Book Review Elizabeth Boleyn: The Life of The Queens Mother - Author: Sophie Bacchus-Waterman

So little has generally been known about Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of the Duke of Norfolk, wife of Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wiltshire, and mother of Queen Anne Boleyn, that some older books wrongly suggested that she died young, to be replaced by a second wife of non-noble birth. While this canard has been dismissed in more modern work, there was still very little known about her until the advent of this Bacchus-Waterman’s book, based on extensive archival research over several years. The result is an excellent example of the benefits of trawling the archives, piecing together hints here and there, looking in unexpected places and asking intelligent questions of what partial evidence can tell us to reveal a significant amount of previously unknown information.

While the paucity of documents emanating from Elizabeth herself make it impossible to know what she thought or felt, Bacchus-Waterman uses the glimpses of Elizabeth in the records skilfully to look at how Elizabeth fitted into the different roles that noblewomen performed – daughters, sisters, wives, mothers, and also courtiers in their own right as attendants on the queen. What does become apparent is that Elizabeth was close to her daughter, Anne, and spent much of the period of the king’s courtship of her daughter at the latter’s side.

In nearly all cases, the inferences Bacchus-Waterman draws are firmly grounded in both the evidence she presents and the wider historiography of the period. The only area where I would perhaps dispute her conclusions is her view that Elizabeth would have been horrified at the idea of her daughter, Mary, being Henry VIII’s mistress. While most historiography assumes this, I would suggest that this is rather a Victorian reading of the period which we have unconsciously inherited. While there might be disdain for a king’s mistress who did not achieve a high degree of material reward for her activities, I am not aware of extensive evidence suggesting that there was general disapproval of Henry’s long term mistress, Elizabeth Blount, and certainly at the courts of Scotland and France, king’s mistresses were treated with honour. Disapproval of Anne was rooted in her ambition (whether her own or that of her family) to supplant Henry’s wife.

This however, is rather a question about what we know versus what we think we know about the Henrician court and my query in no way detracts from the general excellence of this book. This is Bacchus-Waterman’s first book, and I have no doubt that it is the beginning of an illustrious career.

Tudor Times received a copy of this book for review, read and reviewed by Dr Melita Thomas 

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