The Other Boleyn Girl

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual content, antigay bias, pregnancy loss, and gender discrimination. 

Mary spends the summer of 1532 at Hever with her children. When William Stafford comes to escort her back to court, he clarifies that he wants to marry her. He’s bought a small manor. At court, Anne confides that while on their summer progress through the countryside, people threw stones at her. Henry intends to appoint a new archbishop to marry them and has given Anne the title of marquess. Mary tells William she cannot marry him because she is a Howard and a Boleyn, and he is a nobody. She says, “I am a courtier from a family of courtiers. I can’t become a country wife at the snap of your fingers” (409).

It is autumn 1532. Both Uncle Howard and the Duke of Suffolk, the king’s brother-in-law, dislike Anne. After she becomes Marquess of Pembroke, Anne decides to finally have sex with Henry. She taunts George to express his admiration for her; she wants everyone to admire her. Thomas More is sent to prison for not obeying the king, showing how the country feels about Henry’s changes in the church and his anticipated marriage to Anne.