Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I: The Mother and Daughter Who Forever Changed British History

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars | 774 ratings

Price: 16.06

Last update: 11-02-2024


About this item

Anne Boleyn may be best known for losing her head, but as Tudor expert Tracy Borman reveals in a book that recasts British history, her greatest legacy lies in the path-breaking reign of her daughter, Elizabeth.

Much of the fascination with Britain’s legendary Tudors centers around the dramas surrounding Henry VIII and his six wives and Elizabeth I’s rumored liaisons. Yet the most fascinating relationship in that historic era may well be that between the mother and daughter who, individually and collectively, changed the course of British history.

The future Queen Elizabeth was not yet three when her mother, Anne Boleyn, was beheaded on May 19, 1536, on Henry’s order, incensed that she had not given him a son and tired of her contentious nature. Elizabeth had been raised away from court, rarely even seeing Anne; and after her death, Henry tried in every way to erase Anne’s presence and memory. At that moment in history, few could have predicted that mother and daughter would each leave enduring, and interlocked, legacies. Yet as Tracy Borman reveals in this first-ever joint portrait, both women broke the mold for British queens and for women in general at the time. Anne was instrumental in reforming and reshaping forever Britain’s religious traditions, and her years of wielding power over a male-dominated court provided an inspiring role model for Elizabeth’s glittering, groundbreaking 45-year reign. Indeed, Borman shows how much Elizabeth—most visibly by refusing to ever marry, but in many other more subtle ways that defined her court—was influenced by her mother’s legacy.

In its originality, Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I sheds new light on two of history’s most famous women—the private desires, hopes, and fears that lay behind their dazzling public personas, and the surprising influence each had on the other during and after their lifetimes. In the process, Tracy Borman reframes our understanding of the entire Tudor era.


Top reviews from the United States

LTC WIFE
5.0 out of 5 stars I LOVED IT!
Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2024
I love Tudor history and this book was phenomenal. I learned so many new facts that it left me wanting more.
Jamie Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic book about two of my favorite people!
Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2023
I heard Tracy's interview on my favorite podcast, Noble Blood. A disclaimer: I'm a Tudor enthusiast. That being said, my already-excited ears perked up even more when I heard both Anne and Elizabeth I were the subjects. What a brilliant idea to intertwine their stories, and perfectly executed. I couldn't put it down. While I am no scholar, I really thought I'd heard it all about both women, but I found several lovely nuggets of new [to me] information, and I really enjoyed reading about the bits I already knew. Bravo. My favorite part was how Anne's GOOD traits were highlighted, alongside the bad. Really well done.
Libby e berman
4.0 out of 5 stars A condensed biography of Anne and Elizabeth.
Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2023
Ms. Borman's new book is a super- condensed joint biography of Queen Consort Anne Boleyn, and her daughter, Elizabeth 1. While there is some new information here, most rehashes every other Anne/Elizabeth biography. I am a fan of Ms. Borman; generally, even suggesting that she write concerning all of spare Henry the Eighth 's mistresses. IF I were a high school kid writing a paper on Anne and Elizabeth: this would be a go-to source.
Ally Sway
5.0 out of 5 stars The best non-fiction book about Anne and Elizabeth's connection you will read.
Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2024
If you're interested in Anne Boleyn or Elizabeth I, this is the book for you. Tracy Borman reveals research that even the most obsessed Tudor fan will not have known before. It's also the book I would recommend to non-Tudor lovers as a first foray into non-fiction. It's an easy and pleasurable read. It's fairly short so it's not daunting. Borman is at the top of her field and one of the foremost experts on Tudor England and there's no one better to tell this complex story. Despite Anne being executed when Elizabeth was a young child, there is a bond between them that lives on to this day. Most people think that Elizabeth had to completely deny that there was any connection between her and Anne beyond their biological connection- but Borman details the many ways that Elizabeth kept Anne's memory alive. A truly excellent book that I'll come back to again and again.
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Historically Correct
Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2023
If you are interested in these Tudor Queens - this is a wonderful book that is historically correct - not the fictional novel or fantasized version of these two women. Both women have shaped British history. This book is very informative - and the details of royal life in the 16th century are fascinating and make this book a fun and very interesting read.
Turtle747
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read
Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2024
Really enjoyed this book as I have with all Tracy Borman works. Engaging, easy to read and hard to put down. A must for every Tudor enjoyer.
L.S. Jaszczak
4.0 out of 5 stars An eye-opening look at the relationship between these two fascinating women
Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2023
I doubt that anyone could read of the execution of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, without feeling sympathy for her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, demoted in one fell swoop, as she herself noticed even at that young age, from Princess Elizabeth, heir to the English throne, to Lady Elizabeth, the king’s bastard daughter by a disgraced mother.

Often, books about Elizabeth gloss over the effect of this double loss on her, noting that she rarely spoke about her mother even after she ascended to the throne, briefly mentioning a ring she owned with portraits of herself and another woman who may have been Anne, or speculating that her mother’s fate might have contributed to her own antipathy toward marriage. In Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I, however, Tracy Borman digs more deeply into the relationship between the two (brief as it was in life) and Elizabeth’s later life to show that a strong influence did exist, and that there is enough evidence to show that Elizabeth did indeed honor and revere her mother’s memory

While many hated and despised Anne Boleyn, few seem to have disputed her pride in her daughter, despite the disappointment (to her father, at least) of her gender, or her active involvement in Elizabeth’s early upbringing within the constraints of her position. (Queens did not nurse their own children, and royal offspring were given their own households early on.) Even as she faced death, one of her main concerns was for her daughter.

As Elizabeth grew up she no doubt heard little good about Anne from most people, but Borman believes that there is evidence that an alternative, positive view was also provided to her, most notably by her relatives on her mother’s side, including her governess, Kat Ashley. When she became queen, she notably kept these relatives close to her and actively promoted many of them, as Borman documents, as well as pointing to the presence of her mother’s emblems (notably the falcon) in her palaces and portraits. Also, while she never, unlike her sister Mary, reinstated Anne’s marriage to her father by an act of Parliament, it appears to have been well known that praise of Anne’s virtues was a way to gain her favor. The psychological influences are also examined in some detail, from the effect on her refusal to marry (no doubt exacerbated by the execution of her father’s fifth wife, and Anne Boleyn’s first cousin, Katherine Howard, when Elizabeth was only 8, as well as the unhappy marriage of her sister Mary) to her use of her charm on men as queen.

On the whole, even with my considerable (though not extensive) knowledge of the period, I found Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I to be an informative and eye-opening look at the relationship between these two fascinating women.
Andrea L. Stoeckel
5.0 out of 5 stars Marvelous addition to my own knowledge
Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2024
Many know of my personal fascination with Elizabeth 1 and her mother Anne Boleyn. This book has lived up its "advertisement" and is the best treatment of Queen Anne I have ever read.

I wish that when I wrote my major paper on Elizabeth as the "Supreme Head of the Church" that such information had been available. Highly Recommended 5/5

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