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Revisiting Two Tudors Edward VI. England's Boy King: The Diary of Edward VI, 1547-1553. Welwyn Garden City: Ravenhall Books, 2005. 191 pp. $29.95, cloth, ISBN 978-1-905043-04-0. Reviewed by Ronald Fritze Published on H-Albion (October, 2006) Eric Ives staked out the subject of Anne Bo‐ 15 and 16 respectively into "Image" and "Art and leyn as his special expertise with the publication Taste." The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn defi‐ of his magisterial biography Anne Boleyn (1986). nitely supersedes Ives's earlier biography. The one The second wife of Henry VIII was a fgure of in‐ unfortunate difference is that the new edition tense controversy in her day and has remained so uses endnotes while the 1986 book used far more in the partisan polemics associated with the Eng‐ preferable footnotes. It is particularly inconve‐ lish Reformation and among modern historians. nient in a book that includes so many debatable Since 1986, Ives has engaged other scholars, most points that keep the curious reader fipping back notably George Bernard and Retha Warnicke, in and forth between text and endnotes. debate through various articles dealing with dis‐ Anne Boleyn is a perennial subject for biogra‐ puted aspects of Anne Boleyn's life. Now Ives has phers and for good reason. As Ives remarked in tied all of these debates together and other new 1986, "the story of Anne Boleyn remains one of research of his own along with new scholarship to the great romantic tragedies of Europe."[1] But in produce The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn: "The his new book he adds the judgment that Anne Most Happy". Although the new book has a differ‐ "was the most influential and important queen ent title and it is not identified as a second edition consort this country has ever had" (p. xv). The fact in the copyright information or the author's pref‐ is that courtship and romance, adultery and di‐ ace, it contains a preponderant amount of the vorce, and intrigue and plots all make at least as same text as the 1986 book. That said, the 2004 "rattling good history" as war. Life among the roy‐ book does contain significant new material. als frequently has all the elements of a soap Whereas the 1986 book had eighteen chapters, the opera. Ives's achievement in both of his biogra‐ new book has twenty-four chapters. The incorpo‐ phies of Anne Boleyn has been to produce a schol‐ ration of new research necessitated the creation arly biography of this very important queen that of new chapters, such as "Personal Religion," or the splitting of existing chapters, such as chapters H-Net Reviews maintains the high drama but avoids dwelling on but he also places the period of Mary's relation‐ the salacious and sensational. ship with Henry VIII during the mid-1520s--the Ives presents Anne Boleyn as a highly intelli‐ early years of her marriage to William Carey. The gent and quick-witted woman. While not extraor‐ King's affair with Mary Boleyn, according to Ives's dinarily beautiful, she had her physical attrac‐ chronology, only ended by the beginning of 1526, tions such as her beautiful dark hair. Her greatest shortly before he began to pursue her sister Anne asset, however, was her personality. Anne was in the mode of courtly love. strong-willed but also vivacious and she projected Many of Anne's contemporaries and later a sexuality that drew men to her. She was well commentators have blamed her for breaking up equipped to play the game of courtly love that oc‐ Henry VIII's marriage with Katherine of Aragon. cupied a prominent place in social interactions at But as Ives points out, the King's frst marriage the courts of Europe. Sent to the sophisticated was dead prior to Anne's coming on the scene. His courts of Burgundy and France for training at a anxiety about the lack of a male heir in the royal young age, Anne proved an adept pupil. When she succession had already reached a crisis point. The returned to England, she exuded a novel cos‐ King was already considering an annulment of his mopolitanism that set her apart from her female marriage before he asked Anne to be his mistress peers. These were traits that ultimately grabbed at Easter 1527, a proposition she refused. A few and kept Henry VIII's attention and caused him to months later in June, Henry VIII and Anne decid‐ make that rare move among kings of marrying for ed to marry. Prior to that point, the King had seen love. In spite of all that, such a relationship was his unsatisfactory situation with Katherine of prone to instability and it ultimately failed over Aragon and his infatuation with Anne Boleyn as Anne's inability to provide Henry VIII with a male disconnected issues. heir. Once Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn decided to Anne Boleyn's life is full of ambiguities and marry, they both pushed vigorously for a papal controversies that Ives's biography addresses. In annulment of the King's frst marriage. Interna‐ the second edition, much of the scholarly debate tional politics were completely unfavorable and occurs in the endnotes where Ives rebuts the con‐ the more Henry VIII pressed the issue, the more tentions of Retha Warnicke, the author of a rival domestic politics turned against him. Ives de‐ biography, The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn scribes Anne's role in the years 1528-32. It was a (1989), that differs significantly from Ives or the long, frustrating wait for the love-besotted couple. emphases of George Bernard, a historian engaged During its course, the great Cardinal Thomas in promoting a major revision of the history of Wolsey fell from the King's grace--with a lot of Henrician England. Remarkably for such a well- help from Anne Boleyn. She also helped to pro‐ known person, the year of Anne's birth is uncer‐ mote a radical party that favored England break‐ tain. The dates of circa 1501 or circa 1507 have ing its ecclesiastical obedience to the papacy. been commonly used by scholars with Ives defi‐ Thomas Cromwell gained much of his initial ad‐ nitely favoring 1501 on the basis of some strong vancement in Henry VIII's government due to documentary evidence. Another problem is the Anne's assistance. Ultimately they all worked to‐ birth order of Anne and her sister Mary Boleyn. gether to secure the break from Rome, the estab‐ Traditionally it has been thought that Mary was lishment of the royal supremacy, and the mar‐ the older sister, especially since she had been riage of Henry VIII and Anne. Henry VIII's mistress prior to his courtship of Some historians and biographers have Anne. Ives agrees with the traditional birth order, viewed Anne's marriage to Henry VIII as unhap‐ 2 H-Net Reviews py. Ives would disagree. Queen Anne was a great posed his policies and undermined his influence patron of art and culture. She had a keen sense with the King, so he began to ally himself with the for promoting her queenly image, which was as‐ old opposition to Anne. But he also set things up tute as she was widely unpopular. While queen, to be able to put them down right after the she promoted religious reform in a manner simi‐ Queen's fall, so as to leave him in sole charge. It lar to evangelicals in France during the early Ref‐ was an audacious and dangerous maneuver on ormation. She also advanced like-minded people his part. He and his allies prepared to spring a in the government and the church. Giving birth to trap, but with no way of knowing how they would Elizabeth was a disappointment to her and to get Anne into it. At the end of April 1536 they got Henry VIII, but they continued to try for a male lucky. The arrest of Mark Smeton, Anne's musi‐ child, although as Ives notes, Henry VIII was not a cian, precipitated the crisis. Smeton cracked, Anne fecund father. As a couple, they had their ups and panicked, things were said, statements were taken downs but that is hardly surprising. Both lived out of context, enemies added lies and innuen‐ under a high degree of stress--an uncertain royal does, and Henry VIII went along with all of it. Ives succession, hostility from Emperor Charles V and rejects the contention that any of the charges the papacy, a disgruntled realm, and a bitter ex- against Anne and her fve alleged lovers had mer‐ wife with an even more bitter and obstreperous it. Events moved fast: arrested on May 2, Queen daughter, Mary. Even Henry VIII's little sister Anne had been tried, convicted, and executed by Mary, Duchess of Suffolk, disapproved of his sec‐ May 19. It was not Henry VIII's or Thomas ond marriage. A baby boy would have fxed all, Cromwell's fnest hour. Ives considers Anne Bo‐ but none arrived to save the day. Added to this leyn innocent and the charges against her to be a tension, Henry VIII and Anne possessed volatile malicious smoke screen that was widely disbe‐ and assertive personalities. They were bound to lieved at the time and ought to be today. quarrel. As Ives depicts it, however, until almost Edward VI (1537-1553) started to keep a sort the very end, their marriage was fundamentally of daily journal in March 1550 when he was solid. Having good arguments was actually some‐ twelve years old.
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