Awesome Anne Boleyn Video

One really awesome Anne Boleyn/Tudors video created by me.  Some places are a little jerky but hey, I'm not a pro or anything!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQdWpNkVX0w&feature=youtu.be

Anne Boleyn Day Contest!

Just a quick update to say that I was a runner up for The Anne Boleyn Files May 19th writing contest!  You can read it here:
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theanneboleynfiles.com%2Fevents%2Fanne-boleyn-day-competition-2012%2Fits-the-eyes-that-haunt-you-by-jenny-zeek%2F&h=2AQGjjKjQAQGlij3e8qEtfKMO6Al69EWUsyVuzxvHGxXWTQ

Review of The Sumerton Women by D.L. Bogdan

Attention historical fiction lovers!  D.L. Bogdan, author of Secrets in the Tudor Court and it's prequel, Rivals in the Tudor Court has brought readers yet another book that brings the characters within it to life with a vibrancy and depth I rarely see.  Bogdan's latest book The Sumerton Women tells the story of Cecily and Mirabella Pierce; two women whose lives intertwine to create a relationship of love and loathing that perhaps only true sisters could understand.

Young Cecily Burkhart is first introduced to the Pierce family when she is orphaned during the sweating sickness of 1528.  The Pierce family is kind, welcoming Cecily with open arms as a daughter, sister, and future wife to the heir to the Pierce fortune, Brey.  Cecily quickly warms to her new family and learns the joys and torments of having siblings, finding in the Pierce children Brey and the eldest Mirabella the brother and sister she never had.  Brey is an open and loving child who quickly becomes Cecily's constant companion whereas Mirabella is difficult and intense; filled with a burning desire to become a nun.  The family chaplain, Alec Cahill is the family's spiritual advisor as well as the children's beloved tutor.  Father Alec must guide the Pierces through the tumultuous reign of Henry VIII and help them weather the religious changes forced upon the country by his break with Rome and later the ascendancy of his protestant son Edward VI.

The family travels to London in 1533 to witness the coronation of Anne Boleyn who intrigues Cecily with her determination and her ability to wrest the King from the arms of his first wife Catherine of Aragon.  Tragedy strikes however in the midst of the celebrations when the heir to the Sumerton title, Brey, dies suddenly from a bout of what is most likely appendicitis.  Death continues to stalk to the family when Lady Sumerton ends her life by throwing herself into the Thames following the death of her only son and a night of startling and dark family revelations.  I don't want to give away the entire plot of the book but I will say that the truths that are revealed irrevocably change the family and the relationships of those within it forever. 

Darkness descends upon Sumerton Place after so much death and Mirabella flees to the neighboring convent, taking shelter in the quiet cloister and living the devout and religious life she had always dreamed of. In Henry VIII's England, however, religious houses are rapidly becoming a thing of the past.  Mirabella is not long into her life as a novice nun when the King's soldiers come to disband the abbey and strip it of it's treasures.  Mirabella attempts to make a stand against the King's men only to bring more tragedy upon herself.  Denied her vocation Mirabella spends the next years of her life in turmoil, wreaking havoc on those she loves through her twisted sense of right and wrong and her ardent religious fervor.

Cecily, meanwhile is busy bringing light back into the Pierce family.  Upon the death of her betrothed and her foster mother Lady Grace Cecily instead marries Lord Sumerton.  Somehow she is able to put aside the fact that he has been her adopted father for many years and become the new Lady Sumerton.  Though this would not have been uncommon at the time it is a rather shocking turn of events!  She and Lord Sumerton have several happy years together and a new family is born from the broken hearts and minds of the old.  Father Alec returns as a tutor to the children of Cecily and Hal and all live happily until...  I'm going to leave you guessing!  I will say however that it was a turn of events that I was not expecting!  You'll just have to read The Sumerton Women to find out how life turns out for Cecily, Hal, Mirabella, and Father Alec!  You can buy it here:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Sumerton-Women-D-L-Bogdan/dp/0758271379/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331515900&sr=8-1

Coming Soon...The Sumerton Women by D.L. Bogdan!

Exciting news!  One of my favorite authors D.L. Bogdan is going to send me a review copy of her new book The Sumerton Women!  I can't wait to get the book, D.L. is a master at getting to the heart of a character!  You can view her website and read about the book here:  http://www.dlbogdan.com/#!the-sumerton-women

Bogdan is also the author of Secrets of the Tudor Court and Rivals in the Tudor Court, which chronicle the life of Thomas Howard, the Duke of Norfolk and his daughter Mary.  Both books manage to portray Norfolk as a tortured soul that at times the reader is sympathetic to, not an easy feat when writing about a man who betrayed two of his nieces to Henry VIII and stood by while they were executed.  Kind of a hard person to like you know?  I can't wait to read Bogdan's latest novel and I am sure I will have great things to say about it!

Romantic Drivel and the Reign of a Crazy Woman

I finally managed to pull myself away from the world of The Hunger Games long enough to read some other books. I admit, I'm struggling.  Historical fiction is my favorite genre, but after Katniss I had a hard time finding another lead character who could measure up.  I tried and tried and tried, sampling book after book and finally I found the voice of a character that did not annoy me, because really, after mentally living in Panem for three books it's hard listen to someone moan and groan about petty jealousies.  Before I get into the really good book that I found I just have to comment on a book who's narrator made me ill with their simpering weakness. 

The Favored Queen by Carolly Erikson is narrated by Jane Seymour, the third queen of Henry VIII.  I can't stand Jane as a historical figure, her compliance in the downfall of Anne Boleyn disgusts me.  If she had been actively trying to bring her down, as Anne was with Catherine of Aragon I could have at least respected her spunk, but Jane's quiet acceptance and supposed meekness makes me want to vomit.  She's all I never wanted to be.  I usually love Erikson's books and I was really excited when her latest novel hit the shelves.  Imagine my disappointment when it was so annoying that I couldn't even finish it!  It wasn't the writing, it was the character herself.  I was hoping to garner some sympathy for Jane, to be able to find something to like about her.  I didn't.  If anything I dislike her more after reading this book.  I know it's a novel and we as 21st century people have no idea who she really was as a person, but this book made her appear to be even more of a whimpy puppet whose strings were pulled by the men in her life than I already thought she was.  I finally had to stop reading the book, I just couldn't take it anymore.  I truly hope that Erikson's next novel is as enjoyable as her previous ones, because I like her books and I want more of them to read, but not if they are like The Favored Queen.  Give me a woman with some guts to read about please!

So, moving on- the book that I am currently reading and loving is Reign of Madness by Lynn Cullen.  It is told from the point of view of Juana of Castile, sometimes known as Juana la loca (Juana the mad).  Her legend tells of a woman driven mad by love and jealousy who dragged her husband's corpse ascross half of Europe and would allow no women near the body, lest they feel lustful towards it.  One of the major themes of the book is not to believe legends and propaganda that claim to be truth, that they are told by those who benefit from making others see the truth through a distorted lens.  Juana learns this the hard way when her husband Philippe begins to spread rumors that she is mad so that he can take power not only in his own lands but in Spain as well.  Juana also realizes that the stories spread about her mother, and her own beliefs about her are fictional as well.  Isabella of Castile may have been a formidable woman, almost a godess in the eyes of others, but she was as human as the rest of us with all of the weaknesses that come with it.  Unfortunately for Juana she learns this too late; only realizing that her mother had feelings and was not perfect after her death.  So, was Juana the mad woman of legend or was she merely a woman maligned and held captive by her scheming husband?  I have to say, I would love to know...:-)  I can't wait to read another of Cullen's books, The Creation of Eve, which also takes place in the Spanish court.  I'll be reviewing that too!

Nobody Sees Our Hearts Break...Or Our Mental Trauma

I must admit, I took a break from history last week and travelled into the future while reading The Hunger Games series.  I think I am still reeling a little from shock and the raw emotion the books brought out in me.  I was so horrified, so intrigued, so angry, and so absolutely devastated.  For anyone who has not read this series, (and you need to read it now!) it is about a distopian future where two teenagers from each of the twelve districts that the United States has been divided into after a civil war are required to participate in The Hunger Games.  Basically they are thrown into an arena, which could be anywhere, a desert, the plains, mountains, and they must fight to the death.  It is a celebrated annual event in the Capitol.  Some of the tributes have trained their entire lives to fight, others have not since they are chosen randomly in a ceremony known as the reaping.  The entire thing is televised and it is required viewing for the whole population.  The main character, Katniss, defies the Capitol and becomes a symbol for the people's revolt against the horrors which have been inflicted on them.  It is an amazing look inside the head of someone suffering from the nightmare of PTSD and how they must keep coping in order to keep living, even when more violence is forced upon them.  At the end of Mockingjay, which is the last book in the series Katniss's terror is still palpable after almost 15 years.  Her fear for her children, both because of the world they live in and because of her psychological wounds is so intense and so real that it leaves you stunned. 
This video is what really got me hooked and why I started reading the series.  The beginning of it scares me to death, and the end, mmm...I think you just have to see it.  I wish the girl in this video had been chosen to play Katniss instead of the too hot blond babe actress with big lips that Hollywood chose.  This is Katniss and will always be for me.


Now, since I must throw something Tudor into every blog entry I am posting another video that I liked this week.  It does a good job of showing just how many people Henry had executed during his reign, and by that I just mean people he knew personally, it doesn't include all of those he didn't know that he had put to death.  I think the parts with Wolsey and Cromwell hurt the most.  I liked the way James Frain portrayed Cromwell.  He was sort of a frightened little man who liked to appear as if he was in total control of everything and seemed to have no feelings at all until the end of his life.  I feel like Cromwell was much more ruthless in real life but I liked the acting in The Tudors.  You get a good sense of how badly Henry treated everybody in his life, and how it ate at him. Trauma of a different kind, the self inflicted kind, but the scars are still there.

Henry was a Borderline, How Did I Miss That?

I read a really interesting article today on author Susan Bordo's blog questioning how Henry could bring himself to execute Anne Boleyn.  You can read it here: http://thecreationofanneboleyn.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/how-could-he-do-it-new-excerpt-from-susans-book/ (it is actually an excerpt from her upcoming book on Anne Boleyn.)

I thought that the best part was the exploration of Henry as someone with Borderline Personality Disorder.  As I was reading her description of his behaviors I was thinking "He is a Borderline," and I have to say I was thrilled that she addressed this issue.  I have discussed some of Henry's behavior on this blog before but I really want to look at him and his behavior using the checklist for Borderline Personality Disorder from the DSM IV.  The DSM V is condensing several personality disorders into "types" one being Borderline type.  This is because people who have this disorder usually exhibit symptoms of more than one type of disorder.  You can read about that here: http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2010/11/30/personality-disorders-shakeup-in-dsm-5/

Previously I have looked at Henry from the standpoint of other authors such as Suzannah Libscomb (also mentioned by Susan) who theorize that Henry went off his rocker after the horrible events of 1536.  (These being the deaths of Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, and his illegitimate son Henry Fitzroy as well as Anne's unborn child.)  I don't discredit this theory, I was not there and I have to admit that it did not occur to me that Henry was a borderline personality until I was reading the description of Henry's behaviors on Susan's blog.  It sort of slapped me in the face and my inner voice was saying "Duh, how did you miss that one?".  Borderline Personality Disorder usually manifests in young adults and some who study it effectively think that people "grow out of it."  I do not agree.  People who truly develop the traits of a borderline do not grow out of them.  It can be controlled, managed, repressed, but it does not go away.  If not correctly medicated the borderline traits re-emerge.  Cognitive behavior therapy is usually recommended but is not always helpful. * I wanted to add that BPD is not usually found to be responsive to medication. Nell Gavin, author of "Threads" pointed this out to me.  In the comments below she talks about her own experience with BPD.  But for some, with symptoms of BPD in conjunction with depression medication is an option and it does help.  For a long time it was the kiss of death as far as psychological diagnosis.  Patients labeled as borderlines faced a lifetime of a disorder that no one effectively knows how to treat.  Then "Girl Interrupted" was made and it became trendy to have BPD.  Now, according to the DSM V it does not exist and is only one disorder among many that patients may exhibit symptoms of simultaneously.  I wish someone would loan me the magic wand that made it disappear.

So, the checklist and Henry,  I am only covering the first three criterion in this entry because there are nine, and that makes for a blog entry that is too long to read. So here goes-the symptoms of BPD are:

1.Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment. Note: Do not include suicidal or self-mutilating behavior covered in (5).
I do not believe that this behavior is usually a conscious thought process.  I don't think that people affected with BPD generally go around thinking "I must not be abandoned!".  It is more subtle than that.  Let's examine Henry's treatment of Cardinal Wolsey.  Wolsey was his friend and chancellor for many years.  He more or less ran the kingdom while Henry played.  When Wolsey could not do what Henry wanted, that is he could not procure papal approval for his divorce Henry turned on him.  In his mind Wolsey was betraying him, emotionally abandoning him and Henry could not take it.  A person with BPD cannot deal with pain.  They are often described as having no emotional skin.  Anything that hurts hurts so badly that it must be eradicated.  Often this pain turns to anger and the person who caused pain suddenly becomes a total anathema to the borderline.  (See #2 below.)  This pattern repeated throughout Henry's life with people such as Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, and most obviously Anne Boleyn. 

Henry's whole courtship of Anne was one desperate ploy after another to keep her from "abandoning" him.  When he could not have her as his mistress he tried to divorce his wife rather than lose her.  When that failed he declared himself head of the church of England and married her anyway.  Anything to get what he wanted and to keep her from losing interest and marrying someone else.  Not that anyone else would have been willing to marry her, everyone knew that she belonged to Henry and that to touch her would mean they would forfeit their life. "Noli me tangere (touch me not) for Ceaser's I am."  These words were written by Thomas Wyatt, acknowledging that Henry had won Anne's heart and that he knew she was off limits to him.

One person who seems to have survived and avoided Henry's rage was Katherine Parr.  This is undoubtedly because she discovered her arrest warrant by accident and came to Henry to beg his forgiveness before it was signed.  This much is well known.  But if you look at this incident through the lens of Henry having BPD you see that Katherine Parr avoided death by seeking Henry's emotional companionship.  She wanted his forgiveness, his approval (so she could keep her head) and was therefore not abandoning him.  His tactic seems to have been one of striking first.  If he decided to abandon someone then it was his choice, they did not abandon him.  This would have made sense to him, but probably not to anyone else.


2.A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation. This is called "splitting."

Anyone looking at Henry's life as a whole can see the pattern repeating itself over and over.  Katherine of Aragon was the perfect queen, a storybook princess and he was her white knight.  Fast forward 17 years and she was an old, unwanted wife and a stubborn, unreasonable woman.  She was perfect and then suddenly she was the most horrible creature in England.  His second marriage held true to this pattern as well.  Henry destroyed his reputation with the Pope and threw his country into religious turmoil all to marry Anne Boleyn.  She was his ideal woman, perfect.  In one of his early letters to her in which he is bemoaning her absence from court he says that because of "the great love I bear you" he cannot stand to be "kept at a distance from the person and presence of the woman in the world I value most."  After three years of marriage, when he heard rumors of her alleged indiscretions (emotional abandonment to him) he turned on her, having her executed.  It was a shocking betrayal since she was most likely not guilty.  Sure there were issues between the two of them before this but Henry's love turned to hatred in an instant.  Poor Catherine Howard went from being Henry's "Rose without a thorn" to being banned from his presence and was also sent to the scaffold.  Although she most likely was guilty of adultery, Henry idealized her from the start putting the girl on a pedestal that she fairly dived off of.  Idealization and devaluation-are there any more clear cut examples than these?

3.Identity disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self.
Although they are likely to hide it from others borderlines do not think highly of themselves.  Their self image changes frequently and is unstable.  Though most of us go through changes in our self image throughout our lives we do not have life size paintings of ourselves put on the walls of our houses.  Holbein's portrait of Henry VIII, the most famous of the many portraits of him shows Henry as the ideal man.  He is handsome, burly, strong, and confident.  His stance (hands on hips) is defiant and a challenge to all who look on the painting.  His gaze dares those who meet it to question his manhood.  Today many pictures of superheros are drawn showing the subject standing in the same way; hands on their hips, challenging the world.  This painting was commissioned and completed after the scandal with Anne Boleyn in 1536.  If Henry in fact believed that he had been cuckolded by his wife then he would have inwardly been questioning his manhood.  The painting was created as a sort of propaganda piece, letting the world know that his manhood was not in question despite what his wife had done to him, if only in his own mind.
Henry's marriage to Catherine Howard is another situation in which we see that Henry's self image was not a steady one.  Henry was around 50 when he married Catherine, who was somewhere around 17.  She was an ornament to him, a signal to his courtiers that he was not the aging old man that they saw, but that in fact he was still manly and virile.  This was pure fantasy of course because Henry was aging, fat, and had a stinking sore on his leg.  None of these things are manly and would not have pleased Henry.  He most likely married Catherine in an effort to shore up his confidence and reassure himself that he was not as old or disgusting as he thought.

Looking back I'm sure we could identify many people who rose to power who had mental health issues, many worse than BPD.  Henry was a tyrant, but was not the worst of them.  So it again brings about the question does power make one crazy or does the desire for power come from being crazy?  The video above gives you a pretty good idea of how ruthless Henry was once he turned on you.  I find it interesting that in the background someone is yelling "You don't care for me, you won't be there for me!"  Maybe it's his conscience trying to justify his actions.