The Other Boleyn Girl: Historically Accurate?

2011 Words9 Pages
The Other Boleyn Girl: Historically Accurate? The Other Boleyn Girl is a novel by Philippa Gregory. This novel is meant to portray the lives of the two Boleyn sisters as they compete for the love of King Henry VII for the sake of their family’s wellbeing. This story tells of Mary and Anne Boleyn, along with their brother George, as they go through heartache, deception, and put their lives on the line all to give the Howard and Boleyn family a good reputation in the Westminister Palace of England. On the other hand even though this novel has a wonderful story plot and is a very great book, it is not completely historically accurate. Research shows that a number of things in this book are untrue. Even though it is not entirely correct I do not fault the author. I believe she did this on purpose and just twerked the actual history a bit to make her story a little more interesting to for her readers. Before I go on a rampage about what is incorrect in the novel I first want to give you a good image of the story’s plot. This is a very good book and it deserves the credit for it. The Other Boleyn Girl starts in the spring of 1521 (Gregory 1). It is loosely based on the life of Mary Boleyn and we see everything through her eyes (Gregory 1) . Mary tells us that she “was the baby at fourteen to Anne’s fifteen and Georges nineteen” (Gregory 1). At the beginning of the novel the Boleyn sisters are shortly rejoined together at King Henry VII’s court in England (Gregory 1) . These sisters had always had an ongoing sister rivalry and always strived to be the best Boleyn girl. At this point and time Henry is married to his first wife, Queen Catherine of Argon (Gregory 1). Their marriage is somewhat controversial. Queen Catherine was married to Henrys brother before, and when he died that is when Henry stepped in (Gregory 1). Some saw it as an act of kindness as he took in his

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