The Elizabethans; Mary Boleyn: ‘The Great and Infamous Whore’

Wilson, author of the acclaimed The Victorians, turns his panoramic gaze to the Elizabethan age with all its swashbuckling exploits, maritime prowess, political intrigue and cultural accomplishment. Weir, the popular Tudor biographer, tackles Mary Boleyn, the subject of Philippa Gregory’s bestselling novel The Other Boleyn Girl and the blockbuster film adaptation, and attempts to separate fact from well-worn fiction.

Mary, the ‘great and infamous whore’, was the sister of Henry VIII’s notorious mistress and then second wife Anne Boleyn. Both sisters had spent their formative years at the licentious French court but it was Mary that Francis I boasted as his ‘hackney’ whom he enjoyed ‘riding’. Having returned to England and married William Carey, Henry VIII’s cousin, it was Mary who was first of the sisters to become Henry’s mistress.

Much has been salaciously rumoured of her life, little has been written definitively. Weir’s book claims to be Mary’s first full investigative biography and looks to reappraise the life of this ‘infamous whore’. Did Mary bear Henry a child as some historians have alleged? Did she contract syphilis and pass it on to the king? Indeed is her notorious reputation deserved? Not unusually it seems rumour belies more mundane fact. Little is known of the affair between Mary and the king and it seems Mary was perhaps more noteworthy for discretion than debauchery. Indeed Weir claims that her liaisons with both Francis and Henry were ‘conducted so discreetly that not a single comment was made about them at the time.’ While Henry’s marital history is a well ploughed furrow his extramarital dalliances remain relatively unexplored territory. This is a worthy attempt to offer something new to Weir’s loyal readership and Tudor fans more generally.

A.N. Wilson also attempts to do something different and, in the manner of The Victorians, look at Elizabethan England from a fresh angle. The book does not claim to be a comprehensive survey – nor indeed could it be, as Elizabeth reigned for 45 years. This is hardly new territory but such is its richness of personalities, political drama, religious turmoil, naval exploits and overseas discovery that it provides much for Wilson to narrate with his customary wit and verve – although without significant novelty. Wilson sets out to look with ‘clear eyes’ and consider the late 16th century from the vantage point of the 21st. Elizabeth I and her times deserve attention now, he claims because: ‘we have lived to see the Elizabethan world come to an end’. However what follows is a broadly traditional celebration of the Elizabethan age when modern England was born and independence established from mainland Europe and the foundations laid for the British Empire. Nevertheless, Wilson does emphasise that this was also a time that saw the beginning of England’s troubled relationship with Ireland, her ‘first and willing colony’, the impact of which is only now being resolved. Indeed the book begins with Elizabeth’s attempts to subjugate Ireland (‘The Difficulty’) followed by a chapter on the New World. Wilson explains this unusual beginning by claiming that it will help the reader to relate to the Elizabethan age, because the legacy of these policies has continued almost to living memory. This is certainly a novel departure but one can’t help thinking that the third chapter, which focuses on the new queen and her accession, would have been the better place to start. From there we meet more familiar figures and events – Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester the queen’s infamous favourite, who lavishly entertained her at Kenilworth, Sir Francis Drake’s circumnavigation of the globe, Sir Francis Walsingham, England’s spymaster, Mary Queen of Scots, the rise and fall of the charismatic Earl of Essex and, of course, the figure of Gloriana herself. Wilson is a predictably deft guide through the literature and culture of the period (although there is a notable lack of discussion of portraiture) and pays particular attention to Edmund Spenser’s epic The Faerie Queen, Philip Sidney’s Arcadia and the dramas of Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson and William Shakespeare. As might be expected we read lots on religion and the Armada but there is also a foray into Elizabethan architecture – Kirby Hall, Longleat, Hardwick – and chapters on ‘London and the Theatre’ and ‘Sex and the City’, which make interesting departures in their attempt to look at society more generally.

That said, the book remains largely a consideration of high culture. Most disappointing perhaps is the chapter on Elizabethan women – little more than an account of Bess of Hardwick – and more generally a lack of consideration of recent work on Elizabethan politics and political culture within and beyond the court. Notwithstanding this, Wilson’s book is rich in anecdotes and vivid pen portraits. More something old than something new it is nevertheless a pacy and engaging read.

Anna Whitelock is Director of the Centre for Public History, Heritage and Engagement with the Past at Royal Holloway, University of London.