I am currently reading
Mary Boleyn The Mistress of Kings by Alison Weir. While I am only half way through I have learned much. Mainly, that most of what you think you know about Mary Boleyn is wrong. If what you know of Mary Boleyn you learned from the movie
The Other Boleyn Girl then almost all you know of Mary Boleyn is wrong. This is not your fault, gossip and myths, many started by enemies of the Boleyn family have been treated as fact for centuries. And then there are the male "historians" for whom Mary Boleyn seemed to be some kind of Tutor era fantasy sex kitten. As if they too, if around in the1500s could have romped around with Mary Boleyn.
Here is one truth about Mary Boleyn. In 1515 a teenage Mary Boleyn left her family home for the court of France where the king, Francoise I decided he wanted her for his mistress. He was the king of France people. What chance did she stand against his wishes? Not much I would think. Francoise I was a notorious womanizer and the king of France. Mary was a teenage girl in foreign court.
As for the book, I love how the truth is always so much more interesting then the fictionalized version. I guess thats why I love reading nonfiction as much as I love historical fiction.
