Book
The Concubine
First published 1963
Anne Boleyn returns to England after years at continental courts and becomes one of the most closely watched women in Henry VIII’s household. The king’s determination to make her his wife draws Anne into the struggle to end his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, a political and religious crisis in which personal desire becomes a question of succession, papal authority and the future direction of the English church.
Lofts follows Anne from courtship and queenship to the collapse of her position in 1536. Henry VIII, Catherine of Aragon, Thomas Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell enter the story as participants in a court where access, faction and fertility carry political consequences. Anne’s intelligence and ambition help bring her to the throne, but failure to provide a surviving male heir and the king’s changing will leave her exposed to charges that lead to imprisonment and execution.
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