Holliday Grainger: Lucrezia gets angry, even in 'The Borgias'


If you thought Lucrezia Borgia suffered in the first season of Showtime’s The Borgias,” things get a lot worse for her in season 2 as Holliday Grainger tells in this interview.
“I think she goes through a really kind of difficult first few episodes where she really has to build her strength from the horrible things that happen,” Grainger told me during a recent phone interview. “Lucrezia completely fills out this season. She’s growing up big time.”
In Season 1, Pope Alexander VI (Jeremy Irons) married off Lucrezia for his own political gain. Her husband beat her, pushing her into the arms of stable boy Paolo (Luke Pasqualino), who got her pregnant. By the end of the season, she was happily back home at the Vatican with his love child in her arms.
Grainger says Lucrezia’s happiness doesn’t last long, though, partly due to her brother, Juan (David Oakes), who does something so terrible it changes Lucrezia forever.
Grainger and I talked about those changes, and what we can expect in Season 2 of the series, which returns at 9 p.m. April 8.
Lucrezia goes from innocent in Season 1 to more sort of world wise in the new season, I guess, after the first marriage. 
You’ve seen her learn all those lessons in the first season and so I think Season 2 is about her putting those lessons into practice and realizing that she can't just hit back if she’s unhappy with something, so she puts her foot down with her father and with her brothers. So, yeah, I think we now see the emotional effect that the journey she’s gone through in Season 1 has on her. 

Season 1 ended pretty happily. How long is that going to last?  
Yeah, yeah. [Laughs.] Oh, not long. I think this is part of the interesting thing about Season 2 is that Season 1 was all about the family’s rise to power and was all about them working together as a family to get more power. Whereas Season 2 is they’ve got the power now and it’s about watching the family kind of take power and turning against each other. So there’s a lot. Of course there's all the kind of wider international politics but there's also a lot more kind of family politics and arguments and kind of levels of hierarchy that's shifting in Season 2. 

Now, there was also a little clip I saw where it looks like you put a candle under a rope that holds a chandelier. 
[Laughs.] Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. [Laughs.]

And it looks like Juan might be under that chandelier.
Oh, yeah. [Laughs.] I mean, that's definitely her intention anyway. Yeah, I don't know how much I’m allowed to say. I mean, well, because we all know that Juan doesn't last as long as the others. This is a great season for David [Oakes]. Because, I mean, Season 2 is a lot about Juan’s downfall because he starts to become a complete ass. [Laughs.] And so, yeah, I think Lucrezia’s anger and maternal instinct comes out as well a lot in Season 2 against her brother. 

David is fun to talk to and so sort of happy and everything.  But he really plays mean really well, doesn't he?  
I know, a bit too well, right? [Laughs.] It’s scary. 

Do we see Paolo? Does he return this season?  
Oh, yeah, we do. We see him briefly. [Laughs.] I think Paolo is completely is Lucrezia’s first proper love and I think his story is what kind of massively affects her and will affect her kind of future choices. I think that's where a lot of her anger comes from, what happens to Paolo. [Laughs.]

All right, that's a good tease. Is she ever going to actually find love and keep it?
A lot of Lucrezia’s storyline toward the end of Season 2 is about the fact that her experience of love is pain, if she falls in love. You know, marriage has been physical pain and emotional pain and just being used. Then, when she actually falls in love, she’s not allowed and she loses it. So I think she’s become cynical when it comes to love and so she’s no longer the young romantic that a lot of teenage girls are. And she’s also learning the difference between love and lust and if you can't have one, you may as well just satisfy the other. 

It sounds like rich emotional territory to mine. Have you found that it’s even more so than you thought it would be when you signed up?  
No, no. I kind of was prepared for hefty emotional stuff and that's kind of, I suppose, what attracted me to the role. Because I think that's one part of why I love acting is being able to explore other people's emotions and increase your empathy. 

Is it fun play dress up in this show? 
Oh, yeah. Oh, it’s amazing. It’s fantastic. I mean, Gabriella [Pescucci] designed some amazing costumes, and I have the most amazing costume cutter [Gergely Borbas]. He’s fantastic. The costumes are actually quite comfortable as well.    
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The Borgias' David Oakes interview explores Juan Borgias' downfall 
In this interview David Oakes talks about his character, Juan Borgia, and the direction the show might take after Juan’s final scene.
Although Oakes has a reputation for playing the bad guy back William Hamleigh in Pillars of the Earth. Oakes doesn't see Juan as the villain, but as the black sheep of the Borgia family, especially by Juan’s siblings, Lucrezia and Cesare. While Juan’s life ends tragically on The Borgias, it was a dream role for David Oakes.
What were you thoughts on your final scene? Was it as intense as you thought it’d be?
It was the last thing that was shot. It was the penultimate day of shooting. It was a nice thing to die when you died and not have to come back to work the next day after being thrown off a bridge. It was kind of like his confession scene. It was the previous three episodes worth of gangrene, syphilis, opium addiction, cigars, horse riding and everything coming to a head and just exploding. It was great fun to do. I think Francois liked it immensely too because he didn’t have to learn any lines. He just had to stab me which was fine at least when he got the safety pad that I was wearing. He kept missing me now and then and stabbing me in the stomach. He needs to get some fight training at some point. (Laughs)
Did you know Juan was going to die at the beginning of the season?
I knew I was going to die. I knew that was going to happen. I didn’t know when. At one stage they were toying with killing me off in Episode 3. The next rumour I heard was Episode 5, then it got to Episode 7. I definitely was going to die episode in Episode 7 they told me. Then I had Episode 10, then I had Episode 9 and then I thought I was going to make it to the third season, but then I was knifed. It’s a funny thing, scripts come out and you only find out piece by piece.
I didn’t know it’d be quite so fun to build up to my death. I didn’t know the gangrene and the syphilis and the opium would all come into play. It was a gift of a part as an actor really. I think while everyone is falling in love or getting a bit angry or coping with cathedrals falling down or whatever I had an amazing personal journey to go on with that character and hopefully I presented it with a sense and reality and hopefully you will feel a bit sorry for the guy. I don’t think he’s useless. Everyone says he’s a useless coward. He’s just placed in some sh*t situations. I mean he would have won Forli. He would have kicked ass at Forli if his character had let him know the other Sforza was coming to cut him down from the rear.
Cesare kind of set him up on that because he didn’t warn him.
Yeah! I mean what’s his beef? He makes me lose a war, then he blames it all on me and then he kills me, but I’m not entirely sure why he kills me.
I think out of jealousy sometimes.
 Huge jealousy. I always ridiculed him when we were filming because there’s at least two situations, one in Episode 8 and one in Episode 9 where for no reason Cesare goes, “Ten more sons,” just to wind him up like proper little brothers do and push their buttons and make them go crazy. I just kept telling him, “None of them [the fans] will like your character because he’s just such a bitch.” It was quite nice to do that because everyone knows Juan is a useless cowardly worm so it was quite nice to get Francois worried the girls would stop liking him for a bit.
You know there a quite few women who like your character.
Well they’re all sick and wrong. (Laughs)
How was it like working with the cast?
It was great. The funny thing is by the second year you take it all for granted. I think for me personally I was most excited working with Gina McKee as Caterina Sforza. I remember watching her in so many stage productions over here (England) and films like Notting Hill. It’s a treat. It’s what actors dream and die for really. As you said you get to wear the armour and ride the horse for a job.
I was really pissed off when I started shooting Episode 8 because I wasn’t able to walk everywhere. At that point onwards I’m in a wheelchair or I got a stick or a crutch and felt restricted. There’s a reason why Juan starts in a wheelchair and switches to a crutch and then ends up with a walking stick, but quite often forgets his walking stick because I didn’t want the prop.
I was shocked at how quickly Juan’s downward spiral was. Do you think the Siege at Forli was the downfall for his character?
Yeah. I think there is the syphilis as well which he had before Forli. The one issue I’ve always had is I wanted to elongate certain sections. Every episode has so much stuff going on and so many great meetings whether it’s the fight between Juan and Cesare or Lucrezia meeting her different lovers or it’s the pope talking to different people about political machinations. I always wanted to have Juan in Spain. I wanted to have a month where I could go over with my own unit of shooting where he finds himself a wife, but that’s not to be.
Do you think Juan was different when he came back from Spain?
Neil [Jordan] was always keen on Juan coming back different and secure and grounded. That’s how I wanted to play it when he came back. I think the shock of Lucrezia actually manning up and trying to kill him had a huge effect as well. He’s growing and maturing, his pleasures were being taken away from him. He definitely was becoming an adult. Certainly there are moments in the second season where he manipulates other people in a similar the way they’ve been manipulating him. The scene between Jeremy and myself with the dagger is a last ditch frantic attempt at trying to win him over. It’s kind of successful in a weird way. He’s just a bit useless at that point.
Do you think Juan was genuine in the knife scene? Do you think he would have killed himself?
Yeah I think so. I think if there’s one aspect of Juan that never changes throughout both seasons is he always does what it true inside him whether it’s an attempted rape or trying to win a war. I also believe if Lucrezia hadn’t come over in the first season during the first war, he would have led all his troops into death. He’s not afraid of dying in that sense, he’s afraid of not being liked or loved and being left by his family. If Jeremy disowned him he would have done it. I don’t think he’s a coward in that sense. I don’t even think he’s that much a coward. It’s just his entire family, whether they know it or not, has been ganging up on him from the very beginning of the first season. What’s the problem with him? I think he’s lovely. I think he’s really kind and compassionate and cuddly.
Do you think Juan is jealous of Lucrezia’s and Cesare’s relationship?
Definitely. There’ a great little scene which we shot on the third from last day which is Juan in the opium den scene, looking up at the ceiling with the smoke everywhere where he says, “I think my brother and sister are having congress,” which is the first time anyone in the entire series. I mean the audience had been thinking that for awhile that something twisted was going on between them and the fact that Juan is aware of this and concerned by this is quite an interesting one. I don’t think he’s jealous of them being together. I think he’s jealous of not being a part of it as well. When he forgives Cesare at the end saying how they’re brothers and wants to be together, I think that’s genuine. That’s the first time you realize what he’s always wanted. He just wants to be a part of the family and at every turn they’ve not allowed him. They’ve always pushed him away which is a great a shame.
In Juan’s final scene, I thought there might have been some reconciliation between the two brothers.
It gets very close doesn’t it? It’s interesting that Juan’s attempt at relieving pain is through closeness and hugging and love. Cesare’s attempt to relieve pain is through murder and fratricide and that’s very interesting. It would have been quite nice to have seen where the character could have gone next, but I think what it certainly sets up is (God knows what will happen in Season Three) the downfall of the family. It will be a very different family without him. They will need different things to get annoyed by.
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Exclusive interview with François Arnaud explores Cesare and 'The Borgias'
François Arnaud plays Cesare in The Borgias. I like both François Arnaud as Cesare and David Oakes as Juan, but I am really team Cesare.  
I found this interview with Arnaud from June 14th about his character, Cesare Borgia, and where The Borgias will go now that Cesare's troublesome little brother, Juan, officially is out of the way.
Have you started filming third season of The Borgias yet?
No. I’m starting the third season next week. I’m going to Budapest on June 23rd. I’m also doing a movie called Copperhead which is an American Civil War movie. So we’re shooting now. We just wrapped today (June 14). I’m going back home for eight days and then flying to Budapest on the 23rd for bootcamp. I need to do some training with the stunts master for like eight days before the rest of the cast arrive to get ready for a lot of action for season three.
Do you have a background for horseback riding and sword fighting before you started The Borgias?
Not in horse riding. I’ve done a little when I was 12, but I’d completely forgotten it. In season one it was the most horse riding I’d ever done. I got better by season two and we work with great people, Peter Miles who is the stunt coordinator. I’ve worked on some amazing movies with Tom Cruise. So there’s some sword fighting, but mostly stage fighting which is a little bit different, but I’ve done a little of that in drama school.
How did you get the role of Cesare?
I had an agent in L.A. and he sent me the script for The Borgias. I sent a tape for it since there was casting in London and then a couple of days later, like 24 hours later, I got a call from Neil Jordan saying he wanted to meet me. Then they flew me over to London the first time just to audition with him and the casting director and then another time to test with Jeremy Irons. So it was like a two month long process.
Do you remember what scene they had you audition?
Yeah. I remember it was a scene in the first episode where I confront my father and he wants to make me a cardinal. I wasn’t a cardinal by then, I was just a bishop. He forces a cardinal hat on my head and I remember the day of the audition Jeremy had no cardinal hat. He only had his cowboy hat. (Laughs) So it was like a different [scene] completely.
Do you have a favourite scene this season?
Some of my favourite scenes are in the finale. I thought it was a great episode when I first read it. Everything I’ve been feeling as Cesare kind of came together. [In the finale] I confessed to my father about Juan’s murder. It was a very headstrong scene I thought. I love working with Holliday [Grainger] and Sean Harris too. It feels like walking on air really. It just feels so natural and we all connect to one another.
Where will The Borgias go now that Juan is out of the way?
I think there’s still a long way to go. Obvious the rivalry between the brothers was a big part of season two and now that that’s over with we’re going to need some more enemies. When the rest of the family hears about Juan’s death I think it’s like a bomb just dropped. It doesn’t really resolve any conflict. There’s that and early in season three we understand that the Borgias have a lot more enemies than they thought and I feel that Cesare is going to go after every single one of them.
What was that scene like killing Juan?
It was an intense scene to do. We had been working on this rivalry between the two brothers for so long that there’s a certain sense of closure that comes with the scene, but also it was his [David Oakes’] last scene on the show too. I think it was the last thing that we shot in season two actually so David was such a big part of The Borgias on and off screen that is was a bit sad to see him go. It was time for my character to take the final step and go somewhere else.
Do you think Cesare believed Juan was going to destroy the family or killing him was a means to get what Cesare wanted?
I think he had different reasons for doing that. Obviously Juan has become dangerous for the rest of the family and for Lucrezia’s baby and he hadn’t been much use as head of the papal army. He was a bit of a wreck at that point of dying from syphilis. Those are all reasons that made it possible for Cesare to finally do what he wanted to do for years really. I think it’s still fuelled by envy and rage, but I think he finds some morally righteous reasons to commit that act, but still I think it’s out of envy and anger.
Was the fire real in 'World of Wonders' or was it all CGI?
No, there was a lot of fire actually. It was really hot. I had dry ice for two weeks after that. Steven Berkoff was a trooper, who plays Savonarola, actually did quite a bit himself like even when they set him on fire it was a stuntman wearing a mask of Steven’s face, but it was all pretty real. I don’t think there was any CGI.
So when you see fire on his robe that’s all real?
Yeah. They actually set a guy on fire. I mean he’s wearing layers and layers of cold cream and woollen robes, but it was great. Steven Berkoff was amazing and also the conversations I’ve had with him in between takes. I mean he’s a fascinating man. He’s an actor, a director; he’s directed some of the great actors of the 20th century. He was fascinating to talk to.
Do you think Cesare ever was afraid Savonarola would survive the fire?
No. I don’t think so, not at first, definitely not when he challenged him to do it, but maybe when Savonarola is starting to walk through fire I think there might be a little moment where he wonders. Same thing like with the plaster cannons in episode three. It was pretty risky actually. That could have failed miserably.
Did you ever read Machiavelli’s The Prince as inspiration for your role?
During the first season I read The Prince a couple of times. It became like my Bible for the character. I think Machiavelli’s character is interesting on the show. They’re so clever, both of them, and they both inspire each other and it’s great.
What is it like working with Sean Harris?
(Laughs) I mean he’s nothing like Micheletto, but he keeps a lot to himself and is very reserved and composed, but since our characters are so close and have such a unique relationship, I think he kind of lets me in a little more than he does with others. That relationship between Cesare and Micheletto is so different from anything else that I’ve ever seen or known. It’s not exactly friendship, it’s not master and slave either, it’s not brotherhood, it’s something really unique that they’re kind of figuring out themselves so it keeps you on the edge. You can’t fully trust that person either, not from the start anyway, so you can see that trust and that bond developing and I think that’s great. That’s the great thing about doing a series; you have that time to do these things.
Will we see Cesare's and Lucrezia's close relationship from Season one re-emerge in Season Three?
I think we’ll get some closure on that. They’ve grown up a little bit. They can’t be as childish anymore. There was an innocence in that relationship that I think was beautiful actually, but I think you’ll see in Episode 10 in the finale as well where you see that moment when Cesare kind of decides to move on because he feels that he needs to move on and move away really, but then I think season [three] will bring them back together.
Did you know you were going to kill Giovanni Sforza in season two?
Oh yeah. I knew from the start and made sure that it would happen. That was a very intense scene.
You had some sexy scenes with Gina McKee in 'The Choice.' Was that awkward?
She was lovely. I get to work with such brilliant British actors that I’ve never seen onstage because I’m not from London. With Gina McKee I heard so much about her and I was impressed. She was lovely from the start. It is touchy material to begin with because it’s seduction, but it’s also power play and they’re sex scenes, but they’re not love scenes. It’s about who’s in control and letting the other one be on top of the situation. So yeah, she was great.
How was it like working with Jeremy Irons?
Jeremy is great. He’s such an experienced, seasoned actor. I was terrified when I started working with him, but very early on he made it clear we were in a working relationship and we’d be working as equals regardless of what his background was and I think he’s been great. He calls me the night before a big scene and we talk about what we want to do or we think what we could have done better or how we can improve it next time.
It’s a really great relationship and he’s a hard worker. He really comes to set completely prepared. Sometimes he questions a lot of the lines, but I think it’s great he wants to be comfortable with everything he has to do and I think that’s very inspiring. He never just mimics something or he does something because he was asked to. He needs to understand before he does it. I think that’s why he comes across as genuine.
Do you have any siblings?
I have a younger sister who I love more than anything else. I would do anything to protect her and I wouldn’t stab her ever. If anyone tried to I probably would stab them.
David Oakes said you kept missing the pad and stabbing him in the stomach.
What a wanker! He kept moving all over the place. He kept sliding up and down and it never was in the same place twice so I probably did stab him in the stomach. He’s been baiting me for two years, so he probably got what he deserved.
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Alice Perrers

Whore? Or just a woman ahead of her time?

There was ... in England a shameless woman and wanton harlot called Ales Peres, of base kindred ... being neither beautiful or fair, she knew how to cover these defects with her flattering tongue.

Just recently I finished The King's Concubine by Anne O'brien, a story about Alice Perrers who was the mistress to King Edward III, and  I found her story fascinating. She defiantly deserves a place on this blog. Her story is amazing, she is one of the many women in history who are born centuries too early. She is given a bad reputation, but I think that should change that; she started as a nobody and rose up to be one of the most powerful women in 14th Century England. So I would like to dedicate this post as a tribute to her.

Alice was born in 1348 when England was at the mercy of The Black Death that was sweeping across Europe. She wasn't of high breeding or had wealth or family connections. Her parents were probably a town labourer and a taven whore, we don't know for sure as she was left at the doorstep St Mary's in Barking in Suffolk. There she grew up, surrounded by nuns and was destined to become one herself.

When she was around 14, she was taken to the household of Janyn Perrers,where she became his wife, but only in name as the marriage was never consummated as he only wanted a wife to take care of him in his old age and not to give him pleasure. Alice was treated liked a servant: brought in the plates for dinner, cleaned the house etc. When Jany died Alice was left with nothing. Not a penny to her name. Destitute. No family or friends. The only place she could return to was St Mary's.
Queen Phillipa

In 1363, Queen Phillipa came to St Mary's and met Alice. Phillipa decided to created her as one of ladies-in-waiting. Why? Alice wasn't of high birth like the Queen's ladies were supposed to be. Alice was not beautiful but plain and "famously ugly". So why did the Queen want her at court?

Phillipa was ill. She could no longer satisfy her husband anymore. She needed someone to give him the pleasure she could no longer give. Somebody she could trust. That somebody was Alice.

At the age of only 15, Alice was led to the King's chambers where the she would become the King's mistress. King Edward was 50 years at the time, 36 years Alice's senior, he was old enough to be her grandfather and she his granddaughter, but he took her anyway. It was rumoured that she used witchcraft to become part of the Queen's household and lure the king into a sexual liaison that he would never escape from.


Before Edward had never had a mistress because he loved his wife to much to betray her with another woman. He was happy even though Phillipa couldn't share a bed with him anymore, he still stayed faithful. It was only when Phillipa had asked him to think about taking a mistress did his attention turn to Alice. Was the Phillipa's great plan? Maybe so.
Even though Phillipa had given her consent, Edward and Alice were committing adultery, a great sin, especially when the Queen was very much alive.

Edward gave his young lover everything that she desired: jewels, houses, land, he could not refuse her. She bore him 3 children: a son named Sir John de Southeray (c. 1364-1383), and two daughters, Jane and Joan.

 In 1369, Phillipa died at Windsor Castle. The affair between the king and his young lover was made public.


After his queen's death, Edward locked himself away from the court and Alice. It was by intervention made by some powerful lords, including the King's third surviving son John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (it is from him that King Henry VII had his right to the throne as his great-great grandson through his mother's side) persuading Alice to speak to the King to become out his "sanctuary" and thus, becoming his Concubine (a woman in an ongoing, marriage-like relationship with a man with whom she cannot be married for a specific reason, i.e. social ranks or that he is already married.) The word, concubine, originates from around 1250–1300 from  Middle English, Anglo-Norman, and Latin. Concubīna translates“to lie together”.


Alice was now a "wife" figure to Edward, but wasn't married to him. She was his lover and confidant. By the king's command she was given Phillipa's jewels which was worth £20,000 and was dressed in golden robes and proclaimed as "The Lady of the Sun". She was Queen in all but name.


Perrers owned 56 manors surrounding the capital: the manor of Gains (probably at Upminster) in Essex; in 1367, she held in custody the lands of Robert de Tiloil. Only 15 were gifts, the other 35 she had bought with her own money. She had become the most  powerful woman in England. With the number of properties she owned she qualified for a earldom if she was a man.


As she rose into favour with the King she gained more and more enemies in the court who were jealous of her power over the King. She was nothing! She deserved nothing! Certainly not the King's affection and favour.


The Bishop of Rochester wrote that "it is not fitting that all the keys should hang from the belt of one woman." Thomas Walsingham (a monk at St Albans) said "no one dared go against her."

During her height of power controlled public policy, ran the royal palaces, nursed the King, st on the King's seat in the law court and traded with sophisticated merchants of London, helping herself to the royal funds intended to help the English army fighting the French. Rumours spread that she sneaked in her merchant step-daughter into the royal chamber for a three or foursome.

She married Sir William Windsor in secret without the King's blessing. Windsor was a Westmorland knight and the royal lieutenant in Ireland. It is unknown when she married him, but it seemed to be more of "business arrangement" rather than a "act of love and passion".

After this marriage was revealed in 1376, the King of course was furious that HIS MISTRESS was sharing herself with another man without him knowing. She was tried by government for corruption. It wasn't banishment from court and retiring to the country but instead banishment from the kingdom. Basically her punishment was exile. Later she was able to return to England and work to regain her lands that were taken from her by the lords in government who claimed they were only property of the crown, which we know they weren't all. It was not until tragedy struck that she came back to court.

In 1377, Edward became gravely ill and would not recover. He was on his deathbed. He kept calling out for Alice, so she was sent to return to court.

She sat by Edward's side as he laid dying. Where was his family? His children? His friends? Alice was the only person there including a priest so Edward could confess his sins and perform the final rites along with a servant.

Edward died at the age of 65 leaving his ten year old grandson Richard as the new King of England. The new king's mother, Joan of Kent, barred Alice from attending her lover's funeral. How cruel can you be?

Alice lived in Essex with William during the next two decades trying to get back her lost property. She never got back what was hers or the wealth of her glory days. They had no children that is recorded. The main problem might have been that he spent most of his time in Ireland as part of his duty to his King and country, while she took care of his estate. In 1384, William died. He left everything to his sisters instead of Alice, which proves that she didn't give him a child of his own or he would of left her more.

Alice lived to the age of 52 and died in 1400. She left her daughters land as her son was settled and in favour of Richard II, his nephew. 

I think that Alice doesn't deserve the bad reputation that she has gotten over 600 years later. Her story is very tragic. Abandoned by her parents, forced to marry a stranger who left her widowed with not a single shilling to her name, forced to become the King of England's mistress, hated by the court, called a whore, banished. It is a real love story with love, sex, betrayal, drama, romance and danger.


Alice Perrers was a remarkable woman who deserves more credit than she is given by history. Her future was weaved by Phillipa when she brought Alice to court and sent her to the King's chambers.
Was she a whore or just a woman ahead of her time? You can decide that, but I think that she was just a woman who was ahead of her time. Thats the problem with this period of time, the woman are brave, intelligent and "have some balls". They would of been better of living now in the present. Just think of how different the world would be. But than the past would be different. Alice is proof of this. 

 She was a woman who raised herself from nothing to another remarkable woman in history. She wrote the book on how to be good mistress which her successors i.e. Anne Boleyn used. She is worthy of the praise that I give her and historians give her a bad reputation which she clearly didn't deserve. I applaud Anne O'Brien on her new book about this fine woman who came from nothing to become a somebody.

Sources:
The King's Concubine by Anne O'brien

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