Charlie Fenton’s Reviews > Anna of Kleve: Queen of Secrets > Status Update

‘She left Hampton Court on a blazing-hot August day, weeping in her litter because some intuitive instinct told her she would not see Henry again. He had sent for her to bid her farewell. She had found him in a reflective mood, and suspected he too had an inkling that his time was short, for he had held her tight in their last embrace, and there had been tears in his eyes as he looked into her face.’

Goes a lot into the details that are seldom known about Anne’s life after she became ‘the King’s sister’, such as the investigation into the rumour that she had been ‘delivered of a fair boy’ by the King, while he was still very much infatuated with Katherine Howard.

‘“If my honour is being slandered, I have a right to know what is being said about me.”
Sir Richard looked at Sir Anthony and indicated he should speak.
“A few days ago, Madam, we had word of an abominable slander: that your Highness had been delivered of a fair boy, and that it was the King’s Majesty’s, begotten back in January when you were at Hampton Court.”’

I know some will disagree but I actually like the fictional events that have been added to Anne’s story, especially as Weir admits it is all fiction in her notes (I don’t mind fictional events, especially ones as big as this, being added if it is admitted to). I think the twist in this has kept the book from becoming boring and isn’t too jarring as we know little about her anyway.

‘Anna did not want to hear all this. It made her feel even more unwanted, and not a little jealous of her former maid-of-honour, to whom - she realised - she must from now on bend the knee. Now she had an inkling of how Queen Katherine and Queen Anne had felt when they, in their turn, were supplanted. She could have shaken Henry for his insensitivity. Yet she would not let it matter; she must not let it matter.’

‘To her surprise, she felt a burgeoning sense of well-being. For the first time since meeting Henry, she knew where she stood. The worst that could happen had not happened. From a humiliating bondage, she had suddenly been liberated to a life of luxurious freedom; she was, for the first time, her own mistress. She had not lost the King’s goodwill: he was still her friend - and brother!‘

‘When Elizabeth impulsively took Anna’s hand and squeezed it, then gently touched her face, as if she was hardly able to believe that this new stepmother was real, Anna felt choked. The child clearly needed a mother’s love and stability in her life. Mary, with her enduring hatred of Elizabeth’s mother, was perhaps not the best mentor, although it was plain she loved her half-sister.’

‘Surely it was nothing! The King, everyone knew, had always had an eye for the ladies. Why should he not find Katheryn appealing? Smiling at her did not mean he was pursuing her. But what was it someone had said, in Anna’s hearing? When he takes a fancy for a person or a thing, he goes he whole way. Now she really was running away with her imagination. Stop it! she admonished herself. It was a passing flirtation.’

‘She would have liked to correct Henry on his pronunciation of Kleve, but did not dare. Most English people called it Cleves, to rhyme with ‘sleeves’, rather than Kleve, to rhyme with ‘waver’. In time, perhaps, she would herself.’

‘Out of the gentlemen, a tall, massively fat man with thinning red hair, ruddy cheeks, a Roman nose and a prim little mouth, was appraising her intently. Without warning, he stepped forward and, to her shock, embraced and kissed her. She was outraged. How dare he treat her so familiarly! The King would hear of this! Recoiling away from the sour, sickly smell of sweat and something worse, she pulled away’