The Boleyn Inheritance: A Novel

The Worsening and the horror of King Henry VIII's Evil

Five Stars for this book by Philippa Gregory, as she continues the saga of the maniac, King Henry VIII. If any British monarch could prove the argument against having Royalty, it is King Henry VIII. If any Lordships could prove the argument against having an upper-upper class, it would be the Howard Family. In the first of the author's books on the Tudor lineage, Mary Boleyn, sister to the infamous Anne Boleyn, becomes mistress to a young and vibrant King Henry. She finally realizes the danger in being part of the Royal Court and controlled by her evil uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, of the Howard dynasty, and breaks free. That is documented in the first in the series, "The Other Boleyn Girl." She gives Henry two children, boy and girl, but in the customs of the day, they are considered "bastards" since she wasn't married to Henry. Therefore, they are considered unfit as heirs to Henry. So Henry continues his search for a "legitimate" MALE heir, i.e., one born to a woman as his queen and lawful spouse. Or is any spouse "lawful" for Henry? We all know the story of how he cast Katherine of Aragon aside in favour of the much, much younger Anne Boleyn and how the machinations he went through to have the Pope declare the marriage "illegal" led to the split in England of the Church of England from the Church of Rome. We all know he beheaded Anne Boleyn on dastardly, false charges because all she could produce was a daughter (to become Elizabeth First) and he wanted a child bride, the very young Katherine Howard. What we may not know is the extent he went to behead many others in the upper-upper class, who may have gotten in his way on any issue whatsoever. This book, "The Boleyn Inheritance," documents in a fast-paced, thrilling narrative what happened to the Boleyns through all Henry's maniacal ways as he aged. No longer the dashing figure he once was, he is an old, smelly, foul, obese and impotent human being (if one can call Henry VIII a human). Henry changed laws conti...