I think that if they hadn't, the sisters would've faded into obscurity. Now their story lives on.

I think it's awful that the family had to play games like that. But I do agree, it was all about survival for the whole family. The women were treated horribly, but it was totally necessary.

I think that what they did was necessary to better their family. While I may not agree with it, any family in those times would have done the same things and more. But personally I'm glad that it happened (big Anne Boleyn fan :P) or else many things would have been different. If it hadn't have been Anne, it would have just been somebody else sooner or later.

Not sure how it benefits them for their story to 'live on'.. If people fight for something, generally I think they're hoping for it to benefit them there and then, not to benefit other people after they are dead.

I believe that there were very close to each other and shared their thoughts together

This is terrible that sisters had to fight for the top spot and both fall from it. They did what they had to to survive.

This isn't surprising given the time, mistresses were common, it was Anne's desire to be Queen that made her infamous. And because of Henry's need for a male hare, a whole new dynasty of English history was created and we were given one of the greatest monarchs to ever rule, Queen Elizabeth I.

It was unfortunately the ways of the times. To live in the Kings favor meant a life of priviledge for the entire family. The sisters were mear pawns in a traitorous game, as was the king. I find it all fascinating. Even more fascinating is how the royal religion of England was completely altered to accomodate the Kings desires. An act that affected the worlds religious history, all in the name of "love"

I believe that the family did what they had to. I personally do not believe in the way they used their women as pawns.. But in the end it was all about competition and the advancement of Howards vs. Seymours...

The whole situation was a vicious cycle. Queen Katherine connived her way to the throne only to be overturned by Anne but then Anne was bested by Jane. Henry was played by all those who were around him. They fed into his arrogance and vanity to gain wealth and power. Unfortunately Henry bored quickly and it seemed easy to plant seeds of hate, treason and wrongdoing in his head. Henry is not known for being a great power like his daughter Elizabeth but for being able to legally get away with murder to suit his needs.

This book showed the dark side of royalty. The women were given to the highest bidder to better the family then called every name in the book for having done just that. You truly yearned to be a poor serf who could have their children and watch them grow. Mary could have left at any time but she would have left penniless and childless.

I have read many of Ms. Gregory's books and love them all!! I performed at a Renn faire for many years, the time period was that of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn's honeymoon. We had to take history classes and they never said a word about Mary. This book was the first I ever heard of her. Afterwards, I began to study her. I can't wait for the movie to come out, we are seeing it on Sat. If given the chance, I would have been a peasant. They were free to love each and their children. Yes, they were poor, but so are we and we are very happy. I would have been burned as a witch long ago. I am very outspoken and hard headed. I would never have allowed my family to use me in such a way. Being rich and powerful has its price!

I find it ironic, that in a time when woman were nothing more than property, they were pivotal in gaining favor for family wealth and well being. I would hate to think that my father would pit me against my sister for the sake of family advancement. I would be like Mary, torn between duty and heart. Anne understood duty, but eventually turned her duty toward family into duty for herself. I just think it is awful that power can do such things to people. I don't know that I could have been as forgiving to Anne as Mary. It is an awful business using people for personal gain.

This topic of discussion ran through my mind constantly as i read the book. It was the Boleyn sister's family that ultimately cause their down fall. Neither sister had any prior desire to seduce the king, and the ambition of their family caused nothing but death and dissaray.

You have to remember that the family, especially women, were thought of a lot differently back then. What their father and uncle did were commonplace (or the thoughts behind it were) at the time. And women were thought of as little more than to improve the family's status and/or wealth.

I think that back in the days when the story takes place. It was all for nothing, or nothing at all. I believe that the Father and Uncle used the girls to get what they wanted for themselves. I don't think they cared what it would do to the girls, just what it would get them. Women weren't allowed to do anything without the permission of men in those days, and I am sure Anne was after her own thoughts, dreams and let the power get to her head (excuse the pun).

I read this book in 2005. Its a great book, and I can"t wait to see the movie. I think if u enjoy this book then you'll enjoy The Queens Foul also..

Back in the day so to speak women were nothing more than cattle they could be bought or sold to the highest bidder. The more they were worth the more a family sold them for whether it was into a marriage bed or becoming the mistress of a king. Mary gained very little for her actual family but quite a lot for her husband. Anne on the other hand stepped out of the typical female role and took all the glory for herself she might have lived if she had been another Elizabeth Woodville and promoted her uncles aunts father and mother but instead she promoted only herself. She did not gain the family anything and so actually failed as a daughter and later failed as a wife to produce an heir.
Obviously Anne's uncle and father did not take her own ambition into account when they promoted her or they would have realized she was worthless to them.
Their tactics where not the best and got many people killed including Anne and her brother Goerge.

I love the book and am excited for the movie. It made history very fun and inturesting even if its mostly fictional. Counting down the days till the movie debut!

I think that how women were used as pawns for there families was awful, but it was just how things were back then. Its sad that after all these two women went through ultimately nobody won,not them or there families. After mary left court and all that it entailed it seemed she lived a life that was her own and was happy.

I like to wonder what happen if Mary instead of Anne married the king. History would have no Elizabeth the first or King Henry the VIII and his six wives, Would the Tudors still being rule England, ? Many things would be different if Mary would have become Queen instead of Anne.

i think this movie is going to be very interesting also somber at times. this movie should be for ages (13-16) because at these ages it more understanding to the kids what this movie is about. When kids are in school in the english classses they'll learn and discuss about this kind of genre.

Yes, the tactics are very smart! Since women are commodities and men love women, especially young ones, why not. At the time fate of a women was determine by her father. Sadly it torn apart a country and bond, but it's a story told today and forever.

If you read any story that takes place in the time frame there is a single trend, women were used for power. It is odd to look at the situations in the time because yes the women were used but they did have a type of power. I am currently reading a book about Eleanor and it goes into great detail about how the young daughters were used to gain wealth, titles and land. Some girls as young as 9 were married to counts, kings, princes, dukes...etc to gain the land and title for the family. Henry II married his daughter at at 9 to a 40 year old to gain land bordering on France. Their story is not uncommon in any matter, what makes the Boleyn story so different is Henry and Anne. Anne was extremely strong headed and laid down a line for their relationship. Henry turned the world on its head for the love of a woman, created a brand new church. But the story does not end there. Mary Boleyn's daughter (thought to be by Henry VIII) come back to court with her daughter during Elizabeth I's rule. This young lady Lettie causes great commotion at court due to her strong similar features to Elizabeth. This also leads on to the Robert Dudley and Elizabeth affair, young Lettie gets drawn into the middle of it. This time period is packed full of strong women, great men, and families with a desire not to lose their heads and to gain wealth. Families intertwisted, love affairs new and old, cousins marrying. Try to make a family tree starting with Owen Tudor, good luck. Elizabeth II is about 16 generations from Henry VII, by blood!

I thing it was totally awful for them to sell their daughters and sons into marriage that there was no love, but in the end it all comes out good in the end. So I can understand what they are doing and I don't comened them but I would not do that will my children.

I was disgusted by the tactics of the family. Mary and Ann's family used them and eventually abandoned them when they needed them most. They scorned Anne, upon her first marriage to Percy, as a whore...meanwhile, they encouraged Mary to sleep with the King when she was married. Their values made no sense and were quite irrational...as were the values of the King and the Court. In the end, Anne was punished for allegedly having other lovers while the King openly had many lovers (including his relationship with Anne and Mary). What a double standard!

I love this book! But I also think that how the girls Father and Uncle treat them.I know that women back then did not have many choices, and had to listen what men would tell them. I could not got through what Mary and Anne went through, to gain favor in the court.

I think the family's tactics were conniving and cruel, but nonetheless necessary. However, Mary has such a great heart that she could only go so far with the family's ambition. It took a really strong woman like ANNE to achieve what she wanted. I'm actually glad that Anne challenged the king the way she did, He was SPOILED. I can see where Elizabeths' strength comes from.

Growing up in a household of four girls all of us competed to be the "favored" girl. We rivaled one another just as they did in the book (but maybe not to the extreme of sleeping with one another's boyfriends). However, we put down our competitive natures when any one of us was being attacked from the outside. I think this is the true spirit of this book. I think that even though they are capable of even hating each other that in the end that bond between sisters and even extended kinship holds true. The fact is even though most of us have been subject to some sibling rivalry at one time or another, all of us would put down our own pursuits to defend those for whom we are bound by blood.

I think the Boleyn family tactics are unbeleivable.there seems to be no sense of honor and respect for the women in that family.While reading the book you see that the mother is no better than the father and uncle.Those girls were put on the spot and if they failed or slipped up even once the family was quick to turn thier back on them.

I think it is important to remember that Mary and William's life was far from poor. They had the means to own their own land and feed themselves. I Don't know that the poor are really portrayed in the book. William would have never been allowed at court if he were truly poor.
I think it is also important to note that poor women were not free to love anymore that royal women. They were just traded for less. Let's say the a cow. The notion that somehow women were free to choose who they wanted to marry based love is not really all that accurate.

I think the tactics are terriable and very sexist, but that is what had to be done during that time period in order to gain a prestigious place in the court. No one really looked down on it since women themselves were accepting of their place in society as "baby factories" to further on the man's bloodline.

I agree it was survival for the family but it seems that the parents looked at their children as possessions that can only better or hurt them and never really got to know their children.

I really believe that they did what they had to for the favor of the king. Was it right? Absolutely not but when you think of how things we're done back then it was a family affair. This wasn't about sisterly affection. It was about which girl would be the kings favorite. If one couldn't do the job then then other could. What one sister did, the entire family benefited from it. It was all about being the most powerful family in the country second only to the Tudors. And if you really think about it, Henry didn't change the church much in order to marry Anne. This wasn't for love and it most certainly wasn't for a male heir. I think if Henry had his way he'd still be the king. He kept with old ways of the Papists leaving out only the part that would deny him his divorce from Katherine and his marriage to Anne. He wanted reform but not enough to turn the whole country upside down. I think he was smart enough to know that if he went to that type of extreme his people would revolt. And as we all know Henry was terrified of anything that would remove him from his comfort zone: the throne of England.

In those days, the only way to gain even more prestige than what they already had was to do whatever they could to get in the King's good graces and earn a high post in the court. If that meant to have their daughters end up in the King's bed, then so be it.
The whole family was expected to contribute their part in the master plan of enhancing family status otherwise, they would more than likely be disowned and live a more economically miserable life. Usually the thought of living in a less comfortable situation than they were accustomed to would be enough of a deterrent from disobeying family orders.
It was a horrible time to be a woman in that era because they were totally dependent on their male family members (husband, father, brother, uncle, etc.) to provide for them for the rest of their lives (There is a reference in the book to that as farmers at Hever asked Mary why she didn't have money to invest in a crop co-op if she was the daughter of the landowner and wore fancy clothes).

It's sad and disturbing for us to read several centuries removed from the times in which these events took place but the facts are that was the way of things back then. Marriage at least amongst the nobility was for power not love. Young girl were sold into marriage at ages that seem obscene to us today. People were executed for things that people today would hardly bat an eyelash over. Society has always had it's flaws and always will my guess is that if the world is still standing several hundred years from now our decendants will look back on us as being nearly uncivilized savages. What the Boleyn family did to their daughters was sad but what makes the story remarkable is how by her sheer stubburness Anne changed the course of history if she had given in easily like the rest of Henry's missresses she would have at best ben nothing more than a footnote in history but instead he turned England on it's head to have her for all her flaws she must have been a remarkable woman.