Book Review: "Henry VIII: King and Court" by Alison Weir (Pt. 6)

Henry finally had a son and yet, it isn't the way we think. It was his mistress who gave birth to a child named Henry who would, in time become a member of the royal household because Henry was so insecure about the Kingship and whether it would continue. Alison Weir frames this as a situation that undoes Catherine of Aragon a bit due to the fact it puts her daughter, Mary Tudor, into peril for her own future. A legitimate daughter who must play second place to a child that was not born in wedlock? She was very upset. As we know, everyone still hates Wolsey but now, even the King is starting to suspect that perhaps, this man has too much power. When it comes to bringing the little boy into the royal household, the King is starting to notice the bickering amongst his men.

When it comes to the situation in France, there's a marriage and alliance for which Henry celebrates greatly though his men don't like the French too much. The French King and the English King are both happy with each other and there's a lot of jubilation and money spent. It would only last a few years until they were at war again though, so there's a huge mistake by Henry here. But a bigger mistake, Alison Weir states, is jousting. A jousting accident in which the opponent almost took the King's head off meant the King Henry VIII had to prove he was still able to ride and fight (which he did) but his blistering headaches that he would feel for the rest of his life can probably be traced back to this time.

It gave him a question of his mortality and the security of Kingship and this is what led to the young boy being brought into the royal household. We have mentions of Lutheranism but we aren't quite to the part where Henry brings Protestanitism into England just yet. Alison Weir does however, go through the fact that Martin Luther and Henry were at each other's throats for a time and Henry, wanting a title from Rome, wrote a book denouncing Luther. Oh the irony, the irony indeed.

But there was also another threat. Plague was going around England of course and so, Christmas became a solemn affair. Once again, Henry tries to cut back on his waste because of money issues. A horrific financial crisis caused by the war in France made Henry conscious of how he must tighten his purse. Alison Weir goes through the ways in which everyone's pay was cut and yet, there seems to be more feasts and banquets going on which totally sounds like Henry VIII to be honest - why are you expecting anything different?

However now that we are moving towards 1526, there's only one more thing to do in this turbulent period: enter, Anne Boleyn. Anne Boleyn was meant to be married to someone else, but fell in love with another guy but he was married and so she left court embarrassed. It goes on and on and on but there is a lot of focus on what she looked like. Many of those who didn't particularly like her would write that she looked like a witch. The National Portrait Gallery has a portrait of Anne that many accept is probably her. She has a long, slender neck and she is quite pretty. In her book Anne Boleyn: 500 Years of Lies - Hayley Nolan makes a point of it not really mattering what Anne Boleyn looked like and I am inclined to agree. I'm not sure we really give a damn. But Alison Weir makes sure that what we are paying attention to is not just what she looked like, but the motivations of the people who reported on it.

It's all still turbulent afterwards though, there's the Princess Mary and the question of what she inherits, there's the Cardinal Wolsey yet again and there's also the Sack of Rome. I'm being serious: Rome gets sacked halfway through the festivities and everything just stops. Alison Weir's writing gets quite dark and angry here as Henry's mood goes sour towards his sister because of her divorce and infidelity and the men around him because of their bickering. But of course, one thing that is happening almost constantly is Anne pursued by the King.