Mother to Anne Boleyn and grandmother of Elizabeth I, this fresh appraisal places Elizabeth Boleyn back in the centre of the Tudor world

‘Elizabeth Boleyn, so nice to finally meet you!’ – Claire Martin, author of Heirs of Ambition

Elizabeth Boleyn has been overlooked for centuries. She is remembered only as a wife and mother, despite her illustrious court career that started long before her daughters, Mary and Anne, ever caught the king’s eye. Serving as Katherine of Aragon’s lady-in-waiting for eleven years, Elizabeth was at the heart of Henry VIII’s early reign, and she bore witness to the dramatic rise and downfall of her family.

In this first narrative biography of Elizabeth Boleyn, her story is finally told. Beginning with her family’s dramatic flight from Norfolk to London after the Battle of Bosworth, Sophie Bacchus-Waterman charts Elizabeth’s life at the early Henrician court, follows her as her family rise to the pinnacle of their power, and ends with her tragic death just a couple of years after two of her children were brutally executed. This is the story of the Boleyn family – and the dramatic events of Tudor England – from an entirely new perspective.