The first history of childhood in Tudor England“Tudor Children is social history at its best. . . . By connecting with our own history as children, Orme invites us to embrace a new way of engaging with the past.”—Joanne Paul, Times (UK)What was it like to grow up in England under the Tudors? How were children cared for, what did they play with, and what dangers did they face?In this beautifully illustrated and char...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Beautifully written, exhaustive in its research . . . a gem [that] outshines all previous studies of Henry.”—The Philadelphia InquirerFor fans of Wolf Hall, an intimate biography of Henry VIII, one of English history’s most turbulent, complex rulers, and the glittering court he made his own, from “the finest historian of English monarchical succession writing” (The Boston Globe)

THE CAPTIVATING TRUE STORY OF THE MAN WHO INSPIRED WOLF HALL, MASTERFULLY TOLD: NOW REVISED WITH A NEW CHAPTERKnown widely as Henry VIII's 'right-hand man', Cromwell has captured imaginations throughout the centuries: but who was he really? In this major new biography, leading historian Tracy Borman examines the life, loves and legacy of the man who changed the shape of England forever.Born a lowly tavern keeper's son, Cro...

Elizabeth of York would have ruled England, but for the fact that she was a woman. The eldest daughter of Edward IV, at seventeen she was relegated from pampered princess to bastard fugitive, but the probable murders of her brothers, the Princes in the Tower, left Elizabeth heiress to the royal House of York, and in 1486, Henry VII, first sovereign of the House of Tudor, married her, thus uniting the red and white roses of Lancaster and York.Elizabeth is an enigma. She had schemed ...

A study of the committee behind the creation of the 1611 English Bible—"an engaging work of literary, cultural, and religious history" ( Kirkus Reviews ).NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK"This scrupulously elegant account of the creation of what four centuries of history has confirmed is the finest English-langu...

"An exceptional and compelling biography about one of the Tudor Age's most complex and controversial figures." —Alison WeirThomas 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 t...

Preeminent Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro, author of Shakespeare in a Divided America**, shows how the tumultuous events in 1606 influenced three of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies written that year—King Lear, Macbeth,** and Antony and Cleopatra. **“**The Year of Lear is irresistible—a banquet of wisdom” (

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, was one of the most flamboyant and controversial characters of Henry VIII's reign.A pioneering poet, whose verse had a profound impact on Shakespeare, Surrey was nevertheless branded by one contemporary as 'the most foolish proud boy that is in England'. He was the heir of England's premier nobleman, first cousin to two of Henry VIII's wives - Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard - and best friend and brother-in-law to the King's illegitim...

Learn what went on behind closed doors in the Tudor court. Illegitimate children, adulterous queens, impotent kings, and a whole dynasty resting on their shoulders. Sex and childbirth were quite literally a matter of life or death for the Tudors - Elizabeth of York died in childbirth, two of Henry VIII's queens were beheaded for infidelity, and Elizabeth I's elective virginity signalled the demise of a dynasty. Amy Licence guides the reader through the births of Henry VII and Elizabeth of ...

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.Elizabeth Norton explores the seven ages of the Tudor woman, ...

*Winner of the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize**Longlisted for The Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction**A Sunday Times Book of the Year****A Daily Telegraph Book of the Year****A Times Book of the Year**An Observer Book of the Year*A woman awakes in a prison cell.She has been on the run but the authorities ...

In the fifty years between 1530 and 1580, England moved from being one of the most lavishly Catholic countries in Europe to being a Protestant nation, a land of whitewashed churches and antipapal preaching. What was the impact of this religious change in the countryside? And how did country people feel about the revolutionary upheavals that transformed their mental and material worlds under Henry VIII and his three children?In this book a reformation historian takes us inside the...