Karen Harper: The Last Boleyn

Karen Harper's historical novel, The Last Boleyn, focuses on the life of Mary Boleyn - or Bullen, as the family was known before their later rise in power. Drawing on what is known and theorised about the older sister of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, Harper creates a highly sympathetic character who, after a lifetime of being manipulated and used by her own family and by the powerful men she is brought into contact with, finally escapes the life others have made for her, and finds happiness with her own choices.

Harper portrays the young Mary as the pawn of an ambitious father and siblings. It begins with a position as attendant to Queen Claude of France, wife of the libidinous Francois du roi, King of France, and the machinations of her father, English ambassador to France, to bring her to Francois' attention as his mistress. Then, at the famous Cloth of Gold, Thomas Boleyn brings Mary to the attention of Henry VIII, who later takes her as his mistress once her father brings her home from France. She is married to Henry Carey, a nobleman from a family that chose the wrong side in the Wars of the Roses, who takes her to wife knowing she is desired by the King, in the hope that she will be able to influence the king to restore his family's lost estates and revenues.

After the king tires of her and Anne comes to court, the family discards Mary except when they see a use for her in the latest plan to elevate the family fortunes further through her younger sister.

How Mary finally breaks away from her family and the politics of the court to become the last survivor of the family of ambitious Thomas Boleyn is a moving story, well handled by Harper.

My only quibble was that Harper chose to use the names by which some characters are historically known long before they came to be known as such. For instance, Jane Parker, who would eventually become wife of George Boleyn, and later be known as Lady Rochford, is incorrectly called Jane Rochford from the beginning. Annoying, but if one can set such annoying details aside, it is an interesting read.