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The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family Politics at the Court of Henry VIII :
The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family Politics at the Court of Henry VIII
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Price: £55.45
as of 04/09/2010 10:51 BST
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 942.0520924
EAN: 9780521370004
ISBN: 0521370000
Label: Cambridge University Press
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 338
Publication Date: October 27, 1989
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Studio: Cambridge University Press
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Average Rating:
Rating: 
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This is undoubtedly a controversial book and one which has split its readers (both academic and popular) but for that very reason is worth reading. Prof Warnicke takes a quite provocative stance in reading Anne as the victim of superstition and Henry's desperation for a male child; and attributes her fall and execution to the 'fact' that she gave birth to a deformed child which Henry needed to disassociate himself from.
The fact that Warnicke is prepared to challenge centuries of male interpretations of Anne is to be applauded; and positioning her within the cultural superstitions about witchcraft and the mysteries of a woman's body (from a male persepctive) is an interesting take on this period. That doesn't, of course, make it 'right' any more than very alternative views are 'right'.
I'm not sure that we are ever able to recuperate 'history' as it happened (we are all, after all postmodern!) so to dismiss this book as innaccurate or wrong, is itself perhaps limiting. Personally I think this is an interesting read which adds another dimension and way of seeing to what has now become a familiar story in both the academic and popular imagination. Read it and make up your own mind.
Rating: 
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This book on Anne Boleyn is has little to recommend it. The book is littered with historical inaccuracies (for example: it has now been proven that Anne WAS born in 1501 NOT 1507) and it is very hard to get to grips with it on any level. Warnicke proposes some interesting theories but there is simply not enough evidence to back up the (often sweeping) statements she makes.
Rating: -
I bought this book and I really didn't like it. It goes against everything that I have read from other books and what I myself personally believe. For example, the 1507 birthdate is completely wrong in my opinion-what Retha Warnicke presents as evidence is a letter written by Anne from Margaret of Austria's court. In her opinion the fact that the letter has bad spelling mistakes obviously means that a child of seven wrote it and not a young woman of 14. She does not make allowances for the fact that at this time Anne was still learning the language, and would make mistakes. The handwriting of the letter confirms in my opinion that it was written by a young woman not a child.
She also asks us to believe that Anne became the accomplished courtier she was whilst still in the nursery.
Retha Warnicke also asks us to believe that a deformed foetus was the reason Anne was disposed of and that Anne and Cromwell were never in alliance. Other biographies I have read completely contradict this fact.
I could recommend better books about the life of Anne Boleyn, Eric Ives "The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn: The Most Happy" is one of the best I have read. Don't buy this if you are new to the period-it will mislead you.
Rating: -
There is no denying that Professor Warnicke's book has an almost revolutionary outlook on both the rise and fall of Anne Boleyn. The key areas in which Warnicke's thesis challenges conventional historical opinion on Anne Boleyn's life are on the subjects of her date of birth, physical appearance and fall from power.
It has to be said that for the first part of the book, Warnicke is remarkably successful. She convincingly demonstrates that the current historical belief that Anne Boleyn was born sometime around 1501 is incorrect, and that the more likely date is 1507. Similarly, few can dispute her arguments that refute the age-old rumours of certain deformities (namely the infamous sixth finger/extra nail and warts.) However, it is in her assessment of Anne Boleyn's demise that Professor Warnicke disappoints.
Her entire thesis is based on the assumption that Anne Boleyn gave birth to a deformed foetus in early 1536, something that led to her arrest on charges of witchcraft, incest and adultery in May of that year. She also alleges that the men arrested with her were known homosexuals, something that allowed their 16th-century contemporaries to accuse them of gross sexual indecency. However, there is almost no evidence at all that Anne Boleyn's "lovers" were homosexuals, indeed some of them were active womanisers. The evidence for the deformed foetus idea is also disappointingly scarce, and Warnicke bases much of her idea on 'ifs' and a kind of 'if A happened, then B,C,D and E must also have happened' mentality, often disregarding evidence that she finds inconvienient. She latches onto a comment made in the virulently anti-Boleyn work of Nicolas Sander, who Warnicke spent the rest of her book discrediting (and very convincingly, it has to be said.) Therefore, it seems utterly ludicrous that she should suddenly place such emphasis on his comments that alleged Anne Boleyn gave birth to a "shapeless mass" in January 1536.
Other areas of the book are disappointing. It is at times dry and ponderously academic. Warnicke also fails to place enough emphasis on Anne Boleyn's role in religion and instead focuses on "harem politics" at the king's court, whilst ignoring the wider socio-economic impact of the king's marriage.
Nonetheless, despite these draw-backs, Warnicke's work on the rise of Anne Boleyn should be commended - even if her work on the fall remains seriously questionable.
Rating: -
I enjoyed this book and it was interesting. The only downside to it, is that the author I felt was very bias towards Anne. I had to ask myself while reading it, whether the author attached any responsibility to Anne for her downfall. I would say this is more a book suited to academic study rather than recreational reading.
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