Camilla outlines her hopes for new project The Reading Room

Camilla’s new Instagram book club called The Duchess of Cornwall Reading Room has recommended Hilary Mantel’s ‘The Mirror and the Light’. This is the final book in a historical fiction trilogy about Henry VIII and his adviser Thomas Cromwell, following on from the Man Booker Prize winners Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies. The trilogy follows Henry VIII’s decision to break from Rome and marry Anne Boleyn, and then Anne’s fall from grace and eventual execution.

Not only is this an interesting choice for Camilla due to the royal link, but it is arguably a nod to Princess Diana.

This is because Diana has some striking and tragic similarities to Anne Boleyn.

For one thing, both Diana and Anne married a King or future King, but were actually the younger sister of someone he was originally seeing.

What’s more, both their marriages went horribly wrong and both met an untimely death.

Prince Charles originally met Diana through her sister Lady Sarah Spencer, later McCorquodale.

The pair were dating for a short while, but Charles called it off after a terrible row over Sarah’s comments to the press.

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Sarah had told reporters she would not marry Charles “if he were the dustman or the King of England”.

She also told them about her history of alcohol issues, how she had “thousands of boyfriends” and how she had started keeping a scrapbook of all the press clippings about her and Charles.

When she showed the prince the article, he was furious.

It was Sarah’s younger sister Diana, whom Charles first met when she was 16, who would go on to become his wife.

Netflix’s The Crown season four depicted their first meeting in Sarah’s house, where a shy Diana made an impression on the heir to the throne.

Similarly, Henry VIII, who broke from the Roman Catholic Church to marry Anne Boleyn, was originally in a relationship with her older sister Mary.

Mary, who was maid of honour to Henry’s first wife Catherine of Aragon and married a wealthy courtier in 1520, became Henry’s mistress for a time.

The start and end date of their affair is unknown.

It was claimed that one or both of Mary’s children were fathered by the King, although no evidence exists to support the argument that either of them were the King’s biological children.

Anne returned to England from France in 1522 and soon joined the royal court as one of Catherine’s maids of honour.

She was very popular at court, although the sisters reportedly moved in different circles.

When the King took an interest in Anne, she refused to become his mistress and by the middle of 1526, he was determined to marry her.

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His lust for Anne and desire for a legitimate son to protect his royal legacy cemented the idea that he must annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

However, the pope would not allow this and excommunicated Henry, so he set up the Church of England and married Anne in 1533.

The unusual love triangle between the King and the two Boleyn sisters was portrayed in the 2008 film The Other Boleyn Girl, based on a 2001 novel of the same name.

Sadly, both Diana’s and Anne’s marriage ended up turning bad, with their royal husbands seeking pleasures elsewhere.

Charles and Diana struggled with their age gap and infidelity, especially Charles’ feelings for Camilla.

By 1986, Charles was seeing Camilla again and Diana sought comfort in the arms of others, including her riding instructor James Hewitt.

Anne Boleyn ‘shifts shape’ in historical depictions says expert

Their relationship deteriorated to such an extent that they officially separated in 1992 and divorced in 1996.

Henry VIII and Anne’s marriage started going sour when the Queen did not have a son.

After having their daughter Elizabeth, she had at least one miscarriage and possibly more.

Catherine of Aragon died in 1536 and around the same time Henry started courting Jane Seymour.

He also started saying that Anne had tricked him into marriage by deception or spells.

In the end, Henry – with the help of his adviser Thomas Cromwell – accused Anne of adultery and she was sent to the Tower of London.

Anne and Diana are also parallels in that they both died prematurely in tragic circumstances.

Just a year after her divorce was finalised, Diana was killed in a car crash in a Paris underpass after her chauffeur, who was three times over the legal limit for drink-driving, sped to avoid the paparazzi.

Diana, her companion Dodi Fayed and their driver Henri Paul all died, while their bodyguard survived the crash.

Diana, who was 36 when she died, left behind 15-year-old Prince William and 12-year-old Prince Harry.

Charles married Camilla seven-and-a-half years later, in 2005, in a civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall.

Back in Tudor Times, Anne was arrested on May 2, 1536, and taken to the Tower of London by barge.

She was found guilty of adultery, incest and treason, and famously beheaded on May 19.

They also arrested several men accused of committing adultery with her including a Flemish musician in her service called Mark Smeaton, three courtiers named Sir Henry Norris, Sir Francis Weston, Sir William Brereton and her own brother George Boleyn.

All five of them were executed.

Two other courtiers were arrested but later acquitted.

Anne, who was between the ages of 28 and 35 when she died, left behind her two-year-old daughter who went on to become Queen Elizabeth II, who reigned for 44 years.

Henry married Jane Seymour just 10 days after her execution day.

There are also some similarities between Camilla and Anne.

Both women were the King or future King’s second wife and initially started their relationship while he was still married to his first wife.

Both hit certain constitutional roadblocks when it came to marrying the person they really wanted, but made it work in the end.

Of course, however, Henry turned on Anne after just three years of marriage, while Charles and Camilla are still going strong after 15 years.

Nevertheless, it is possible Camilla saw the parallels between Anne Boleyn, Diana and herself when making this intriguing book recommendation.

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