I loved Alison Weir's other two books on Henrican history, "The Six Wives Of Henry VIII" and "Henry VIII". "The Lady In The Tower" is a similarly engrossing read, rich in detail and insight. It is worth reading for the refined glimpses into the personalities of Henry, Anne, and Thomas Cromwell alone. However, when coming to her final conclusion, she seems to ignore the elephant in the room. Let me explain:
Her thesis is that Thomas Cromwell, once "the Queen's man", fell out with Anne over several political issues, most notably the uses to which proceeds from the dissolution of the monasteries would be put. These disagreements escalated to the point where Anne threatened to have Cromwell beheaded, and he responded by concocting a plan to bring the entire Boleyn court faction down. In Weir's telling, after elaborate and meticulous planning of the kind that was Cromwell's trademark, Henry was truly duped into believing the preposterous proposition that Anne was guilty of committing serial adultery with multiple partners, including her own brother. And it was for this reason, rather than his desire to be rid of Anne so that he could marry his newest love interest, Jane Seymour, that he signed Anne's death warrant. If this were so, why would Henry, five months into his new marriage, say to Jane that "the last queen died from meddling too much in affairs of state"? To my mind, this simply does not comport with the picture of Henry as a dupe, albeit a willing one. To me it indicates that, at best, Henry was aware that Cromwell's case against Anne was concocted. At worst, it indicates that it may have been concocted at Henry's implicit or explicit behest.
While I do not accept Alison Weir's final conclusion, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the detailed account of Anne's final months, and recommend the book to anyone interested in this fascinating period in English history.Get more detail about The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn.
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