Publisher Description

This definitive biography of Anne Boleyn establishes her as a figure of considerable importance and influence in her own right.

• A full biography of Anne Boleyn, based on the latest scholarly research.
• Focusses on Anne's life and legacy and establishes Anne as a figure of considerable importance and influence in her own right.
• Adulteress or innocent victim? Looks afresh at the issues at the heart of Anne's downfall.
• Pays attention to her importance as a patron of the arts, particularly in relation to Hans Holbein.
• Presents evidence about Anne's spirituality and her interest in the intellectual debates of the period.
• Takes account of significant advances in knowledge in recent years.

Back Cover

Anne Boleyn is the most notorious of England’s queens, but more famous for her death as an adulterer than for her life. Henry’s second wife and mother of Elizabeth I, Anne was the first English queen to be publicly executed. Yet what do we know of the achievements and the legacy of her short reign?

In The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn Eric Ives provides the most detailed and convincing portrait we have of the queen. He reveals a person of intellect with a passion for the new culture of the Renaissance, a woman who made her way in a man’s world by force of education and personality. She played a powerful and independent role in the faction-ridden court of Henry VIII and the unceasing struggle for royal favour that was Tudor politics. The consequences can still be detected today. Indeed, Ives shows that it was precisely because Anne was a powerful figure in her own right that it needed a coup to bring her down. She had to be stopped – even by a lie.

Flap

Anne Boleyn is the most notorious of England's queens, but more famous for her death as an adulterer than for her life. Henry's second wife and mother of Elizabeth I, Anne was the first English queen to be publicly executed. Yet what do we know of the achievements and the legacy of her short reign? In The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, Eric Ives provides the most detailed and convincing portrait we have of the queen. He reveals a person of intellect with a passion for the new culture of the Renaissance, a woman who made her way in a man's world by force of education and personality. She played a powerful and independent role in the faction-ridden court of Henry VIII and the unceasing struggle for royal favour that was Tudor politics. The consequences can still be detected today. Indeed, Ives shows that it was precisely because Anne was a powerful figure in her own right that it needed a coup to bring her down. She had to be stopped - even by a lie.

Author Biography

Eric Ives is Emeritus Professor of English History at the University of Birmingham. Ives has written widely on Tudor history, the history of law, and on the development of modern higher education. In 2001 he was awarded an OBE for services to history and the University of Birmingham.

Table of Contents

Preface. List of Illustrations. Part I: Background and Beginnings. 1. A Courtier's Daughter. 2. A European Education. 3. Debut at the English Court. 4. The Sources. 5. Passion and Courtly Love. 6. A Royal Suitor. Part II: A Difficult Engagement. 7. A Marriage Arranged. 8. Anne Boleyn and the Fall of Wolsey. 9. Stalemate, 1529–1532. 10. The Turning-point, 1532–1533. 11. Wedding Nerves. 12. A Coronation and a Christening. Part III: Anne the Queen. 13. A Royal Marriage. 14. Anne the Queen: Influence, Power and Wealth. 15. Anne Boleyn: Image. 16. Anne Boleyn: Art and Taste. 17. Anne Boleyn: Life at Court. 18. Anne Boleyn and the Advent of Reform. 19. Personal Religion. Part IV: A Marriage Destroyed. 20. The Rival, 1535–1536. 21. The Coup, April–May 1536. 22. The Response, January–April 1536. 23. Judgment. 24. Finale. Epilogue. Bibliographical Abbreviations.

Review

"[Ives is] splendidly successful... Ives's Boleyn, a portrait at all points supported by the evidence he gives, is clever, independent-minded and politically astute. Ives has gone as far as anyone can... in solving the enigma of Boleyn in a narrative at once profoundly researched and lively." Antonia Fraser, The Sunday Times
"Eric Ives has made it unnecessary for anyone else to even make the attempt [to write a biography of Anne Boleyn]. The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn is a stunning portrait of the most controversial woman ever to have been queen consort of England." The Independent on Sunday
"Eric Ives, a scholar utterly at home in early Tudor politics, has been writing about the Boleyns for more than two decades. His book represents a triumphant culmination of all that research, presented with clarity, wit and human sympathy." Diarmaid MacCulloch, The Telegraph
"Ives has written an excellent book on Anne Boleyn. Its great strength is its sophisticated understanding of aristocratic women's involvement in 16th-century politics, and precisely how this worked in practice. ...Ives rises effectively to the human drama of Anne Boleyn's life and in the process illuminates both the inner workings of the Tudor court and its relationship to the larger dramas of the Reformation and European politics." Jane Stevenson, Scotland on Sunday
"The best full-length life of Anne Boleyn and a monument to investigative scholarship." David Starkey
"Magnificently researched. Eric Ives has written the finest, most accurate study of Anne Boleyn we are ever likely to possess. He leaves no stone unturned in his quest to discover the truth. Never has the historical Anne been so satisfyingly portrayed." John Guy
"What is most exciting about The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn is not just that it has confirmed and solidified Ives's earlier work and presented it in a more accessible format. (Like John Guy, Ives has discovered that the Starkey model really does work and that popularisation -- 'to place among the people' -- should not be a term of opprobrium.) Rather, it is the development in methodology, the indication that cultural studies and the history of the book have provided us with new ways to evaluate evidence, to interpret the past." The Spectator
"Eric Ives achieves the notable feat of combining magisterial historical authority with a gripping style, and sets the reader's mind buzzing with debate about the complex reasons behind the astounding events of Anne's life." Times Literary Supplement
"[Ives] delicately pieces together a believable identity ... [and] gives, too, a lucid and coherent exposition of the circumstances that led to Anne's death." The Guardian
"What Ives doesn't know ... about the high politics and court life of Henry VIII's England will either never be known or is not worth knowing. If there is a truth about Anne Boleyn's rise and fall, he will tell it to us." London Review of Books
"There is no questioning the impact of Professor Eric Ives on the historiography of Tudor England. There is a keen sense of the evidence, of diplomatic affairs, of the minutiae of the record and its context. The writing is fluent and well-paced, drawing the reader along." The Tyndale Society Journal
"This is a moving and compelling account by an author who is the absolute master of his subject. I read it with great excitement and admiration." Susan Brigden, Lincoln College, Oxford
"Ives demonstrates triumphantly the potential of the biographical approach in a pre-modern setting. He evinces a deep empathy for his subject without ever becoming an apologist for her, and ... he provides a narrative which is genuinely moving. He has also given us a fully rounded and persuasive account of Anne's life as a whole, and its significance for understanding the politics and political culture of the early Tudor decades." Reviews in History
"The best book on Anne Boleyn ever written. This is a must for all lovers of Tudor history, academics and general readers alike." Alison Weir, BBC History Magazine Books of the Year
"Eric Ives has cut through the myths and misconceptions. The result surpasses all previous work.When Ives describes Anne herself. he is utterly convincing." Renaissance Quarterly

Long Description

Anne Boleyn is the most notorious of England s queens, but more famous for her death as an adulterer than for her life. Henry s second wife and mother of Elizabeth I, Anne was the first English queen to be publicly executed. Yet what do we know of the achievements and the legacy of her short reign? In The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, Eric Ives provides the most detailed and convincing portrait we have of the queen. He reveals a person of intellect with a passion for the new culture of the Renaissance, a woman who made her way in a man s world by force of education and personality. She played a powerful and independent role in the faction-ridden court of Henry VIII and the unceasing struggle for royal favour that was Tudor politics. The consequences can still be detected today. Indeed, Ives shows that it was precisely because Anne was a powerful figure in her own right that it needed a coup to bring her down. She had to be stopped even by a lie.

Review Text

"[Ives is] splendidly successful... Ives's Boleyn, a portrait at all points supported by the evidence he gives, is clever, independent-minded and politically astute. Ives has gone as far as anyone can... in solving the enigma of Boleyn in a narrative at once profoundly researched and lively." Antonia Fraser, The Sunday Times
"Eric Ives has made it unnecessary for anyone else to even make the attempt [to write a biography of Anne Boleyn]. The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn is a stunning portrait of the most controversial woman ever to have been queen consort of England." The Independent on Sunday
"Eric Ives, a scholar utterly at home in early Tudor politics, has been writing about the Boleyns for more than two decades. His book represents a triumphant culmination of all that research, presented with clarity, wit and human sympathy." Diarmaid MacCulloch, The Telegraph
"Ives has written an excellent book on Anne Boleyn. Its great strength is its sophisticated understanding of aristocratic women's involvement in 16th-century politics, and precisely how this worked in practice. ...Ives rises effectively to the human drama of Anne Boleyn's life and in the process illuminates both the inner workings of the Tudor court and its relationship to the larger dramas of the Reformation and European politics." Jane Stevenson, Scotland on Sunday
"The best full-length life of Anne Boleyn and a monument to investigative scholarship." David Starkey
"Magnificently researched. Eric Ives has written the finest, most accurate study of Anne Boleyn we are ever likely to possess. He leaves no stone unturned in his quest to discover the truth. Never has the historical Anne been so satisfyingly portrayed." John Guy
"What is most exciting about The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn is not just that it has confirmed and solidified Ives's earlier work and presented it in a more accessible format. (Like John Guy, Ives has discovered that the Starkey model really does work and that popularisation -- 'to place among the people' -- should not be a term of opprobrium.) Rather, it is the development in methodology, the indication that cultural studies and the history of the book have provided us with new ways to evaluate evidence, to interpret the past." The Spectator
"Eric Ives achieves the notable feat of combining magisterial historical authority with a gripping style, and sets the reader's mind buzzing with debate about the complex reasons behind the astounding events of Anne's life." Times Literary Supplement
"[Ives] delicately pieces together a believable identity ... [and] gives, too, a lucid and coherent exposition of the circumstances that led to Anne's death." The Guardian
"What Ives doesn't know ... about the high politics and court life of Henry VIII's England will either never be known or is not worth knowing. If there is a truth about Anne Boleyn's rise and fall, he will tell it to us." London Review of Books
"There is no questioning the impact of Professor Eric Ives on the historiography of Tudor England. There is a keen sense of the evidence, of diplomatic affairs, of the minutiae of the record and its context. The writing is fluent and well-paced, drawing the reader along." The Tyndale Society Journal
"This is a moving and compelling account by an author who is the absolute master of his subject. I read it with great excitement and admiration." Susan Brigden, Lincoln College, Oxford
"Ives demonstrates triumphantly the potential of the biographical approach in a pre-modern setting. He evinces a deep empathy for his subject without ever becoming an apologist for her, and ... he provides a narrative which is genuinely moving. He has also given us a fully rounded and persuasive account of Anne?s life as a whole, and its significance for understanding the politics and political culture of the early Tudor decades." Reviews in History
"The best book on Anne Boleyn ever written. This is a must for all lovers of Tudor history, academics and general readers alike." Alison Weir, BBC History Magazine Books of the Year
"Eric Ives has cut through the myths and misconceptions. The result surpasses all previous work.When Ives describes Anne herself. he is utterly convincing." Renaissance Quarterly

Review Quote

[Ives is] splendidly successful... Ives''s Boleyn, a portrait at all points supported by the evidence he gives, is clever, independent-minded and politically astute. Ives has gone as far as anyone can... in solving the enigma of Boleyn in a narrative at once profoundly researched and lively." Antonia Fraser, The Sunday TimesEric Ives, a scholar utterly at home in early Tudor politics, has been writing about the Boleyns for more than two decades. His book represents a triumphant culmination of all that research, presented with clarity, wit and human sympathy." Diarmaid MacCulloch, The TelegraphIves has written an excellent book on Anne Boleyn. Its great strength is its sophisticated understanding of aristocratic women''s involvement in 16th-century politics, and precisely how this worked in practice. ...Ives rises effectively to the human drama of Anne Boleyn''s life and in the process illuminates both the inner workings of the Tudor court and its relationship to the larger dramas of the Reformation and European politics." Jane Stevenson, Scotland on SundayThe best full-length life of Anne Boleyn and a monument to investigative scholarship." David StarkeyMagnificently researched. Eric Ives has written the finest, most accurate study of Anne Boleyn we are ever likely to possess. He leaves no stone unturned in his quest to discover the truth. Never has the historical Anne been so satisfyingly portrayed." John GuyWhat is most exciting about The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn is not just that it has confirmed and solidified Ives''s earlier work and presented it in a more accessible format. (Like John Guy, Ives has discovered that the Starkey model really does work and that popularisation -- ''to place among the people'' -- should not be a term of opprobrium.) Rather, it is the development in methodology, the indication that cultural studies and the history of the book have provided us with new ways to evaluate evidence, to interpret the past." James P. Carley, The SpectatorEric Ives achieves the notable feat of combining magisterial historical authority with a gripping style, and sets the reader''s mind buzzing with debate about the complex reasons behind the astounding events of Anne''s life." Times Literary Supplement[Ives] delicately pieces together a believable identity ... [and] gives, too, a lucid and coherent exposition of the circumstances that led to Anne''s death." The GuardianWhat Ives doesn''t know ... about the high politics and court life of Henry VIII''s England will either never be known or is not worth knowing. If there is a truth about Anne Boleyn''s rise and fall, he will tell it to us." London Review of BooksEric Ives has made it unnecessary for anyone else to even make the attempt [to write a biography of Anne Boleyn]. The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn is a stunning portrait of the most controversial woman ever to have been queen consort of England." The Independent on SundayThere is no questioning the impact of Professor Eric Ives on the historiography of Tudor England. There is a keen sense of the evidence, of diplomatic affairs, of the minutiae of the record and its context. The writing is fluent and well-paced, drawing the reader along." The Tyndale Society JournalThis is a moving and compelling account by an author who is the absolute master of his subject. I read it with great excitement and admiration." Susan Brigden, Lincoln College, OxfordIves demonstrates triumphantly the potential of the biographical approach in a pre-modern setting. He evinces a deep empathy for his subject without ever becoming an apologist for her, and ... he provides a narrative which is genuinely moving. He has also given us a fully rounded and persuasive account of Anne''s life as a whole, and its significance for understanding the politics and political culture of the early Tudor decades." Reviews in HistoryThe best book on Anne Boleyn ever written. This is a must for all lovers of Tudor history, academics and general readers alike." Alison

Feature

• 
  
• A full biography of Anne Boleyn, based on the latest scholarly research.
  
• Focuses on Anne?s life and legacy and establishes Anne as a figure of considerable importance and influence in her own right.
  
• Adulteress or innocent victim? Looks afresh at the issues at the heart of Anne's downfall.
  
• Pays attention to her importance as a patron of the arts, particularly in relation to Hans Holbein.
  
• Presents evidence about Anne?s spirituality and her interest in the intellectual debates of the period.
  
• Takes account of significant advances in knowledge in recent years.

Details