The Anne Boleyn Files

I’m often asked which books I recommend on Anne Boleyn, the Six Wives and Henry VIII, so I thought it would be helpful to provide you with a booklist of ones that I use on a weekly, if not daily, basis. You can click on the links to order them from Amazon.com if you wish.

Anne Boleyn

• The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, Eric Ives – This is my favourite and it is a constant fixture on my desk.
• Anne Boleyn: In Her Own Words & the Words of Those Who Knew Her, Elizabeth Norton – A collection of primary source material relating to Anne Boleyn, including the work of George Wyatt, Cavendish, George Constantine, Chapuys, Lancelot de Carles and stacks of letters, including the love letters of Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn. An excellent resource!
• The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn, Retha Warnicke – I might not always agree with Warnicke but it is a very detailed book on Anne Boleyn and is well worth a read.
• The Lady in the Tower, Alison Weir – A detailed account of the fall of Anne Boleyn.

Those are the 4 best on Anne Boleyn, in my opinion, but I also own and use the ones by G W Bernard, Joanna Denny, Paul Friedmann, Norah Lofts and Marie-Louise Bruce occasionally. See Anne Boleyn Biographies.

Six Wives Books

If you only want to buy one book on Henry VIII’s six wives then you cannot go wrong with David Starkey’s Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII and the series on DVD is also very good. That is my very favourite but I also use:-

• Six Wives of Henry VIII, Antonia Fraser
• The Six Wives of Henry VIII, David Loades
• The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Alison Weir

There are also biographies of Henry VIII’s wives if you want to focus on one in particular. I would recommend:-

• Catherine of Aragon: The Spanish Queen of Henry VIII by Giles Tremlett
• The Eric Ives one on Anne Boleyn (see earlier)
• Jane Seymour: Henry VIII’s True Love by Elizabeth Norton
• Anne of Cleves: Henry VIII’s Discarded Bride by Elizabeth Norton
• Catherine Howard by Lacey Baldwin Smith. The Joanna Denny biography is also quite good.
• Katherine the Queen by Linda Porter. Elizabeth Norton’s biography is also very good.

Henry VIII

My four favourite books on Henry VIII, in order of preference, are:-

• Henry VIII, David Loades
• Henry VIII, J J Scarisbrick
• Henry: Virtuous Prince, David Starkey
• Henry VIII: The King and His Court, Alison Weir

Older Books on Anne Boleyn and the Six Wives

Older books I often use are:-

• The Queens of England by Agnes Strickland – You can read Volume 1 (published in 1894), which includes Henry VIII’s six wives, online at http://www.archive.org/stream/agnesstricklands01striiala#page/n5/mode/2up
• Star of the Court by Selina Bunbury – This 1844 book can be read at http://www.archive.org/details/starcourtormaid01bunbgoog