Claire Ridgway

Ridgway carefully sifts the evidence surrounding Anne Boleyn's fall from the King's favor, her trial, and execution. I've read my fair share of Tudor history, but Ridgway still made several points new to me. For instance, although I knew the space of time between accusing Anne of adultery and her execution was short (less than a month!), I never realized that only days before the accusations Henry was still referring to Anne as his queen in writing and pushing for foreign courts to recognize show more her. And although I knew Cromwell had been instrumental in bringing accusations against Anne, I hadn't realized that they had differed not just over foreign policy and her destruction of his former master Wolsey, but also over the profits from the dissolution of the monarchies. (Cromwell wanted the money for the crown, while Anne argued that it should go toward poor relief.) Plus, I hadn't realized that the tower Anne lived in between being accused and being executed had been torn down in the 18th century. So much for making a pilgrimage to her former rooms!

All in all, a well organized piece of history. show less

Not knowing much of the particulars of Henry VIII and his six wives, I found this book to be a delightful introduction to the fall of Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn. The author does a good job of mixing events of the days leading to the queen's execution with biographies of the players and other background material. The result is a book of interest to both experts as well as beginners like me.

Two observations. First, the author is quite outspoken about what she thinks are the causes and show more motivations of what happened. Although in the introduction she promised to only mention her opinions, in fact she promotes them quite strongly. Second, it has apparently been proposed that some people involved in the story were gay. The author dismisses these suggestions in a quite perfunctory manner. In discussing the queen's brother, for example, she says, "It is unlikely that a zealous evangelical would have put his life and his mortal soul in peril by committing 'buggery'," thereby ignoring the rash of congressmen and fundamentalist preachers caught straying in recent years and demonstrating the ease some have separating their public persona from their private behavior. show less

This book is for true fans, not of the Middle Ages rule of Henry VIII, but of the fiction, movies and TV shows that provide us with some fact wrapped in cloth of gold and velvet entertainment. Real spoof and satire, reading the book is like sharing a love for fuzzy slippers or cat videos with your social network friends.

Ridgway's essay on the Sweating Sickness is exactly what the title claims. The essay is a good overview, introduction, what you need to know about the illness. She even covers how the illness is depicted in fiction. Nicely done discussion about what it could or could not be.