Mary Boleyn: The True Story of Henry VIII's Mistress [Hardcover]

Josephine Wilkinson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2009

The scandalous true story of Mary Boleyn, infamous sister of Anne, and mistress of Henry VIII.

The fictionalized story of Mary Boleyn is told in the current Hollywood blockbuster The Other Boleyn Girl (based on Philippa Gregory's bestseller) starring Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman which has generated huge interest in Mary as a historical figure.

Mary Boleyn, 'the infamous other Boleyn girl', began her court career as the mistress of the king of France. Franois I of France would later call her 'The Great Prostitute' and the slur stuck.

The bete-noir of her family, Mary was married her off to a minor courtier but it was not long before she caught the eye of Henry VIII and a new affair began. Although a bright star at Henry's court, she was soon eclipsed by her highly spirited and more accomplished sister, Anne, who rapidly took her place in the king's heart. However, the ups and downs of the Boleyn sisters were far from over. Mary would emerge the sole survivor of a family torn apart by lust and ambition, and it is in Mary and her progeny that the Boleyn legacy rests.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jo Wilkinson received a First from the University of Newcastle where she also took her PhD. She is currently and scholar-in-residence at St Deiniol's Library, Britain's only residential library founded by the great Victorian statesman, William Gladstone. She is the author of a two volume biography of Richard III, the first volume of which Richard III, the Young King To Be has just been published by Amberley. She is currently writing volume two. She lives in York.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Amberley; 1St Edition edition (July 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1848680899
• ISBN-13: 978-1848680890
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,112,183 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #79 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Historical > British > King Henry VIII

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable Book, August 20, 2009

By 

M. Leatherman "M. Leatherman" (Goshen, Indiana) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mary Boleyn: The True Story of Henry VIII's Mistress (Hardcover)

I was excited at the prospect of a new Tudor era book being
out, and the first nonfiction one about Mary Boleyn. For that
fact, I enjoyed it also because it didn't read like some
literature for a college student to do a thesis on.
However, I did get bogged down in the chapter about whether or
not Mary's two children were Henry VIII's, and she flip-flopped
around on what the answer might be (talk about beating a dead
horse!) & then next thing I know she's talking later in the
book as if it is an established fact that they were in his.
Also, there was much said about her sister Anne, that if
someone picked up the book to read in the mid-part, they might
assume the book was about Anne Boleyn. But I realize that her
sister's destiny was closely woven with Anne's. Despite all
of that, it was an enjoyable book & worth the cost. I am
planning on purchasing the other books by this author.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good overview, September 8, 2009

By 

S. Sullivan (Dallas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mary Boleyn: The True Story of Henry VIII's Mistress (Hardcover)

This is a quick read and presents a good overview of siginificant issues surrounding the Henry VIII/Anne Boleyn/Mary Boleyn triangle. Unfortunately, there is not a great deal of meat in this book. It can be rather conclusory at times; however, it is a good place to start for those interested in beginning to learn about this aspect of Tudor history.

40 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Same information in a different cover, August 11, 2009

By 

kellie (perth australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mary Boleyn: The True Story of Henry VIII's Mistress (Hardcover)

It would seem of late that the more public interest that surrounds the Tudor era, more books, television programs and movies etc are released to 'please' this growing fanbase. Every man and his dog seem to think that they can release the same old stuff in a different cover and call it fresh and new, and sell it for a small fortune to unsuspecting and gullible readers. Well, this reader hasn't been fooled. First off, let me tell you how I came across this book.

Knowing my love for all things medieval, and knowing the latest hype that surrounds the Tudor period, my friend decided that she would 'surprise' me for my birthday and buy me the brand new biography about the little known life of Mary Boleyn, sister of Anne, sometime Queen of England. I knew that this book was coming out, and had done some background research into the author, and saw that she had a PhD and had written (she is currently finishing the second volume) another biography of Richard III. Naturally this was a book that caught my attention, but I wanted to wait and see what other's thought of it before spending a small fortune and getting the book to my end of the world. Funnily enough, I am the one to review it for the rest of you.

As mentioned before this book is about the life of Mary Boleyn; and is, to quote the cover, "The true story of Henry VIII's favourite mistress". It chronicles what is known about Mary's life, from her birth and birthdate/place, to her life at the French court, to her affair with Henry VIII, her life as the sister of the Queen, and finally her life in seclusion and relative poverty as her family fortunes came crashing down around her. As an introductory book to the period, or simply for one who wanted to know more about Mary than the other more famous members of her family, this book achieves it's goal, to a degree. But for those of us who read all that is available about this period, this book falls short. The author provides nothing new about Mary- everything that is known is pretty much detailed in any book about her sister, Anne. For the most part, this book is filled with "Uhm's" and "Arrrrh's"- the author doesn't seem to want to make any conclusions or voice her own opinion, especially when it comes to the more controversial issues surrounding the Boleyn family. Page after page after page is filled with "perhaps" and "possibly" and "maybe". A prime example is her argument surrounding Mary's date of birth and position as eldest or youngest sister of the Boleyn girls. Wilkinson states some 'fact' (for the most part the same statement in more or less words by different people) saying that Mary must be the eldest because of... but in the next statement she reverses what she previously said by saying that Anne is the eldest because of... Not once does the author mention which side she thinks has the strongest argument etc, but rather just presents a small amount of evidence and forces the reader to make their own decision.

Now, for the technical side of this review. The book (or my edition at least) is in hardcover format and the first thing I noticed about it was it's thickness. You could get away with saying it is no more than two centimeters thick, making it only 177 pages, not including the Notes and Appendix. To some this might not be a problem, after all, one couldn't possibly write a great tomb about the life of a subject hardly remembered by history, without writing a book more about the era and less about the subject. One of my problems with the book though was not so much it's length as the size of the font. HUGE. The size of font that you would expect to see in a novel aimed at six year olds. I finished this book in three hours. Not an issue for some, but I personally feel that this was a waste of time for me because not only did I have to go back through my vast library and find another book to read, I also didn't learn anything new. For those that are interested, it has eight full page colour photo's in the centre of the book.

All in all, this book is a three star book for me. For people who want a nice and easy introduction into the Boleyn family, or for those with a preference to Mary, then you may enjoy this book. For those who have read and loved (example) Ive's history of Anne Boleyn, then you will most likely be dissapointed. I was. This book reads more like a highschool essay than a work of scholarly investigation, with no 'new' conclusions and little evidence to support the few conclusions made. I will say one thing for this book though- it was a good refresher course in the period, otherwise, wait for it to go on sale if you must have it. I don't pretend or claim to be an historian (not yet anyway), but I am a huge fan of Anne Boleyn, and have read just about every book available on her- and consequently have learnt a fair bit about Mary along the way, so if you are looking for a great book about the Boleyn's, go check out Eric Ive's brilliant masterpiece on Anne Boleyn. That particular purchase I can assure you you won't regret.

3 stars. Same information in a new cover.