Anne Boleyn's First Love

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In the Tudor court, love blossomed when Henry Percy met Anne Boleyn. However, their romance was abruptly torn apart by Cardinal Wolsey, who chastised Percy, an earl’s son, for choosing to marry the daughter of a mere knight. Despite a spirited defence, Percy was ordered to no longer see her.

Percy was forced into marrying Mary Talbot, daughter of the fourth Earl of Shrewsbury. The loveless match proved acrimonious and bitter, culminating in Mary accusing her husband of trying to poison her. After a quarrel in which Percy, now sixth Earl of Northumberland, mentioned his betrothal to Anne Boleyn, Mary wrote to her father to warn King Henry VIII that her husband and Anne had been precontracted, hoping to stop the king marrying her.

But there was more to Henry Percy than being Anne’s first love. Though often ill, he executed all the rough and arduous duties of Scottish border warfare, proving to be a strong and effective Warden of the North. His was a full life, though not a particularly happy one. In June 1537, aged thirty-five and old before his time, he died poor and ostensibly alone. He was buried on the same day he died, the crown denying him even the usual aristocratic funeral. In the first full-length biography of this fascinating man, Jan-Marie Knights tells a story of love, duty and loss.