The secondary title of The Lady in the Tower is ‘The Fall of Anne Boleyn’, which sums up the book in one sentence – always a good thing to do. Alison Weir considers all the aspects of Anne Boleyn’s fall from grace; the causes and the people involved in her fall. The causes include her failure to bear a son, which in turn led King Henry VIII to question the validity of the marriage. The King had also noticed an attractive woman amongst Queen Anne’s ladies-in-waiting, and Anne knew from personal experience what that could lead to. For political reasons King Henry couldn’t just divorce Anne. The marriage had to end with Anne’s death, hence the charges of adultery and treason. And yet he also wanted Archbishop Thomas Cranmer to find reasons why the marriage had never been valid in the first place.
Alison Weir tells the story of Anne’s fall, involving all the major players and some peripheral ones, including Princess Mary and Chapuys, the Holy Roman Emperor’s ambassador. You see how quickly things moved from the initial rumours to the trials of Anne and her alleged lovers and co-conspirators, to their executions. Two people come out particularly badly: King Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell. King Henry wanted his marriage terminated and didn’t care how it was done as long as he could be permanently rid of Anne. Cromwell knew his life probably depended on doing what the King wanted. He was prepared to have innocent men tried and condemned to death on the flimsiest of evidence.
The book ends with a look at some of the legends that sprang up after Anne’s execution. Some involve the ghosts of her father and brother, and there are tales of the her ghost walking the Tower of London, and also tales of her ghost appearing in places she never visited!
The Lady in the Tower is detailed and yet easy to read. Anne is not portrayed as a Jezebel or as manipulative or shrewish. She did say and do some things that, in retrospect, were foolish and could be taken out of context. In the end, though, she does come out as a wronged woman.
