Claire Ridgeway reflects on "The Other Boleyn Girl"

The creator of The Anne Boleyn Files website writes an excellent article, critiquing and deconstructing Philippa Gregory's novel The Other Boleyn Girl, loosely inspired on the life of Anne's elder sister, Lady Mary Carey, after receiving a worrying number of e-mails promoting the novel's alleged historical accuracy. (For this blog's review of the movie adaptation, click here.)

Taking apart the novel's key claims and plot-lines, one by one, Claire brilliantly analyses this notoriously inaccurate retelling of Mary Boleyn's life and family. I would encourage anyone to read the full article, but, to summarise: -

Mary Boleyn the Virgin: The novel paints its heroine as a demure and wholesome young girl, looking for love. Claire writes, "Mary appears innocent and sexually inexperienced and it is Anne who later promises her father and uncle that she will “coach her well enough to get her into his bed”. [In fact] ... Mary had been the mistress of King Francis I of France and gained a reputation for being promiscuous. The reputation may have been unfair and down to gossip, but she was the French King’s mistress and so was not sexually inexperienced when she arrived back at the English court."

Anne Boleyn's seduction of Lord Henry Percy: "In the novel, Anne plots to attract Henry Percy so that she can be Duchess of Northumberland and be wealthy. She tells Mary, “I’m going to make him marry me” and Mary watches Anne with Percy and comments “I saw how she played him”. [But] ...

There is no evidence that Anne set out to trap Percy and it is likely to have been a love match – the two of them meeting at court and falling in love." (I would also add to this that for all her much-vaunted historical research Miss Gregory seems to have been unaware of the basic fact that Henry Percy was not in fact the heir to the Duke of Northumberland. The title associated with Northumberland was not, in fact, elevated to that of a duke until 1551, almost thirty years after the events described in The Other Boleyn Girl. The Percys, arguably one of the most famous families in English aristocratic history, certainly one of the most important, had been Earls of Northumberland, not dukes, since the reign of Edward III.)

"Thomas Boleyn - Pimp Daddy": "In “The Other Boleyn Girl” we see Thomas Boleyn, his wife, Elizabeth Boleyn, and her brother, the Duke of Norfolk, having family conferences and scheming, using Mary and Anne as pawns to raise the family’s status, what my good friend Rachel Fitzpatrick refers to as “Pimp Daddy Boleyn Syndrome”!"

Anne Boleyn's Sexual Stranglehold over King Henry: "There is no evidence to support this theory. I personally believe that Henry was attracted to Anne and that she wanted to keep her virtue and not end up like her sister, an abandoned mistress with a bit of a reputation. There is no way that Anne Boleyn could have guessed that Henry would ever offer to make her his wife and queen when  she refused to be his mistress, how could she? Henry could have had any woman that he wanted, I’m sure Anne thought he would just move on to the next."

The infamous incest storyline between the Boleyn siblings: "The George Boleyn of “The Other Boleyn Girl” has an unnatural relationship with his sisters. He kisses Mary and then says “Kiss me again, kiss me like you kiss Henry” and he kisses Anne like a lover, not a brother... Mary then sees a guilty look on George’s face and concludes that “Anne had taken him as her companion on her journey to the gates of hell to conceive this child for England.” Anne and George were found guilty of incest at their trial but there is absolutely NO evidence that they committed incest. The majority of historians believe that they were framed and Philippa Gregory is pretty much alone in believing that either of them would have contemplated it. George was a keen reformer, he would not have contemplated such an abominable sin, and neither would his sister." In one of her notoriously idiotic Q & As, in which she exhibits her apparent inability to admit she is a novellist and not a proper historian, Gregory responded to the question on Anne and George's alleged incest with this toxic bit of tabloid-style history: -

"Nobody can know the answer to this one. Anne was accused of adultery with George at their trials and his wife gave evidence against them both. Most people think the trial was a show trial, but it is an interesting accusation. Anne had three miscarriages by the time of her trial, and she was not a woman to let something like sin or crime stand in her way—she was clearly guilty of one murder. I think if she had thought that Henry could not bear a son she was quite capable of finding someone to father a child on her. If she thought that, then George would have been the obvious choice."

The phrase 'moron' blares strongly in my head.

The obvious choice would not have been her brother - indeed, would it be for anyone? What is wrong with you, Gregory?! - but her long-term friend, Sir Henry Norris. Or, rather, her husband. Nor had Anne had three miscarriages - there is no evidence to support that one occurred in 1535, beyond hearsay. As Claire so rightly argues, "The above answer is wrong in so many ways and on so many levels!! 1) There is no evidence that Jane Boleyn (Jane Parker) gave evidence against George and Anne. It does not appear that any witnesses were called at their trials and Jane is not named as the woman who provided the prosecution with evidence against them, it may well have been the Countess of Worcester. 2) “Not a woman to let something like sin or crime stand in her way”! Anne was a very religious person who risked her life and position by having “heretical” books in her possession, there is no way that she would have contemplated incest, it would not even have crossed her mind! 3) What murder? 4) Why would George be the obvious choice? How many women out there having difficulty conceiving consider sleeping with their brother? Aaaaggghhh."

Aaagh - indeed.

Anne Boleyn, Superbitch: "There is no other way to describe the Anne Boleyn of “The Other Boleyn Girl”, she is a complete b**ch and it’s no wonder I get emails asking why I “defend” such a b**ch! Anne steals Henry VIII from Mary and then taunts her, she takes Mary’s son away from her without her permission, she treats her siblings like her slaves, she quite likely poisons Bishop Fisher and his dinner guests and perhaps Cardinal Wolsey, Princess Mary and Catherine of Aragon too, she is vindictive when Mary announces her marriage to Will Stafford and her pregnancy, saying that she will tell Mary’s son that his mother is dead, and she curses Jane Seymour".


Claire makes a lot of great points and the full article is worth reading, but in conclusion, she points out: -

"I know I’m going to get people saying that there’s nothing wrong with historical fiction and that I shouldn’t criticise it because people should be able to distinguish fact from fiction and I’m really not having a go at historical fiction. My bookcase is full of historical fiction: Jean Plaidy, C J Sansom, Robin Maxwell, Jeane Westin etc. BUT those authors are not saying that their novels are true and they carefully explain where they have deviated from the truth in their notes. Reading Philippa Gregory’s notes and interviews, she is suggesting that she is an historian and that “The Other Boleyn Girl” is not a distortion of the facts, but is a retelling of Anne and Mary’s story, and that is why I have such a big problem with this particular novel."