Philippa Gregory on the Importance of Standing Up to Tyranny Before It’s Too Late

The heroine of my new novel Boleyn Traitor is Jane Boleyn—lady-in-waiting to her sister-in-law, Anne Boleyn. Although Jane played a central role in the reigns of five Tudor queens, her reputation was smeared upon her death and her personal story almost lost. She lived in a time of tyranny and the tyrant who killed her worked hard to destroy her reputation and erase her from history.

As a young woman, Jane benefited from the Boleyn rise to royalty after marrying the queen’s brother, George. Against all odds, Jane survived the sham trials and executions of George and Anne, and she went on to have a successful career as a courtier. She served five of Henry VIII’s six queens, giving her a front-row seat to Henry VIII’s decline from beloved prince to abuser, serial killer, and tyrant.

Though Henry had known Jane all of his life and was related to her by marriage, she did not escape his violence. It tells you everything about Henry as a tyrant that he changed the law of the land especially to execute Jane, who was neither a threat nor his enemy—just a woman who saw his weakness and malice.

To be a tyrant is to leave your mark on your world and the easiest and most dramatic way is to adopt a recognizable style.

Henry’s reign was more than 500 years ago but there are extraordinary similarities between Tudor politics and those of today: they both drift towards the idea of strongman government, interested in only a few starring individuals who have more glamour than worth.

The Tudor court gives us a model of power where the usual checks and balances fail and lead to an inevitable descent into tyranny. Henry was a leader known for his grandiose presentation, a love of dramatic rhetoric and self-promotion, and a fondness for blaming others. He carefully curated his image, issuing official portraits and closely managing public appearances. His reign concentrated power in one man and his obsessions. Very few had the courage to stand against him, and standing alone they were silenced.

Fake news
The Tudors were experts in propaganda and misinformation. Henry VIII denied his obesity and ill health for decades. When his hair started thinning, he insisted his male courtiers shave their heads to match. Famously, he married a succession of wives, murdering or abandoning them and wiping their initials and regalia from his buildings. All the Tudors painted over portraits; they used plays and songs—the social media of their day—to create new narratives and cast doubt on any independent thinkers or people brave enough to contradict them. Henry’s best advisor, Thomas Cromwell, oversaw inquiries into the Church, engineered trials, and staged debates in parliament—creating “fake news” centuries before the internet. The research for my novel revealed that Thomas Cromwell had a copy of the writings of Niccolo Machiavelli—the philosopher whose cynical advice on government by tyranny led to the term “Machiavellian.” Amazingly, Machiavelli’s the book The Prince was given to Thomas Cromwell by my heroine’s father, the scholar Lord Morley. From her youth, Jane Boleyn knew all about tyranny.

Favorites
Every tyrant and every narcissist create a court of people who see through them but stay because they’re dazzled by glamour, or the desire of prestige and opportunity. Henry VIII elevated friends and family to positions of power and then dismissed them if they became difficult. He killed many key advisors by judicial execution to make way for courtiers who would not dare to disagree with him. In the end, he was a lonely figure without a single true friend.

Checks and Balances
Like all tyrants, Henry removed any checks on his power. When he became king, England was a Catholic country; its abbeys, monasteries and cathedrals were loyal to the Pope with Catholic theology shaping daily life. But when the Pope refused to annul Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Henry decided to create a new religious authority for the entire nation with himself at the head. It was a startling example of the fragility of institutions. We tend to think of religions as an immovable and sacred set of beliefs; but when the Catholic Church became inconvenient, Henry simply invented his own to replace it. Advised by Anne Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell, who sincerely believed in the Reformation, Henry started with accusations of corruption and immorality in the Church, then used intimidation and changes to the law to transfer all the wealth and land to himself. Through an Act of Supremacy he made himself Supreme Head, giving him complete control of the principles and appointments of the new religion, and then made it treason to question his power.

History tells us that we must find the courage to defend each other and our societies before the danger is immediate and personal.

Henry was astute enough to use the political system to legitimize his power-grab. With highly able supporters like Thomas Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell, he managed parliament, country, and court. He used bribes and incentives to encourage supporters and charges of treason to control opposition. The nobles and gentry—the billionaires of Tudor England—made fortunes from the reclaimed monastery lands and created a myth of Henry’s military strength and English pride.

Big Buildings
A lavish demonstration of wealth and strength was a key part of Henry’s brand. Renovation, rebuilding and building was a typical Tudor hobby. Henry VIII built quick but inadequate coastal defenses—a “wall”—to publicize his determination to prevent invasion. It was more a vivid display of the boundaries than an effective defense; the walls collapsed after a few years. He loved ornate, overlarge palaces and rebuilt or renovated almost all his many properties. To be a tyrant is to leave your mark on your world and the easiest and most dramatic way is to adopt a recognizable style. In Henry VIII’s case that meant high color, high luxury, high gilding, repeated in every building. Perhaps there is a tyrant aesthetic: big showy public buildings which lack personality or intimacy and demonstrate wealth and power rather than charm.

Throughout Boleyn Traitor, Jane realizes that she has been tiptoeing all her life around a madman, and that when a man abuses his wives he often gets away with it, because we expect tyranny in men. When such a man seizes great power, he can and will abuse everyone in his power. This is Jane’s awakening in the novel: tyranny must be opposed when you first see it, because if you leave it till later, it will be too late.

All of us must decide what attack on our institutions, our traditions, our liberties is our breaking point: the point where we say “no.” History tells us that we must find the courage to defend each other and our societies before the danger is immediate and personal. By the time the tyrant comes for us—it is too late. We must not be like Jane Boleyn, recognizing the dangers too late to say “no,” or we will be silenced as she was, and the tyrant will write our history, too.

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Boleyn Traitor by Philippa Gregory is available from William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.