Fascination with the Tudor family and Court, from the late Medieval period into the Elizabethan, never seems to fade. Here are some highly-rated and well-researched books about the period.
Tudor: Passion. Manipulation. Murder. The Story of England’s Most Notorious Royal Family (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $14.99)
The Tudors are England’s most notorious royal family. But, as Leanda de Lisle’s gripping new history reveals, they are a family still more extraordinary than the one we thought we knew.
The Tudor canon typically starts with the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, before speeding on to Henry VIII and the Reformation. But this leaves out the family’s obscure Welsh origins, the ordinary man known as Owen Tudor who would fall (literally) into a Queen’s lap—and later her bed. It passes by the courage of Margaret Beaufort, the pregnant thirteen-year-old girl who would help found the Tudor dynasty, and the childhood and painful exile of her son, the future Henry VII. It ignores the fact that the Tudors were shaped by their past—those parts they wished to remember and those they wished to forget.
By creating a full family portrait set against the background of this past, de Lisle enables us to see the Tudor dynasty in its own terms, and presents new perspectives and revelations on key figures and events. De Lisle discovers a family dominated by remarkable women doing everything possible to secure its future; shows why the princes in the Tower had to vanish; and reexamines the bloodiness of Mary’s reign, Elizabeth’s fraught relationships with her cousins, and the true significance of previously overlooked figures. Throughout the Tudor story, Leanda de Lisle emphasizes the supreme importance of achieving peace and stability in a violent and uncertain world, and of protecting and securing the bloodline.
Tudor is bristling with religious and political intrigue but at heart is a thrilling story of one family’s determined and flamboyant ambition.
George Boleyn: Tudor Poet, Courtier & Diplomat (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $3.99)
George Boleyn has gone down in history as being the brother of the ill-fated Queen Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII, and for being executed for treason, after being found guilty of incest and of conspiring to kill the King.
This biography allows George to step out of the shadows and brings him to life as a court poet, royal favourite, keen sportsman, talented diplomat and loyal brother. Clare Cherry and Claire Ridgway chart his life from his spectacular rise in the 1520s to his dramatic fall and tragic end in 1536.
George Boleyn: Tudor Poet, Courtier and Diplomat is divided into three sections – Beginnings, Career and Influence, and End of an Era – and topics include:
– George Boleyn’s poetry
– Personal attributes and social pursuits
– Religion
– George’s marriage to Jane Parker
– The Reformation Parliament and the League of Schmalkalden
– George the Diplomat
– The fall of the Boleyns, arrests and trials
– The aftermath of their fall
– George Boleyn, Dean of Lichfield, and the Clonony Castle Boleyns
The biography is fully referenced and includes chapter notes, bibliography and useful appendices.
The Time Traveler’s Guide to Elizabethan England (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $7.99)
An entertaining, accessible guide to Elizabethan England—the latest in the Time Traveler’s Guide series
Acclaimed historian Ian Mortimer shows readers that the past is not just something to be studied; it is also something to be lived.
Using diaries, letters, books, and other writings of the day, Mortimer offers a masterful portrait of daily life in Elizabethan England, re-creating the sights, sounds, and customs of the sixteenth century from the perspective of both peasants and royals.
Through this lens, we can begin to understand Queen Elizabeth’s subjects not only as a people profoundly shaped by the time in which they lived, but also as the people who shaped the world we know and the people we are today.
ELIZABETH – The Virgin Queen and the Men who Loved Her: A Series of Biographical Sketches from the Elizabethan Court (5/5 stars, currently priced at $2.99)
The Elizabethan golden age was peopled by a court of flamboyant and devoted men – each one unique, ambitious and talented.
At its centre was a woman, Elizabeth, the Tudor princess who succeeded to the throne of England in 1558 and who vowed to her Parliament to remain unwed and a Virgin Queen for the rest of her life.
How did such a diverse group of red-blooded men view their ‘Gloriana?’ What were their aims and intentions? What were their dreams? And just how did Elizabeth manage to control and manipulate them?
A unique blend of fact and fiction brings the Elizabethan court and its inhabitants to life in an evocative series of biographical sketches that will inform and entertain in equal measure.