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Anne Boleyn was the most controversial and scandalous of Henry VIII's wives.
Either her parents or Anne Boleyn herself was expected such an amazing destiny. Full of ambitions, she succeeded in getting the king at her feet and the crown of England on her head ,after dismissing the ancient Queen Catherine. Unfortunately Anne Boleyn may have too underrated her enemies and an english people who definitely stood by Catherine, and plotted to make Mrs Boleyn fall.
Her biography written by Elisabeth Norton was very easy to understand ,full of information and writings of Anne Boleyn's epoch. Several speeches ,letters and poems,all written in an ancient english,were added to the text and that way I just felt closer of Anne Boleyn's story, closer of the XVI century.
This brought to the biography the realist side ,that as a reader I was expecting for, and less distant of the historical figures. Even if we know that obviously the figures have existed, the biography sometimes creates a distant between the real figures and the reader instead of the autobiography which with the « I » touches directly the reader. That's why I really loved to see the original writings beacause they are here to justify what the Historical figures were feeling or going through at a concrete moment in their life.
Among thoses writings, the last speech of Anne Boleyn ,at the end of the book was the speech I loved the most. On the verge of being executed, Anne Boleyn shows the pride she has always had during her life ; she is in front of the people who has never loved her and has always wanted her to die , indeed she was very self confident, determined and challenging for a woman at that time so she definitely accepts her doom : death . Religion took a huge place in life at that time ; Indeed the last words of Anne Boleyn were not for the crowd or the king but for the christ. « to Christ I commend my soul »(chap 17) . All those elements definitely reveal a part of a society in which Anne Boleyn was living or actually in which she was surviving.
I liked that the author doesn't comment Anne Boleyn's speech . In the next paragraph Elisabeth norton briefly describes the moment when the sword hit Anne Boleyn's head. (chapt 17). The description is short and the vocabulary used is simple but the lack of richness in the description definitely strengthens the value of Anne Boleyn's speech. That way I just focused on the speech and not on the details of her execution.
All along the biography, I found that Elisabeth Norton doesn't only overwhelm us with lots of dates and long portrayals but she tries to make us think about Anne Boleyn's situation which was very difficult for a woman at that time,especially when you wanted to reach the crown and she also tried to show why and how Mrs Boleyn has finally lost the control of her destiny.
