Boleyn Traitor

Gregory resumes her Tudor Series (following 2017’s The Last Tudor) with an engrossing tale of lady-in-waiting Jane Boleyn. In 1534 Greenwich Palace, Jane attends to her sister-in-law, Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s pregnant young queen. Henry is obsessed with producing a male heir, and after Anne gives birth to a girl, Elizabeth, he has Anne executed. Little is known about the historical Jane, who was wife to Anne’s brother, George. Contemporaries vilified her as a traitor to her husband and Anne, both of whom were executed in 1536. Playing on the fact that Jane’s father, Lord Morley, studied Machiavelli and Castiglione, Gregory casts her heroine as an ambitious, Machiavellian survivor who was enlisted by Thomas Cromwell “as one of his many lady-spies in the queen’s rooms.” The reader follows Jane through a well-staged series of court dances, royal hunts, May Day ceremonies, and other festivities. Lurking in the background are court intrigues, Spanish spies, and power plays, all of which bring on “death, undeniable death.” Gregory also sketches the inner lives of “strong man” Henry VIII and his many wives: Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, and “Kitty” Howard. It’s Jane who steals the show, however, up until her tragic death in 1542. Once again, Gregory brings the Tudor era to vivid life. (Oct.)