The Rise and Fall of the Boleyns
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How did the Boleyn family rise from humble beginnings?
Have you been enjoying my podcast and now want even more history? Sign up to History and watch the world's best history documentaries on subjects like how William conquered England, what it was like to live in the Georgian era, and you can even hear the voice of Richard III. We've got hundreds of hours of original documentaries, plus new releases every week, and there's always something more to discover. Sign up to join us in historic locations around the world and explore the past. Just visit historyhit.com slash subscribe. Hi, folks. Welcome to Dan Snow's History Hit. It's that Berlin girl. Her childhood home is a place of pilgrimage. The site of her execution receives flowers every year on the anniversary of her death.
Her fans tattoo their bodies with a design of her creations. Blind, uncontrollable passion for Anne Boleyn drove a king to upend the politics and the religion of Western Europe. And it seems that even after 500 years, many of us are still captivated. And it's not just Anne Boleyn. Her sister was a lover of the king, her children possibly royal bastards. Their forebears also are an intriguing story of social and economic advancement in the late Middle Ages, proof that merit and luck could take you from the village to the palace. And for all those reasons, that is why the House of Boleyn has come to symbolise a story, a Tudor story of ambition and talent and sex and intrigue and hubris. We've got Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, 1533 to 36.
She helped to transform the religious settlement in Britain and beyond. She paid for it with her life. But Anne's story did not begin at the royal court. It began generations earlier with a hat maker in Norfolk with big dreams. He was called Geoffrey Boleyn. And he was a sort of artisanal worker. He turned to merchant and he was a merchant. He did very well. He became Lord Mayor of London and he bequeathed his fortune to his heirs. And among those heirs was his great grandson, Thomas Boleyn. He was a courtier. He mastered the dangerous dance of Tudor politics and he helped his family rise through that talent and his usefulness to his sovereign. And he built up a web of powerful alliances. And eventually he discovered that his daughters were his most potent weapons.
Today we're going to talk all about that, folks. We're going to talk about the rise and fall of the House of Berlin, how they got to the very apex of political power, and how in the glittering but deadly well of Henry VIII's court, that ambition, that soaring arc of success, led to their ruin. We have got a fabulous guest to talk us through this wonderful story, to help us navigate through the perilous world of the Tudor court. We've got Philippa Gregory. She is a celebrated novelist and historian, best known for her vivid portraits of women in history, particularly those of the Tudor and Plantagenet eras. She has written the iconic books like The Other Bowling Girl and The White Queen. But she's not just an astonishingly good novelist.
She has got a PhD in 18th century literature. So she knows what she's talking about. Her novels have been adapted for film and TV. and she's also written acclaimed works of non-fiction, so we're very lucky to have her on. Her latest book, Bolin Traitor, tells the gripping story of one particular character and all those themes of ambition and betrayal and survival and how he relates to court. She chooses the vessel Jane Boleyn, a figure that we'll be hearing about in today's episode, so you can hear a bit about that too. You're listening to Dan Snow's History here. Settle in as we trace the rise and fall of the House of Bolin.
MUSIC
Philippa, thank you so much for coming back on the podcast. It's been far too long. Good to see you. Dan, it's lovely to see you. How are you? Very good indeed. And I'm excited about the Bolin family. But first of all, I'd like to know, how could we be sure about their existence and their goings on pre their illustrious when they produced A Queen of England briefly?
Well, they're nouveau. So they're great ones for recording their various rises.
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