Mary Boleyn: The Mistress of Kings
by Alison Weir
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Like all Weir biographies this delivered and more, for me.
The historically sneered at 'loose' sister of Anne Boleyn, wife of Henry VIII's favourite Gentleman of the Privy chamber, was the daughter of an Earl-envoy and Countess-Lady-in-Waiting to both Queen Elizabeth of York and Catherine of Aragon.
A queen's Maid-of-Honour, Mary was also the esteemed aunt of Elizabeth I. And the dearly beloved mother of two top ranking courtiers (her daughter Lady Knollys became Elizabeth's chief Lady of the Bedchamber, her son Henry was created Baron Hunsdon and Knight of the Garter). Also, sister to two siblings famously executed for high treason and incest.
Like her sister, Anne, and their ambassador father, Thomas, Mary spent time in the French royal court. She was rumoured to have had affairs there, including with King Francis himself, who on record later referred to her as 'The English Mare', 'my hackney' and 'a great slag, infamous above all'.
She becomes a more interesting figure when seen contextually, in amongst a varying range of players. Some have criticised Weir for this approach, wanting a more zoomed-in exclusive of Mary. I see its purpose and liked this wider angle, seeing where she slotted quite differently into various lives rather than some two-dimensional glance at her bare particulars (if you'll pardon the pun).
Someone, someday, had to give Mary Boleyn this break, so who better to do it than this excellent popular historian? Alison Weir's research on even the scantest of possibilities is immaculate, always marvellously coherent. To her credit she is rightly cautious around presenting theory as fact. Some have expressed frustration at the resulting ambiguity which I conversely feel shows depth and integrity.
In the absence of harder evidential material, earlier writers' unchallenged reduction of this poor creature to the 'great and infamous whore' made it all too tempting for literary hoards to follow suit, make Mary fair game, pass her along (if you'll pardon this pun also). Hence this book's raison d'être.
Examining Henry VIII's potential paternity of Mary's eldest two offspring has been done aplenty before, mostly in the affirmative, whereas Weir introduces a feasible negative option of answering this hairy old question: Henry acknowledged neither as his, while famously and publicly acknowledging his other illegitimate children of other mistresses.
Important, too, examining whether Mary was the elder or younger sister of Anne, which could have served to address their logical places in the cue to Henry's privy chambers (rather than one sister being simply 'easier' than the other).
It's established that Anne's methodology of keeping Henry waiting for years was carefully steered and driven by the ambitious Boleyn elders, while Mary's earlier liaison had been less politically contrived, more spontaneous. I still sense that the vulnerable, if impetuous, Mary was prey to the lusty king, while he in turn became prey to the ambitious Anne (who herself became prey to the anti-Boleyn faction).
I enjoyed Weir's closer look at widowed Mary's later love marriage to the lowlier William Stafford. And of her consequent banishment from court by her embarrassed sister Queen Anne, confirming much about hard hearted Anne and leaving the reader empathic towards Mary. This was a woman ruled by her heart, contrasting with her ruthless and (I believe) younger sister.
Whilst the temptation has been to conclude that Mary, who would sadly wind up in obscurity, was the more scatterbrained of the two sisters, it was ultimately she who, literally, kept her head.
Can't see how any history reader would not relish this superb work.
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