Philippa Gregory

almost principality.

So you get to hobnob with the court, and that's really your big rise.

Yes, particularly London.

I would think any big...

City, you could rise in civic terms, but London is really because you're right next door to Westminster and you have lots of hobnobbings with the king and you have a lot of influence in parliament because you're co-cited fundamentally.

And then what the Bolins do is, for two generations, they marry very well.

So they marry into the old Norman families.

Well, I wouldn't say penniless.

I mean, they own half of England.

But what they really don't mind is new money and this authority coming in.

And anyway, it's only their daughters.

It's not their sons they're giving away.

So basically, the Boleyns then marry, I mean, ultimately the Howards, but also into the Ormonds aristocracy.

So that's how you get, when you get to Thomas Boleyn and Boleyn's father, you get this chap who's

got a very wealthy background on his own account, and he's got a very posh wife and a very posh mother.

And so he's got these aristocratic connections, but he's not the oldest son of an ancient noble house.

He's not got that sort of

background, but what he has got is the confidence of a man who earned his own money and is married well.

And of course, he then moves into the diplomatic service, which is the absolutely classic sideways step.

So you become important at court.