As a historian specializing in this period, I was delighted in this updated version of Dr. Ives' 1986 classic: from scholarship to presentation, it by far superior to any previous biography of this tragic queen (and I include Friedmann, Sargeant, Warnicke, etc.).
Here we see how Anne Boleyn moved within her milieu, the influences upon her and her consequent effect on the Henrician court: the power she wielded; her cultural accomplishments--and ultimately, why Henry, a refined man, chose her as consort. Unromantic in tenor, Ives presents the queen as relentlessly calculating her ascent, sure of her child bearing potential. A political animal, a forward thinking religious reformer, a woman convinced of the divine right of kings (anticipating her daughter's ostentatious presentation), an intellectual with a keen eye for aesthetics: no vulgar coquette, nagging shrew, homewrecker, or Sander's incestuous six fingered whore/witch here. Ives also avoids painting Anne Boleyn as tragic victim: the passive heroine, reluctantly raised from "lowly" station to queenship, sacrificed on love's altar.
Ives has the wisdom not to presuppose Anne Boleyn's character and motivations (as Joanna Denny's flighty and error ridden biography unfortunately does): we must draw our own conclusions. We shall never understand her inner life, her feelings towards the earl of Northumberland, the husband who hunted and slaughtered her, her opinions about power and queenship, or her attitude towards the new faith (genuine or pragmatic?). However, he points out, we can gain insights from observing how she acted and reacted to situations. Particularly welcome is Ives' attention to arts (she was undoubtedly gifted), culture and patronage, a throwback to her Margaret of Austria and French court days. As well, here we have the best analysis of her fall, much more precipitous than previously assumed--more a fight-to-the-death political struggle between her faction and Cromwell's (over Church revenues on the eve of the Dissolution), and less a matter of the simplistic, conventional view of Henry's disaffection. Apparently Anne Boleyn insisted upon church revenues being distributed en masse to the poor, rather than squirreled into the depleted royal coffers; her motives, of course, must remain mysterious: altruism, or ego? In any event, she was effective, giving more to the poor than Katherine of Aragon. That gesture did not appease the hostility, but her blood did: her trial and execution garned more than a modicum of sympathy on the part of Londoners.
Dr. Ives must be praised for his command of both primary and secondary source documents: he sifts and sorts, assesses and appraises the quality of information until a portrait of the woman, and the age, appear. He addresses the question of her appearance, which has long eluded historians: there are no extant contemporary portraits of the queen, and contemporary descriptions were mostly hostile. Ives does find an amenable middle ground. However, his greatest strength is assessing her role in history by virtue of her profound effect on Henry VIII, the break with Rome, and the English Renaissance. No more Pollard's supposition Anne Boleyn appealed only to the less refined aspects of Henry's nature; the traditional view. It all makes sense: she attended the brilliant court of the formidable Margaret of Austria, and the licentious, overwrought court of Francis I, in whose presence Leonardo da Vinci passed his final years. Undoubtedly she took notes from observing the kindly, but beleaguered and oft pregnant Queen Claude. More profound influences included Francis' sister and mother, strong willed, imperious women in their own right. Long before her ascension, Anne Boleyn planned her court: chivalry, study, music, arts and aesthetics, intellectual debate. An early salon. I would have, however, liked to see more attention paid to her musical inclinations: apparently she composed and performed. On the Continent, did she meet Josquin, de Sermisy, Mouton? Did she perform their music? Dr. Ives only mentions the contentious music book in passing.
Ives also holds suspect Dr. Warnicke's suppositions of a deformed foetus, the birth order of the Boleyn children, and George Boleyn's alleged homosexuality (promiscuity, yes, absolutely). Very convincing arguments. Also, he suggests many recorded incidents of Anne Boleyn's life were apocryphal, and explains precisely why.
This can be termed a true landmark study, just as much as Friedman's, but without the latter's Victorian moral sensibilities. Beautifully written and superbly researched.
