The Other Boleyn Girl movie, based on the novel by Philippa Greogry, has fascinated audiences with its glamorous costumes, romantic scandals, and dramatic depiction of Anne and Mary Boleyn. But while it introduced many to the Tudor dynasty, its historical inaccuracies are both glaring and misleading. From rewriting Anne and Mary’s birth order, to erasing Henry Fitzroy, distorting Catherine of Aragon’s dignity, and even inventing a disturbing rape narrative between Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII, the film sacrifices truth for drama. In this fact-check, I’ll separate Tudor history from Hollywood myth, exploring what The Other Boleyn Girl got right, and where it went terribly wrong.

Inside This Post:

• The Older Sister Myth
• Ignoring Henry Fitzroy
• The Virgin Mary Boleyn?
• Catherine of Aragon Deserved Better
• The Henry Percy Romance
• Anne as a Slandered Schemer
• The Problematic Rape Narrative
• Mary Boleyn’s Lying-In
• The Incest Accusation
• The Final Lie

This is the movie that kick-started many a young woman’s foray into the Tudors. I read the book as a teenager and, despite being offended at the slanderous lies about Anne Boleyn, I found the author so talented at weaving them into the narrative, I could almost get caught up and believe in them.

Alas, the movie is neither faithful to the book nor any good on its own merit. It has a hideous beige-gold filter on it, which makes every scene look dark, uninspired, dingy, and ugly.

The cast is wonderful, but have nothing to work with on any level, although Kristen Scott Thomas gives such a compelling performance as Lady Boleyn it makes me wish she’d been playing Catherine of Aragon instead. She is the only sane voice of reason who has a moral backbone. Natalie Portman is tremendous as Anne, but the script can’t decide whether to make her a heinous bitch or someone we feel sorry for, which leaves her spinning like a windmill in a Kansas hailstorm. Eric Bana has no personality as King Henry and gives us no reason to care about him at all. He looks nothing like the real one (dark-haired, handsome, fit), and he… well, we’ll get into that. It is fun to see Mark Rylance play Thomas Boleyn a decade ahead of his mild-mannered Thomas Cromwell, though.

As usual, the historical inaccuracies are egregious. So, let’s get into them!

The Older Sister Myth

In this version of the story, Anne Boleyn is the older sister, and her parents see her potential from a young age; her father turns down a betrothal to William Carey for her and contracts him for Mary instead.

Historically, Anne was the younger of the two sisters. Which means her speeches about being older, being sorry she has no sexual experience to pass on wisdom to Mary, etc., are erroneous. (Their mother would have told Mary what to expect on her wedding night, rather than a sister.)

Ignoring Henry Fitzroy: The King’s Real Son

Henry is dissatisfied with Catherine of Aragon for bearing yet another dead son (her last child was a girl who lived several hours), and the Howard-Boleyns want to position themselves with a replacement baby-maker and choose Anne. Thomas Boleyn invites Henry to stay at their home in the country, where he hopes Anne can entice him. Her uncle, Sir Thomas Howard, says in particular, “Imagine if we could give him a son!”

This ignores the existence of Bessie Blount, who had already given the king a son. Henry felt pleased about this, gave his bastard titles and lands, and went on with his life, knowing an illegitimate child cannot inherit the throne. So, their goal of establishing either daughter as the mother of one of his children would not “get them anywhere” other than to have a bastard in the family.

Henry likely met Anne Boleyn in Calais, at The Field of the Cloth of Gold, since she had been in France prior to this, sent there as a lady-in-waiting to his sister. After the French king died, her sister Mary returned home, but Anne stayed in France and received the intellectual education that made her so interesting when she returned to England a half-decade later. This means Henry never stayed with the Boleyns, never chased after Anne on a horse, and did not fall and hurt himself, thus creating an instant aversion toward Anne.

The Virgin Mary Boleyn?

Mary Boleyn became Henry’s mistress in 1519 or 1520. Rather than the sweet, demure, virginal girl who goes to William Carey’s bed, and shyly becomes the king’s lover, it’s rumored she was the mistress of the King of France (there is no corroborating evidence). She was married at the time of her affair with Henry, and her husband received gifts of manors and estates as a reward for allowing it. Rather than being strangers, the two men knew one another, since Carey loved the same activities at court the king did, such as archery, jousting, riding, and hunting.

The story implies Mary becomes the love of his life until her pregnancy forces her into seclusion, allowing Anne to steal Henry away from her. Anne forces the king to agree never to speak to Mary again, in return for her promise she will bed him and give him sons. This creates a division between the two sisters, who were once close to each other.

Historically, we don’t know how Mary and Henry felt about each other, but Henry lost interest in her after a few years. There is no evidence she gave him a son, since Henry acknowledged his illegitimate son and likely would have done the same for hers. She and her sister were not close and associated little with each other, even after Anne returned from France.

Catherine of Aragon Deserved Better

I’m not a fan of how they portray Catherine of Aragon in this film. It’s a harsher depiction than in the novel, which is from Mary Boleyn’s point of view, who is in awe of how gracious, attentive, and proper the queen is, and incredulous that her sister dares to replace her. In the book, Catherine comes across as stately, dignified, and compassionate (much as her contemporaries described her at the time).

Here, the first time we meet her, she forces Mary to sing (off-key) in front of her ladies, to punish her for being brought to court as bait for the king. She puts both girls on the spot, is rude to them, and later, confronts Anne on her way to the trial by delivering a powerful speech about how Anne wants her to step aside, but she will not; how Anne wants her to lie about her marriage, but she will not, etc. The real Catherine would not have confronted Anne in public, or been rude or combative to her husband’s mistresses, however she felt inside. She had an awareness of court protocol and how to keep her reputation intact (she continued to “behave and act as queen” so much that Henry berated her for it, because she was not “distressed enough” about the court proceedings in public).

Once again, they’ve cast an olive-skinned, dark-haired woman instead of the auburn-blonde, fair-haired, round-faced Catherine.  

The Henry Percy Romance: Fact vs. Screen Fiction

The movie touches on Anne’s relationship with Henry Percy, the 5^th Earl of Northumberland, but has them marry in secret and share a bed before her uncle forces them apart. Anne gets sent to the French court as punishment.

In reality, the Earl refused the match because Anne lacked sufficient rank to be worthy of his son and heir (it’s believed Henry had an interest in Anne and that is the reason Cardinal Wolsey forbade it).

Rather than being banished to France in disgrace, Anne went there to serve the queen and receive a classical education. She came into contact with Reformists, since the king’s sister protected them from Catholic retaliation, and became stylish, intellectual, well-read, and articulate.

When Anne returns from France is the only time the movie seems accurate. She entertains the court with stories and mockeries of the French kings, matches wits with him, and captivates him with her fierceness, her independence, and her personal challenge to him to be “a great king” who does not shy away from finding his “equal” in a woman. I believe that’s true of Anne Boleyn. She was fiery, feisty, and an intellectual, which besides being a short brunette, made her more interesting than all the other dull, blonde women at the English court.

Anne as a Slandered Schemer

The film makes her and her uncle and her father out to be the schemers who want to lure Henry away from his wife into a relationship with her, when all the evidence suggests Henry was sexually harassing Anne for months. Sending back his gifts were on principle rather than to entice and bait him, because he was married and she wanted a good match and to preserve her reputation. It’s only when she gave him an ultimatum (she would not lie with him without being married) that he moved mountains to annul his marriage and be with her, and she got on board to become a queen.

The script blames Anne for everything—banishing Catherine, bringing Reform to England (as a political tool rather than a genuine conviction), and for being guilty of many moral crimes. Anne’s own family turns against her and is horrified by her desire to overthrow Catholicism, when in reality they saw this as a way to get power in England, and overturn the authority of Cardinal Wolsey.

The Problematic Rape Narrative

Henry feels so guilty and angry and ashamed of “getting rid of a good woman” in his wife that he marches into Anne’s chamber after the trial and demands she give herself to him. When she refuses, he rapes her.

Sigh.

Let’s pause here.

This rape narrative is not new; the screenwriter, Peter Morgan, lifted it from his own screenplay years earlier for the miniseries Henry VIII. In both versions, Henry and Anne have a violent argument that culminates in his assaulting her. When asked about it, Morgan said he wanted to be controversial.

I have a problem with this.

First, it makes the entire narrative pointless. If all Henry had to do was rape Anne to get what he wanted, why did he wait seven years to do it? Why overthrow his queen, put the country in turmoil, and wreak havoc among his family and friends, when he could just take her by force?

Second, I’m sick of victimizing women as plot points. It sucks, Hollywood. Stop. Doing. It.

Third, it feels like Morgan is implying here that she’s “asking for it.” Here’s this bitch who did all these bad things, and she needs punished, so by God, we’re going to turn Henry VIII into a rapist so he can teach her a lesson! It feels like the tired old misogynistic perspective of first making a famous historical feminist into a bitchy girl boss that nobody likes, and then giving her a comeuppance.

Strong women are evil. Make them undesirable and unlikable. Then punish them for their crime of not being a passive woman who does whatever the men around her want. If Anne had been a doormat like her sister Mary, she could have known the king’s love and tenderness, but because she saw what she wanted and went after it, she deserves a miserable life in which she is humiliated, assaulted, and degraded, then does not have a moment of happiness as the queen.

BOO. HISS.

Which is not fair to Henry, and it’s not fair to Anne, and it diminishes their entire relationship. Henry and Anne were “doing it” in France as soon as the annulment went through and got married in secret. She was pregnant with Elizabeth before the ink dried. But she waited until she could be sure her child would not be illegitimate before giving in to him.

The assault makes the rest of the movie depressing, because Anne has no moment of triumph. She isn’t happy at her coronation, and her marriage instantly falls apart, particularly after she has a baby girl.

That’s not what happened at all. It took time for their marriage to fall apart. And they were happy for a time.

The rape sends mixed messages about Henry. Are we supposed to feel sorry for him, being manipulated by this woman, which made him overthrow a good lady like Catherine and lose Mary forever? I guess not, since he turns around and rapes her, making him the villain. It’s like Morgan can’t think through the emotional implications of his own plot twists. (This was not in the book, by the way.)

Last, I don’t feel it’s appropriate to make Elizabeth I a rape baby. She grew up without a mother, with a psychopath for a father, who kept killing everyone she cared about or threatening to do so. The least you can do is to concede that her parents conceived her in love and lust and passion, which is what happened. Her dad wanted her mother so much, he tore apart a freaking kingdom to get her. He defied the greatest power on earth (the Catholic Church) and told them to bugger off, just to get Anne Boleyn into the sack.

Mary Boleyn’s Lying-In: What the Film Gets Right

Mary has trouble with her pregnancy, and they force her into a premature lying-in, which is pretty realistically depicted. They did indeed believe that for a safe, successful birth, the mother had to be in quiet situations without any stress. This meant covering the windows, making her a pleasant room, and not allowing her male visitors, which this film gets wrong since she several times receives visits from her brother and the king. People believed that men were an increasing source of stress on women, and so for a stable mood, the woman needed to be without her husband for a while. (Ha, ha, not wrong.)

The Incest Accusation: Fiction vs. Tudor Reality

As Anne spirals and miscarries a child she disposes of in secret (never happened), she begs her brother George to impregnate her so she can pass the child off as the king’s, but he finds himself unable to do it. In the novel, they sleep together, which causes her to experience multiple miscarriages. I don’t need to say why this is revolting, unfair to the historical figures, and wrong. It makes Anne guilty of the charges leveled against her and “deserve her fate,” which takes the sin away from Henry for framing an innocent woman and beheading her because he tired of her. The man was a monster; let’s not make him an innocent, injured third party.

At least the movie includes her trial, which most do not. And it has a realistic depiction of her death as well, from her trembling hands and undressing before the audience to her period-accurate gable hood.

The Final Lie: Mary Boleyn Raising Elizabeth I

Mary Boleyn never visited her in the Tower, nor pleaded with the king to spare her and her brother. She never returned to court after being banished and died in obscurity seven years later. Most importantly, she had nothing to do with raising Anne’s daughter, Elizabeth. As nice as the moment is of Mary marching through the palace halls into the nursery and taking the redheaded baby away to raise her in the country with her own children, it… never happened.

Minor quibbles:

• Anne shows the king a new sidesaddle, which allows women to ride on their own horses. This is 1520, and sidesaddles were invented in 1382.
• Anne offers to tell the king his fortune and says the Queen of France gave her ladies a “varied education.” But since Queen Claude was deeply pious and devout, she would not have allowed fortune-telling or tarot cards at her court, because they were superstitious “witchcraft.”
• William Carey just disappears; his death is never mentioned, so we’re left wondering why William Stafford is inviting Mary to live with him in the country. The movie does not mention she married him in secret and got banished from court because she married without royal consent to a man “beneath her new station” as the queen’s sister.

Curious what personality types feature in The Other Boleyn Girl? Check out my analysis here!

About the Author: Charity Bishop writes historical fiction, historical fantasy, and suspense novels that explores the darkness in human hearts, and the light that refuses to be extinguished. Discover her books.