A New York TImes Book Review Editor's Pick

A colorful and authoritative narrative history of the often-overlooked--yet hugely influential--figures of the Tudor court: the ladies-in-waiting.

Every Tudor Queen had ladies-in-waiting. They were her confidantes and her chaperones. Only the Queen's ladies had the right to enter her most private chambers, spending hours helping her to get dressed and undressed, caring for her clothes and jewels, listening to her secrets. But they also held a unique power. A quiet word behind the scenes, an appropriately timed gift, a well-negotiated marriage alliance were all forms of political agency wielded expertly by women.

The Waiting Game explores the daily lives of ladies-in-waiting, revealing the secrets of recruitment, costume, what they ate, where (and with whom) they slept. We meet María de Salinas, who traveled to England with Catherine of Aragon when just a teenager and spied for her during the divorce from Henry VIII. Anne Boleyn's lady-in-waiting Jane Parker was instrumental in the execution of not one, but two queens. And maid-of-honor Anne Basset kept her place through the last four consorts, negotiating the conflicting loyalties of her birth family, her mistress the Queen, and even the desires of the King himself.

As Henry changed wives--and changed the very fabric of the country's structure besides--these women had to make choices about loyalty that simply didn't exist before. The Waiting Game is the first time their vital story has been told.

In this groundbreaking biography of Queen Anne Boleyn, learn how the ill-fated second wife of Renaissance England's Henry XVIII met her downfall-and how she came to be so vilified and misunderstood.

Anne Boleyn has mesmerized the general public for centuries. Her tragic execution at the Tower of London on the 19th of May, 1536--orchestrated by her own husband--never ceases to intrigue. While many stories of Anne's downfall have been told, few have truly traced the origins of her grim fate. In Thorns, Lust, and Glory, Estelle Paranque takes us back to where it all started: to France, where Anne learned the lessons that would set her on the path to becoming one of England's most infamous queens.

A fascinating new perspective on Tudor history's most enduring story, Thorns, Lust, and Glory is an unmissable account of a queen on the edge.

A riotously readable...tender and affectionate (Daily Mail, London) exploration of five hundred years of British history--from King Henry VIII to Queen Elizabeth II--as seen through the doorways of the exquisite Hampton Court Palace.

Architecturally breathtaking and rich in splendid art and décor, Hampton Court Palace has been the stage of some of the most important events in British history, such as the commissioning of King James's version of the Bible, the staging of many of Shakespeare's plays, and Queen Elizabeth II's coronation ball.

The Palace takes us on an entertaining journey into the past (Kirkus Reviews) as it reveals the ups and downs of royal history and illustrates what was at play politically, socially, and economically at the time. An engaging and charming history book that is perfect for fans of Alison Weir, Philippa Gregory, and Andrew Lownie, The Palace makes you feel as if you were in the room as history was made.

Anne Boleyn may be best known for losing her head, but as Tudor expert Tracy Borman reveals in a book that recasts British history, her greatest legacy lies in the path-breaking reign of her daughter, Elizabeth

Much of the fascination with Britain's legendary Tudors centers around the dramas surrounding Henry VIII and his six wives and Elizabeth I's rumored liaisons. Yet the most fascinating relationship in that historic era may well be that between the mother and daughter who, individually and collectively, changed the course of British history.

The future Queen Elizabeth was not yet three when her mother, Anne Boleyn, was beheaded on May 19, 1536, on Henry's order, incensed that she had not given him a son and tired of her contentious nature. Elizabeth had been raised away from court, rarely even seeing Anne; and after her death, Henry tried in every way to erase Anne's presence and memory. At that moment in history, few could have predicted that mother and daughter would each leave enduring, and interlocked, legacies. Yet as Tracy Borman reveals in this first-ever joint portrait, both women broke the mold for British queens and for women in general at the time. Anne was instrumental in reforming and reshaping forever Britain's religious traditions, and her years of wielding power over a male-dominated court provided an inspiring role model for Elizabeth's glittering, groundbreaking 45-year reign. Indeed, Borman shows how much Elizabeth--most visibly by refusing to ever marry, but in many other more subtle ways that defined her court--was influenced by her mother's legacy.

In its originality, Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I sheds new light on two of history's most famous women--the private desires, hopes, and fears that lay behind their dazzling public personas, and the surprising influence each had on the other during and after their lifetimes. In the process, Tracy Borman reframes our understanding of the entire Tudor era.

Anne Boleyn's downfall was driven by political machinations, religious conflict, and alliances, with little connection to her alleged crimes.

Almost 500 years have passed since the death of Anne Boleyn, and yet, there has never been a suggestion she was guilty of the crimes which saw her executed. Attempts to muddy Anne's reputation throughout history have not lessened her popularity nor convinced anyone she was an adulterer. But many myths surrounding Anne's conviction for sleeping with George Boleyn, Henry Norris, Francis Weston, William Brereton, and Mark Smeaton have cropped up due to centuries of lies, slander, and misinformation from detractors.

One month after Anne was executed, the Convocation of Canterbury ratified the paperwork detailing her arrest, conviction, execution, and the annulment of the marriage between King Henry VIII and his second wife. As parliament had already ruled Anne's only child, Princess Elizabeth, was no longer heir to the throne, all the paperwork surrounding the trial was destroyed. No trace of her charges, witness statements, evidence, or even Archbishop Thomas Cranmer's reasoning for annulling the royal marriage survived the mass destruction. Everyone was supposed to forget Anne Boleyn and accept Queen Jane.

But why did Anne Boleyn ever need to die? King Henry had started little more than an infatuation with Jane Seymour in December 1535. Yet, many saw the opportunity to pounce, not to reduce Anne's influence but to increase Princess Mary's standing. As Vicegerent Thomas Cromwell and Ambassador Eustace Chapuys whispered of alliances in secret meetings, the Catholic nobility and the White Roses began to hatch their plan to restore the king's daughter, Princess Mary, to her rightful place at court. Just as Katharine of Aragon died, Anne Boleyn felt secure as England's queen, only to find that her adversary's death would soon bring on her own.

Why did political and religious enemies of Thomas Cromwell seek him in the months leading to Anne's death, expecting his co-operation to restore Princess Mary? Did Jane Seymour have any significance and why did King Henry and Thomas Cromwell get into a public shouting match at a dinner party? The answers lie not in what evidence remains of court life in early 1536 but in the gaps left behind. None of the characters that played a role in Anne Boleyn's death were strangers; all had connections, alliances and opportunities, and when their pasts and futures are laid together, we can see how a haphazard plan to end a queen's life had almost nothing to do with her at all.

FASCINATING . . . Dramatic and timely. --New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice

In this grand and thrilling narrative, the author of the 200,000-copy paperback bestseller Over the Edge of the World reveals the singular adventures of Sir Francis Drake, whose mastery of the seas during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I changed the course of history.

Entrancing . . . Very good indeed. --Wall Street Journal

Before he was secretly dispatched by Queen Elizabeth to circumnavigate the globe, or was called upon to save England from the Spanish Armada, Francis Drake was perhaps the most wanted--and successful--pirate ever to sail. Nicknamed El Draque by the Spaniards who placed a bounty on his head, the notorious red-haired, hot-tempered Drake pillaged galleons laden with New World gold and silver, stealing a vast fortune for his queen--and himself. For Elizabeth, Drake made the impossible real, serving as a crucial and brilliantly adaptable instrument of her ambitions to transform England from a third-rate island kingdom into a global imperial power.

In 1580, sailing on Elizabeth's covert orders, Drake became the first captain to circumnavigate the earth successfully. (Ferdinand Magellan had died in his attempt.) Part exploring expedition, part raiding mission, Drake's audacious around-the-world journey in the Golden Hind reached Patagonia, the Pacific Coast of present-day California and Oregon, the Spice Islands, Java, and Africa. Almost a decade later, Elizabeth called upon Drake again. As the devil-may-care vice admiral of the English fleet, Drake dramatically defeated the once-invincible Spanish Armada, spurring the British Empire's ascent and permanently wounding its greatest rival.

The relationship between Drake and Elizabeth is the missing link in our understanding of the rise of the British Empire, and its importance has not been fully described or appreciated. Framed around Drake's key voyages as a window into this crucial moment in British history, In Search of a Kingdom is a rousing adventure narrative entwining epic historical themes with intimate passions.

Anne Boleyn may be best known for losing her head, but as Tudor expert Tracy Borman reveals in a book that recasts British history, her greatest legacy lies in the path-breaking reign of her daughter, Elizabeth

Much of the fascination with Britain's legendary Tudors centers around the dramas surrounding Henry VIII and his six wives and Elizabeth I's rumored liaisons. Yet the most fascinating relationship in that historic era may well be that between the mother and daughter who, individually and collectively, changed the course of British history.

The future Queen Elizabeth was not yet three when her mother, Anne Boleyn, was beheaded on May 19, 1536, on Henry's order, incensed that she had not given him a son and tired of her contentious nature. Elizabeth had been raised away from court, rarely even seeing Anne; and after her death, Henry tried in every way to erase Anne's presence and memory. At that moment in history, few could have predicted that mother and daughter would each leave enduring, and interlocked, legacies. Yet as Tracy Borman reveals in this first-ever joint portrait, both women broke the mold for British queens and for women in general at the time. Anne was instrumental in reforming and reshaping forever Britain's religious traditions, and her years of wielding power over a male-dominated court provided an inspiring role model for Elizabeth's glittering, groundbreaking 45-year reign. Indeed, Borman shows how much Elizabeth--most visibly by refusing to ever marry, but in many other more subtle ways that defined her court--was influenced by her mother's legacy.

In its originality, Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I sheds new light on two of history's most famous women--the private desires, hopes, and fears that lay behind their dazzling public personas, and the surprising influence each had on the other during and after their lifetimes. In the process, Tracy Borman reframes our understanding of the entire Tudor era.

From the creators of Colouring History: The Tudors comes their next compilation of intricately hand-drawn illustrations featuring key players and places from the Tudor court. Included in this book are scenes and portraits featuring the kings and queens of Tudor and Elizabethan England. Add your colouring style to illustrations of Henry VIII, Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, Kateryn Parr, Thomas Cromwell, Thomas More, Edward VI, Lady Jane Grey, Mary I, Elizabeth I, and Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. Let your colour pencils lead you to the lost palaces of Richmond and Nonsuch and the grand views of Hever Castle and Hampton Court Palace.

What's inside? 18 Portraits based on their original representation; 7 Scenes inspired by contemporary manuscripts; 5 Artifacts from important moments in Tudor history; 5 Palaces or Castles ...and more!

A total of 39 original single-sided drawings with historically relevant captions on each facing page.

Color your way to peace and inner harmony, while indulging your passion for Tudor history. This coloring book is suitable for all ages and is an excellent resource in the homeschool environment and screen-free enrichment during a holiday break.

Hever Castle is a picture-postcard fortified manor house nestled in the Kent countryside. It is famous for its links with the Boleyns, an East Anglian gentry family who rose and fell dramatically at the court of King Henry VIII.

In The Boleyns of Hever Castle, historians Owen Emmerson and Claire Ridgway invite you into the home of this notorious family.

Travel back in time to those 77 years of Boleyn ownership. Tour each room just as it was when Anne Boleyn retreated from court to escape the advances of Henry VIII or when she fought off the dreaded 'sweat'. See the 16th century Hever Castle come to life with room reconstructions and read the story of the Boleyns, who, in just five generations, rose from petty crime to a castle, from Hever to the throne of England.

Owen Emmerson and Claire Ridgway have combined their considerable knowledge of the Boleyn family and Hever Castle to create this luxurious book. Packed with history and full-colour images, The Boleyns of Hever Castle will educate and enlighten you.

The shocking and extraordinary story of the most conniving, manipulative Tudor family you've never heard of--the dashing and daring House of Dudley.

Each Tudor monarch made their name with a Dudley by their side--or by crushing one beneath their feet.

The Dudleys thrived at the court of Henry VII, but were sacrificed to the popularity of Henry VIII. Rising to prominence in the reign of Edward VI, the Dudleys lost it all by advancing Jane Grey to the throne over Mary I. That was until the reign of Elizabeth I, when the family was once again at the center of power, and would do anything to remain there. . . .

With three generations of felled favorites, what was it that caused this family to keep rising so high and falling so low?

Here, for the first time, is the story of England's Borgias, a noble house competing in a murderous game for the English throne. Witness cunning, adultery, and sheer audacity from history's most brilliant, bold, and deceitful family.

Welcome to the House of Dudley.

This deeply researched book offers a unique history of London's most famous street, from the Roman era to the present day.

England, 1541. An ailing Henry VIII reigns from a contested throne. In parallel story lines, The Tudor Prophecy follows two young women, Lady Alice Grantmire and Hester Vaughan, cousins who each suffer greatly from the King's unjust decrees. Lady Alice and her mother are evicted from their estate and take residence in a cottage where they earn a subsistence selling herbal remedies--until they are accused of witchcraft. After being molested by the King, Hester is summoned to her estranged father's home in Wales. There she becomes betrothed to a Welsh bard whose mentor has visions foretelling the ascendancy of Henry's second daughter, Elizabeth. When Hester encounters the eight-year-old Lady Elizabeth, the two forge a relationship whereby Hester can persuade the future queen to temper her own rule with mercy. This epic, literary tale--a Game of Thrones meets Little Women--is also for readers who loved the Wolf Hall trilogy by Booker-Prize winner Hilary Mantel.

On 28 January 1547, the sickly and obese King Henry VIII died at Whitehall. Just hours before his passing, his last will and testament had been read, stamped, and sealed. The will confirmed the line of succession as Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth; and, following them, the Grey and Suffolk families. It also listed bequests to the king's most trusted councillors and servants.

Henry's will is one of the most intriguing and contested documents in British history. Historians have disagreed over its intended meaning, its authenticity and validity, and the circumstances of its creation. As well as examining the background to the drafting of the will and describing Henry's last days, Suzannah Lipscomb offers her own illuminating interpretation of one of the most significant constitutional documents of the Tudor period.

Reveals how King Henry VIII targeted his royal cousins, the Pole family, fearing their stronger claims to the throne.

The story of King Henry VIII, a man who married six times only to execute two of those wives, is part of Great Britain's national and international identity. Each year, millions of people walk around the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace and Hever Castle, plus many other historical sites, taking in and hoping to glean some sense of the man and the myth, and yet there is a period from Henry VIII's life which remains largely overlooked, a period in which he chose not to execute wives, servants or ministers, but instead turned on another group entirely - his own family.

Like practically all members of the nobility of the time, Henry VIII descended from King Edward III, which ensured a ready-made crop of royal cousins were in abundance at his court, and awkwardly for the king, these cousins often possessed much greater claims to the throne than he did. The house of Tudor was one which should never have been, let alone taken the throne. Upstarts in every sense of the word, their ancestry, whilst (almost) noble, was by no means as grand as many a family in England, and it is against this backdrop that this book was created.

The Pole family, the subjects of the story, were royalty in secret. Lady Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, the family matriarch, was a niece of King Edward IV and Richard III, making her a first cousin of Elizabeth of York, the first Tudor queen consort, and thus a first cousin once removed of Henry VIII. Margaret Pole was, therefore, one of the most senior members of the nobility at the Tudor court, and through her, her sons, her daughter, and her grandchildren possessed a dangerous name and dangerous bloodline, which put them on a collision course with the most volatile man ever to sit the throne of England. They were the old guard, the house of Plantagenet, the greatest ruling dynasty in English history, the true royal family, and this, coupled with the monumental shifts which England underwent during the reign of Henry VIII, all but ensured their destruction. For centuries, their story has been overlooked, or at best, fleetingly covered, but when one digs deep, a story as audacious and juicy as it's possible to be soon emerges.

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, English numerical practices underwent a complex transformation with wide-ranging impacts on English society. At the beginning of the early modern period, English men and women believed that God had made humans universally numerate, although numbers were not central to their everyday lives. Over the next two centuries, rising literacy rates and the increasing availability of printed books revolutionized modes of arithmetical practice and education. Ordinary English people began to use numbers and quantification to explain abstract phenomena as diverse as the relativity of time, the probability of chance events, and the constitution of human populations. These changes reflected their participation in broader early modern European cultural and intellectual developments such as the Reformation and the Scientific Revolution. By the eighteenth century, English men and women still believed they lived in a world made by God, but it was also a world made--and made understandable--by numbers.

On the heels of her triumphant How to Be a Victorian, Ruth Goodman travels even further back in English history to the era closest to her heart, the dramatic period from the crowning of Henry VII to the death of Elizabeth I. A celebrated master of British social and domestic history, Ruth Goodman draws on her own adventures living in re-created Tudor conditions to serve as our intrepid guide to sixteenth-century living. Proceeding from daybreak to bedtime, this immersive, engrossing (Slate) work pays tribute to the lives of those who labored through the era. From using soot from candle wax as toothpaste to malting grain for homemade ale, from the gruesome sport of bear-baiting to cuckolding and cross-dressing--the madcap habits and revealing intimacies of life in the time of Shakespeare are vividly rendered for the insatiably curious.

I felt that Mary was there, pulling at my sleeve, willing me to appreciate the artistry, wanting me to understand the dazzle of the material world that shaped her.

At her execution Mary, Queen of Scots wore red. Widely known as the colour of strength and passion, it was in fact worn by Mary as the Catholic symbol of martyrdom.

In sixteenth-century Europe women's voices were suppressed and silenced. Even for a queen like Mary, her prime duty was to bear sons. In an age when textiles expressed power, Mary exploited them to emphasise her female agency. From her lavishly embroidered gowns as the prospective wife of the French Dauphin to the fashion dolls she used to encourage a Marian style at the Scottish court and the subversive messages she embroidered in captivity for her supporters, Mary used textiles to advance her political agenda, affirm her royal lineage and tell her own story.

In this eloquent cultural biography, Clare Hunter exquisitely blends history, politics and memoir to tell the story of a queen in her own voice.

Explores the life and tragic fate of Lady Jane Grey, the nine-day queen of England, examining her role amid the political chaos following King Edward VI's death and her contested claim to the throne.

Lady Jane Grey, the nine-day queen is considered to be one of the most tragic characters in English history. In July 1553 when King Edward VI died at the age of just 15 years old, the Tudor dynasty fell into chaos. The king had no legitimate male heirs and was determined his half-sisters Mary and Elizabeth would not inherit his throne, despite his father Henry VIII stating in his will that they should. We are led to believe that on Edward's instructions his cousin Lady Jane Grey was to be proclaimed queen. But who was she? Was she the innocent young girl that our history books tell us she was, or a religious fanatic with the aim of keeping Mary off the throne and England Protestant? Or was she nothing but a pawn to men in the game of power and politics, abused by her parents to marry against her will all for a crown she did not want? This book looks into her life from her early years in relative seclusion at the family home at Bradgate through to her tragic end on the scaffold at the Tower of London, executed on the orders of her cousin Queen Mary. What was her place within the Tudor royal family, was she ever entitled to claim the throne of England, and do we even recognise her as a true queen today?

What if Prince Arthur Tudor hadn't died?

It is 1502 and Arthur Tudor has just married the Spanish infanta Katherine of Aragon, solidifying the alliance between England and Castille, when they are both struck down with the infamous sudor anglicus, better known as the sweating sickness.

In the history books as we know it, fifteen-year-old Arthur succumbs to the illness, leaving Katherine - and England - at the mercy of Arthur's younger brother, the future King Henry VIII.

But what if Arthur Tudor had not died on that fateful day?

What if he had survived and lived on to become the next King of England, as he had been born to be?

Would England face the same political, domestic, and religious struggles as it did under Henry VIII? Would Henry VIII's six famous wives face similar fates?

Step into this alternative Tudor historical fiction and explore the life King Arthur of England could have led, with Katherine of Aragon by his side and the unknown future ahead, in 'The Rose and the Pomegranate'.