Mademoiselle Boleyn is a novel by Robin Maxwell (author of The Secret Diaries of Anne Boleyn). Whereas her first AB book had Elizabeth reading diaries of her mother's dating from about the time Anne caught Henry's eye, this latest book goes back in time & commences when Anne is sent to the Imperial Court to serve Margaret of Austria (she who was briefly wed to Catherine of Aragon's only brother, Juan, & had the raising of Joanna of Castile's children after Joanna went off the deep end when her hubby Philip the Fair died).
For a novel, this wasn't half bad. The historical accuracy (for which we all know FA is a stickler LOL) is quite good, & the author in her afterward says she really tried hard to get it that way, only "making up" what couldn't be documented. For example, she states that it's a fact Mary Boleyn was Francois's mistress & known as the "English mare" because so many gentlemen of the French Court had "ridden" her, but nowhere could she find whether this was by choice or by design, so she decided to have Thomas Boleyn shove her into it, portraying him as the cold, heartless, ambitious, woman-beating bastard we generally think he was.
She has Anne go to Burgundy at age nine, taking the middle road on the birthdate dispute by my reckoning, as Anne is sixteen by the Field of Cloth of Gold (where TB then shoves Mary into Henry's bed). She has Anne meet & fall in love with Henry Percy at Val d'Or, because it's never been verified just where or how they met.
I enjoyed her approach to Anne's girlhood very much. She had Anne listen & observe the royals whom she served, & each chapter seemed to end with Anne reflecting on what she'd learned on handling the royals, men, or people in general, to be applied in later life. Because Leonardo da Vinci spent his last years in a manor near to Francois's palace of Amboise, she had him act as a sort of mentor to Anne because he recognized & wanted to encourage her intelligent, curious nature. Anne was also tight with Marguerite d'Alencon (later Queen of Navarre), who was far from the typical female of her day & also encouraged Anne's potential. There's a clever & amusing bit where Anne successfully uses her wits to avoid Mary's fate in the French king's bed when he turns his eye on her. Anne's closeness with both her brother George & with Henry Percy is attributed to copious letter-writing, & the book comes to a screeching halt as Anne disembarks at Dover on her return to England. I've never read an Anne Boleyn book that didn't keep going until the bitter end, so that was as refreshing as the intense focus on her earlier years, which do tend to get glossed over in many books about her.
I'd recommend this as a good Tudor novel to read. One note of caution, tho; Maxwell has a few (not a whole lot) passages that are a bit graphic as regards the licentiousness of the French Court at that time, so if you're the type of person who wouldn't go for that, skim judiciously or don't bother reading it.
Free Forum Hosting
Important Announcement
First 