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Anne Boleyn: A New Life of England's Tragic Queen by Joanna Denny: A Book Review

Anne Boleyn: A New Life of England’s Tragic Queen
Author: Joanna Denny
Genre: Nonfiction, History, Biography
Publisher: De Capo Press
Release Date: 2006
Pages: 374
Source: My State Public Library

Synopsis: No English queen has enjoyed such notoriety as Anne Boleyn, and none has been so persistently vilified. Even after her execution in May 1536, on trumped-up charges of adultery, her reputation has been pursued beyond the grave, subjected to all manner of accusation. The unsavory account of her life that has come down through history is one shaped by her enemies. Joanna Denny's powerful new biography presents a radically different picture of Anne-a woman who was highly literate, accomplished, and a devout defender of her Protestant faith. Her tragedy was that her looks and vivacious charm attracted the notice of a violent and paranoid king and trapped her in the vicious politics of the Tudor court, where a deadly game was being played between the old nobility and the new, between the old faith and the new. Denny's compelling account of Anne Boleyn plunges the reader into the heart of the intrigue, romance, and danger of the Tudor court and the turbulent times that changed England forever. It will change forever our perception of this much-maligned queen.


     My Review: Anne Boleyn is the most controversial of King Henry VIII’s wives. She has often been portrayed as a scheming, lustful, and merciless queen. In this biography of Anne Boleyn, Ms. Denny attempts to reinterpret her story. Ms. Denny claims that Anne Boleyn did not deserve her negative reputation. Instead, she was a pious woman who was devoted to the Protestant cause.


     I did not like Ms. Denny’s interpretation of Anne Boleyn. In this biography, Anne Boleyn is described as saintly. She is portrayed as having no faults. She is also depicted as a martyr who died for the Protestant cause. While Anne Boleyn’s death is tragic, she was definitely not saintly. Anne Boleyn also had her faults. I thought that the author was very biased and was in too much awe of Anne Boleyn. Her bias on her subject caused me not to be convinced of her biography. It was hard for me to take this book seriously.


     I did find it convincing that King Henry VIII used a political coup to help eliminate Anne Boleyn because he was tired of her meddling in politics and had failed in producing a son. This is because he hired an executioner from France to behead Anne Boleyn before her trial. I did not find it convincing that she was a Protestant martyr and that she died a Protestant. Ms.Denny tended to ignore evidence overlooked by many historians such as Ives, Bernard, and Weir that she died a Catholic. This is because she asked Mr. Kingston if her good deeds will get her into heaven and that she took the last sacrament. Ms. Denny tended to overlook this to make Anne Boleyn a martyr of the protestant faith. Therefore, I have to agree with other historians that while Anne Boleyn definitely had Protestant leanings, she still had a few Catholic beliefs during her last hours and died a Catholic.


      Overall, this was a very biased biography that often distorted the truth in order to further her agenda. Ms. Denny often speculated throughout the book without any evidence. For instance, the reason why King Henry VIII’s sister hated Anne Boleyn is because Anne disapproved of her second marriage. There is no recorded evidence of Anne's reaction to the king’s sister’s second marriage. Thus, this speculation is unfounded. It would have been better if this was a historical fiction novel rather than a biography. I also didn’t like how the historian was very biased against those who opposed Anne Boleyn, especially Catherine of Aragon. Ms. Denny calls Catherine of Aragon a hypocrite without any evidence. Thus, she puts her view into her work rather than being neutral. It weakens her arguments. If you love to read everything about Anne Boleyn, you might want to read this book. However, I encourage you to skip it because this book is based more on the author’s speculations that are not backed up by facts. Instead, you will find more facts about Anne Boleyn in a historical fiction novel. The biographies of Anne Boleyn that I recommend are The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn by Eric Ives, Mistress Anne by Carolly Erickson, and The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir!


Rating: 2 out of 5 stars


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