THE PLOT: ‘Henry VIII: The Heart and the Crown’ is the latest book by Alison Weir. After publishing a detailed series about the wives of Henry VIII, all written from each queen’s point of view, this book puts Henry firmly in the driving seat. Starting with his mother’s death, it follows Henry from a young boy and the idealism of his early reign through to becoming old and embittered. Denied the heirs he needs to secure the succession and plagued by unfaithful wives; this book aims to create more balanced portrait of England’s most notorious King.

RATING: As such a huge fan of Weir’s ‘Six Tudor Queens’ novels, I’m devastated to report that I was extremely disappointed by this book. In the author’s note Weir states that she is attempting to show a more sympathetic view of Henry VIII by analyzing his complex character. Unfortunately, I do not think she succeeds. The previous series’ strength was its ability to depict new sides of each queen and portray them as fully rounded characters. However, I just don’t think Weir was able to capture the character of Henry in the same way. The poor characterization, unbalanced pacing and instalove/underdeveloped romantic relationships with each queen mean that I’m giving this book only two and a half stars. In order to analyse this rating, I’ve altered my review format.

CHARACTER: Weir’s characterization of Henry VIII simply does not work. The writing feels like a distant 3^rd person, occasionally showing Henry’s thoughts but not presenting events through his point of view. This means there is no clear line of sight between his emotions and his actions. For example, with the political machinations Weir wants Henry to seem intelligent so he continually acknowledges his courtiers are probably trying to persuade him to act for their own benefit. However, within the same paragraph he often goes along with what those courtiers propose. This makes the reader fall out of the narrative because Henry’s thoughts (aware he is being manipulated) and actions (quickly and wholesale succumbing to the manipulation) aren’t aligned.

EMOTIONALITY: Henry VIII is a difficult character to write. He was very mercurial and made a lot of inconsistent decisions. Therefore, the key to writing him as a sympathetic character is to ensure that emotion behind his actions is clearly articulated to the reader. Unfortunately, Weir’s emotional calibration for Henry VIII feels off. He continually debates the pros and cons of each side, always sitting on the fence rather than having his own convictions. With decisions appearing to be made at random, it just doesn’t feel sympathetic for Henry to acknowledge the negative ramifications of an action and then do it anyway (especially when these decisions are often about murdering someone). Instead, I would’ve preferred Henry to fervently believe in his opinions and bring the reader with him to justify his actions as the best possible decision given the circumstances and his emotional state.

PLOT & PACING: Even though it’s 600 pages, this book feels rushed and unbalanced. The marriage to Katharine of Aragon feels long and slow, with too much detail of various pageants and diplomatic events. For example, some of the ups and downs in the diplomatic alliances with the French and Spanish could have been truncated. As a reader, I only need a couple of instances to show how Henry’s emotional state is affected by diplomacy and how it develops his character. In contrast to the opening section, Anne of Cleves is only given 50 pages and there’s no real explanation of why Henry wanted to marry Catherine Parr even though she was twice widowed with no children (surely, he must’ve known she wouldn’t be likely to give him heirs!). Overall, I think this needed to be split into two books, broken up after Jane Seymour’s death.

RELATIONSHIPS: The impact of my main criticisms of this novel is evident in Henry’s relationships with each of his queens. The odd pacing, weak characterization and lack of emotionality means that the reader doesn’t get to experience each relationship from Henry’s point of view. Each relationship feels the same and it isn’t shown how they impact Henry’s character development. I felt this most keenly in Henry’s relationship to Anne Boleyn, which feels like insta-love. There is no exploration of his psyche and no connection between them; he is simply enchanted by her. In order to achieve Weir’s aim of writing a sympathetic Henry, I think his love for Anne should’ve been written like a romance. A true connection based on their love of learning and desire to reform the church would’ve made me feel his emotions and therefore understand his actions more. Then the betrayal of that true love (as he thinks she is adulterous) would set up his embitterment and trust issues in his later relationships.

OVERALL: Sadly, I would not recommend this book (even if you loved Weir’s other ones). In trying to depict Henry’s struggle between his heart and his duty to the crown, Weir manages to convey neither. Overall, I think the historian got the better of the novelist. Weir attempts to stick faithfully to the historical facts and adds too much superfluous detail without getting to the crux of Henry’s character.

Thank you to Headline Books who gave me a #gifted copy in exchange for an honest review. This book was published in May 2023.