The Last Boleyn(169)
“Mother, could you summon Nancy to watch Andrew while we pack to go home?” Mary asked.
“I think his grandfather and I shall tend him in the solar until you are ready to sup with us, my Mary,” her mother answered with tears in her blue eyes. Her silver head bent down and she lifted the boy to his feet.
Behind Mary, Staff touched her shoulder, and she turned to smile at him. Then they hurried up the stairs hand in hand to pack.
Author’s Note
I have been intrigued by Mary Boleyn since I first stumbled upon brief mention of her during my undergraduate history classes in the late 1960s. And so, after graduate school studying European literature and many trips to England, I wrote about Mary for British History Magazine in 1980 and then wrote this novel, which was first published in 1983. Since then, it is obvious that interest in this woman, formerly the least remembered of the radiant and rapacious Boleyn clan, has greatly increased.
Mary, I believe, emerges as the loveliest, and eventually, the wisest and strongest of that fated family. As I have written other historical novels and Elizabethan mysteries over the years centered on Elizabeth Tudor, England’s greatest queen, I have wondered if Mary’s story impacted her brilliant niece. Perhaps it wasn’t only the way Henry VIII had treated Elizabeth’s mother and his other queens that taught Elizabeth never to trust a man, especially if he was a king. The lessons her Aunt Mary had learned the hard way were probably not lost on this clever woman.
Several minor characters in this novel such as servants are necessarily fictional; however, the major characters and places are as authentically drawn as on-site visits, history, maps, and records will allow. I have been fortunate to be able to travel to the sites used in this story, some several times.
Quiet moated Hever Castle, which becomes almost a character in Mary’s story, like much else, fell to the king in 1538 when Thomas Boleyn died a year after his wife. At that time, instead of merely taking Hever, as was the legal custom, the king arranged a sort of sale and, for an unrecorded reason, made certain that a sum was paid to his long-ago mistress Mary Stafford. Guilt money? Affection money? Money to assure her eldest son was well-reared? That is for us to wonder, but it does again suggest the magnetism of this woman.
Henry Tudor and Francois of France died the same year, 1547. Henry had finally been given his male heir through his marriage to Jane Seymour, who died soon after bearing the child, but, as is fully recorded, it is the Boleyn child Elizabeth who was the greatest Tudor ruler. Mary Stafford’s two eldest children served their cousin and queen, Elizabeth I, loyally. Catherine Carey became gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber at the accession of the queen. Henry Carey, 1st Lord Hunsdon, served as her trusted advisor and put down the Catholic Dacre Rebellion in 1570.
Those who were so treacherous to the Boleyns at the last eventually met their own tragic ends: Thomas Cromwell was hanged, drawn, and quartered after falling from power for failing to please his king in the procurement of his fourth queen; Jane Rochford was beheaded with King Henry’s fifth queen, Catherine Howard, for acting as her panderer; and the king himself died a gross and disease-ridden man.
I wish to especially thank Gavin Astor, second Baron Astor of Hever Castle in Kent, who owned Hever when I wrote this novel, for his kind correspondence, the use of his own research, and his encouragement. The Astor family no longer owns Hever, but it is still open to the public and makes a great day trip from London.
And my gratitude as always to my husband, travel companion, and proofreader, Don.
Karen Harper
April 2005
READING GROUP GUIDE
The Last Boleyn
About this Guide
Greed, lust for power, sex, lies, secret marriages, religious posturing, adultery, beheadings, international intrigue, treachery, and betrayal. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The Last Boleyn tells the story of the rise and fall of one of England’s most powerful families, through the eyes of the eldest daughter, Mary.
Although her sister Anne (who became the queen), and secondarily her brother George (who was executed alongside Anne), and father Thomas are the ones most remembered by history, Mary was the Boleyn that set into motion the chain of events that brought about their meteoric rise to power, as well as the one who managed to escape their equally remarkable fall. Sent away from home at an extraordinarily young age, Mary is quickly plunged into the dangerous world of court politics, where everything is beautiful, but deceptive, and everyone is always watching and manipulating. As she grows into a woman, Mary must navigate the dangerous waters ruled by two kings (not to mention her own family) in order to finally find a place for herself and the love she so deeply desires.
The questions in this guide are intended as a framework for your group’s discussion of The Last Boleyn.
1. Throughout The Last Boleyn, the image of life in court as a game of chess is discussed. What does the chess game mean to Mary Bullen, and how does the way she plays the game differ from those around her? Who at court is the wisest player, and who wields the most power over time?
2. When Mary leaves the French court to return to England, what lessons does she take with her? Who has she met that has had the greatest impact (either in a positive or negative way) on her as she has grown? What experiences in her adolescence in France most shape the woman she becomes?
3. In the world of this novel, a great deal of one’s status is determined by family—both William Stafford and William Carey for example are in positions where their limited social standing is directly linked to the rebellion of previous generations, and much is made of the “Howard blood” in Mary Bullen’s lineage. To what extent do you see the roles of the characters as fixed, and where do we see someone making their own place in the world? Can a person ever truly escape the sins of their fathers in Tudor England? How far can the ambitious self-made man or woman carry themselves?