It is what it is – it’s not a comprehensive examination, it doesn’t feel like a professional publication, it just lays the sources out in chronological orders in a clear and useful manner – and when you want to cut straight to the basic facts of events and don’t fancy a long debate, it more than serves its purpose. It’s true this doesn’t feel like a professional publication, and does feel more like a diary format – but, as Claire explains, that is the purpose.
It’s the perfect introduction/reminder to the bare bones of events without diving into a chunkster of a tome – also, some historians tend to tackle Anne Boleyn’s downfall pushing their own interpretations and omitting certain discussions of the sources – I just wanted to cut to the truth of the matter without having to read several different historians’ arguments and then having to weigh them up myself to decide which historian is right. Claire Ridgway’s The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown was ideal for that purpose, presenting events in an extremely clear and useful chronological format, and cutting through the mire of myth and examining source reliability and bias as we go along. View from Tower Hill looking down at The Tower of LondonĪfter having read Hilary Mantel’s richly detailed Bring Up the Bodies, depicting the downfall of the Boleyns from the perspective of Thomas Cromwell, I had a sudden hankering to get back to the stark, unadorned sources and facts about events.
Tower Hill (The site of the other beheadings) The Memorial at The Tower for Anne Boleyn, Jane Grey, Catherine Howard, Margaret Pole and Lord Hastings. As I mentioned with Claire's last book The Anne Boleyn Collection: The Real Truth about the Tudors, even if you believe you are Tudored out or can't learn anything new, I believe Claire will teach you something you don't know. She takes all angles and accounts and sorts them out to try to reveal the truth. You would think people would want to compare all sides and learn what actually happened? Luckily, for us Claire has. Then we have Eustace Chapuys version (a man we know who was not on The Boleyn's side) and writers and some historians have taken these words as the truth. The author includes The Chronicle of Calais and The Spanish Chronicle's versions of the beheadings. Just like today, the press spins stories to manipulate the public and if people read it, they sadly believe it. If you want to learn about the actual happenings of this trial and time, this is the only book you need to read.
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