Hillary Boleyn: Has Anything Changed in Half a Millennium?
As a writer of historical fiction, spending half my time in the present and half in the sixteenth century affords me an excellent platform for comparing two of my favorite female titans -- Anne Boleyn and her twenty-first century counterpart, Hillary Clinton.
Of course, the most obvious connection that the two women share is their attraction to rascals. Bill Clinton and Henry VIII (in the days before bloodlust got the better of him) were both big, handsome and brilliant. They were politicians extraordinaire, show-offs, charismatic and sexy, and adored by the masses. Henry wrote Greensleeves while Bill went on late night TV and played his sax. And both had the propensity for flinging away their codpieces the moment the "cod" beneath them stirred.
Shortly after Londoners realized their dear monarch, Great Harry, was taking counsel about marriage, foreign policy and religion from Miss Boleyn -- wrapped around Anne's proverbial sixth finger -- six thousand of them, armed with pitchforks and clubs, stormed the house on the Thames where she lived. Anne escaped with her life in a river dinghy. But that was the end of the young lady's reputation.
Her crime? Holding heavier sway over Henry's opinion than anyone else alive. Daring to go toe-to-toe with the English establishment. Blatantly flaunting her influence with the king. And this at a time when women were considered frail, inferior human beings who gave into lewd temptations -- entirely unfit by their very physical nature to hold power over men.
Shortly after moving into the White House with her man, Hillary Clinton walked straight into a hornet's nest reminiscent of Lady Boleyn's. Her husband deeply respected her opinions and gladly took her counsel, which she was only to happy to give.
And exactly like Anne, Hillary would not keep her mouth shut. She refused to bake cookies. She dared to be bold. She put the full brilliance of her mind on display. And God forbid, she dared to be ambitious.
The offense that garnered Anne Boleyn the most enemies in high places was her liberalism. In this case, religious liberalism. She was sick of the Catholic Church's chokehold on every soul in England and believed there was a better way to commune with God -- directly, without the necessity of priests.
So she did the unthinkable. In a country where Henry's title was not only "King" but "Defender of the Faith," she tucked into his meaty hands Lutheran tracts -- heretical books that were best read under the covers by candlelight, whose discovery could get a person burned at the stake.
She even went so far as to mark certain relevant passages with her fingernail, passages that showed her man he had every right to wrest the tall hat off the Holy Father's head and set it down on his own. That's exactly what came to pass. Henry crowed himself the Pope of the spanking new Church of England.
The Protestant Reformation was off and running.
It was good for England to finally have a choice. But Anne Boleyn became the most despised woman in her country's history.
Like Anne, Hillary took on a greater cause than her own personal betterment. She confronted America's "Megachurch with Two Heads" -- the pharmaceutical and health insurance industries. In her case, reprisal was swift. The press and the Republican Party descended on the White House like Anne's pitchforked rabble of six thousand. The First Lady was villainized, excoriated, lampooned and pilloried -- "Hilloried," if you will -- for that most dastardly of desires -- that all Americans receive universal health care.
Bring on the executioner!
Mrs. Clinton was cut off at the knees. Told in no uncertain terms to shut up. Anne Boleyn's fate was far darker than Hillary's. The once-proud Queen of England fell victim to her many jealous enemies and had a blind date with the swordsman from Calais.
Political muckrakers and spin doctors five hundred years ago had their way with Anne and her "legacy," saddling her for all posterity with the vilest of charges -- adulterer, traitor and perhaps most damaging, "witch." But using the "w" word could never happen in twenty-first century America. Could it?
A few weeks ago when our first female presidential candidate shed a few emotional tears on camera, one TV newscaster blithely reported that Hillary "melted like the Wicked Witch of the West." A cute turn of phrase, I wondered, or a premeditated choice of words meant to subconsciously fix a hateful image in the minds of millions of television viewers... and voters.
The "swiftboating" of an uppity woman in Tudor England worked then, and its influence continues today around the world. Most people don't recall Queen Anne for having given us Elizabeth, perhaps the greatest monarch of the last millennium, or her help in providing England its first taste of religious freedom.
No. She is most often remember as described in the refrain from the Kingston Trio's song: "With `er `ead tucked underneath her arm, she walks the Bloody Tower." And as recently as a few years ago, the nastiest of the rumors were revived as Anne sashayed through the pages of the mega-bestseller The Other Boleyn Girl, as an evil, brother-humping child-stealer who deserved her fate.
The modern day press and spin doctors have been having a ball spinning the "Hillary as Harridan" story to the outer limits of sensibility. Despite being vindicated in her early health care initiative -- with all the major Democratic candidates claiming some version of it for themselves - Hillary Rodham Clinton is "polarizing," "unelectable," "the Robo-Candidate."
For having the audacity to be a bold and ambitious woman, Anne Boleyn suffered the final indignity of burial in an arrow box so short that her severed head ended up in her lap.
If Hillary survives and receives the Democratic nomination, in November she may become the victor. As history is said to be "written by the victors," her presidency will no doubt be given a fair shot.
Heaven help her if she loses.
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
Gratz on using the world's biggest shoe-horn to try and link these two stories.
They simply don't compare. Let's start at the beginning, shall we? Henry already WAS king when Anne took him on (or vice versa.) Hill-Bill were a team before either of them achieved power. Anne (or more accurately, Anne's family) was interested in the king because of the influence he wielded. Who knows what evil forces drew the Clintons together, but let's not go there.
And crediting Anne with the Protestant Reformation in England? Just how did it take place in the rest of Europe, who lacked the spunky, proto-feminist you seem to see in Anne Boleyn?
Anne was not a witch and, as a matter of fact, I DO credit her with being Elizabeth's mother. 2 points for Anne. However Anne was, as were most women of the Renaissance, a pawn in a game played by men.
To claim that Hillary suffers from a similar lack of power and options is to strain credulity to the breaking point. No, PAST the breaking point. It just doesn't hold. The best that can be said as to similarities is that both these women have been beset by people who were men, in the majority. Hmmm . . . seems like a rather broad and useless comparison. File that.
I think actually tht Hillary compares very closely to the Wicked Witch of the East.
The more I see her and listen the more I mistrust her. Sorry, I tried to like her.
Never fear, I will support whomever our candidate is, I will just have to hold my nose.
Frankly, at this point, the fastest way to get a woman into the WH may actually be to vote for Obama, since he is likely to choose a woman as his running mate (e.g., Janet Napolitano) who will poised to win in 2016 -- and won't be dragged down by a rascal husband -- and her own poor character.
I think the column's author Maxwell is mistaking opposition to Hillary Clinton, the person as oposition to Hillary, a woman..whi
It is policy. It is stagnant political speech with no follow through. It is the cliche'd "triangulation influenced by the Clinton's penchant for hiring Penns and Morrises to be their faces. It is NAFTA and harmful legislation they champion such as the Iraq resolution. It is "win at any ethical cost."
It is going to Florida Monday to campaign and trying to get delegates, breaking her pledge not to. It is Bill smearing Obama's anti-war beliefs as disingenuous. It is her suggesting that she has been "fighting for us" since 1973.
And it is appaerently suggesting that Latinos won't vote for a black man..I hope the latter, having come out yesterday, turns out not to be true..
Shame on you for suggesting progressives are so regressive. Hillary's very bright but very wrong for the job and certainly not a modern day Boleyn.
That was a good comparison.
I can think of many things that are different. Such as the possibility for a woman to divorce her rascal husband. Something Hillary should have done at least 12 years ago. Frankly, she'd probably be in a better position today if she had.
Contrived analogy, imo.
Ms. Maxwell, I haven't read any of your books, but I assume they attempt to be reconstructions of historical events, with as little fiction as necessary to bring things to life and move the reader along, rather than "bodice rippers"?
If that is the case, I would suggest to you that, while your portrayal of Anne Boleyn as the innocent advisor of Henry VIII, unmotivated by the ambition for political power, has been far better researched (although the "brilliance" part might perhaps be a wee bit over the top) than the modern counterpart in your comparison.
If Hillary Clinton is known for anything at all, it's her overweening ambition and sense of entitlement to her goals. Not very Boleynesque. I would also question your attribution of "brilliance" to Mrs. Clinton, because I can't for the life of me imagine what you could list as "brilliant" in her record.
Your comparison, if anything, tends to underline her shortcomings, rather than entice anyone to choose her as their candidate.
I do have to admit, however, that the comparison of Bill Clinton to Henry VIII is strangely apt, but only inasmuch as both never hesitated to entangle their respective nations into their cod-motivated machinations, as you so well put it. But even so, Henry VIII's panache, you'll have to admit, eclipses Clinton's.
even though i'd much rather see kucinich in office, based on his truly progressive, conscious platform, i enjoyed the post, and i defend robin's allusions to the tearing up episode, which were vicious and pathetic. i'm not a fan on political grounds, but hillary has been damned if she did and damned if she didn't since she started this thing, and as a woman, i thank her for taking this one for the team.
expectations of her are really high, not just in the public, but in politics as well. like it or not, it is TOTALLY a good ole boys club, like so many other power centers, so the first few generations of women will have to infiltrate the system by compromising, appearing malleable, and letting the boys think they are still running the show, or they will NEVER let her play. blame them, not her.
it's hard to throw like a girl and still take it like a man, and none of the other candidates are required to do both at once. let's cut her some slack, stop the crucifixion for a bit, and see how it goes. hey, she's better than romney!
I am offended by the assertion that as a male I expect Hillary Clinton to shut up and bake cookies, or that I (or anyone) ever insisted on that. Not sure what world you're living in, or where you heard this, but in my neck of the woods, we don't think or say such things.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Methinks doth project too much. As in projecting a historic figure on a very unimpressive person like Hillary. Anyway, Hillary channels Eleanor Roosevelt. Remember? Look, the Clintons bully the press and the press rolls over all the time. She is hardly suffering the fate of Anne. How about she goes back to the senate and becomes majority leader? Then she can kick Bill to the curb and come out with Huma. Maybe even go back to old college look. Senator Hillary Rodham. Daughter of Sappho. Hubba-hubba.
AMEN.
Very insightful, so many americans talking about "change" these days when the candidate that has been working for it is right in front of them. 200+ years of male dominated White House, I am really voting for real change this year, and I have an experienced candidate as a bonus.
To stay true to historical parallel here, let's move forward to Queen Elizabeth I. Did she learn too much of intrigue from her father, or only what she needed to to hold the office? Run forward from that: James I, Charles I - and then Cromwell! The public finally had far too much of the royal tactics Henry VIII had perfected.
The tug between the Bushes and Clintons - today's War of the Roses? Can we put that behind us? Are we going to let the culture of lies and calculations build today until we require our own Cromwell to clean it out? Or is Obama Cromwell?
Another Hillary as victim diatribe. Once again, for all Hillary supporters: Whatever criticism and resistance Hillary Clinton faces in this election is NOT due to her gender. Her history of taking the politically expedient course as opposed to taking a stand based on real principle is a LEGITIMATE critique of ANYONE who wants to be president. The woman carries an air of entitlement, and a troubling tendency to spin, distort, manipulate, and dissemble, all in the interest of her own personal advancement. If Hillary supporters continue to make the pitch that she should be president because she gets picked on by the boys, I doubt that that will be a winning formula for their candidate. Let her stand on her votes, her history, and her positions. The rest is just a distraction from the obvious. I feel sorry for those of you who so DESPERATELY want to see a woman in the WH. Because I and many others, female and male, oppose Clinton as her party's nominee does not mean we are anti-women. It means that we're not for THIS woman. There are other females who ARE qualified for the job, and have the progressive history and credibility to get the support needed to secure the nomination. Unfortunately they are not currently running. Maybe next time?
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
