SERVANT OF DEATH by Gemma Lawrence @TudorTweep

5 GOLD stars

On Amazon (universal link)
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: Not so much discovered as awaited its release with great impatience!

In a Nutshell: The sixth and final installment of The Armillary Sphere series about Lady Jane Rochford, who served five of Henry VIII's queens and was married to George Boleyn, brother of Anne.

When I finished this book I felt a gap in my reading life; I kept subconsciously thinking I had it still to go back to then realising, with disappointment, that I hadn't.  LOVED it, probably the best of the series.  

Servant of Death takes us up to the downfall of poor sweet Catherine Howard and, of course, Jane.  If it wasn't for the fact that he was a murderous, self-absorbed tyrant who gave new meaning to the word 'narcissist', one could almost have felt sorry for Henry VIII, so cleverly has Ms Lawrence described how he adored Catherine and thought he'd finally found his perfect woman - though actually what he adored was his fantasy of her, as he neither knew her nor had any inkling that she lived in fear of him, not love.  His 'love' for her was but a reflection of the image of himself that her presence provided.  In this book we see so clearly the desperation that he thought was his own secret, not knowing how everyone else could see that Catherine was his last hurrah, as in vain he tried to stop the last grains of youth falling through the fat fingers that signed the death warrants for wives and friends alike.

This series has shown how, throughout her life, Jane was in the shadows of everyone else's dramas, with little opportunity to find happiness for herself, or even to work out what that happiness might have included, had she the freedom to find it.  As well as Catherine's times with Culpepper, I was glad for both her and Jane that they found comfort in their friendship; both their lives were robbed from them by the men in their world, from the very start.  In this finale, more than in the other books, the sense of women having no control over their own lives is starkly shown.  

The slow build-up to the point when Jane and Catherine were placed under house arrest (or apartment/chamber arrest, I suppose) was horribly sinister, especially as there was a whisper of what was happening on the wind.  I wondered how Ms Lawrence would depict Jane's alleged lapse into insanity at the end of her life, and the way in which she did so was most convincing; I felt almost as though Jane was freeing herself of society's behavioural requirements, and allowing her head to go in whichever direction it pleased.

I highly recommend this whole series, particularly the last three.  Highly, highly, highly - and two days on, that gap in my reading life remains.

MISTRESS CONSTANCY by Gemma Lawrence @TudorTweep

5 GOLD stars

On Amazon UK
On Amazon.com
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: One of my favourite authors, and have been looking forward to this since I knew she was writing it.

In a Nutshell: Book 1 of The Armillary Sphere series, about Lady Jane Rochford

A terrific few days' reading!  Like Ms Lawrence, I have always felt sympathy for Jane, wife of George Boleyn—I think she had a raw deal and, though enjoying the privilege that came with noble birth, was dealt a marked card, i.e., a husband who would never consider her as he did his family or his own requirements.  Her whole life with him was like having a visitor's pass to a club she would never be allowed to join.

This first episode of The Armillary Sphere series takes us from Jane's childhood to the moment of Henry VIII's avowal to make Anne Boleyn his next queen.  Jane's view of court life is different yet again from those in Ms Lawrence's series about Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour, but most interesting of all was the 'second sight' that has been given to her for the purpose of these novels—flashes of insight into a future that might be.  So clever, and so sad that she had to hide this gift for fear of being thought insane.  Jane's life seemed full of fear; the passages about her despair at George's lack of interest in her, and the way she felt empathy with Katherine's over the King's indifference, were heartbreaking; in those days, of course, women could not just walk away and find a better life.

Something I hadn't read about before that I found horribly fascinating—it's common knowledge that Katherine of Aragon wore a hair shirt, but I didn't know about the effects of such practice.  This, and the details of Katherine's fanatical religious devotion, made me wonder if she was possessed of certain psychiatric maladies that she passed on to her daughter, considering the progress of Mary's reign.  I realise that we can't judge the actions of those who lived over five hundred years ago by the standards of these days, and that they both suffered a great deal at the hands of the men who ruled their lives, but the behaviour is not dissimilar.

In this book, more than any other of Ms Lawrence's historical novels, Jane says much about how women were viewed as a subspecies completely under the control of men.  Unlike Anne and Empress Matilda, though, Jane had neither the mettle to fight against it nor the disposition to accept it, which added to her unhappiness.  I loved reading about her mixed emotions towards Anne, her accounts of their day-to-day lives—and, especially, the scenes set in Hever Castle and Penshurt Place, because I visited them two years ago, so could picture them so clearly!  There is one account of festivities held in the Baron's Hall at Penshurst, a place I found fairly mind-blowing, so that was a real treat. Also, when I read about Henry's bedroom being prepared at Hever—I have been in that room!

I thoroughly enjoyed this excellent book, and am so looking forward to reading about how Jane's relationship with her husband and his family progresses, and her part in the rise and fall of Anne.  Highly recommended!

Pictures from my trip to Hever and Penshurst HERE