The Boleyn Inheritance (2006) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

show spoilers

Summary edit see section history

Characters/People edit see section history

show spoilers

• Henry VIII: Once the most handsome, smartest, most famed prince in Europe, Henry is now getting old and sick. He was grotesquely fat, covered with boils, and may even have had gout. He was a tyrant at this point in his life and wanted nothing more than a pretty, young playmate of a wife who would give hm another son.
• Katherine Howard: Spoiled, not that bright, flirtacious, easily bought, and materialistic. Becomes Henry VIII's Rose without a thorn.
• Jane Boleyn aka Lady Rochford: Add a description of this character.
• Anne of Cleves: Anna of Cleves was Henry's 4th wife. A survivor, cleverer and prettier than she is often given credit for. Henry VIII is unable to bed her and so she survives to have her marriage to him annulled and to become in independent woman and find contentment living in England.
• Mary Boleyn: Sister of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII"s mistress before Anne became his Queen. She was married at the time she was Henry's mistress, and there is some evidence that her son was actually Henry's son. She was able to move to the country and stay above the fray. Her daughter, Catherine Carey, was one of Katherine Howard's Ladies in Waiting.
• Edward: Henry VIII's son by Jane Seymour. King after him, but died young and without heirs, So the throne passed to his sisters, Mary, and then Elizabeth I
• Lady Elizabeth: daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn
• Thomas Howard: Also known as the Duke of Norfolk, head of the Howard family. A ruthless military commander, and manipulator of his relatives for family giain.
• Charles Howard: Brother of Katherine Howard who fled to France after his affair with Lady Margaret, the king's niece was discovered.
• Joan Bulmer: fellow schoolgirl who had loved Francis Dereham before Katherine Howard enticed him away.
• Lotte: Anne of Cleves' lady and translator
• Thomas Culpepper: a favorite Henry VIII, and Kathrine Howard's lover .
• George Boleyn: Jane, Lady Rochford's husband, beheaded along with his sister, Queen Ann Boleyn.
• Thomas Cromwell: Henry VIII's Lord Chancellor who arranged for Anne of Cleves to marry Henry. He was beheaded when he fell out of favor with the king.
• Anne Boleyn: Former Queen who was beheaded. Henry VIII's 2nd wife, sister of George and Mary Boleyn
• Francis Dereham: Katherine Howard's former lover.
• Amelia of Cleves: Sister of Anne of Cleves
• Carl Harst: Anne of Cleves' ambassador.
• Archbishop Cranmer: Archbishop of Canterbury
• Catherine Carey: Daughter of Mary Boleyn; niece of Anne Boleyn, Lady in Waiting to Katherine Howard
• Lady Lisle: Mother of Anne and Elizabeth Basset, wife of Lord Lisle.
• Anne Bassett: Daughter of Lord and Lady Lisle
• Henry Manox: Music teacher of Katherine Howard.
• Jane Seymour: Henry VIII's 3rd wife and Queen who died giving birth to Edward.
• Lady Margeret Douglas: Daughter of Henry VIII's sister, Margeret Tudor, queen dowager of Scotland and of Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus. Margaret was born at Harbottle Castle in Northumberland. Because of her nearness to the English crown, Lady Margaret Douglas was brought up chiefly at the English court in close association with her first cousin, the future Queen Mary I of England, who remained her fast friend throughout life. She was high in the favor of her uncle, King Henry VIII of England, but was twice disgraced; first for an attachment to Lord Thomas Howard, who was imprisoned because of his misalliance with Margaret, and died in the Tower of London in 1537, and again in 1541 for a similar affair with Thomas Howard's half-nephew Charles Howard, the half-brother of Queen Catherine Howard. In 1544 she married a Scottish exile, Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox (1516-1571), who was regent of Scotland in 1570-1571. During Mary's reign, the Countess of Lennox had rooms in Westminster Palace; but on the accession of Queen Elizabeth I, she moved to Yorkshire, where her home at Temple Newsam became a centre for Roman Catholic intrigue. She succeeded in marrying off her son, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, to his cousin Mary, Queen of Scots, thus uniting their claims to the English throne. In 1566 she was sent to the Tower of London, but after the murder of Darnley in 1567 she was released. She denounced Mary I, Queen of Scots, but was eventually reconciled with her daughter-in-law. In 1574 she again aroused Elizabeth I's anger by the marriage of her other son, Charles Stuart, 1st Earl of Lennox, with Elizabeth Cavendish, stepdaughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury. She was sent to the Tower, unlike Lady Shrewsbury, but was pardoned after her son's death in 1576. Margaret's diplomacy largely contributed to the future succession of her grandson, James VI of Scotland, to the English throne. After the death of her son, Charles, she helped care for his daughter, Arbella Stuart. However, she did not outlive him by very long. A few days before her death, she had dined with Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and this led to rumors that she had been poisoned. There is no historical evidence for this. Although she died in debt, she was given a grand funeral in Westminster Abbey, at the expense of Queen Elizabeth I. She was buried in the same grave as her son Charles in the south aisle of Henry VII's chapel in the Abbey. Her grandson James VI of Scotland (who later became James I of England) is said to have erected the fine monument. Her recumbent effigy, made of alabaster, wears a French cap and ruff with a red fur-lined cloak, over a dress of blue and gold. On either side of the tomb chest are weepers of her four sons and four daughters. The Lennox Jewel, made for Lady Lennox as a memento of her husband, was bought by Queen Victoria in 1842.

Quotes edit see section history

show spoilers

• “If I had been a gyrfalcon that my father called me, I would have flown high, and nested in lonely, cold places and ridden the free wind. Instead, I have been like a bird in a mews, always tied and sometimes hooded. Never free and sometimes blind...”

  Anne of Cleves

• “Truly, when a king is a god to himself and follows his own desire, the suffering falls on others”

  Anne of Cleves

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• Good God, what men can do to their brains when their cocks are hard. It is truly amazing.

  Highlighted by 22 Kindle customers

• I can’t think why men would believe that it is a better world where something beautiful is destroyed and something broken left in its place.

  Highlighted by 18 Kindle customers

• “If it is to be done at all, it must be done with grace.” This has become my motto,

  Highlighted by 10 Kindle customers

• “They are heretics,” he says. “They deny the authority of the king as a spiritual leader, and they deny the sacred miracle of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, that his wine becomes blood. This is the belief of the Church of England. To deny it is a heresy punished with death.”

  Highlighted by 10 Kindle customers

• costive.” He makes a face. “As we all know.” The latest movement of the king’s bowels is of

  Highlighted by 8 Kindle customers

• But I find, to my own amusement, as I examine my thoughts — and at last I have the privacy and peace to examine my thoughts — that it may be a better thing to be a single woman with a good income in one of the finest palaces in England than to be one of Henry’s frightened queens.

  Highlighted by 7 Kindle customers

• Anyone speaking honestly would call it a sort of rape. Fortunate, then, that there is no one here who would ever speak honestly.

  Highlighted by 7 Kindle customers

• sinecure, I must say. Under my command I have girls who in any decent town would be whipped at the cart tail for whores. Katherine’s

  Highlighted by 6 Kindle customers

• I will own a cat and not fear being called a witch; I will dance and not fear being named a whore. I shall ride my horse and go where I please. I shall soar like a gyrfalcon. I shall live my own life and please myself. I shall be a free woman. It is no small thing, this, for a woman: freedom.

  Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers

• fustian laid out for the pattern, by this process. “Do you not like being painted? Are you shy?” he asked me gruffly as my smile faded when he looked at me like a piece of meat on the cook’s draining slab.

  Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• England
• Norfolk
• London
• France
• Tower Of London
• Dereham
• Lambeth
• Närrin
• Prinzessin Maria
• Schwägerin
• Spain
• Erzbischof
• Kontrakt
• Calais
• Westminster
• Schafott
• Europe
• Begnadigung
• Richmond
• Southampton
• Hochverrat
• Verlobung
• Hofstaat
• Herzogin
• Essen
• Höflinge
• Rutland
• Farben
• Wassertor
• Rochester
• Norfolk House
• Lady Rutland
• Whitehall
• Horsham
• Greenwich
• York
• New Year
• Smithfield
• Canterbury
• Lord Lisle
• Scotland
• Sybilla
• Syon

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Preceded by The Other Boleyn Girl, and followed by The Queen's Fool.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Philippa Gregory (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 823.914

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Add a note to help parents select a book for a child.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › British › Historical
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Historical

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Wikipedia
• The Official Philippa Gregory Website

More Books Like This edit see section history

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history