Tudor: Passion. Manipulation. Murder. The Story of England's Most Notorious Royal Family

by Leanda de Lisle

Overview

The Tudors are England's most dramatic royal family-Henry VIII notoriously divorced his queen and broke with the church of Rome, and Elizabeth I became the greatest English queen in history. But they are a dynasty still more extraordinary than the one we thought we knew.

In an epic narrative sweeping from 1437 to the first decade of the seventeenth century, Tudor traces the rise and rule of the dynasty. Brutal political instability dominated England, and Leanda de Lisle reveals the personalities, passions, and obsessions of the men and women at its epicenter.

This groundbreaking story opens at the unlikely beginning of the Tudor dynasty-with Owen Tudor, a handsome Welsh commoner who, with a pirouette and a trip, landed squarely in the lap of the English Monarchy. The struggle of Owen's grandson Henry VII and his heirs to secure the line of succession-and the hopes, loves, and losses of the claimants-are the focus of this book. The universal appeal of the Tudors also lies in the family stories: of a mother's love for her son, of the husband who kills his wives, of siblings who betray one another, of reckless love affairs, of rival cousins, of an old spinster whose heirs hope to hurry her to her end.

Thrilling to read and bristling with religious and political intrigue, Tudor tells the true story behind the myths, throwing a fresh, new light on this perennially fascinating era.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781610393645
Publisher:	PublicAffairs
Publication date:	10/08/2013
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	576
Sales rank:	479,711
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Leanda de Lisle is the highly acclaimed author of The Sisters Who Would Be Queen, After Elizabeth, and Tudor. She has been a columnist on the Spectator, Country Life, the Guardian, the Sunday Telegraph, and the Daily Express, and writes for the Daily Mail, the New Statesman, and the Sunday Telegraph. She lives in Leicestershire, England.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations xi

Map xiii

Family trees xiv

The Past xiv

The Family xvi

Introduction 1

Part 1 The Coming of the Tudors: A Mother's Love

1 An Ordinary Man 7

2 A Child Bride 15

3 A Prisoner, Honourably Brought up 24

4 The Wheel of Fortune 33

5 Enter Richard III 41

6 The Princes in the Tower 50

7 The Exile 59

8 Bosworth 63

9 The Rose and the Passion 74

10 Securing the Succession 83

11 The Lost Prince 93

12 Punishment 103

13 Death and Judgement 113

14 Exit Margaret Beaufort 124

Part 2 Inheritance: The Legacy of Arthur

15 The Elder Sister: Margaret, Queen of Scots 133

16 The Younger Sister: Mary, the French Queen 141

17 A Family Reunion and a Royal Rival 149

18 Enter Anne Boleyn 159

19 A Marriage on Trial 168

20 The Return of Margaret Douglas 177

21 The Terror Begins 187

22 The Fall of Anne Boleyn 198

23 Love and Death 206

24 Three Wives 216

25 The Last Years of Henry VIII 227

26 Elizabeth in Danger 238

27 Mary in Danger 249

28 The Last Tudor King 258

Part 3 Setting Sun: The Tudor Queens

29 Nine Days 269

30 Revolt 279

31 Marriage and Sons 288

32 A Flickering Light 296

33 A Married Man 304

34 Dangerous Cousins 313

35 Royal Prisoners 325

36 Murder in the Family 335

37 Exit Margaret Douglas 346

38 The Virgin Queen 354

39 The Daughter of Debate 363

40 The Armada 374

41 Setting Sun 379

42 The Hollow Crown 388

Epilogue 398

Appendices

1 What happened to the body of James IV? 410

2 The Mysterious Quarrel between Henry VIII and Margaret Douglas 412

3 Guildford and Jane Dudley 415

4 The Myth of Frances Brandon the Child Abuser 417

5 The Obscure Margaret Clifford, Heir to the Throne 1578-96 419

Author's Note and Acknowledgements 422

Notes 427

Index 517

Editorial Reviews

09/15/2013
The book's subtitle is particularly apt as de Lisle makes significant efforts to touch on all members of the Tudor family and gives substantial attention to oft-overlooked figures such as Margaret Tudor, Henry VIII's sister, and her daughter, Margaret Douglas. While not eschewing the importance of the era's religious conflicts, de Lisle gives the matter less foregrounding than Ackroyd, balancing it with issues such as the Tudor struggle to establish royal legitimacy. As a result of the title's scope, however, the treatment of several subjects is somewhat abbreviated, particularly in the last third of the book. VERDICT Lighter in style and rather more accessible than Ackroyd's volume, this makes an excellent choice for readers seeking a broader look at the Tudor story, especially those interested in the dynasty's founding and early days.—Kathleen McCallister, Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia

Library Journal

This fresh take on the Tudor dynasty is history at its best. Covering everything from the Tudors’ obscure beginnings, when a Welsh squire named Owen Tudor literally fell into the lap of Henry V’s widow, Catherine of Valois, and later married her, to the death of the couple’s great-great-granddaughter, Elizabeth I, British historian de Lisle (The Sisters Who Would Be Queen) has written an engaging and well-sourced account, sprinkled with provocative anecdotes that will appeal to both scholars and general readers interested in exploring how the constantly shifting Tudor family dynamics played out in the political, religious, and historical realms. De Lisle emphasizes the impact of the mysterious 1483 disappearance of two young princes in the Tower of London and the Tudors’ subsequent obsession with securing the line of royal succession; she also notes the key roles played by often-overlooked female members of the extended family in the events that culminated in the accession of the first Tudor monarch, Henry VII, in 1485. This compelling tale is driven by three-dimensional people and relationships, and de Lisle does a fantastic job of making them feel lived and dramatic. Map, family trees, and illus. Agent: Georgina Capel, Capel & Land (U.K.). (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

“Leanda de Lisle reveals such hidden depths in the vivid history of England's most famous dynasty”—The American Conservative
“Deeply researched but vibrantly accessible.” — Wall Street Journal

“Leanda de Lisle has the gift of reminding us that history is the story of real people; real men, real women, full of rage and ambition and lust and hope and love. The Tudors are already our most vivid dynasty, by quite a long chalk, but these pages render them more vivid still. This was an age when the game was worth the candle, when a chance remark could result in a crown or the axe. Wonderful, passionate, dangerous, fascinating stuff. I couldn't put it down.”—Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey

“This fresh take on the Tudor dynasty is history at its best… an engaging and well-sourced account, sprinkled with provocative anecdotes that will appeal to both scholars and general readers… This compelling tale is driven by three-dimensional people and relationships, and de Lisle does a fantastic job of making them feel lived and dramatic. ” — Publishers Weekly, starred

“A reliable and amply researched guide.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Enjoyable, well-written… De Lisle examines the key events and characters that make the Tudor story interesting… This is a very well-done popular history ideal for general readers.” — Booklist

“Six centuries after they began, the Tudors are still England's most famous family. Their story is told in full in Leanda de Lisle's Tudor, a wonderfully fluent portrait of five generations that connects the often overlooked fifteenth century Tudors with the more famous stuff. In bridging this divide, de Lisle brings an entirely fresh feel to the Tudor story, reminding us of the one thing the monarchs themselves wanted us to forget: the sheer improbability of their royal rule.” —The Times (London)

“Europe has produced no family saga that could match the Tudors. Rarely has that story been so well told as here.” — The Mail

“De Lisle's masterful command of the facts – great and small – provides a complete and entertaining overview.” — The Guardian

From the Publisher

2013-12-18
The most dysfunctional family in English history gets its due. After two books focusing on major chapters from the history of the Tudors (The Sisters Who Would Be Queen: Mary, Katherine, and Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Tragedy, 2009, etc.), de Lisle aims to tell the story from the beginning in this comprehensive but often complicated volume. Beginning with the 1437 marriage of Henry V's widow, Catherine, to a lowly chamber servant named Owen Tudor, it becomes the story of a family dominated by both the lust for power and a battle for the soul of England. The players range from the manipulative Margaret Beaufort to her cruel (and guilt-wracked) son Henry VII to his ruthless (and guilt-free) son Henry VIII, whose yearning for a male successor involved six wives and sparked an endless rift between Catholics and Protestants. It's a fascinating, violent, morally complex story not only about the way power corrupts, but how it makes rulers both vulnerable and paranoid. It's also an extremely eventful slice of history, and de Lisle occasionally gets winded trying to wrestle the narrative, and its ever-expanding cast of characters, into a manageable shape. Major characters arrive and suddenly die with barely a send-off as we rush to the next battle or coronation; facts pile up without always getting properly processed. De Lisle doesn't stint on the drama, however, whether it's Mary, Queen of Scots getting hacked to pieces or Elizabeth I eloquently bracing her troops for war with Spain. She also capably separates fact from myth, pursues still-unsolved royal mysteries, and provides perspective about the kind of pre-Enlightenment mindset in which you could be boiled, burned, beheaded or hanged for believing in transubstantiation. Hard to follow at times but also a reliable and amply researched guide for Tudor enthusiasts.

Kirkus Reviews