Title: Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I: The Mother and Daughter Who Changed History
Author: Tracy Borman
Release Date: May 18, 2023
Disclaimer: I received a free copy from the publisher.
This is one of those books where descriptions are going to range from solid good to great to, perhaps, groundbreaking. I know this sounds strange, but in many ways, it depends on how many histories of the Tudors you have read. Yet, even for someone who has read quite a bit about the Tudors, this is a worthy volume to add to your library.
In many ways, much of the information presented here is widely known and if a reader has read more than a handful of books about Boleyn and Elizabeth I, it will not be necessarily new information. And in fairness, how much new information is there unless there is a discovery of lost documents? And that does happen, don’t get me wrong.
Yet, this book is good and is well worth reading even if you already know the facts.
Part of it is Borman’s writing is engrossing. There is an ease in reading Borman. It almost feels like the two of you are sitting down for a nice dinner, with a few glasses of good wine, and she is giving one of those “this is so fascinating, let me tell you” talks. Borman’s love and interest in the topic comes though and it is great fun to go on the trip with her.
The main reason why the book is good is because of how Borman lays out the information. She notes in her introduction that the book is not dual biography of mother and daughter, but a look at the connections between the two. Clearly lays out the connections between the two. Borman shows more than Anne Boleyn’s love for her daughter, something that is well documented. Borman shows more than Elizabeth promoting her relatives from her mother’s line. There are discussions about education and how even after death, Anne Boleyn arranged for Elizabeth’s education. There are discussions about reading material. It isn’t a dual biography; it is a book about lineage in terms of philosophy and education as well as lineage.
I want Borman to do with Mary and Katherine Aragorn, come to think of it.
It sounds weird, but while I knew the facts that Borman presents, I hadn’t quite realized or fully taken in all the connections between the facts and how they contribute to the connection between a mother who was killed/executed and the young daughter she left behind. Borman highlights that. She makes the reader look at that. That’s what makes this book an important edition to any Tudor history library a reader has. I really can’t think of another book that illustrates these multiple connections so clearly. While Boman has not laid them out in a chart of comparison, the reader can easily construct one after reading this book.
It is this biography of connection that makes the book a good solid read for the person who has read much about Tudor history and a great one for a reader just starting out on the journey.
Borman looks at briefly, as well, how Elizabeth may have looked at her father in terms of her mother’s execution. There is no way we can ever know how Elizabeth felt (unless a very secret diary survived) but Borman illustrates the different reactions that Elizabeth had to letters or stories from those around her. It would be fair to state that sometimes Borman goes a bit too much with the “Elizabeth felt” wording. How can anyone really know? Yet, Borman does make a good case for her conclusions.
Despite that quibble, this is a book worth adding to your reading list about the Tudors. Shoot, if this had been a digital ARC instead of the hardback, I would have gone out an brought the hardback after reading the ARC. I enjoyed it that much.
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