Read of the Week

This past weekend I was really excited to jump into Blood Will Tell: A Medical Explanation for the Tyranny of Henry VIII by Kyra Kramer. The book is a very interesting look at the mental and physical decline of Henry VIII and a possible explanation. Her theory is that Henry VIII's blood was Kell positive. As such, he would have had an extraordinarily difficult time fathering healthy children who thrived. Kell negative women who have children by Kell positive fathers have fine pregnancies the first time around, but develop an "allergy" to the Kell antigens afterwards, causing future fetuses to miscarry or die early in infancy.

Kramer, a medical anthropologist, does a commendable job of dissecting Henry VIII's medical, psychological, and behavioral history. She walks through the reproductive trials and tribulations of each of his first two wives examining how Henry's possibly Kell-positive status could have affected Anne and Katherine's pregnancies. It's entirely plausible and incredibly fascinating.

Kramer does not just give surface information and expect the reader to agree with her. Her research has immense depth; postulating that Henry may additionally have suffered from McLeod syndrome, a disorder that interestingly enough can cause major personality changes, including paranoia and schizophrenia. The author does an impeccable job of bringing together science and history to write an engaging and thoughtful book that humanizes Henry VIII, helping to lessen the historically accepted view of the lecherous, obese monster.

I commend Kramer for her incredible use of citations, she made this book a researcher's heaven. Her bibliography is extensive and impressive; pulling not only from historical and medical sources but also from sociology and anthropology. The book is well rounded, and impeccably researched.
Her tone is logical and professional, her own thoughts are carefully concealed, allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions. I enjoyed her style, because I did not feel led on to believe her theory blindly.

Kramer doesn't let her own voice intrude very much in her narrative, choosing to maintain a very  smooth, logical tone that fits well with the medical report style of the book. The one thing I think he could have improved on was to write for a more diverse audience. The book is fascinating, but if you are not a Tudor historian her lack of background/contextual narrative would have made the book difficult to read. All in all, I really enjoyed this book, it added a lot of nuance to my conceptions about Henry VIII. I suggest it for all readers who want to understand more about the man Henry VIII truly was, even if you do not accept her medical explanation for his decline.

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