In 1540, just five years after the king made Thomas Cromwell the highest civil and religious authority in the land, after himself, he had him beheaded because he did not like Anne of Cleves, procured for the king by Cromwell. And, perhaps, Henry felt that Cromwell had risen too high, always a danger in Henry’s courts. Henry married his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, that very same day. The king seems to have made a practice of tying together murder and marriage.

Jane Rochford, George’s wife, did die by the sword just six years after Meg had said she might. Jane was found guilty of assisting in arranging clandestine meetings between Henry’s fifth wife, Anne’s cousin Catherine Howard, and Queen Catherine’s lover. Jane was imprisoned in the Tower, declared insane, and finally executed by a single blow of the ax in 1542.

Meg’s fuller story, of course, is mainly fictional but drawn from the time. Many women, then as now, give their lives to the call of service that goes unrecorded except by the One who notes all and never forgets.

To learn more about the Tudors and Sandra’s books, please visit www.sandrabyrd.com.

HISTORICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

Over the course of my life I have eagerly devoured hundreds of books, fiction and nonfiction, set in Tudor times and all have influenced and delighted me, but there are several books I hold in highest esteem and referred to time and again while writing this book. I’ve listed them below. In addition I was blessed with the resource of living historians. Principal among them was Lauren Mackay, Tudor researcher, scholar, and master of history/ Ph.D. candidate in Sydney, Australia. Lauren, you are a stealth weapon and I can’t express the fullness of my gratitude. Thanks to Professor Matt Panciera, Latinist at Gustavus Adolphus College, for his critical assistance with Latin. I would also like to thank the aptly named Memory Gargiulo for her Tudor historical insight and ready knowledge and Maureen Benfer, Tudor seamstress extraordinaire.

PRINCIPAL WORKS OF REFERENCE

Ives, Eric. The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn. 2005.

Starkey, David. Six Wives: The Queens of Henry the Eighth. 2004.

Tyndale’s New Testament. Translated by William Tyndale. A modern-spelling edition of the 1534 translation with an introduction by David Daniell. 1989.

Hamer, Colin. Anne Boleyn: One Short Life That Changed the English-Speaking World. 2007.

The Love Letters of Henry the Eighth, To Anne Boleyn: And Two Letters from Anne Boleyn to Cardinal Wolsey: With her last letter to Henry the Eighth, and the king’s love-letter to Jane Seymour. Re-printed from the Harleian Miscellany, with an introduction by Ladbroke Black. London: 1933.

Somerset, Anne. Ladies in Waiting: From the Tudors to the Present Day. 2004.

Thompson, Patricia. Sir Thomas Wyatt and His Background. 1964.

Zahl, Paul F. M. Five Women of the English Reformation. 2001.

Starkey, David, and Susan Doran. Henry the Eighth: Man and Monarch. 2009.

Worcester, Sir Robert, KBE DL, Chancellor, University of Kent, History of Allington Castle. 2007.

To Die For

Reading Group Guide

1. The book opens with a glimpse of the friendship between Meg and Anne as teenagers and follows them through courtship and marriage, treachery and setbacks, childbearing and childlessness, immense riches, and a final difficult plummet to death. How is the evolution of women’s friendships in the twenty-first century similar to, and different from, women’s friendships in the sixteenth century?

2. A major theme in the book is the balance of love versus duty. Each has its own rewards and costs. In which situations must the women in the book balance love and duty? Does one character have a better grasp on the balance than the other? What kinds of love-versus-duty conflicts do women today face?

3. Tudor women, even and perhaps especially the highborn, had extreme social limits on their autonomy, and yet they did have some personal and community power. How is that illustrated in the book? Which characters use their power only for personal gain, and which use their power for the good of others, and how? Did/do women have certain types of power that were/are unavailable to men?

4. Discuss the concept of small personal sacrifices for the greater gain of a group. Cranmer, in particular, would have felt that he was sacrificing Anne for a greater good. Do the ends ever justify the means?

5. Readers often have clear preferences on first- vs. third-person narration. Did the first-person narration of To Die For influence your feelings about the book, about Meg, about Anne? Since the author made a clear choice to present this in the first person, what would have been gained or lost by a third-person point of view?

6. Although the book is set nearly five hundred years ago, how are the women and men in it like people you know—your sister, your mother, a person who knifes you in the back at work? How are the men and women in this book different from people in your world? Which is better…. and why?

7. There is a quality-control concept that says you never know the temper of a metal until it is tested. Testing alone proves strength—and character. How is that played out for Meg? For Anne? For George Boleyn and Jane Rochford as well as others in the book? How has testing improved the quality of your relationships and your life?

8. Early in the book Meg laments that she is always the setting, never the stone. Later, at Westminster Abbey, she has an epiphany that while that is still true, she has been viewing it all wrong. In which arenas in life are you the stone, and in which the setting? Do you prefer one over another?

9. Books written about the Tudor court seem to be perennial favorites. Why do you think this period, more than many others, captures readers’ hearts? What does that say about human nature?

10. During the Tudor years, and many years thereafter, a person’s position in his or her family dictated affection, career, marriage, and financial well-being. Is that still true in any way? How?

11. Is Anne Boleyn, as depicted in this book, anything like the Anne Boleyn of common knowledge? Has reading this book informed or changed your opinion on Anne Boleyn in any way, and if so, how?

AUTHOR Q&A

1. Though many men in this novel are conniving and cruel, Meg’s father is particularly vicious and abusive. In your mind, why is he so angry? What prompted you to imagine him this way?

Very little is known about the real Henry Wyatt. We do know that he was imprisoned, and most likely tortured, for two years during the reign of Richard III for his support of Henry VII in an early revolt. Some research indicates he had a daughter the year he was released, in 1485 to 1486, with his first wife, who presumably died. He did not remarry or have another child for nearly fifteen more years.

Men were certainly allowed to beat their wives and children during this time period. It’s a possible application of the phrase “rule of thumb”; a man could beat them with a stick no thicker than his thumb. I wanted to show a common threat to women. Although it was abusive and harmful, most women developed the resilience to prevail and cope to the best of their abilities and resources. Meg certainly did.