The Lives of Tudor Women / The Hidden Lives of Tudor Women (Head of Zeus / Pegasus)

The turbulent Tudor age never fails to capture the imagination. But what was it actually like to be a woman during this period? This was a time when death in infancy or during childbirth was rife; when marriage was usually a legal contract, not a matter for love, and the education of women was minimal at best. Yet the Tudor century was also dominated by powerful and characterful women in a way that no era had been before.

The Temptation of Elizabeth Tudor (Head of Zeus / Pegasus)

England, late 1547. Henry VIII is dead. His 14-year-old daughter Elizabeth is living with the old king’s widow Catherine Parr and her new husband Thomas Seymour. Ambitious, charming and dangerous, Seymour begins an overt flirtation with Elizabeth. When Catherine dies in autumn 1548 and Seymour is arrested for treason soon after, the scandal explodes into the open. Alone and in dreadful danger, Elizabeth is closely questioned by the king’s regency council: Was she still a virgin? Was there a child? Had she promised to marry Seymour? In her replies, she showed the shrewdness and spirit she would later be famous for. The Seymour Scandal led to the creation of the Virgin Queen. She would never allow her heart to rule her head again.

The Tudor Treasury (Andre Deutsch)

A time of treason, rebellion, exile and intrigue, the Tudor period lasted from 1485 to 1603. Despite the problems that beset the era, these years were some of the most prosperous England had ever seen, and dramatically altered the course of world history. With fascinating facts and stories, The Tudor Treasury explains who the Tudors were and why they remain so popular.

Elfrida, The First Crowned Queen of England (Amberley)

Contrary to popular belief, Anglo-Saxon England had queens, with the tenth-century Elfrida being the most powerful and notorious of them all. She was the first woman to be crowned Queen of England, sharing her husband King Edgar’s imperial coronation at Bath in 973. The life of Queen Elfrida was filled with drama as she rose to become the most powerful woman in Anglo-Saxon England.

The Boleyn Women (Amberley)

The Boleyn family appeared from nowhere at the end of the fourteenth century, moving from peasant to princess in only a few generations. The women of the family brought about its advancement. The Boleyn family was the most ambitious dynasty of the sixteenth century, rising dramatically to prominence in the early years of a century that would end with a Boleyn on the throne.

Bessie Blount, Mistress to Henry VIII (Amberley)

Beautiful, young, exuberant, the amazing life of Elizabeth Blount, Henry VIII’s mistress and mother to his first son who came tantalisingly close to succeeding him as King Henry IX.

The Anne Boleyn Papers (Amberley)

Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, caused comment wherever she went. Through the chronicles, letters and dispatches written by both Anne and her contemporaries, it is possible to see her life and thoughts as she struggled to become queen of England, ultimately ending her life on the scaffold. Collected together for the first time, these and other sources make it possible to view the real Anne Boleyn through her own words and the words of her contemporaries.

The Illustrated Six Wives of Henry VIII (Amberley)

Elizabeth Norton provides a lavishly illustrated guide to the six wives of Henry VIII, exploring their private lives as well as the reasons behind the fundamental changes they caused in Tudor history. With a chapter on each wife, and an extra section on his mistresses, this is a ultimate companion to the six wives of Henry VIII.

Margaret Beaufort, Mother of the Tudor Dynasty (Amberley)

The extraordinary true story of the ‘Red Queen’. Born in the midst of the Wars of the Roses, Margaret Beaufort became the greatest heiress of her time. She survived a turbulent life, marrying four times and enduring imprisonment before passing her claim to the crown of England to her son, Henry VII, the first of the Tudor monarchs.

England’s Queens, The Biography (Amberley)

Nearly eighty women have sat on the throne of England, either as queen regnant or queen consort and the voices of all of them survive through their own writings and those of their contemporaries. For the first time, the voice of each individual queen can be heard together, charting the course of English queenship through nearly two thousand years of history.

Catherine Parr (Amberley)

Wife, widow, mother, survivor, the story of the last queen of Henry VIII. Traditionally portrayed as a matronly and dutiful figure, Elizabeth Norton’s new biography shows another side to Catherine. Her life was indeed one of duty but, throughout, she attempted to escape her destiny and find happiness herself. Ultimately, Catherine was betrayed and her great love affair with Thomas Seymour turned sour.

Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII’s Discarded Bride (Amberley)

The first major biography of Henry VIII’s least favourite wife – but the one who outlived them all. Anne of Cleves led a dramatic and often dangerous life but, for all this, of Henry VIII’s six wives, she is truly the wife that survived.

Jane Seymour, Henry VIII’s True Love (Amberley)

The first ever biography of Jane Seymour, Henry VIII’s third wife, who died in childbirth giving the king what he craved most – a son and heir. From the lowliest origins of any of Henry’s wives her rise shows an ambition every bit as great as Anne Boleyn’s. Elizabeth Norton tells the thrilling life of a country girl from rural Wiltshire who rose to the throne of England and became the ideal Tudor woman.

Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s Obsession (Amberley)

Doomed queen of Henry VIII, mother of Elizabeth I, the epic story of Anne Boleyn. Anne Boleyn was the most controversial and scandalous woman ever to sit on the throne of England. From her early days at the imposing Hever Castle in Kent, to the glittering courts of Paris and London, Anne caused a stir wherever she went. Alluring but not beautiful, Anne’s wit and poise won her numerous admirers at the English court, and caught the roving eye of King Henry.

She Wolves, The Notorious Queen of England (The History Press)

This history deals with the bad girls of England’s royal dynasties, the queens who earned themselves a notorious reputation. The appeal of these notorious queens, apart from their shared taste for witchcraft, murder, adultery, and incest, is that because they were notorious they attracted a great deal of attention during their lifetimes. She Wolves reveals much about the role of the queen and evolution of the role that led, ultimately, to the reign of Elizabeth I and a new concept of queenship.