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On 5/13/2019 at 10:30 PM, Seahorse Wrangler said:

One the family tree page, literally the second page of the book... Constance of Castile is called John of Gaunt's first wife...

 

I'll find an ale  to sob into since hops weren't introduced to England in that era...

 

 

I'm appalled. Chaucer would be appalled, too. How on earth could she have left out the lovely Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster? :shock:

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I hope someday on some board people are discussing my historical novel! Of course, I just hope that I get all the details right! 

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6 hours ago, viii said:

I hope someday on some board people are discussing my historical novel! Of course, I just hope that I get all the details right! 

If you don't I'll probably be one of the first people bitching about it...

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10 hours ago, Seahorse Wrangler said:

If you don't I'll probably be one of the first people bitching about it...

As you should!! 

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Anne Boleyn, The King's Obsession by Alison Weir.

Highlights  lowlights so far Anne is frequently casting goo-goo eyes at Henry Norris ( from her return from France in 1522), both George and Jane are bed-hopping like mad.

 

And I'm only in 1528...

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3 hours ago, Seahorse Wrangler said:

Anne Boleyn, The King's Obsession by Alison Weir.

Highlights  lowlights so far Anne is frequently casting goo-goo eyes at Henry Norris ( from her return from France in 1522), both George and Jane are bed-hopping like mad.

 

And I'm only in 1528...

I am normally a big Alison Weir fan, but I didn't care for that book at all. I'm about to start the third book in that series about Jane, but I'm kind of nervous after how much I hated her take on Anne Boleyn. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I think Weir may have lost something

 

Henry VIII 'may have divorced Anne of Cleves because she already had a baby with some-one else'

 

Quote

Henry VIII may have set aside his fourth wife Anne of Cleves because she had already conceived a baby with someone else, the author and historian Alison Weir has claimed.

The German aristocrat was Queen of England for just seven months before the marriage was declared unconsummated and annulled in July 1540.

Henry claimed he was so repulsed by Anne’s body that he could not fulfill his marital obligations, and to get out of the union, alleged she was still pre-contracted to the Duke of Lorraine’s son because no document could be produced that dissolved the betrothal.

But in her most recent new novel ‘Anna of Kleve’ Weir claims that Henry may have realised his new wife was not a virgin but did not want to cause a scandal or damage his alliance with Cleves by revealing her impropriety. 

Weir believes that by the time of his fourth marriage Henry would have been well acquainted with a female body after childbirth and would have recognised the signs.

Images and descriptions from the time suggest that Anne was a very attractive woman, giving Henry no physical reason to take against his new bride.

Speaking at The Hay Festival, she said: “Was some scandal locked away in Anna’s past? It is inconclusive, and speculative but I think you might find it convincing.”

 

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I just read the Alison Weir novel about Jane Seymour, and I did like it more than the one about Anne Boleyn. I might still read the next one about Anne of Cleves, although I don't believe that she secretly had a baby before marrying Henry VIII. I don't think her family would have risked sending her to England if such a thing were true, as Christina of Milan's quote sums up his reputation in Europe, "If I had 2 heads, I'd marry him..."

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The truth is Anne of Cleves did not know what Sex was. The story is She and her court ladies were chatting one day and they discovered she thought she could get pregnant by sleeping next to Henry. Her ladies had to give her the “Talk” 

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10 hours ago, tabitha2 said:

The truth is Anne of Cleves did not know what Sex was. 

Seriously??? Hearsay much..

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The story is She and her court ladies were chatting one day and they discovered she thought she could get pregnant by sleeping next to Henry. Her ladies had to give her the “Talk” 

 

I don't think that any  Renaissance noble-woman didn't understand the what's , when's and where-fore's of pregnancy and child-birth. 

Since AoC like KoA had to travel many hundreds of miles in mixed company before either of them reached England, I doubt they would have been so innocent of the risks of mis-conduct that could result in the lady being rejected as a bride.

 

 

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Again, She was extremely sheltered. And She came from a country court where women learned to weave and cook and pray with a Worlds difference between the Spanish cosmopolitan kingdom where KoA grew up and a tiny German Duchy .  FWIW Maria Antoinette and her husband had to be instructed as to how how babies were made as well. It happened.  

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I normally love Alison Weir. Her fictional novels on Elizabeth and Jane Grey are fantastic. But... damn. These Six Wives books are painful. Not only did she take extreme creative license with Jane (which, as an author writing a Jane Seymour novel annoys me), but her writing is just so poor. It’s distant third person and reads more like a text book at times. I don’t get attached to her characters at all. 

I will say that in this Haunted Queen novel, I enjoyed Weir’s characterization of Henry. 

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If you like Allison Weir you will enjoy  Carolly Erickson   A lot. Her biographies of Catherine the Great and Queen Victoria are wonderful. 

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  • 5 weeks later...

I really liked the non-fiction books by Alison Weir, read a bunch of them, but I was not so impressed with her fiction ones, found the writing a bit stiff. I think it's been more than 5 years since I read one of her books, maybe I should give the another try.

I did enjoy the Tudor books by Phillipa Gregory, but as you all said, soap opera or junk food for the brain as I like to call them. However, I tried reading her books about the Plantagenets and I barely made it through the White Queen. Too much junk food is bad for you.

I am more than halfway through the  Plantagenets series by Sharon Key Penman about Henry II and Eleanor  of Aquitaine and their children and they are very good.

Not sure if the topic was only for royalty-based historical fiction, but Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series about the fall of the Roman Republic are well researched and written. Very interesting.

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Well there is a whole lot more to History and Historical fiction than Tudor’s ;)  

I personally think that period had been done to death and reincarnated a few times lol

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I read 3 Sisters, 3 Queens by Philippa Gregory and quite enjoyed it. Started it at the airport and had to finish it before bed. I’m sure it’s not accurate in the least, but it was a good read. 

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On 6/10/2019 at 4:23 PM, tabitha2 said:

If you like Allison Weir you will enjoy  Carolly Erickson   A lot. Her biographies of Catherine the Great and Queen Victoria are wonderful. 

They are? I've read her Marie Antoinette and Mary, Queen of Scots book. She had Marie Antoinette to Sweden on a trip with her lover, cause you know that happened. But her Mary, Queen of Scots by boy did she go off the rails with Mary leaving captivity and going off to be the guest of the Pope and a farm and stuff but then deciding to go back to England to for her beheading. Oh and somehow Bothwell visiting her often during her captivity. 

 

On 6/3/2019 at 4:08 AM, Seahorse Wrangler said:

Ah, what? 

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14 minutes ago, JordynDarby5 said:

They are? I've read her Marie Antoinette and Mary, Queen of Scots book. She had Marie Antoinette to Sweden on a trip with her lover, cause you know that happened. But her Mary, Queen of Scots by boy did she go off the rails with Mary leaving captivity and going off to be the guest of the Pope and a farm and stuff but then deciding to go back to England to for her beheading. Oh and somehow Bothwell visiting her often during her captivity. 

 

Ah, what? 

I do enjoy Weir's books, both fiction and non, but one does need to take her with a grain of salt. Seems like this Anne of Cleves claim may need an entire box! LOL. 

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4 minutes ago, Loveday said:

I do enjoy Weir's books, both fiction and non, but one does need to take her with a grain of salt. Seems like this Anne of Cleves claim may need an entire box! LOL. 

Very true. Most books especially the historical fiction take liberties but some are a lot easier to swallow then others. 

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One of my favorites is Katherine by Anya Seton on Katherine Swynford mistress of John of Gaunt. Its really good, well written and a great story. She did a good glimpse of what life was like way back then.

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1 hour ago, JordynDarby5 said:

One of my favorites is Katherine by Anya Seton on Katherine Swynford mistress of John of Gaunt. Its really good, well written and a great story. She did a good glimpse of what life was like way back then.

I have at least three copies of this book (you know, just in case one spontaneously combusts and I'm left without! :pb_lol:). It's without a doubt the best medieval historical fiction novel ever written, in my opinion. A little dated now as to style, since it was written in the 50s, but for those who, like me, love big, fat, highly detailed historicals, this is The One. And Seton got so much right with all the details--the clothes, the food, the manners, the medieval outlook on life, the entire atmosphere of the mid to late 14th century. You're THERE, while reading this book. 

Time to read it again, for the kajillionth time. :my_heart:

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5 hours ago, JordynDarby5 said:

One of my favorites is Katherine by Anya Seton on Katherine Swynford mistress of John of Gaunt. Its really good, well written and a great story. She did a good glimpse of what life was like way back then.

I LOVE that book!  I re-read it fairly frequently.  Superbly researched and written.

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On 7/15/2019 at 8:56 AM, Loveday said:

I have at least three copies of this book (you know, just in case one spontaneously combusts and I'm left without! :pb_lol:). It's without a doubt the best medieval historical fiction novel ever written, in my opinion. A little dated now as to style, since it was written in the 50s, but for those who, like me, love big, fat, highly detailed historicals, this is The One. And Seton got so much right with all the details--the clothes, the food, the manners, the medieval outlook on life, the entire atmosphere of the mid to late 14th century. You're THERE, while reading this book. 

Time to read it again, for the kajillionth time. :my_heart:

 

On 7/15/2019 at 1:24 PM, zeebaneighba said:

I LOVE that book!  I re-read it fairly frequently.  Superbly researched and written.

I re-read it once a year. I love it and I never stop wishing other historical fiction writers would read it and learn from it. The research is amazing. You can really feel the time period and still tells a really good story.

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I am blaming you all for the huge stacks of books I'm leaving library book sales with, lol. Adding another book to the list.:pb_lol:

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