Anna of Kleve: Queen of Secrets by Alison Weir - #BookReview

Anna peered through the window of the gatehouse, watching the chariot trundling through below, enjoying the rich sensuousness of the new silk gown she was wearing, and conscious of her parents' expectations of her. At fourteen, she should have learned all the domestic graces, and to impress their guests with her virtues.

Every summer, Vater - or Duke Johann III, as his subjects knew him - broght his wife and children here to the Schwaneburg, the great palace that towered on a steep rocky hill, dominating the mighty River Rhine and the fair city of Kleve. Joining them today for a short visit, were Onkel Otho von Wylich, the genial Lord of Gennep, and Tante Elisabeth, who never let anyone forget that she was the granddaughter of Duke Johann I. With them would be Otho, Onkel's bastard son...

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This is the fourth part in the Six Tudor Queens series. I have read it's three predecessors and thoroughly enjoyed them all. However, I think that this one has been my favourite so far as Anna of Kleves (which has been anglicised to Anne of Cleves) is probably the one of Henry VIII's queens which I knew least about.

I think that the author, Alison Weir, does a marvellous job of taking the historical facts and then weaving a fictional story around them. There is much poetic licence applied to this book and Ms. Weir provides an interesting author's note at the back in which she explains her use of fact and fiction. 

However, it is this use of fiction which makes this an engrossing and entertaining read. The author is a well respected historian who has many non-fiction titles in her canon, but it is her skill as a storyteller that makes her historical re-tellings so accessible to the reader.

Having read this book my respect for Anna increased enormously. She handled being set aside by Henry with dignity and wisdom, and was known as his 'sister' henceforth. I should imagine that Henry's relief of her willingness to accept the situation after his experience with Katherine of Aragon was enormous. Consequently, Henry treated her well and provided for her financially in every area until the time of his death.

The thing that I have enjoyed enormously in this series is the overlap of Henry's Queens. Anna comes to her marriage with the knowledge of Henry's divorce from Katherine of Aragon, the execution of Anne Boleyn and the death of Jane Seymour. During this book we meet Katherine Howard and witness Anna's reaction to her execution. She also witnessed Henry's sixth marriage to Catherine Parr and her death in 1548. Anna outlived all five of the other queens, dying in 1557 and being the only one of the six to be buried in Westminster Abbey.

I am very much looking forward to reading the next volume in this series, Katheryn Howard: The Tainted Queen.

I did not review the first volume at the time of reading but if you would like to read my review of Anne Boleyn: A King's Obsession or Jane Seymour: The Haunted Queen you can do so by clicking on the titles links.

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About the Author:

Alison Weir is a British writer of history books and has sold over 2.7 millions books worldwide. She has published eighteen history books, including her most recent non-fiction book, Queens of the Conquest, the first in her England's Medieval Queens quartet. Alison has also published several historical novels, including Innocent Traitor and The Lady Elizabeth. 

Anna of Kleve: Queen of Secrets is her third novel in the Six Tudor Queens series about the wives of Henry VIII, which was launched in 2016 to great critical acclaim. Alison is an honorary life patron of Historic Royal Palaces.

*Disclosure: I only recommend books I would buy myself and all opinions expressed here are my own. This post contains an affiliate link from which I may earn a small commission.