Product Description

From the bestselling author of "The Other Boleyn Girl" comes a wonderfully atmospheric evocation of the court of Henry VIII, and the one woman who destroyed two of his queens. The year is 1539 and the court of Henry VIII is increasingly fearful at the moods of the ageing sick king. With only a baby in the cradle for an heir, Henry has to take another wife and the dangerous prize of the crown of England is won by Anne of Cleves. She has her own good reasons for agreeing to marry a man old enough to be her father, in a country where to her both language and habits are foreign. Although fascinated by the glamour of her new surroundings, she senses a trap closing around her. Catherine is confident that she can follow in the steps of her cousin Anne Boleyn to dazzle her way to the throne but her kinswoman Jane Boleyn, haunted by the past, knows that Anne's path led to Tower Green and to an adulterer's death. The story of these three young women, trying to make their own way through the most volatile court in Europe at a time of religious upheaval and political uncertainty is Philippa Gregory's most intense novel yet.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #106458 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 528 pages

Review
Praise for 'The Constant Princess': 'One of Gregory's great strengths as a novelist is her ability to take familiar historical figures and flesh them into living breathing human beings. "The Constant Princess" is a worthy successor to her previous novels about the Tudors and deserves to be a bestseller.' Daily Express 'Gregory's research is impeccable which makes her imaginative fiction all the more convincing.' Daily Mail 'Gregory is great at conjuring a Tudor film-set of gorgeous gowns and golden-plattered dining.' Telegraph 'The contemporary mistress of historical crime. Her novels are filled with strong, determined women who take their fate into their own hands!Gregory brings to life the sights, smells and textures of 16th-century England.' Kate Mosse, Financial Times 'Gregory vividly reconstructs life in the Spanish royal household, and contributes to the sense of Katherine's foreignness.' The Times 'The Virgin's Lover': 'A book to lose yourself in...a simmering mixture of intrigue, lust and betrayal at the court of Elizabeth I, it breathes new life into the suspected love affair between the young queen and Robert Dudley.' Daily Mail 'Convincing and entertaining'. Daily Telegraph 'Historical fiction at its best.' Choice 'An enjoyable read, and Gregory's energetic writing carries one along.' Sunday Telegraph 'A fascinating new take on a story we thought we knew.' Eve 'Highly readable, highly enjoyable.' Manchester City Life 'History has a sexy makeover in an erotic account of Elizabeth l's relationship with the married and tantalisingly unavailable Robert Dudley.' Glamour, Books of the Year 'Gripping and often moving.' Image 'Packed with court intrigue and sumptuous detail.' Dublin Evening Herald 'Gregory's success lies in restoring humanity to her historical figures.' Daily Mail 'Gregory vivdly portrays court life - all the political intrigue, divided loyalties, love and betrayal.' Woman and Home 'Gregory is one of the best chroniclers of the ups and downs of the turbulent Tudors...This superbly plotted drama unfolds like an exquisitely embroidered Tudor ruff.' Sainsbury's Magazine 'Queen of the historical novel.' Mail on Sunday 'Gregory creates an intriguing tale with many an unexpected twist.' Glasgow Herald 'The Other Boleyn Girl': 'It is a credit to Gregory that she is able to sustain interest in an epic-length tale when the ending is one of the most well-known moments in English history. The very believable dialogue and detail take you all the way into the claustrophobic privy chambers of the royal palaces!Gregory has launched herself into a popular period and produced something with that most underrated of virtues: readability.' The Times 'This is an intelligent variation on a familiar tale [with] witty use of metaphor.' Time Literary Supplement 'This compulsively readable novel is a wonderful account of the tudor court!This is the finest historical novel of this year.' Daily Mail 'The Queen's Fool': With her excellent eye for detail, [Gregory] moves The Queen's Fool along at a great pace.' Marie Claire Australia 'Totally absorbing!this is a triumphant piece of storytelling, not least because Gregory manages to make familiar events fresh and unloved people fascinating.' Gay Times 'Gregory offers a subtle examination of the tension between profound personal faith and the dangers of imposing that faith on others.' Jewish Quarterly 'It combines history and invention in gripping and memorable style.' Red 'Gregory weaves a brilliant and complex fictional web around historical fact. Hugely enjoyable.' Sainsbury's Magazine 'Historical fiction at its most masterly. Meticulously researched and realised and with an engaging and totally convincing heroine, "The Queen's Fool" invites readers to rethink their opinions of both 'Bloody' Mary and the 'Virgin' Queen. Superbly plotted, exquisitely written with the enviable capacity to simultaneously thrill and provoke thought, this novel is even more 'unputdownable' than "The Other Boleyn Girl."' Historical Novels Review 'Gregory serves up some more deliciously sombre moments from a factious Tudor court.' Independent 'Gregory's dramatic, plot-driven novel is thoroughly readable.' Sunday Herald

The author of The Other Boleyn Girl (2002) returns to the executed queen's doomed family in a historical novel that maps the sad demise of Henry VIII in a series of intimate personal testimonies.Gregory's tale of greed and revenge takes place against the short, unhappy tenures of Henry's fourth and fifth wives. Jockeying for position close to the throne, three powerful, ambitious women collide. The author skillfully allows each character to tell her side of the story in her own words. The first voice we hear belongs to 30-year-old Jane Boleyn, widowed sister-in-law to Anne. Jane's husband George was implicated in his sister's alleged infidelities and went with her to the scaffold in 1533; his calculating wife moved to save her inheritance rather than her husband and six years later is still scheming. Next up is Anne of Cleves, soon to be Queen Number Four, a provincial, German-speaking Protestant princess chosen by Henry's advisor, Thomas Cromwell, as a politically suitable alliance to keep Spain and France at bay. Badgered and bullied all her life by her brother and mother, 24-year-old Anne wants nothing more than to escape Cleves and have a meaningful life. The third voice belongs to Katherine Howard, a pretty, 15-year-old cousin of the dead Anne Boleyn and an incorrigible flirt who is brought to court as a lady-in-waiting by her conniving, powerful uncle, the Duke of Norfolk. Also summoned to court to attend the new queen, Jane begins plotting behind the scenes with Norfolk to assure Anne of Cleve's hasty fall and Katherine's quick ascent in Henry's favor. Gregory's knowledge of the period, combined with her novelistic skill, allows her to view this grim tale through the eyes of the three women: wily, experienced Jane; naive, sensible Anne; and vain, greedy young Kitty. Their first-person accounts are convincing and shockingly self-serving.Royal history spoon-fed in a highly digestible form. (Kirkus Reviews)

From the Inside Flap
The stories of three young women, trying to survive the most volatile and dangerous court in Europe at a time of religious upheaval and political uncertainty, is Philippa Gregory's most intense and compelling novel yet.

About the Author
Philippa Gregory is an established writer and broadcaster for radio and television. She holds a PhD in eighteenth-century literature from the University of Edinburgh. She lives in the North of England with her family.

Customer Reviews

Anne of Cleves was a wonderful narrator
The Boleyn Inheritance was my second Philippa Gregory book and I enjoyed it even more than the first (The Other Boleyn Girl). I loved seeing how things panned out, depending on which side of the fence the narrator was on, and I really felt like I knew the characters and their motivation by the end. The end just came too soon for me. I'd have liked it to carry on and on, especially Anne's part.

Anne's and Katherine's chapters were more entertaining than Jane's but that's probably because Jane's chapters/thoughts/narration were primarily about her own self inflicted torment and delusions over her husband's and Anne Boleyn's betrayal. Her narrative had a definite air of madness about it as the story progressed. By the end she was a broken woman and I don't doubt she was as mad as box of frogs. I don't pity her though.....well, not much anyway.

I love that I feel I know these women a little better now (albeit in a fictional way) and will look out for other fictional works which cover the Tudors.

King Henry was vividly repulsive in the pages, to the point where I swear I could smell the supporating wound on his leg every time I opened the pages. At best he was delusional, at worst he was a maniac and I wonder how anyone could bear to be around him.

All in all it's a great read, I just hope I can find a worthy bedtime read to replace it, now it's finished. That's the worst part of a good book.....it's over too soon.

Excellent research + convincing characterisation = great novel!
I am a big fan of Philipa Gregory's novels and am also very interested in Tudor history, so I am naturally biased towards enjoying a book that brings to life those times so vividly.

This novel, like many of Gregory's, is different to the majority of historical fiction floating around. Her research is extensive and her creative license is therefore built upon a real historian's detective work. The book focuses on Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard and Jane Boleyn and the chapters are divided between their three voices as the story unfolds. This is where the genius of the book lies. Elsewhere, the two Queens are normally dealt with in a more perfunctory way than even Henry VIII himself did. Gregory however skilfully gives them a realistic and sustained voice as women. Katherine Howard is characterised so well that the first time I reached one of 'her chapters' I smiled and fully, finally, recognised an authentic voice for her after years of reading Tudor history.

The strength of characterisation and the choice to give a voice to women usually passed over in this story as brief 'middle' wives before Henry finally expired whilst married to Katherine Parr is what makes this novel so potent. I read it in two days.

Loved it - Gregory is back on form, couldn't put it down!
Loved this book, it was a real page-turner. I enjoyed PG's early novels, The Other Boleyn Girl and The Queen's Fool. However, I really hated "The virgin's lover" and didn't bother with the Katherine of Aragon one. But this book is great, the idea of having three female voices (Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford, widow of Anne Boleyn's brother George/Katherine Howard/Anne of Cleves) works really well, and keeps the narrative flowing at a cracking pace. The change of tone between the narrators helps to emphasise the sheer horror of living in the Tudor court at that time, when Henry VIII was irritable and unpredictable. The characterisation of Katherine Howard is particularly good (teenage girl, a bit dim, and don't we know it.. "Let me see, what do I have now..."). But then the mounting sense of horror as she realises how she has laid herself bare to the ultimate punishment, it's quite horrible! The day to day detail is very well laid out too, and obviously the historical research has been put in to make sure it is reasonably true to history. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it will keep you engrossed for 2-3 days!