BOOK REVIEW: Anne Boleyn: A King's Obsession by Alison Weir

Sorry to do ANOTHER post about Anne Boleyn but i just finished this and not going to lie I was SO disappointed. I LOVE alison weir (and told her so when I met her!) and although she’s never been the most sympathetic to Anne, she’s always treated her fairly and herself wrote a whole book culminating in proving that Anne was innocent and framed for her supposed crimes (which I’ve written about here and would highly recommend). Given this, I was intrigued to see how Weir would write from Anne’s point of view, especially having just read her amazing portrayal of Katherine of Aragon. I suppose it makes sense that she would approach this less sympathetic to Anne having lived so long in Katherine’s head, but in my opinion this was just a terribly unjust imagining of Anne.

Here, Weir portrays Anne as a vindictive and unfeeling schemer, who never loved the King and who was prepared to trample anyone and everyone who came between her and the throne. SPOILER ALERT (if you can have spoilers for historical fiction!) The whole plot about her being secretly love with Henry Norris seems quite ridiculous and unfounded (based on the evidence that I know of anyway). Weir justifies this in the authors note but I think it’s a real stretch of the evidence. I strongly dispute the idea that she never loved Henry – while she was probably uninterested in his initial advances, all the evidence suggests that for years before their marriage they were deeply in love – and I think her erratic behaviour after their marriage is a testament to that too. The idea that she never loved Elizabeth also seems especially cruel, when they were kept apart and she died when Elizabeth was just 2 years old (and Elizabeth retained a strong affection for her mother, despite her reputation). While undoubtedly Anne would have been disappointed in Elizabeth’s sex, it is clear that she was devoted to protecting her daughter.

There are, however, some aspects of Weir’s Anne that ring true: her loyalty to her family, her virtue and steadfastness, her courage, her vivaciousness, her love of education and passion for church reform,
her belief in female power, and her resolve to better herself , and her family. I also like that she explored the nicer sides of Anne’s relationship with Katherine and the subtleties of how it broke down despite mutual admiration and sympathy between the two women. As I’ve said elsewhere, Anne was no saint and no doubt that some of her less admirable qualities in this book are justifiable too, for example her arrogance and her cruelty towards Katherine and Mary. 

Nonetheless, Anne definitely comes out of this book looking the villain, and if this was the only book someone had read about Anne then they would be left with a vastly misguided opinion of her.

I persevered and finished the book, and as always Weir’s writing was emotive but I felt greatly uncomfortable and frustrated throughout the read and it’s the first book in a long time (and definitely the first of Alison Weir’s) that I wouldn’t recommend. I’m interested to see how the next 4 wives are portrayed, although I know less about Jane Seymour and Katherine Howard so it may be harder for me to judge/easier for me to accept whatever version of them Weir creates.

Anyone else read this? Did you love it or hate it? Already had some interesting discussions in my stories! Let me know your thoughts! Bagheera didn’t like it either 😂

(PS, I’m aware this is turning into a Tudor wives recommendation blog, I swear I’ll get back to real posts ASAP!)