The Boleyn Inheritance By Philippa Gregory Book Review

 The Boleyn Inheritance 

(The Tudor Court #4) 

By Philippa Gregory 

Published Year: 2006

Page Count: 518 pages 

Medium Used: Paperback 

Genre: Historical Fiction, Court Intrigues, Royalty, Tyranny, 2025-read. 

Rating: 4.5/5

One of the best character assassinations ever read. One of the best character portrayals ever. One of the most engaging reads ever! I so, so, so loved reading this book. 😍😍😍 Just wrapped this and my heart is thudding. I am refraining myself from giving out any spoilers. I want everyone to enjoy this book the same way I did. Its a real slow burn. This book covers King Henry viii's  marriages to Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard. While the former was too stern and rigid in her sexuality, the latter is too forthcoming  and kind of slutty. Both get a taste of what it means to be married to a mad man, a tyrant and a whimsical king. They should be envied because they have loads of wealth at their command but I hardly think they qualify. It is better to be safe and relaxed without the money when dealing with a mad tyrant! 

There is a wee bit of suspense and thrill doing rounds along my spine while reading this book. Needless to say, I went into it blind. Majority of my knowledge about the Tudor Court and King Henry viii is what I read in other books about the Boleyn sisters and his enmeshments with them. I dont know what passed in his life after Anne Boleyn is beheaded and Jane Seymour died during/right after child birth. This book covers his marriage to Anne of Cleves, sister to a Protestant Duke from Germany and his divorcing her. She is 24 while he is 48. If her half age doesn't make one cringe while reading his unsuccessful attempts in bed, he goes onto an even younger - a mere girl of 14 - for his lover and wife next lol. I was rolling and laughing my head off! The story is narrated from the perspectives of three women - Katherine the Howard girl, Anne of Cleves, Lady Jane Boleyn. Katherine's silly and humorous accounts are alternated with stern, serious ones of Anne and selfish, rule bending confessions of Jane Boleyn. 

Henry viii was the most popular and most feared king of England. He was a tyrant king, with a whimsical and ever shifting interests, muses. There is no one at more danger in incurring his wrath and ill favor than his wife/romantic interests. He bestows great fortunes over his friends when they are in favor and just as easily, snatches everything away when his favor turns sour. Deeply distrustful, afraid of enemies and his own men turning against him, he vanquishes every suspicious person and anyone that goes against his dictates. He has hanged and beheaded papists and monks in his own country when they refused to toe his line of defying the Roman Pope. 

The ghosts of Henry's former wives - Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour - and his self serving treatment of them haunts the new wife and her court of maids. Especially, what happened with Anne Boleyn. How he passionately loved her and then when she fell out of his grace, she was sent to the gallows ruthlessly. She was branded a witch and a loosely moraled. Anne of Cleves also fears for her future - if she will spared and sent back to her German home where she is indeed not wanted or if she will be sent to the gallows too on the same pretext as her namesake Boleyn queen before her. Katherine who follows her suffers from similar fears. 

The big families at the court have to contend with each other like greedy, hungry crows pecking at rotting flesh. The queen is always watched and her every minor indiscretion is noted, made much of. It is like there is no breathing space or vacuum for imperfection on her side while the king can do as he pleases. He is treated a God incarnate and above Pope himself. Its an England that gives me the chills and shivers. All the wealth and gifts wouldn't convince me to stay by the side of a despicable and whimsical king. 

Reading this, I wondered if the author has made a feminist of me too. The king is a really horrible, horrible person and his once beguiling charm was replaced by scorn and suspicion. If there is one downside to this book, for me, it is the endless number of times a thing is repeated until it becomes lodged in the mind of the reader or until it becomes too much of a recall. Also how unforgiving the author is towards King Henry - i think she is being an unforgiving feminist. He was a mad, sadistic tyrant and I didn't understand how someone in their right mind would want their daughters/sisters marrying a man that saw through the deaths of three of his former wives. It is like writing off their death sentences and losing any lands/wealth benefits they earn in the bargain. Because he can kill them off without reason, without trail - simply based on his suspicion and court gossips!