Nearly five hundred years after her violent death, Anne
Boleyn, second wife to Henry VIII, remains one of the
world's most fascinating, controversial, and tragic
heroines. Now acclaimed historian and bestselling author
Alison Weir has drawn on myriad sources from the Tudor era
to give us the first book that examines, in unprecedented
depth, the gripping, dark, and chilling story of Anne
Boleyn's final days.
The tempestuous love affair between Henry VIII and Anne
Boleyn scandalized Christendom and altered forever the
religious landscape of England. Anne's ascent from private
gentlewoman to queen was astonishing, but equally compelling
was her shockingly swift downfall. Charged with high treason
and imprisoned in the Tower of London in May 1536, Anne met
her terrible end all the while protesting her innocence.
There remains, however, much mystery surrounding the queen's
arrest and the events leading up to it: Were charges against
her fabricated because she stood in the way of Henry VIII
making a third marriage and siring an heir, or was she the
victim of a more complex plot fueled by court politics and
deadly rivalry?
The Lady in the Tower examines in engrossing detail the
motives and intrigues of those who helped to seal the
queen's fate. Weir unravels the tragic tale of Anne's fall,
from her miscarriage of the son who would have saved her to
the horrors of her incarceration and that final, dramatic
scene on the scaffold. What emerges is an extraordinary
portrayal of a woman of great courage whose enemies were
bent on utterly destroying her, and who was tested to the
extreme by the terrible plight in which she found herself.
Richly researched and utterly captivating, The Lady in
the Tower presents the full array of evidence of Anne
Boleyn's guilt—or innocence. Only in Alison Weir's capable
hands can readers learn the truth about the fate of one of
the most influential and important women in English history.