The Private Lives of the Tudors: Uncovering the Secrets of Britain's Greatest Dynasty

by Tracy Borman

Overview

A history focused on the monarchs’ intimate daily lives that “furnishes readers with a ‘Hey, did you know…?’ on almost every page” (The New York Times Book Review).

England’s Tudor monarchs—Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I—are perhaps the most celebrated of history’s royal families. But for all we know about them, their lives away from the public eye remain largely beyond our grasp.

Here, an acclaimed historian delves deep behind the public facade of the monarchs, showing us what their lives were like beyond the stage of the court. Drawing on original material from those closest to them—courtiers like the “groom of the stool,” a much-coveted position, surprisingly—Tracy Borman examines Tudor life in fine detail. What did the monarchs eat? What clothes did they wear, and how were they designed, bought, and cared for? How did they wield power? When sick, how were they treated? What games did they play? How did they practice their faith? And whom did they love, and how did they give birth to the all-important heirs?

Exploring their education, upbringing, and sexual lives, and taking us into the kitchens, bathrooms, schoolrooms, and bedrooms at court, The Private Lives of the Tudors charts the course of the entire dynasty, surfacing new and fascinating insights into these celebrated figures.

“No royal family is better known…But there’s still much to learn from The Private Lives of the Tudors thanks to the expertise and persistence of Borman…The most captivating moments of Private Lives, and there are plenty of them, bring the reader into other personal Tudor moments of strength, weakness, and heartache.”?Christian Science Monitor

“Comprehensively researched and compulsively readable…thoroughly entertaining.”?Minneapolis Star Tribune

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802189806
Publisher:	Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Publication date:	02/26/2020
Series:	Books That Changed the World
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	464
Sales rank:	88,996
File size:	21 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Tracy Borman is England’s joint chief curator of Historic Royal Palaces and chief executive of the Heritage Education Trust. She has written six previous books, including the highly acclaimed Thomas Cromwell and Elizabeth’s Women: Friends, Rivals, and Foes Who Shaped the Virgin Queen. She has a PhD in history from the University of Hull and lives in Surrey with her family.

Read an Excerpt

The royal bedding ceremony was subject to a similarly strict set of rules as the marriage ceremony and wedding feast. At around 8 o’clock in the evening, the bride was escorted to her chamber by her ladies, who undressed her and put her to bed. The groom, meanwhile, was stripped down to just his shirt – an undergarment that would have reached to at least mid-thigh and, in Henry’s case, would have been delicately embroidered. Then, accompanied by his gentlemen attendants, musicians, priests and bishops, he joined his wife in the bedchamber. The clerics would pronounce their blessings, and then a concoction of wine and spices would be served. Known as the void or voidee, this was a mixture of expensive sweet and sharp spices such as pepper, saffron, ginger, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. It was thought to be beneficial to health and digestion, as well as sweetening the breath and engendering strength and courage.

The onlookers were often slow to leave. Sometimes, they demanded to see the naked legs of the couple touching, which in some cases was accepted as a sign of consummation. Others expected to witness the royal newlyweds kissing or embracing. It was a crude reminder that a royal body was the property of the state; its functions of great interest to the people of the realm. Even after the throng of courtiers had bidden the couple goodnight and left the chamber, some may have lingered outside the closed door, straining their ears for any sound that might indicate the act of consummation was underway.

Editorial Reviews

Social history lives and dies in the integrity of its details, and this authoritative work teems with well-sourced material, presenting the Tudor world with a particular focus on the personal habits and strengths of its women, making the claim that "the art of majesty was as evident behind closed doors as it was in public."

The New York Times Book Review - Jean Zimmerman

11/07/2016
Borman (Thomas Cromwell), a senior curator of Britain’s Historic Royal Palaces organization, eschews the oft-told tabloid tales that emphasize the Tudor family’s colorful public personas to focus instead upon their private lives and daily rituals. The larger-than-life personalities and romantic misadventures of the Tudor dynasty, which ruled England from 1485 to 1603, have been thoroughly mined in print and on film; readers hoping for yet another sensationalist and titillating history are going to be disappointed. Borman doesn’t do much to further popular understanding of the period, and the amount of detail about the rarefied world that the Tudors inhabited can be overwhelming, but she does unearth some obscure and intriguing tidbits that have been overlooked by other historians. Among the details included here are accounts that Henry VIII so liked the puddings made by the only woman who worked in his kitchens that he bought her a house, and that Elizabeth I liked to wear a perfume that she herself had invented. Though all five Tudor monarchs made even their most private moments into courtly spectacles, including their bathroom customs and childbirth travails, Borman’s fine book goes far toward humanizing them. Recommended for serious devotees of the period. Illus. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for The Private Lives of the Tudors:

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice

“For Borman, the intimate particulars of everyday life are what help the past come bracingly, stirringly alive. Her full-quivered social history of the Tudor monarchs . . . furnishes readers with a ‘Hey, did you know . . . ?’ on almost every page . . . [An] authoritative work.”—New York Times Book Review

“[Written] with effortless verve . . . [A] riveting history.”—O, The Oprah Magazine

“Borman’s passion for the Tudor period shines forth from the pages of this fascinatingly detailed book.”—Allison Weir, author of The Six Wives of Henry VIII

“[A] fascinating new book . . . No royal family is better known . . . But there’s still much to learn from The Private Lives of the Tudors thanks to the expertise and persistence of Borman . . . The most captivating moments of Private Lives, and there are plenty of them, bring the reader into other personal Tudor moments of strength, weakness, and heartache.”—Christian Science Monitor

“Comprehensively researched and compulsively readable . . . The potions, plots, liaisons and marriages described in this book are thoroughly entertaining . . . A bloody good read.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune

“This is a fascinating and informative account of the personal lives of the Tudors. So much so that it is certain that the average person would surely be unfamiliar with much of this history.”—New York Journal of Books

“A measured, precise, and humanizing overview of the behind-the-scenes monarchical lives of Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VII, Mary I, and Elizabeth I . . . Fascinating . . . This Downton Abbey-like peek into the everyday lives of these privileged yet cloistered rulers and their households will appeal to both serious scholars and Tudor enthusiasts.”—Booklist

“Amusing [and] well-researched . . . [An] entertaining mixture of esoteric social history and well-known details of the persona lives of the Tudor monarchs.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Borman . . . unearth[s] some obscure and intriguing tidbits that have been overlooked by other historians . . . Though all five Tudor monarchs made even their most private moments into courtly spectacles . . . Borman’s fine book goes far toward humanizing them. Recommended.”—Publishers Weekly

“[A] fascinating, detailed account . . . Borman ranges far and wide in her quest to throw light on what the Tudor kings and queens ate, what they wore, what they did with their days and how they spent their nights . . . This is a book of rich scholarship. Tracy Borman . . . knows her Tudor history inside out.”—Daily Mail (UK)

“Borman approaches her topic with huge enthusiasm and a keen eye . . . All good fun. And there is plenty of it . . . Borman really succeeds when she uses her store of homely tidbits to recast our perceptions of Tudors we thought we knew . . . This is a very human story of a remarkable family, full of vignettes that sit long in the mind.”—Sunday Times (UK)

“Tracy Borman’s eye for detail is impressive; the book is packed with fascinating courtly minutiae . . . [Borman is] a very good historian and this is a wonderful book.”—Times (UK)

“Like Alison Weir . . . Borman is an authoritative and engaging writer, good at prising out those humanising details that make the past alive to us.”—Guardian (UK)

From the Publisher

10/15/2016
Borman (joint chief curator, Historic Royal Palaces; Thomas Cromwell: The Untold Story of Henry VIII's Most Faithful Servant) chronicles one of the most memorable periods in British history: the years from the accession of Henry VII in 1485 to the unexpected reign of Elizabeth I, beginning in 1558, after the death of Mary, Queen of Scots. Using extensive contemporary and modern sources, the author artfully crafts a thorough reimagining of life at the Tudor court, while also providing a look at the humanity of these larger-than-life figures. Readers may find certain details too exhaustive, but these pale in comparison to the drama and intrigue featured heavily throughout the book. While there are many volumes dedicated to the Tudor dynasty and the players involved, such as Peter Ackroyd's Tudors: The History of England from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I, this work uniquely focuses on the minutiae of court life and the personal, behind-the-scenes details of Tudor royals. VERDICT Readers interested in the subject are sure to recognize some of the stories covered within these pages, but Borman's history expands well beyond public knowledge to the definite delight of Tudor fans.—Katie McGaha, County of Los Angeles P.L.

Library Journal

2016-09-26
Amusing, well-researched biographies of rulers from Henry VII to Elizabeth I, focused on how they were born, dressed, ate, washed, slept, played, and died.For readers anticipating salacious surprises, Borman (The Story of the Tower of London, 2015, etc.), joint chief curator of the Historic Royal Palaces and chief executive of the Heritage Education Trust, explains that they were rarely alone, so tales of clandestine royal trysts that have come down were mostly fictional, but she does not ignore them. Privacy, a later concept, barely touched the Tudors. “Even in their most private moments,” writes the author, “they were accompanied by a servant specifically appointed for the task.” Entering a typical palace, one passed through a public great chamber into a presence chamber (throne room), where the ruler dined in state, received visitors, and chaired council meetings, and then to the privy chamber, which was both lodging and the name of the organization that governed them. It was not very private, and every royal activity, from dining to preparing the royal bed to dressing the royal person in the morning, was subject to formal ceremony. Thus, Tudor monarchs did not go to the bathroom; the bathroom came to them, led by the groom of the stool, who managed a portable privy and attended his master when he used it. An important official, he supervised the other grooms and oversaw items in daily use such as jewels, plates, linens, and the Privy Purse. Borman delivers plenty of similar tidbits on 16th-century diet, hygiene, medicine, and sport à la Ian Mortimer’s A Time Traveler’s Guide to Elizabethan England (2013). She also includes familiar (perhaps too-familiar) details of royal private lives—e.g., Henry VIII’s pursuit of wives, Elizabeth’s nonpursuit of husbands. A mostly entertaining mixture of esoteric social history and well-known details of the personal lives of Tudor monarchs.

Kirkus Reviews