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Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows
The Other Boleyn Girl
Phillipa Gregory
--Paige Palmer (Staff Writer)
This book tells about palace life in Tudor England, under rule of King Henry VIII. It all starts in the year 1520, it is told from the point of view of the “other” Boleyn girl, Mary. She is sister to the infamous Anne Boleyn. Mary was the younger sister, the prettier sister, and the first to be hurled into the insane world of Henry Tutor.
It all starts with the homecoming of Mary and Anne from the French court. The relationship between the two sisters is a battle throughout the entire story. Anne is the older sister, she thinks she should be married first and into a better family than Mary. Everything falls into a different order when William Carey asks Marys father for her hand in marriage instead of Anne's. The king attends the wedding, and at some point notices Marys beauty. Mary and William are married and Anne gets jealous, this all starts the begging of the strained relationship. William is a courtier of the king and the king requests Mary, so Mary will be a maid-in-waiting for Queen Katherine of Aragon.
Katherine is Henry's first wife married for over twenty years. They had one child together, Mary Steward. When Katherine becomes pregnant again Henry takes up a mistress. Mary is set upon the kings eye by her uncle Howard whom was a favorite of the king and an advisor. Mary is forced to separate from her husband, with only a few short months of marriage. Months of adultery leads to having two bastard children with Mary, a daughter and son, Catherine and Henry. The King soon finds out the queen miscarried the new child and has stopped with her monthly courses. The queen was unable to produce a male heir. This infuriated the king. Anne Boleyn was sent away during all of this because the Howard family was afraid that she would try to intervene with Marys march to a high role. Then the king lost interest in Mary and so she took her children to her husbands home away from court. Within a few months her husband died of the sweat. Meanwhile Anne was becoming the new favorite of Henry. He was keeping her as his mistress but not bedding her, for she would not allow it until the unfertile queen was proven not to be Henry's true wife. For over six years the king tired to get his marriage annulled, on the pretenses that his wife was first married to his brother and never free to remarry. Anne pushed him to do the unthinkable, she showed him that he had an unlimited supply of power and that nobody could stand in the way of his wishes. And all the time she kept the king in love with her.
The king separated from the Roman Catholic church and from the Roman hierarchy, began the dissolution of the Monasteries, and established himself as the Supreme Head of the Church of England. He had the marriage to Katherine annulled and poisoned her sometime later, only to get married a few days later, already knowing that Anne was pregnant, and making her his second wife. Anne was crowned queen consort. She then gave birth to a baby girl, Elizabeth.
The kings mind started to wander from Anne and he again took up another mistress. Anne became angry and made the mistake of accusing the king of adultery. Anne was unable to carry anymore children and rumors began to start of her using witchcraft on the king and herself to help her conceive. The king became dissatisfied with her and began to investigate her, eventually charging her of adultery, incest, and high treason. Friday, May 19th they came and took her to the Tower to be the first wife beheaded by King Henry VIII of England overrun by tyranny, taught to him by Anne herself.
King Henry then finds himself free to marry Jane Seymour......
This is a very good book to read if you are into history and romance. The story is constantly up and down and I suggest it to any kind of reader.
