Philippa Gregory | Kit Perriman

The Wise Woman by Philippa Gregory

This historical fiction begins in 1540 and follows the tragic life of seventeen-year-old Alys, a young peasant girl in Tudor England. Alys grew up on the moor with a harsh foster-mother called Morach, the local wise woman. But turning her back on superstition and the pagan arts, Alys decides to join a nunnery. For a time she finds contentment in this orderly sanctuary. She enjoys the rigid structure, comparative luxury, and the safety afforded to the Holy Sisters.

But Alys happiness is short lived. One night the monastery burns to the ground, a casualty of King Henry’s Reformation, and the young woman is summoned to the local castle to work as a scribe for the ailing lord of the manor. Here she falls in love with his married son and heir, Lord Hugo. She grows intently jealous of the Lady Catherine, and seeks to replace her in Hugo’s bed. Calling on all the cunning tricks she recalls from living with Morach, Alys devises a difficult, disturbing plot to gain her heart’s desire. At this point the novel slips into magical realism.

Gregory’s story has many Faustian overtones. Alys conjures up the powers of darkness to possess the man she fixates on, aware that her actions are prompted by self-promotion rather than genuine love. By the end of the book the Wise Woman is exposed as self-centered, unlikable, and evil – and therefore she meets with a hellish end.

The Wise Woman can also be read as a morality tale. Although Alys is a victim of historical circumstance, feudalism, and gender, she serves as a warning against forbidden love and obsession. She tries to take the rightful place of another woman – a place where she can never truly belong. Alys discovers she has the power to unleash terrible things on the world, but by the time she realizes she has little control over them, it is too late to go back. She sinks further and further into witchcraft.

I enjoyed the atmospheric setting of Gregory’s novel, and not expecting to sympathize with the central characters I was pleased to find them portrayed in a refreshingly honest way – warts and all! The historical research is sound and convincing, and any book set in the medieval era must acknowledge the common superstitious beliefs of that time.

This is not a feel-good story. It suggests everything in Alys’ world is a sham – magic, life, love, faith, and family. But one of the great joys of reading is the ability to close the book at any point and find yourself back in the twenty-first century!

On my first reading of The Other Boleyn Girl in 2001, I was impressed by Philippa Gregory’s bravery in writing against the popular romantic image of the Tudor queen as a much-maligned victim. I re-read the book again this past week as part of my research into medieval witchcraft, and still maintain this is one of the finest examples of historical fiction in the genre.

Gregory plays the devil’s advocate by posing the question: What if Anne Boleyn really was guilty of the charges brought against her? She then weaves a plausible explanation of the young woman’s dangerous rise to power, a gamble that ultimately cost her life. The story is told through the eyes of the other Boleyn girl at court, her sister Mary. And although British historian David Starkey claims there are only “four known facts” about Mary Boleyn, and that this therefore amounts to “one fact per seventy-five pages,” Gregory does a splendid job of recreating an authentic version of the Tudor court from numerous other sources. There are, fortunately, many more extant facts regarding Anne and Henry!

Gregory’s Queen Anne is not an endearing character, but then everything said about her comes from the rival sister’s lips – one of the women she ousted from the king’s bed. Anne is portrayed as ambitious, vain, single-minded, selfish, ruthless, callous, manipulative, and amoral. Yet she is also intelligent, artistic, fashionable, and fun. She is not a practicing witch – though she does enchant Henry and all those around her – but when placed in a desperate situation she turns to a local wise woman for help. As the king is aging and impotent, when Anne needs a son to secure the throne her brother George steps in as a replacement. And she may or may not have poisoned some of her enemies.

The Other Boleyn Girl strips away the traditional glamor of court, presenting a much more realistic insight into the fragile and perilous lives of the youngsters groomed as bargaining chips by their ambitious families. It also highlights the differences between those born high and low, and how real happiness lies in the simple pleasures of life. The characters are engaging and interesting – even as they descend into strange, dark places. And the psychological explanations offered for Anne Boleyn’s criminal behavior are fascinating, thought-provoking, and plausible – even if factually untrue.

A five-star read!

Kit Perriman

The Hill – A Historical Novel About Witches

Tag Archives: Philippa Gregory

Kit’s Crit: The Wise Woman (Philippa Gregory)

Kit’s Crit: The Other Boleyn Girl (Philippa Gregory)