Title: The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne BoleynAuthor: Alison Weir
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This is a great read if you are looking to better understand the rise and fall of Anne Boleyn. The book starts off slowly as we meet many of the individuals and families involved in the intrigue surrounding the fall of Henry VIII second wife. All the names can be quite confusing but it really gives you a glimpse of the various agendas the people surrounding Henry had. Life in the 16th century could be brutal just as it can be today and Anne was as much a part of the drama as everyone else.
Did you know that Anne was evangelical in her religious views? It is partially because of Anne's influence that Henry broke from the Catholic Church. Granted Henry was looking for a reason to divorce Katherine of Aragon (his first wife) and the Pope would not grant an annulment. Separating from Rome allowed Henry to put Katherine and her daughter Mary aside to marry Anne.
And Anne's only surviving child, Elizabeth, took the throne after Henry's death. But before that could happen England had to go through a civil war. Supportors of Henry's two female heirs sparked a violent war between English families in what is called The War of the Roses. The white rose families supporting Mary and her Catholicism and the red rose families backing Elizabeth and her more Protestant viewpoint. But that is all in the future when Anne is long gone from the scene. This book focuses on Anne's downfall and ultimately the beheading of a Queen outside the Tower of London.
