JUDGE THE BEST by Gemma Lawrence @TudorTweep

5 GOLD stars

On Amazon UK
On Amazon.com
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: I have read all Gemma Lawrence's historical novels and loved them, without exception.  This is the 5th and final book in the Anne Boleyn series, and I have been looking forward to it for months!  

Genre: Historical fiction from fact, Tudor period. 

Judge the Best covers the final period in Anne's life, from her first still-birth (after the birth of Elizabeth) to the bringing about of her downfall by Thomas Cromwell, and her execution.  It is a long book, I believe about 160K words, but I never felt that I was ploughing through it.  I was riveted all the way through, and felt sad when I got to the end.

So much has been written about Anne Boleyn; I have always been on the 'she was innocent and the whole thing was dreamed up by Cromwell to get rid of her because Henry wanted a new wife who might give him a son' side, and if there was any doubt in my mind, I would be completely convinced of her innocence and the sins committed against her by this book.  It has also showed me further sides to the story ~ how much of a danger to Cromwell she had become, aside from other political considerations.

'Guilt and innocence seem to be one and the same at this time.  It all depends on the King... not on evidence, confession or actual sin...just on what Henry believes.'

Anne's last moments are told by Thomas Wyatt, in which he suggests a deeper reason for Henry's wish to rid himself of her: he could not control her.   She would not behave herself, unlike the insipid Jane Seymour.  I see Anne's inability to produce a son as his all-encompassing motivation: to prove himself the strong, virile, god-like figure who could produce male heirs.  None of us knows the absolute truth, of course.  I feel that Gemma Lawrence's is the most likely, of all I have read.   After the end of the novel, she gives much evidence of Anne's innocence, and also discusses Henry's descent into tyranny, lechery and ill health—and provides a brief look at the rest of Henry's life and the unfortunate women who would be chosen to sit on Anne's throne after her, as well as the fates of the other players in the story (I've saved the 'other players' bit to read in bed, shortly!).

'..there would always remain a part of him that would doubt.  I knew it was there, in him.  That was why I would die by the sword.  Because he knew I was innocent.

Cromwell should watch that doubt, I thought.  This is the lesson he has not learned.'

Cromwell

As ever, with this series and all of this author's work, it is meticulously researched with the detail unobtrusively woven around her own words, viewpoints, and portrayal of her subject.  Never, like in many other works of historical fiction, do I feel I'm reading a text book; every event is told only through the eyes of Anne.  She shows Anne as I believe she was: a woman born before her time, who was passionate, loyal, highly intelligent, sometimes cruel, impulsive, generous, strong, dignified, reckless, considerate, deeply emotional, self-critical, and so much more.  

'Tomorrow, he will kill me, but he will become the ghost in truth; a pale imitation of the great man he could have been.  A demon set up on a throne where a godly king might have ruled.'

I am one who thinks that the idea of gods, heaven, afterlife, etc, is wishful thinking, but sometimes I wonder if there exists, somewhere, a trace of what we were; I can't help but hope this is so, when I think how delighted Anne Boleyn would be to see, nearly 500 years after her murder, how she has lived again in these books, which I recommend most highly to anyone who is interested in her.  The series is a terrific achievement, and a magnificent tribute to this most fascinating of women.

'The great irony of Henry's quest for a male heir is that it was his daughter by Anne who would go on to be remembered as the greatest monarch of the Tudor dynasty, rather than his son, or even himself.'

THE SCANDAL OF CHRISTENDOM by Gemma Lawrence @TudorTweep

5 GOLD stars

On Amazon UK
On Amazon.com
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: it was one I had been waiting for, as with all books by Gemma Lawrence!

Genre: Tudor historical fiction

'If this is Katherine's dusk, I would have everyone know it is my dawn'.

Having just finished this long book in forty-eight hours, I wonder if Gemma Lawrence knows Anne Boleyn better than anyone else who has ever written about her ~ not the facts (though this book is intricately detailed), but the understanding of the woman herself.

This fourth book in the series covers the period when the Great Matter is finally resolved (as much as it can be), when Anne becomes Queen, gives birth to Elizabeth and becomes pregnant for a second time; at the end, I wanted, as ever, to stand with a whip over the writing desk of Ms Lawrence and demand she write the next one now, and not sleep until it is done.

The beginning of the book sees the continuation of Anne and Henry's battles with Katherine and Spanish ambassador Chapuys, the Pope and all those who oppose them.  I was glad to see old rumours dispelled, such as Anne orchestrating the plot to poison Bishop Fisher, but she is not painted only in glowing colours.  Lawrence's Boleyn is far too intelligent, self-aware and analytical not to see that her frustration causes her to act in ways she regrets; indeed, she shows unseemly pride in flaunting the ermine-trimmed gowns of purple given to her by Henry (both ermine and the colour purple were to be worn only by royalty) and is sometimes spiteful, but one can hardly blame her if she sought to soil the reputation of, for instance, the King's great friend Charles Brandon, the Duke of Suffolk, who was very much against her.

'Did I stop to consider that I was spreading the same evil that had once hurt me?  I did not ... I should not have lowered myself.  Katherine would never have done as I did.'

Here, she is too harsh on herself.  Since she first won Henry's love she has had to hold her head up high in front of all who would see her downfall, until she becomes 'as used to (the tales of her wickedness) as a crumbling dotard may become to gout'.

Gemma Lawrence puts myths and Hollywoodised images about other players to bed, too; Katherine was ridiculously stubborn, and hurt her own daughter in refusing to stand down; she also hurt the very man she claimed to love so much, and the good of the realm.  Then there is Thomas More ~ the reality of this 'man of God' who tortured and burned to death those whose beliefs didn't coincide with his, couldn't be further from the kindly uncle-like figure played by Jeremy Northam in Showtime's The Tudors.

Thomas More

There is more to this book than courtly intrigue, of course.  I loved the images of the countryside of long ago:  'We rode out through glorious, crisp mornings and heard corncrakes cawing in the fields... tall oaks, elms and yews seemed to bow as our horses clopped under them ... merlins flew over moor land, chasing meadow pipits across the gorse-covered hills.'  There is much to be learned about how the Church of England was born, about rituals of christening and coronations ~ and amusing snippets showing how little the people of the 16th century knew about the human body: 'The baby is drawing on your blood to help him grow, my lady.  That is why women's courses cease when they are with child'.  

We also learn the good about Henry, and why he is still the most famous and written-about of all the kings of England.  He was not just a tyrant ~ he built up the navy to greatness, and had a way of talking to the common man as if they were friends of his, not lesser mortals, which made him so loved by his people.  

In everything I've read and watched about Anne and Henry, it seems that she had begun to lose his heart even before she failed to give him a son, for which she met her death.  I believe it is simply that he was so indulged that if someone wasn't shiny, new and exciting, it no longer held his absolute attention.  Anne is probably the most famous woman to give truth to the quote (most commonly attributed to financier James Goldsmith) 'when a man marries his mistress, he creates a vacancy'.   As soon as she is pregnant with Elizabeth, she begins to hear rumours of his other women.

'Now that I was his wife and Queen, I was vulnerable.  Before, when I had ruled him as a mistress, I had held the power.  Now, he was my master.'

Anne discovers that theirs is not this grand passion that can weather all storms, after all.  She loses her own strength, which she hates: 'It is so easy to forget ills when one is offered love again.  When a heart has known love once, it will do anything to keep it.'

This was the part of the book that really earned its 5 GOLD stars, a personal rating I don't give that often (it's one better than 5 stars!), not just for Anne's pain when she begins to see Henry through new eyes, but her love for her daughter, which is heartbreaking.  I loved my daughter more than life, more than faith, more than Henry.  If I could have held her forever and never let her go, I would have done so. There was nothing more important than her.  

Anne feels sympathy for Katherine as Elizabeth is taken from her to reside in her own household (as is normal for royal children); she comes to feel many parallels with Katherine over the following months.  Most sad, though, is that she does not see the two people who will bring about her downfall: the two Janes, Boleyn and Seymour.

Jane Seymour

This book left me wondering two things: if Katherine had stepped down, while Henry was still in his prime, might Anne have borne those sons and saved herself?  And then I wondered if Anne's life might have been so much happier if she had married, for instance, Thomas Wyatt, and lived the life of a lady of great learning and teaching, who could have given so much to others of similar mindset; a bit like a more attractive and charismatic Margaret Beaufort, perhaps!  

Gemma Lawrence never fails to write about her subjects as no one else has. This is, as I have said before, the only series about Anne Boleyn you need to read.

ABOVE ALL OTHERS by Gemma Lawrence @TudorTweep

5 GOLD stars

On Amazon UK
On Amazon.com
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book:  I adore all Gemma Lawrence's books, and leap on every new one she brings out!  First discovered through our mutual interest in the Tudors, on Twitter.

'He wanted all to know that he adored me above all others'.

One of those novels that has given me that 'what on earth do I do next?' feeling, now it's finished... the third part of Ms Lawrence's series about Anne Boleyn, Above All Others is concerned with the years 1527~1530, when she and Henry have pledged their love to each other, and think it will be only a matter of months before she is his queen - only to discover what a long, tedious process the King's Great Matter would become, as they come up against the all powerful Catholic Church, and the scheming 'fat bat', Cardinal Wolsey.   But this book is so very far from tedious.

Even more than the first two books, I'd say that this episode is a work for those who already have a deep interest in Anne Boleyn and the Tudors.  It explores the theological questions of the time in great detail, and illustrates, with no stone unturned, the difficulties faced by Anne and her King with regard to the social traditions and beliefs of the time.  I know how well-versed Ms Lawrence is about her subject, and I see this book as an education, too; it explained much to me.

Gemma Lawrence's Anne has much to say about the corruption within the Church, the hypocrisy; I loved her pronouncement on Wolsey's wearing of a hair shirt, something that has often occurred to me when I see the flaunting of piety:  'It seems to me, however, that when such a thing is done, and it is made known that it is done, it loses the benefit of true and honest spirituality.  It becomes, rather, a pretence, a show designed to tell the world how very good that person is'.  

Wolsey was '...no man of God; he was a man of gold.' 

The way in which Anne's spirit progresses from the still girlish lover at the beginning of the book to the wiser woman, who realises that she must use every atom of her wit to fight her enemies and get what she wants for her and Henry, is so clever, and subtly portrayed.  It is apparent that she is the stronger of the two, though, of course, she is wise enough not to let Henry realise this. This version of the much-maligned Anne is the person I always saw her as, too ~ no means without fault, but her good intentions were genuine, and she had ambition for her people, her country, as well as for herself.  Secondary characters of her family (including the slippery Norfolk) are as vivid as Anne and Henry.  

Something I appreciated is that the author never falls into the trap of allowing Anne to think like a woman of later times; her point of view is always very much that of a far less enlightened period, when the Church controlled the behaviour of the population, and the lot of women was a frustrating one, indeed.

The novel ends just after Wolsey's death, when the coming of Cranmer and Cromwell into her circle gives Anne new hope for a solution to their problems.  

I believe this series to be the only fiction about Anne Boleyn that you need to read.  I was completely absorbed by it all the way through, and my only task now is to stand by Gemma Lawrence's desk with a threatening expression and a big stick to make sure she hurries up and gets the next book, The Scandal of Christendom, out as soon as possible!