Notes

“When the King came riding in on his big, black horse, a murmur went up, because his tunic was stitched with the words, DECLARE I DARE NOT …. The words meant the King has a new love, but he dares not say her name. But everyone knows her name, of course. It is Anne Boleyn.”

England 1525. Allegiances are divided. Henry VIII wants to divorce his devoted wife Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn. For eleven-year-old Elinor Valjean, who lives in the Royal court, the conflict is about to become a personal one. She loves Queen Catherine, but now she will be forced to wait upon her supplanter… Elinor’s diary chronicles the turbulent years of Henry’s divorce from Catherine, and her role as bystander to one of the stormiest marriages in history.