Queen Elizabeth the First

Mademoiselle Boleyn

The author of The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn and The Queen’s Bastard returns with a look at the future queen of England before Henry VIII comes into her life. When Anne is nine, her father is sent to France by Henry to conduct state affairs, and brings the family.

Beautiful, intelligent and learned, Anne gains the favor of France’s kind Queen Claude as well as of the brilliant Marguerite of Savoy, the bright but lecherous Francois I and even Leonardo da Vinci, all before she turns 17.

But Anne and her siblings are put upon by her cold and cruel father, Thomas Boleyn, to do whatever he may order to further his interests and those of England. Maxwell’s Anne witnesses the devastating effect upon her sister, Mary, and determines to find her own destiny—certainly a rarity in the era. The budding romance between Anne and her paramour Percy is feelingly described, and all the more poignant when one knows the outcome. Maxwell delivers a ripping piece of historical romance. (Nov.)
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Review

“Robin Maxwell offers a fascinating glimpse at the ambitious girl who will grow into the infamous queen. An unforgettable blend full of scandal, intrigue, and history that will keep readers spellbound as Anne’s inevitable destiny unfolds.”
-Susan Holloway Scott, author of Duchess

“Absolutely superb! Mademoiselle Boleyn is one of the most lush and beautiful historical novels I have ever read, I seriously could not put it down.”
-Diane Haeger, author of The Perfect Royal Mistress

“Reading Maxwell’s brilliant new novel, it’s easy to see why Anne is the “Boleyn girl” who changed the course of history, and why she is the source of never ending fascination. We are finally able to catch a glimpse of Anne Boleyn before her enemies vilified her, while she was still just a young woman looking for true love. I couldn’t put it down.”
-Michelle Moran, author of Nefertiti

“Anne Boleyn fans will cry huzzah! when they learn that novelist Robin Maxwell has returned to her Tudor roots. In this saucy romp, a prequel to her Secret Diary, Maxwell writes in the remembered voice of a child — a tricky feat indeed. Readers will find much to delight in, from finely drawn secondary characters like Leonardo da Vinci to scintillating descriptions of the French glitterati and the royal court. Frothy and French as its main setting, Maxwell’s work nevertheless conveys a gravitas that foretells Mademoiselle Boleyn’s eventual fate, especially in the novel’s exploration of the motives of Henry Percy, Anne’s first love and her ultimate betrayer.”
-Vicki Leon, author of Working IX to V

“Historically plausible account of Anne Boleyn’s adolescence in France as a courtier of King Francois. Maxwell’s prequel to her first novel (The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn, 1997) explores Anne’s upbringing far from England…Lavishly imagined detail-regarding entertainment, dress and habits of the time-adds depth to this work…accomplished rehabilitation of much-maligned Anne as an empowered woman.”
-Kirkus Reviews

“The author of The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn and The Queen’s Bastard returns with a look at the future queen of England before Henry VIII comes into her life…The budding romance between Anne and her paramour Percy is feelingly described, and all the more poignant when one knows the outcome. Maxwell delivers a ripping piece of historical romance.”
-Publishers Weekly

The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn Review

“[Ives is] splendidly successful… Ives’s Boleyn, a portrait at all points supported by the evidence he gives, is clever, independent-minded and politically astute. Ives has gone as far as anyone can… in solving the enigma of Boleyn in a narrative at once profoundly researched and lively.” Antonia Fraser, The Sunday Times

“Eric Ives has made it unnecessary for anyone else to even make the attempt [to write a biography of Anne Boleyn]. The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn is a stunning portrait of the most controversial woman ever to have been queen consort of England.” The Independent on Sunday

“Eric Ives, a scholar utterly at home in early Tudor politics, has been writing about the Boleyns for more than two decades. His book represents a triumphant culmination of all that research, presented with clarity, wit and human sympathy.” Diarmaid MacCulloch, The Telegraph

“Ives has written an excellent book on Anne Boleyn. Its great strength is its sophisticated understanding of aristocratic women’s involvement in 16th-century politics, and precisely how this worked in practice. …Ives rises effectively to the human drama of Anne Boleyn’s life and in the process illuminates both the inner workings of the Tudor court and its relationship to the larger dramas of the Reformation and European politics.” Jane Stevenson, Scotland on Sunday

“The best full-length life of Anne Boleyn and a monument to investigative scholarship.” David Starkey

“Magnificently researched. Eric Ives has written the finest, most accurate study of Anne Boleyn we are ever likely to possess. He leaves no stone unturned in his quest to discover the truth. Never has the historical Anne been so satisfyingly portrayed.” John Guy

“What is most exciting about The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn is not just that it has confirmed and solidified Ives’s earlier work and presented it in a more accessible format. (Like John Guy, Ives has discovered that the Starkey model really does work and that popularisation — ‘to place among the people’ — should not be a term of opprobrium.) Rather, it is the development in methodology, the indication that cultural studies and the history of the book have provided us with new ways to evaluate evidence, to interpret the past.” The Spectator

“Eric Ives achieves the notable feat of combining magisterial historical authority with a gripping style, and sets the reader’s mind buzzing with debate about the complex reasons behind the astounding events of Anne’s life.” Times Literary Supplement

“[Ives] delicately pieces together a believable identity … [and] gives, too, a lucid and coherent exposition of the circumstances that led to Anne’s death.” The Guardian

“What Ives doesn’t know … about the high politics and court life of Henry VIII’s England will either never be known or is not worth knowing. If there is a truth about Anne Boleyn’s rise and fall, he will tell it to us.” London Review of Books

“There is no questioning the impact of Professor Eric Ives on the historiography of Tudor England. There is a keen sense of the evidence, of diplomatic affairs, of the minutiae of the record and its context. The writing is fluent and well-paced, drawing the reader along.” The Tyndale Society Journal

“This is a moving and compelling account by an author who is the absolute master of his subject. I read it with great excitement and admiration.” Susan Brigden, Lincoln College, Oxford

“Ives demonstrates triumphantly the potential of the biographical approach in a pre-modern setting. He evinces a deep empathy for his subject without ever becoming an apologist for her, and … he provides a narrative which is genuinely moving. He has also given us a fully rounded and persuasive account of Anne’s life as a whole, and its significance for understanding the politics and political culture of the early Tudor decades.” Reviews in History

“The best book on Anne Boleyn ever written. This is a must for all lovers of Tudor history, academics and general readers alike.” Alison Weir, BBC History Magazine Books of the Year

“Eric Ives has cut through the myths and misconceptions. The result surpasses all previous work.When Ives describes Anne herself. he is utterly convincing.” Renaissance Quarterly

Product Description

This definitive biography of Anne Boleyn establishes her as a figure of considerable importance and influence in her own right.

• A full biography of Anne Boleyn, based on the latest scholarly research.
• Focusses on Anne’s life and legacy and establishes Anne as a figure of considerable importance and influence in her own right.
• Adulteress or innocent victim? Looks afresh at the issues at the heart of Anne’s downfall.
• Pays attention to her importance as a patron of the arts, particularly in relation to Hans Holbein.
• Presents evidence about Anne’s spirituality and her interest in the intellectual debates of the period.
• Takes account of significant advances in knowledge in recent years.