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"The women who wed Henry VIII are remembered mainly for the ways their royal marriages ended: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. This book helps to restore full humanity to these six fascinating women by applying the insights of feminist scholarship. Here they appear not as stereotypes, not simply as victims, but as lively, intelligent noblewomen doing their best to survive in a treacherous court." "Divorced, Beheaded, Survived takes a revisionist look at 16th-century English politics (domestic and otherwise), reinterpreting the historical record in perceptive new ways. For example, it shows Ann Boleyn not as a seductress, but as a sophisticate who for years politely suffered what we would now label royal sexual harassment. It presents evidence that the princess Anne of Cleves, whom Henry declared ugly and banished from his bed, was in fact a pretty woman who agreed to the king's whim as her best hope for happiness."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved… (more)
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This is not history, this is feminist propaganda disguised as history. There are many other better Henry VIII books out there, such as Antonia Fraser's. I suggest the reader go to them first before venturing into this book.
Now, I know what some of you are thinking. Jenn, if you know so much about Tudor history, why do you still read about it. Well, the obvious answer is, like I already mentioned, it’s like crack to me. The not obvious answer is that it had a lot to do with the whole feminist reinterpretation. I agree with the feminist movement to an extent but I’m not on board with radical feminism, which is what I was expecting. Boy, was I surprised.
Karen Lindsey has done her research and done it well. But rather than pick sides like most historians do, and back only her side, she explains what most (or, frankly just some) historians think, and why she differs with it. She paints all his wives in a more human light than history tends to do. She wrote a very factual text that was interesting, witty and dare I say, fun to read.
Even though the title referenced only the wives, I was pleasantly surprised to find the opening chapter was on Margaret Beaufort (Henry’s grandmother) and the final chapter was on how his three children, and briefly his great-niece Jane Grey, took the throne.
The only qualms I had with the writing was that the author chose to spell the name of Anne Boleyn as “Ann”. It was very distracting. There is some historical debate about the correct spelling of the last name, while Anne was at the French court as a child, she commonly wrote her last name as “Bullen” which would be an almost French pronunciation of the English spelling. But the spelling of her first name has, to my knowledge, never been debated. I double checked with the bibliography included in the back of the book and each book referencing her was spelled as “Anne”. My only guess was that perhaps she didn’t want Boleyn to be confused with the fourth wife, Anne of Cleves or the “heretic” Anne Askew who appears during the time of his sixth wife.
Whatever the reason, I found it very distracting, like I already mentioned and it seemed to make chapters 2-4 kind of drag for me. But once Jane Seymour (wife number three) came into the picture, the pace seemed to pick back up, so I think the fault was my own.
The only other problem that I had was that she included a chapter on Anne Boleyn titled “The Great Whore”. I know that some have referenced her as such in history, but it seemed odd to me that one would chose that chapter title in a feminist reinterpretation. She goes on in later chapters to praise Katheryn Howard’s (wife number 5) ability to be ahead of her time in embracing her sexual desires rather than agreeing to be merely just a political pawn in a patriarchal society. The juxtaposition left me a bit confused.
But all in all, it’s a great read, if history is your thing. Really the only wife that things worked out for was Anne of Cleves (wife number four). I give this book 4 dog eared pages.
The fact that Catherine of Aragon never once believed that it was Henry who was doing all those hideous things to
Anne of Cleves survived quite well....as did Katherine Parr.
There wasn't much at all bout Jane Seymour or Katherine Howard......
In my opinion the book was lacking, but that might because in that era unless a woman was actually Royalty in and of their own right, they were merely political pawns of their families, much like cattle to be sold to the highest bidder.