The Private Life Of Henry Viii

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The Private Lives of the Tudors

Author : Tracy Borman
Publisher : Hachette UK
ISBN 13 : 1444782916
Total Pages : 509 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (447 download)

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Book Synopsis The Private Lives of the Tudors by : Tracy Borman

Download or read book The Private Lives of the Tudors written by Tracy Borman and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2016-05-19 with total page 509 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A BEHIND THE SCENES GLIMPSE INTO THE LIVES OF HENRY VIII, ANNE BOLEYN, ELIZBAETH I AND MORE, FROM BESTSELLING HISTORIAN TRACY BORMAN Readers LOVE The Private Lives of the Tudors: 'A truly informative and thoroughly enjoyable read.' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'It was an absolutely delight, and I read it in record time' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'I found this book riveting and took it on holiday!' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ---- 'I do not live in a corner. A thousand eyes see all I do.' Elizabeth I The Tudor monarchs were constantly surrounded by an army of attendants, courtiers and ministers. Even in their most private moments, they were accompanied by a servant specifically appointed for the task. A groom of the stool would stand patiently by as Henry VIII performed his daily purges, and when Elizabeth I retired for the evening, one of her female servants would sleep at the end of her bed. These attendants knew the truth behind the glamorous exterior. They saw the tears shed by Henry VII upon the death of his son Arthur. They knew the tragic secret behind 'Bloody' Mary's phantom pregnancies. And they saw the 'crooked carcass' beneath Elizabeth I's carefully applied makeup, gowns and accessories. It is the accounts of these eyewitnesses, as well as a rich array of other contemporary sources that historian Tracy Borman has examined more closely than ever before. With new insights and discoveries, and in the same way that she brilliantly illuminated the real Thomas Cromwell - The Private Life of the Tudors will reveal previously unexamined details about the characters we think we know so well. ---- Critical acclaim for The Private Lives of the Tudors: 'Borman approaches her topic with huge enthusiasm and a keen eye for entertaining...this is a very human story of a remarkable family, full of vignettes that sit long in the mind.' Dan Jones, The Sunday Times 'Tracy Borman's eye for detail is impressive; the book is packed with fascinating courtly minutiae... this is a wonderful book.' The Times 'Borman is an authoritative and engaging writer, good at prising out those humanising details that make the past alive to us.' The Observer 'Fascinating, detailed account of the everyday reality of the royals... This is a book of rich scholarship.' Daily Mail 'Tracy Borman's passion for the Tudor period shines forth from the pages of this fascinatingly detailed book, which vividly illuminates what went on behind the scenes at the Tudor court.' Alison Weir

Henry VIII and the Men Who Made Him

Author : Tracy Borman
Publisher : Hodder Paperbacks
ISBN 13 : 9781473649910
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (499 download)

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Book Synopsis Henry VIII and the Men Who Made Him by : Tracy Borman

Download or read book Henry VIII and the Men Who Made Him written by Tracy Borman and published by Hodder Paperbacks. This book was released on 2019-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'An outstanding work of historical artistry, a brilliantly woven and pacy story of the men who surrounded, influenced and sometimes plagued Henry VIII.' Alison Weir Henry VIII is well known for his tumultuous relationships with women, and he is often defined by his many marriages. But what do we see if we take a different look? When we see Henry through the men in his life, a new perspective on this famous king emerges. Henry's relationships with the men who surrounded him reveal much about his beliefs, behaviour and character. They show him to be capable of fierce, but seldom abiding loyalty; of raising men only to destroy them later. He loved to be attended and entertained by boisterous young men who shared his passion for sport, but at other times he was more diverted by men of intellect, culture and wit. Often trusting and easily led by his male attendants and advisers during the early years of his reign, he matured into a profoundly suspicious and paranoid king whose favour could be suddenly withdrawn, as many of his later servants found to their cost. His cruelty and ruthlessness would become ever more apparent as his reign progressed, but the tenderness that he displayed towards those he trusted proves that he was never the one-dimensional monster that he is often portrayed as. In this fascinating and often surprising new biography, Tracy Borman reveals Henry's personality in all its multi-faceted, contradictory glory.

The Private Life of Henry VIII

Author : Greg Walker
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 0857715925
Total Pages : 128 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (577 download)

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Book Synopsis The Private Life of Henry VIII by : Greg Walker

Download or read book The Private Life of Henry VIII written by Greg Walker and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2003-04-25 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alexander Korda's masterpiece "The Private Life of Henry VIII" was arguably the most important British film of the pre-war period and a phenomenal, critical and box-office success. Greg Walker's accessible and thoroughly researched book examines the film itself, its makers and its place in the cinematic and cultural history of the period. He examines Korda's subtle treatment of national and "international" identity, his representation of British history, use of modern stereotypes, and discusses the representation of gender and sexuality in the film, including that of Henry's wives and Laughton's award-winning central performance.

Reel History

Author : Alex von Tunzelmann
Publisher : Atlantic Books Ltd
ISBN 13 : 1782396470
Total Pages : 307 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (823 download)

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Book Synopsis Reel History by : Alex von Tunzelmann

Download or read book Reel History written by Alex von Tunzelmann and published by Atlantic Books Ltd. This book was released on 2015-10-01 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From ancient Egypt to the Tudors to the Nazis, the film industry has often defined how we think of the past. But how much of what you see on the screen is true? And does it really matter if filmmakers just make it all up? Picking her way through Hollywood's version of events, acclaimed historian Alex von Tunzelmann sorts the fact from the fiction. Along the way, we meet all our favourite historical characters, on screen and in real life: from Cleopatra to Elizabeth I, from Spartacus to Abraham Lincoln, and from Attila the Hun to Nelson Mandela. Based on the long-running column in the Guardian, Reel History takes a comic look at the history of the world as told through the movies - the good, the bad, and the very, very ugly.

Other Tudors: Henry VIII's Mistresses & Bastards

Author : Philippa Jones
Publisher : Fox Chapel Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1607652374
Total Pages : 348 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (76 download)

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Book Synopsis Other Tudors: Henry VIII's Mistresses & Bastards by : Philippa Jones

Download or read book Other Tudors: Henry VIII's Mistresses & Bastards written by Philippa Jones and published by Fox Chapel Publishing. This book was released on 2017-03-07 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Forget everything you thought you knew about Henry the Eighth. While Henry VIII has frequently been portrayed as a womanizer, author Philippa Jones reveals a new side to his character. Although he was never faithful, Jones sees him as a serial monogamist: he spent his life in search of a perfect woman, a search that continued even as he lay dying. This book brings together for the first time the 'other women' of King Henry VIII. When he first came to the throne, Henry VIII's mistresses were dalliances, the playthings of a powerful and handsome man. However, when Anne Boleyn disrupted that pattern, ousting Katherine of Aragon to become Henry's wife, a new status quo was established. Suddenly noble families fought to entangle the king with their sisters and daughters; if wives were to be beheaded or divorced so easily, the mistress of the king was in an enviable position. Yet he loved each of his wives and mistresses, he was a romantic who loved being in love, but none of these loves ever fully satisfied him; all were ultimately replaced. "The Other Tudors" examines the extraordinary untold tales of the women who Henry loved but never married, the mistresses who became queens and of his many children, both acknowledged and unacknowledged. Philippa Jones takes us deep into the web of secrets and deception at the Tudor Court and explores another, often unmentioned, side to the King's character.

The Children of Henry VIII

Author : Alison Weir
Publisher : Ballantine Books
ISBN 13 : 0307806863
Total Pages : 424 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (78 download)

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Book Synopsis The Children of Henry VIII by : Alison Weir

Download or read book The Children of Henry VIII written by Alison Weir and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2011-09-21 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Fascinating . . . Alison Weir does full justice to the subject.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer At his death in 1547, King Henry VIII left four heirs to the English throne: his only son, the nine-year-old Prince Edward; the Lady Mary, the adult daughter of his first wife Katherine of Aragon; the Lady Elizabeth, the teenage daughter of his second wife Anne Boleyn; and his young great-niece, the Lady Jane Grey. In this riveting account Alison Weir paints a unique portrait of these extraordinary rulers, examining their intricate relationships to each other and to history. She traces the tumult that followed Henry's death, from the brief intrigue-filled reigns of the boy king Edward VI and the fragile Lady Jane Grey, to the savagery of "Bloody Mary," and finally the accession of the politically adroit Elizabeth I. As always, Weir offers a fresh perspective on a period that has spawned many of the most enduring myths in English history, combining the best of the historian's and the biographer's art. “Like anthropology, history and biography can demonstrate unfamiliar ways of feeling and being. Alison Weir's sympathetic collective biography, The Children of Henry VIII does just that, reminding us that human nature has changed--and for the better. . . . Weir imparts movement and coherence while re-creating the suspense her characters endured and the suffering they inflicted.”—The New York Times Book Review

Henry VIII (Penguin Monarchs)

Author : John Guy
Publisher : Penguin UK
ISBN 13 : 0141977132
Total Pages : 149 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (419 download)

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Book Synopsis Henry VIII (Penguin Monarchs) by : John Guy

Download or read book Henry VIII (Penguin Monarchs) written by John Guy and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2014-12-04 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charismatic, insatiable and cruel, Henry VIII was, as John Guy shows, a king who became mesmerized by his own legend - and in the process destroyed and remade England. Said to be a 'pillager of the commonwealth', this most instantly recognizable of kings remains a figure of extreme contradictions: magnificent and vengeful; a devout traditionalist who oversaw a cataclysmic rupture with the church in Rome; a talented, towering figure who nevertheless could not bear to meet people's eyes when he talked to them. In this revealing new account, John Guy looks behind the mask into Henry's mind to explore how he understood the world and his place in it - from his isolated upbringing and the blazing glory of his accession, to his desperate quest for fame and an heir and the terrifying paranoia of his last, agonising, 54-inch-waisted years.

Thomas Cromwell

Author : Tracy Borman
Publisher : Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
ISBN 13 : 0802191665
Total Pages : 467 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (21 download)

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Book Synopsis Thomas Cromwell by : Tracy Borman

Download or read book Thomas Cromwell written by Tracy Borman and published by Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. This book was released on 2015-01-06 with total page 467 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An exceptional and compelling biography about one of the Tudor Age’s most complex and controversial figures.” —Alison Weir Thomas Cromwell has long been reviled as a Machiavellian schemer who stopped at nothing in his quest for power. As King Henry VIII’s right-hand man, Cromwell was the architect of the English Reformation; secured Henry’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon and plotted the downfall of his second wife, Anne Boleyn; and was fatally accused of trying to usurp the king himself. In this engrossing biography, acclaimed British historian Tracy Borman reveals a different side to one of history’s most notorious characters: that of a caring husband and father, a fiercely loyal servant and friend, and a revolutionary who was key in transforming medieval England into a modern state. Thomas Cromwell was at the heart of the most momentous events of his time—from funding the translation and dissemination of the first vernacular Bible to legitimizing Anne Boleyn as queen—and wielded immense power over both church and state. The impact of his seismic political, religious, and social reforms can still be felt today. Grounded in excellent primary source research, Thomas Cromwell gives an inside look at a monarchy that has captured the Western imagination for centuries and tells the story of a controversial and enigmatic man who forever changed the shape of his country. “An intelligent, sympathetic, and well researched biography.” —The Wall Street Journal “Borman unravels the story of Cromwell’s rise to power skillfully . . . If you want the inside story of Thomas Cromwell . . . this is the book for you.” —The Weekly Standard “An engrossing biography. . . . A fine rags-to-riches-to-executioner’s-block story of a major figure of the English Reformation.” —Kirkus Reviews “An insightful biography of a much-maligned historical figure.” —Booklist

1536

Author : Suzannah Lipscomb
Publisher : Lion Hudson
ISBN 13 : 9780745953656
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (536 download)

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Book Synopsis 1536 by : Suzannah Lipscomb

Download or read book 1536 written by Suzannah Lipscomb and published by Lion Hudson. This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The stereotype of Henry VIII presents us with the image of a corpulent, covetous, and cunning king whose appetite for worldly goods met few parallels, whose wives met infamously premature ends, and whose religion was ever political in intent. Moving beyond this caricature, 1536 - focusing on a pivotal year in the life of the King - reveals a fuller portrait of this complex monarch, detailing the finer shades of humanity that have so long been overlooked. We discover that in 1536 Henry met many failures - physical, personal, and political - and emerged from them a different man: a revolutionary new king who proceeded to transform a nation and reform a religion. A compelling story, 1536 shows what a profound difference can be made by changing the heart of a king.

Don't Lose Your Head

Author : Harriet Marsden
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1646041283
Total Pages : 215 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (46 download)

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Book Synopsis Don't Lose Your Head by : Harriet Marsden

Download or read book Don't Lose Your Head written by Harriet Marsden and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-02-16 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Survive alongside Henry VIII’s ill-fated wives with this witty book of essential life advice, history, and trivia—perfect for fans of the hit musical Six. Get the inside scoop from some of the toughest women in English history, as ex-wives, mothers, and daughters of King Henry VIII dish out all their survival secrets in this humorous guide to life. With a bit of sarcasm and friendly charm, each of these legendary ladies explains how their sixteenth-century hard-earned lessons (from living with unstable men to stifling Tudor traditions) apply to twenty-first-century dating, marriage, and feminism. Written from the perspectives of each of the different women around Henry VIII, you’ll get the facts from the Queen Mother and the less-remembered but no less important Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard, and more. With must-know historical trivia alongside wise life advice, Don’t Lose Your Head is the perfect survival guide for fans obsessed with Broadway’s latest historical pop musical Six, as well as anyone fascinated by British royalty and culture.

The Six Wives of Henry VIII

Author : Alison Weir
Publisher : Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
ISBN 13 : 0802198759
Total Pages : 676 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (21 download)

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Book Synopsis The Six Wives of Henry VIII by : Alison Weir

Download or read book The Six Wives of Henry VIII written by Alison Weir and published by Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. This book was released on 2007-12-01 with total page 676 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A “brilliantly written and meticulously researched” biography of royal family life during England’s second Tudor monarch (San Francisco Chronicle). Either annulled, executed, died in childbirth, or widowed, these were the well-known fates of the six queens during the tempestuous, bloody, and splendid reign of Henry VIII of England from 1509 to 1547. But in this “exquisite treatment, sure to become a classic” (Booklist), they take on more fully realized flesh and blood than ever before. Katherine of Aragon emerges as a staunch though misguided woman of principle; Anne Boleyn, an ambitious adventuress with a penchant for vengeance; Jane Seymour, a strong-minded matriarch in the making; Anne of Cleves, a good-natured woman who jumped at the chance of independence; Katherine Howard, an empty-headed wanton; and Katherine Parr, a warm-blooded bluestocking who survived King Henry to marry a fourth time. “Combin[ing] the accessibility of a popular history with the highest standards of a scholarly thesis”, Alison Weir draws on the entire labyrinth of Tudor history, employing every known archive—early biographies, letters, memoirs, account books, and diplomatic reports—to bring vividly to life the fates of the six queens, the machinations of the monarch they married and the myriad and ceaselessly plotting courtiers in their intimate circle (The Detroit News). In this extraordinary work of sound and brilliant scholarship, “at last we have the truth about Henry VIII’s wives” (Evening Standard).

The Private Life of Henry VIII

Author : Lajos Biró
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 148 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (243 download)

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Book Synopsis The Private Life of Henry VIII by : Lajos Biró

Download or read book The Private Life of Henry VIII written by Lajos Biró and published by . This book was released on 1934 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Creation of Anne Boleyn

Author : Susan Bordo
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN 13 : 0547999526
Total Pages : 448 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (479 download)

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Book Synopsis The Creation of Anne Boleyn by : Susan Bordo

Download or read book The Creation of Anne Boleyn written by Susan Bordo and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2013-04-09 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This illuminating history examines the life and many legends of the 16th century Queen who was executed by her husband, King Henry VIII. Part biography, part cultural history, The Creation of Anne Boleyn is a fascinating reconstruction of Anne’s life and a revealing look at her afterlife in the popular imagination. Why is her story so compelling? Why has she inspired such extreme reactions? Was she the flaxen-haired martyr of Romantic paintings or the raven-haired seductress of twenty-first-century portrayals? (Answer: neither.) But the most provocative question of all concerns Anne’s death: How could Henry order the execution of a once beloved wife? Drawing on scholarship and critical analysis, Bordo probes the complexities of one of history’s most infamous relationships. She then demonstrates how generations of polemicists, biographers, novelists, and filmmakers have imagined and re-imagined Anne: whore, martyr, cautionary tale, proto “mean girl,” feminist icon, and everything in between. In The Creation of Anne Boleyn, Bordo steps off the well-trodden paths of Tudoriana to tease out the human being behind the competing mythologies, paintings, and on-screen portrayals.

Fifty Classic British Films, 1932-1982

Author : Anthony Slide
Publisher : Courier Corporation
ISBN 13 : 0486148513
Total Pages : 162 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (861 download)

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Book Synopsis Fifty Classic British Films, 1932-1982 by : Anthony Slide

Download or read book Fifty Classic British Films, 1932-1982 written by Anthony Slide and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2013-01-18 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 200 striking photographs, in-depth commentaries, plot synposes, contemporary reviews, and more — about 50 British classics from yesterday and today. Preface. Text. Alphabetical list of films. Bibliography.

The Autobiography of Henry VIII

Author : Margaret George
Publisher : St. Martin's Griffin
ISBN 13 : 1429924705
Total Pages : 960 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (299 download)

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Book Synopsis The Autobiography of Henry VIII by : Margaret George

Download or read book The Autobiography of Henry VIII written by Margaret George and published by St. Martin's Griffin. This book was released on 2010-04-01 with total page 960 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Autobiography of Henry VIII is the magnificent historical novel that established Margaret George's career. Evocatively written in the first person as Henry VIII's private journals, the novel was the product of fifteen years of meticulous research and five handwritten drafts. Much has been written about the mighty, egotistical Henry VIII: the man who dismantled the Church because it would not grant him the divorce he wanted; who married six women and beheaded two of them; who executed his friend Thomas More; who sacked the monasteries; who longed for a son and neglected his daughters, Mary and Elizabeth; who finally grew fat, disease-ridden, dissolute. Now, in her magnificent work of storytelling and imagination Margaret George bring us Henry VIII's story as he himself might have told it, in memoirs interspersed with irreverent comments from his jester and confident, Will Somers. Brilliantly combining history, wit, dramatic narrative, and an extraordinary grasp of the pleasures and perils of power, this monumental novel shows us Henry the man more vividly than he has ever been seen before.

Henry VIII

Author : Alison Weir
Publisher : Ballantine Books
ISBN 13 : 0307415473
Total Pages : 658 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (74 download)

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Book Synopsis Henry VIII by : Alison Weir

Download or read book Henry VIII written by Alison Weir and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 658 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For fans of Wolf Hall, Alison Weir’s New York Times bestselling biography of Henry VIII brilliantly brings to life the king, the court, and the fascinating men and women who vied for its pleasures and rewards. BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Alison Weir’s Mary Boleyn. Henry VIII, renowned for his command of power, celebrated for his intellect, presided over the most stylish—and dangerous—court in Renaissance Europe. Scheming cardinals vied for power with newly rich landowners and merchants, brilliant painters and architects introduced a new splendor into art and design, and each of Henry's six queens brought her own influence to bear upon the life of the court. In her new book, Alison Weir, author of the finest royal chronicles of our time, brings to vibrant life the turbulent, complex figure of Henry VIII and the glittering court he made his own. In an age when a monarch's domestic and political lives were inextricably intertwined, a king as powerful and brilliant as Henry VIII exercised enormous sway over the laws, the customs, and the culture of his kingdom. Yet as Weir shows in this swift, vivid narrative, Henry's ministers, nobles, and wives were formidable figures in their own right, whose influence both enhanced and undermined the authority of the throne. On a grand stage rich in pageantry, intrigue, passion, and luxury, Weir records the many complex human dramas that swirled around Henry, while deftly weaving in an account of the intimate rituals and desires of England's ruling class—their sexual practices, feasts and sports, tastes in books and music, houses and gardens. Stimulating and tumultuous, the court of Henry VIII attracted the finest minds and greatest beauties in Renaissance England—poets Wyatt and Surrey, the great portraitist Hans Holbein, "feasting ladies" like Elizabeth Blount and Elizabeth FitzWalter, the newly rich Boleyn family and the ancient aristocratic clans like the Howards and the Percies, along with the entourages and connections that came and went with each successive wife. The interactions between these individuals, and the terrible ends that befell so many of them, make Henry VIII: The King and His Court an absolutely spellbinding read. Meticulous in historic detail, narrated with high style and grand drama, Alison Weir brilliantly brings to life the king, the court, and the fascinating men and women who vied for its pleasures and rewards. NOTE: This edition does not contain illustrations.

Six Wives

Author : David Starkey
Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0061842168
Total Pages : 884 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (618 download)

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Book Synopsis Six Wives by : David Starkey

Download or read book Six Wives written by David Starkey and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 884 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The dramatic, legendary story of Henry VIII, his six wives, and the England they ruled—told by one of the world’s preeminent historians of the Tudor era. “Extraordinary. . . . It is a tribute to Starkey’s narrative drive, his puckish wit, and sharp discrimination that it doesn’t seem a page too long. . . . With each queen, Starkey offers a vivid character study but also has fresh discoveries that subtly alter the picture he started out with.” —Sunday Times (London) No one in history had a more eventful career in matrimony than Henry VIII. His marriages were daring and tumultuous, and made instant legends of six very different women. In this remarkable study, David Starkey argues that the king was not a depraved philanderer but someone seeking happiness—and a son. Knowingly or not, he elevated a group of women to extraordinary heights and changed the way a nation was governed. Six Wives is a masterful work of history that intimately examines the rituals of diplomacy, marriage, pregnancy, and religion that were part of daily life for women at the Tudor Court. Weaving new facts and fresh interpretations into a spellbinding account of the emotional drama surrounding Henry’s six marriages, David Starkey reveals the central role that the queens played in determining policy. With an equally keen eye for romantic and political intrigue, he brilliantly recaptures the story of Henry’s wives and the England they ruled. “The best study of Henry’s wives ever published. . . . A masterly and persuasive narrative.” —The Evening Standard (London) “Eminently interesting. . . . A boon to fans of English royal history, full of murder and mayhem, but also of solid analysis of a maddeningly complicated era.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)