tl;dr

Reading Boleyn Traitor

I’m reading Boleyn Traitor by Philippa Gregory. It’s about Jane Boleyn, George’s wife.

Generally I side-eye her books because I loathe The Other Boleyn Girl and I thought The Constant Princess was over the top romantic nonsense (what I seek out in these kind of stories is the scheming and the politics, I prefer if romance doesn’t overshadow that). However, I read she is no longer pushing the ridiculous idea that Anne Boleyn was guilty of what she was accused of, so I decided, what the hell, let’s give it a shot.

The good: it is a fun, quick read. Generally engaging.

The book shits on Jane Seymour a lot, which I find amusing because she’s my least favorite 😄

George Boleyn is charming. Was charming. Oops, spoilers.

The not good: well, there ARE parts where I can’t help going “that’s not historically accurate”. Such as: Anne of Cleves was not raised Lutheran. It’s more complicated than that.

But what I find most annoying is that per the narrative, Jane is supposed to be smart. But she’s kind of… not dumb but really naive or gullible, it feels like. She’s supposed to be a smart courtier, able to navigate the various currents and schemes, but there’s certain things that she is just missing wildly, and I don’t know if it’s that we’re supposed to interpret that as her not being as smart as she thinks she is, or if it’s a case of the author telling us a character is smart but the writing just not quite supporting that (this is the reason I dropped The Davinci Code like a hot coal). I mostly suspect the later.

The thing I’m most confused about is what this book wants me to believe about Thomas Cromwell.

Jane believes he did not want Anne and George and all the rest to fall. That he meant it as a scheme to let The Spanish Party overreach and fall themselves. That he was not the one coming up with the ridiculous accusations. And as things progressed, that he did not mean for Anne to die. She believes this because he told her so.

Now, there’s one of two options. Either he’s lying or he’s telling the truth.

If he’s telling the truth, that’s about as egregious as her previous books claiming Anne was guilty. (Although to be fair, it doesn't make me as angry).

If he’s lying, and he did orchestrate Anne’s downfall (at Henry’s behest or not, it doesn’t really matter)… well. In that case that is a lot more fuel in the fire of Jane is really not as smart as the narrative seems to want us to think she is.

And I don’t know which of those makes the book worse in my eyes.

I suspect it’s the latter. And I suspect she’ll find out the truth. I hope it becomes clear as the story progresses.

ETA: over 60% into the book. She hasn't found out, which I suppose means she won't. Which means... the question is unresolved.