

Mary Boleyn was the sister of the more famous Anne Boleyn. As such, she is usually mentioned in the numerous biographies that have been written about Anne, but never in any substantial detail.

Mary, unlike Anne, allegedly was the mistress of two kings - François I of France and England's Henry VIII. She was born sometime between 1499 and 1508. A popular but unverifiable legend suggests that she was considered the more beautiful of the two girls.

She was married twice, and died in 1543. Philippa Gregory was intrigued by the story of a queen's sister who apparently has been forgotten by history because she lacked the political importance and impact of her sister. Gregory was fascinated by Mary's story and sought to write a novel on the "other Boleyn girl." Some of the novel's storyline was loosely based on the work of American historian, Retha M. Warnicke, and the books of British historian, Alison Weir. Others, however, were clear dramatic devices.

Specifics regarding historical accuracy

Phillipa Gregory has claimed that everything about her book is accurate except for the thoughts and feelings of the individual characters. However, some areas of disputed historical accuracy include the following:

• Birth order and early lives of the siblings. Many histories, including Eric Ives' biography of Anne Boleyn, suggest that Mary was almost certainly the elder sister, and the eldest of the Boleyn children, whereas The Other Boleyn Girl presents George as the eldest. Philippa Gregory responds: 'No. No-one knows the ages of the Boleyn girls there is no record of their dates of birth.' However, most scholars now accept c. 1499/1500 for Mary, and c. 1501 for Anne (based on a letter she wrote in Belgium). However, a letter written by Mary Boleyn's grandson to Elizabeth I (1596) claiming the Ormonde estates/titles, indicates Mary was the elder; a claim Elizabeth did not dispute. Anne Boleyn was first sent to the court of the powerful, accomplished, Margaret of Austria in 1513 at age twelve or thirteen, and the sisters met again in France to attend the marriage of Mary Tudor to an elderly, dying King Louis XII in late 1514. Mary became engaged in an affair with the new King François I and a number of his courtiers. François I recalled his mistress Mary Boleyn as "una grandissima ribalda, infame sopra tutti" ("a great prostitute, infamous above all"), and his "English mare". Gregory denies Mary had an affair with the French King. Mary Boleyn was recalled to England (c. 1519) quickly married to William Carey, a minor noble, and almost immediately embarked on an affair with Henry VIII. Anne Boleyn stayed in France for almost two more years, and returned to England when relations between the two countries deteriorated, and she was suggested as a potential bride for a distant cousin, James Butler, to settle a dispute over the Irish title of Ormonde. George Boleyn's birth date cannot be definitively placed, but Drs. Starkey and Ives believe he was the youngest surviving Boleyn child. Nothing came of the Butler alliance, and Anne Boleyn became secretly betrothed to Henry Percy, the future sixth Earl of Northumberland. There is no evidence for a consummated marriage between the two, as in "The Other Boleyn Girl". Cardinal Wolsey and the Earl of Northumberland terminated the betrothal, and Anne Boleyn was sent from court (see The Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey by George Cavendish), possibly to Hever Castle, the family seat.

• Background of the Boleyn family. The novel depicts the Boleyns as recently ennobled social climbers who had married into the more powerful Howard clan. Actually, they were already aristocrats with a long family history. Anne Boleyn could trace her descent to King Edward I. Sir Thomas Boleyn was noted as an accomplished, multilingual courtier and ambassador, a descendant of the Irish houses of the Earls of Ormonde and Lord Hoo: he attended the marriages of Catherine of Aragon to Arthur, Margaret Tudor to the King of Scotland, and walked in Henry VII's funeral procession. Elizabeth Howard was the sister of the third Duke of Norfolk, one of the most powerful, illustrious families in England. However, the second Duke of Norfolk supported Richard III at Bosworth, so the family's fortunes were at a low point when Thomas Boleyn married Elizabeth Howard. This is one of the few times in which The Other Boleyn Girl directly contradicts known history instead of simply playing up things that are more open to doubt, such as George Boleyn's sexuality or the paternity of Mary Boleyn's children.

• Sexuality of George Boleyn. The book depicts George Boleyn as being homosexual, in love with Francis Weston, but sexually attracted to his sister Anne and willing to commit incest with her. American academic Dr. Retha Warnicke postulated George Boleyn and his associates might have been homosexual, but no contemporary evidence supports the theory. However, George Cavendish in "Metrical Visions" wrote he was a notorious seducer of women. As well, no contemporary records (L&P, "Hall's Chronicle") mention Anne Boleyn giving birth to a deformed foetus, which, Gregory contends, is possible evidence of incest. Warnicke favours Anne's innocence, but believes her destruction was a result of the 16th-century's warped view of sexual psychology, centering on a system of prejudices which saw links among miscarriages, foetal deformities, homosexuality/bisexuality, witchcraft and Satanism. Dr. Warnicke's theories, advanced in 1989, did not find favour in scholarly circles, and are no longer regarded as valid; even so, her contributions to the study of Anne Boleyn's fall are invaluable as legitimate, albeit controversial, historical revisionism. Gregory justifies her novel's sub-plot on the grounds that specific evidence about George's sexual preference is inconclusive, he could just as easily have been bisexual.

• Paternity of Mary Boleyn's children. It has long been rumoured that one or both of Mary Boleyn's children were fathered by Henry VIII, originating from a report made in 1531 by an anti-Boleyn prior and Catherine of Aragon adherent who had never seen the boy. As always within history there is some debate, with Sally Varloe, Dr. G.W. Bernard (author of The King's Reformation) and Joanna Denny (author of Anne Boleyn: A New Life of England's Tragic Queen and Katherine Howard: A Tudor Conspiracy) arguing that he may have been Henry Tudor's son. Some writers, such as Alison Weir, consider it unlikely that Henry Carey (Mary's son) was fathered by the King. Whereas some others, chiefly Eric Ives, have insisted that it is frankly impossible. Henry Carey, the future Lord Hunsdon, was most likely born in 1525 or 1526, when Henry VIII's interest in Anne Boleyn began. Henry VIII's affair with Mary, which started in 1520, is thought to have lasted only a few years (Dr. Eric Ives). Henry VIII publicly acknowledged his only other illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy (1519-1536), by Elizabeth Blount, and not Mary's children.

• Role of Thomas and Elizabeth Boleyn. The Other Boleyn Girl depicts Mary's parents as using both their daughters as sexual pawns for political gain. Sources such as Anne Boleyn by Marie-Louise Bruce (1972) suggest that Mary's parents did not encourage her sexual escapades, and were horrified when she was sent home from France in disgrace. Gregory denies there is any evidence of this, or Mary Boleyn being the French King's mistress. However, marriage was the primary means of forming ambitious alliances in court circles, not sexual affairs without benefit of clergy: Mary Boleyn was married to a minor noble, William Carey, whereas Anne Boleyn was courted by the future Earl of Northumberland, one of the most esteemed families in England. There is no evidence to support Gregory's assertion the family encouraged both Mary and Anne Boleyn to provide sexual favours to Henry VIII.

• Anne Boleyn's wardship of Henry Carey. Anne Boleyn took on Mary's son as her ward after the death of his father, and supplied him with an education - a common practice in the Tudor nobility and one very similar to the situation faced by dozens of young aristocratic children, including Anne and Mary's cousin, Katherine Howard who was raised by her grandmother when her father was penniless. Anne's actions are usually seen as a kind by contemporaries and historians, but in the novel it is re-imagined both as a cruel act and as an adoption in the modern sense, in which the child's caretakers are considered his legal and social parents. The author's response is as follows: 'Anne did adopt Mary’s son, but there is no evidence for Anne’s motives. She cut off her sister without a pension on the death of William Carey which does not seem very kind. But we simply don’t know her motives either way.' (Actually, Anne secured Mary a highly respectable pension of £100 a year.). It was the norm for noble children to be educated away from the parents, and Anne Boleyn provided Henry Carey with a generous education following the death of the boy's father. No evidence supports Gregory's assertion Anne Boleyn "stole" the boy from Mary in an attempt to make herself more politically attractive to Henry VIII.

• Sexual experience of Mary Boleyn. Mary is depicted as a sexually inexperienced young girl, despite her alleged affair with Francis I of France and subsequent promiscuity at the French court. She is generally thought to have been dismissed from the French court, thus shaming the Boleyn family. However, author Philipa Gregory comments: 'There is no evidence for Mary’s sexual activity before marriage and given that she was a Tudor young lady whose marriage would be her fortune it is extremely unlikely that she would be allowed to have lost her virginity. The only evidence for sexual activity at the court of the king is his boast that she had been 'his hackney,' which is unsupported by any other claim or any evidence in France or England and probably was said only to upset Henry VIII. ... Nobody knows what age Mary was when she went to court, but she was probably only 12 when married according to current best calculations. That would mean that she was the French King’s lover before puberty which is also most unlikely.' Genealogist Anthony Hoskins contradicts the claim that Mary Boleyn had a reputation as being sexually active at an early age, and indeed, denies that Mary was extensively educated at the French court, like her sister, at all: Hoskins claimed, "It is now established that if [sic] was Anne Boleyn, and not her sister Mary, who lived at the Flemish and French courts as a child," and surmised that French King Francis I's comments on her reputation were not based on her early behavior, as he possibly only had met her as early as 1520 at the "Field of Cloth of Gold."

• Motivations and characterisation of Anne Boleyn The Guardian newspaper claimed Anne had been presented as "a scheming trollop," expressing incredulity at such a characterisation. In "The Other Boleyn Girl", Anne Boleyn is presented as cold, vindictive, ruthlessly ambitious, vain, and given to physical violence; this is not supported by contemporary accounts. Margaret of Austria described Anne Boleyn to Sir Thomas Boleyn as "so presentable and so pleasant, considering her youthful age, that I am more beholden to you for sending her to me, than you to me." She was certainly complex: highly intelligent, fluently bilingual, politically astute, artistically gifted, loyal to her family, generous to friends, known for her charm and elegance, notwithstanding arrogance and a notorious temper when stressed. Feminist scholars objected to Gregory's characterisation, and praise Anne Boleyn as a feminist icon. As queen, Anne was a generous patron of charity, religious reform, learning, culture, the arts, and saved lives from religious persecution in Europe (Nicholas Bourbon). She was undoubtedly influenced by powerful, literate women such as Margaret of Austria, Louise de Savoy, and Marguerite d'Angoulême: Philippa Gregory says 'The only ‘savage criticism’ I have experienced has been anonymous remarks such as this published without peer review or editing. All reputable reviews have been positive. Calling my version of Anne a ‘scheming trollop’ is not savage criticism but fair comment. Anne Boleyn is not a feminist icon to feminist scholars and I have received no criticism from feminists but much praise for my history of women.' (For criticism of Gregory's portrayal of Anne Boleyn, see this lecture And see aforementioned references for biographies seeing Anne as a feminist icon).

• Incest between Anne and George Boleyn. Anne Boleyn was charged with committing incest with her brother. At one point in the novel, this is strongly implied as a desperate attempt by Anne to become pregnant with a son. Both the 2003 BBC production of The Other Boleyn Girl and the 2008 Hollywood film with Natalie Portman clearly depict that the two attempt but not commit incest. This twist in the story provoked the most outcry, one reason being that Anne had sworn upon the damnation of her soul in 1536 that she was absolutely innocent, leading many to feel that it was incredibly disrespectful to distort such a human tragedy in this manner. At Anne Boleyn's trial, the following was introduced as evidence of incest:

1.) Anne Boleyn once greeted her brother with a public kiss.

2.) Anne Boleyn wrote to her brother informing him she was pregnant.

3.) George Boleyn was seen sitting at the edge of his sister's bed when both were fully clothed.

Anne Boleyn, George Boleyn, and the other men accused with her were not in the same place at the same time on the supposed dates of incest and adultery (Dr. Eric Ives). Even so, Gregory indicates there is a strong possibility Anne and George Boleyn committed incest.

None of the sources Gregory listed in her bibliography question Anne Boleyn's innocence. Gregory used two biographies of Anne - one by the American historian, Retha Warnicke and another source by Marie-Louise Bruce (1972). Both these writers insisted that Anne was innocent, as did books by David Loades, Alison Weir and Lacey Baldwin Smith that Gregory had used when researching the story. Gregory did not use Dr. Eric Ives' 1986 scholarly biography on Anne Boleyn, The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn: the Most Happy, in which Ives expounds the possible political motives for Anne Boleyn's fall. Ives describes Anne as an active and effective politician, and explains Anne's fall and execution as the result of minister Thomas Cromwell's determination to avoid a similar fate to that of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey . Gregory also did not read primary source documents, ie, eye witness and official accounts.

Philippa Gregory maintains "Anne was charged and found guilty of incest with her brother, the novel suggests that this is show trial and implies that Anne would have done anything to save her life and get a son. This is no distortion of the story. ... There is no suggestion in the book that Anne was definitely guilty of incest but this is the charge she faced - as every historian records, and she was found guilty and so executed. Since the novel is written in the first person it is an account of the trial, the guilty sentence and the execution, it is not a later explanation." Again, on the topic of incest: "Nobody can know the answer to this one. Anne was accused of adultery with George at their trials and his wife gave evidence against them both. Most people think the trial was a show trial, but it is an interesting accusation. Anne had three [sic] miscarriages by the time of her trial, and she was not a woman to let something like sin or crime stand in her way--she was clearly guilty of one murder. I think if she had thought that Henry could not bear a son [sic] she was quite capable of finding someone to father a child on her [sic]. If she thought that, then George would have been the obvious choice." ("The Other Boleyn Girl")

There is no evidence supporting Gregory's assertion that Anne had three miscarriages. Gregory ignores the argument, as stated in Eric Ives' biography of Anne Boleyn, that part of the reason Anne was executed was because of her political and religious leanings, which her brother shared and supported. Therefore, if the execution of Anne Boleyn was meant to be an example to supporters of church reform, executing George Boleyn at the same time would have made perfect sense because he was nearly as avid a supporter of reform as she was, if not quite as well-connected. The hapless Mary, on the other hand, had no known political stance whatsoever, and was not at court when her siblings were executed.

Interestingly, in one of the novel's sequels - The Boleyn Inheritance - one of the characters admits that she fabricated the evidence of incest used in the trial against the two Boleyns. This implies that the two were innocent all along and it was simply gossip and innuendo which condemned them. The author responds: 'Yes indeed. This novel is from the point of view of Jane Parker. The Other Boleyn Girl is from the point of view of Mary Boleyn. Both novels are based on the historical record but the reader is supposed to understand that the account comes from their point of view. In the case of The Boleyn Inheritance the journey of the character of Jane Parker towards madness is part of her realization of what she has done. Most readers have understood this.'

Adaptations

Screen

A ninety-minute television drama based on the novel was broadcast by the BBC in 2003. It had a relatively low production budget of £750,000 and was filmed using modern camera techniques, with much of the script improvised. Jodhi May played Anne Boleyn, Natascha McElhone played Mary, Steven Mackintosh played George, Jared Harris played Henry VIII, and Philip Glenister played Stafford. It received mixed reviews.

A 2008 feature film adaptation starred Scarlett Johansson as Mary, Natalie Portman as Anne, and Eric Bana as Henry VIII. In Translating Henry to the Screen, a bonus feature on the DVD release of the film, screenwriter Peter Morgan discusses the dilemma he faced in adapting Philippa Gregory's 600-plus-page novel for the screen. He ultimately decided to use it merely as a broad guideline for his script, which Gregory felt perfectly captured the essence of her book, although many plot elements were eliminated, diminished, or changed. Among the more notable deviations in the film, Mary's marriage to William Stafford, a major part of the book, is mentioned only in a note just before the closing credits, Anne becomes pregnant with Elizabeth after being raped by Henry, Anne and George decide against committing incest, Mary adopts Elizabeth at the end of the film and there are no overt references to George's homosexuality.

Other

A narrated version was recorded, voiced by actress Emilia Fox.

External links

• Book review
• Philippa Gregory official website