What secrets were covered up at the court of Henry VIII …? Whitehall Palace, England, 1539 When Catherine Howard arrives at the court of King Henry VIII to be a maid of honour in the household of the new queen, Anne of Cleves, she has no idea of the fate that awaits her. Catching the king’s fancy, she finds herself caught up in her uncle’s ambition to get a Howard heir to the throne. Terrified by the ageing king after the fate that befell her cousin, Anne Boleyn, Catherine begins to fear for her life… Pembrokeshire, Wales, 2018 Dr Perdita Rivers receives news of the death of her estranged grandmother, renowned Tudor historian Mary Fitzroy. Mary inexplicably cut all contact with Perdita and her twin sister, Piper, but she has left them Marquess House, her vast estate in Pembrokeshire. Perdita sets out to unravel their grandmother’s motives for abandoning them, and is drawn into the mystery of an ancient document in the archives of Marquess House, a collection of letters and diaries claiming the records of Catherine Howard’s execution were falsified… What truths are hiding in Marquess House? What really happened to Catherine Howard? And how was Perdita’s grandmother connected to it all? THE CATHERINE HOWARD CONSPIRACY is the first book in the Marquess House trilogy, a dual timeline conspiracy thriller with an ingenious twist on a well-known period of Tudor history. THE MARQUESS HOUSE TRILOGY SERIES BOOK ONE: The Catherine Howard Conspiracy BOOK TWO: The Elizabeth Tudor Conspiracy BOOK THREE: The Arbella Stuart Conspiracy

    He receives an unexpected summons to the Queen’s spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham in the middle of the night. He fears for his life when he spies the tortured body of an old friend in the palace precincts. His meeting with Walsingham takes an unexpected turn when he is charged to assist a renowned Puritan, John Foxe, in uncovering the secrets of a mysterious cabinet containing an astrological chart and coded message. Together, these claim Elizabeth has a hidden, illegitimate child (an “unknowing maid”) who will be declared to the masses and serve as the focus for an invasion. Constable is swept up in the chase to uncover the identity of the plotters, unaware that he is also under suspicion. He schemes to gain the confidence of the adventurer John Hawkins and a rich merchant. Pressured into taking a role as court physician to pick up unguarded comments from nobles and others, he has become a reluctant intelligencer for Walsingham.Do the stars and cipher speak true, or is there some other malign intent in the complex web of scheming?Constable must race to unravel the threads of political manoeuvring for power before a new-found love and perhaps his own life are forfeit.

    As a member of the Music, the royal company of minstrels, Bess grows up within the decadent Tudor court, navigating the ever-changing tide of royals and courtiers. Friends come and go as cracked voices, politics, heartbreak, and death loom over even the lowliest of musicians. Tom, her first and dearest friend, is her only constant. But as Bess becomes too comfortable at court, she may find that constancy has its limits.

     Anne Boleyn is most likely the best-known of Henry VIII’s six wives; she is also the most controversial. History has represented Anne as either a whore or a martyr. The true story, however, is far more complex. Inside you will read about... ✓ Early Life as a Lady-in-waiting ✓ The King’s Great Matter ✓ Anne Ascends the Throne ✓ Another Birth, Another Tragedy ✓ Trial and Execution And much more! Henry VIII of England pursued Anne Boleyn for seven years while he was battling for an annulment from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Catherine had failed to provide Henry with a male heir to the throne, so the king looked to Catherine’s maid of honor, Anne Boleyn, to secure his Tudor lineage. When Anne also failed to give birth to a son, her fate was sealed. She was charged with multiple counts of adultery during a trial everyone agreed was a sham. Found guilty, Anne Boleyn was beheaded immediately afterward and placed in an unmarked grave. Her death served to reveal the true horror dispensed to wives who displeased their royal husbands.

    Less than two years earlier, Italian noblewoman Bona Sforza arrived in Poland’s capital from Bari as King Zygmunt’s new bride. She came from Italy accompanied by a splendid entourage, including Contessa Caterina Sanseverino who oversees the ladies of the Queen’s Chamber. Caterina is still adjusting to the life in this northern kingdom of cold winters, unfamiliar customs, and an incomprehensible language when a shocking murder rocks the court on Christmas night. It is followed by another a few days later. The victims have seemingly nothing in common. Gossip, speculation, and suspicion are rife, but the perpetrator remains elusive as the court heads into the New Year. As the official investigation stalls, Caterina—aided by Sebastian Konarski, a junior secretary in the king’s household—sets out to find the killer. With clues beginning to point to the queen’s innermost circle, the pair are soon racing against time to stop another murder. Silent Water is a story of power and its abuse, and the extremes to which a person may go to find redress for justice denied. Although set at the dawn of the Renaissance era, its themes carry uncanny parallels to some of the most topical social issues of the 21st century. "This clever and suspenseful murder mystery casts a fresh and sparkling light on the world beloved by fans of The Tudors and The Borgias. P. K. Adams, author of two previous novels about the twelfth-century healer and mystic Hildegard of Bingen, masterfully brings Renaissance Poland to life without ever losing track of the human passions that drive her characters. A wonderful start to a new series." —C. P. Lesley, author of Song of the Siren and other novels

     Coroner Sir Henry Greville is conducting an inquest, following the discovery of the body of a girl, and he wants a quick and conclusive verdict. The victim is believed to have been promiscuous domestic servant Amy Brindley. The scant evidence implicates her former employer. Constable Thomas Lincraft is not convinced, and begins his own search for the truth, even though he risks being dismissed from his office by doing so. However, Thomas Lincraft is no ordinary Constable. His tenacity and intelligence provide him with a fierce sense of justice - and his deeply held religious beliefs shape his attitude towards the investigation. As the Constable begins to gather evidence and interview fresh witnesses, Lincraft uncovers secrets that others would prefer to keep hidden. But the truth - and murder - will out, leading to a shocking revelation. She Died Unshriven is the first in a series of mysteries featuring Constable Thomas Lincraft. Recommended for fans of CJ Sansom, Rory Clements and S. J. Parris. Author David Field is a retired criminal lawyer who now writes full-time. He is also the author of the contemporary crime series of novels featuring investigator DCI Mike Saxby. The first book in the series is Seventeen Cavendish Place.

     James I of England and VI of Scotland was the first king to rule both countries. He was faced with division between his realms and caught between the religious wars of the Reformation. Spending most of his reign at odds with the religious and parliamentary powers around him, James did little to unite his people. Unable to take a firm stand on critical issues, he spent his life avoiding them. Inside you will read about... ✓ James’ Bride and the Witch Hunt ✓ The Mystery of the Gowrie Plot ✓ Taking over Elizabethan England ✓ King James Bible ✓ The Gunpowder Plot ✓ The King’s Favorite Men And much more! Still, James was not a bad king. He is best remembered for the translation of the Bible into English, making it accessible to all. During the start of the bloody Thirty Years’ War that would engulf Europe, James did his best to keep England out of the turmoil. His descendants, however, brought about a bloody civil war that was to last for several generations. James I and VI continues to have a reputation as a lazy king who gave too much power to his male favorites.

    But outside this scholarly consensus teemed a host of other ways to imagine the shared worlds of humans and nonhumans. How Not to Make a Human engages with these nonsystematic practices and thought to challenge both human particularity and the notion that agency, free will, and rationality are the defining characteristics of being human.Recuperating the Middle Ages as a lost opportunity for decentering humanity, Karl Steel provides a posthuman and ecocritical interrogation of a wide range of medieval texts. Exploring such diverse topics as medieval pet keeping, stories of feral and isolated children, the ecological implications of funeral practices, and the “bare life” of oysters from a variety of disanthropic perspectives, Steel furnishes contemporary posthumanists with overlooked cultural models to challenge human and other supremacies at their roots. By collecting beliefs and practices outside the mainstream of medieval thought, How Not to Make a Human connects contemporary concerns with ecology, animal life, and rethinkings of what it means to be human to uncanny materials that emphasize matters of death, violence, edibility, and vulnerability.

    Long before the inception of SIS and the CIA, in the period of the Renaissance, the Republic of Venice had masterminded a remarkable centrally-organised state intelligence organisation that played a pivotal role in the defence of the Venetian empire. Housed in the imposing Doge's Palace and under the direction of the Council of Ten, the notorious governmental committee that acted as Venice's spy chiefs, this 'proto-modern' organisation served prominent intelligence functions including operations (intelligence and covert action), analysis, cryptography and steganography, cryptanalysis, and even the development of lethal substances. Official informants and amateur spies were shipped across Europe, Anatolia, and Northern Africa, conducting Venice's stealthy intelligence operations. Revealing a plethora of secrets, their keepers, and their seekers, Venice's Secret Service explores the social and managerial processes that enabled their existence and that furnished the foundation for an extraordinary intelligence organisation created by one of the early modern world's most cosmopolitan states.

    She is more than a relic, however. She has a story to tell, and her sinking in the Solent in 1545, when under attack by the French, and the reasons for it, have intrigued historians for generations. With the benefit of access to her remains, archaeologists have been able to slowly unravel the mystery of her foundering on a calm summer's day in July 1545.This new book by one of the country's leading experts on the Mary Rose contains much that is published for the first time. It has the first full account of the battle in which Henry VIII's warship was sunk, and tells the stories of the English and French admirals. It examines the design and construction of the ship and how she was used, and develops themes begun when he was earlier commissioned by the Mary Rose Trust to write the multi-volume history of the ship. He shows for the first time conclusively that the French fleet arrived unexpectedly to seize the Isle of Wight and Portsmouth a day later than was once believed, that the many bodies found in the wreck reflect her at action stations, and that the ship had had an extra deck added and was therefore more unstable than was previously thought. Finally, the author makes it clear who was responsible for the loss of the Mary Rose, after describing what happened onboard, deck by deck, in her last moments afloat.The fascinating revelation will intrigue the general reader as well as the historian and archaeologist and the book is set to become the last word on the career of this most famous of ships.

    The gigantic fortress where he spent his childhood years lay some 12 miles inland from the spot where Henry was supposed to have landed in Milford Haven when he came to challenge Richard III in August 1485.Henry's landing and progress to Bosworth Field were a gamble, but by 1485 the last of the Lancastrian princes had little option but to 'chance his arm.' He had worn out his welcome on the Continent and, despite his unpopularity in some quarters of English society, there was the real risk that Richard's reign might finally begin to create stability and financial success - Yorkist stability and success. A gamble, yes, but one that had to be taken if the House of Lancaster was to survive.In Following in the Footsteps of Henry Tudor, we hear of the many fascinating stories from Henry's march and the places he visited - a journey that took just over two weeks. It was a time of treachery and double dealing but it culminated with the establishment of the Tudor dynasty, the end of the Wars of the Roses and the beginnings of the modern world.

    Enriching previous perceptions and ways of seeing the Elizabethans in their world, he reveals an age parallel in many ways to our own—a country aspiring professionally and changing socially. The gaze is from the inside, capturing the knights, melancholy lovers, poets (including Sidney, Donne and Sir John Davies), court favourites and their ‘Gloriana’—as they mirrored and made themselves. Beginning with the great portrait of the Queen in grand procession with her Garter Knights, Strong pinpoints the characters and key motifs that run through the rest of the book: chivalry, changes to the social order, emblems and imagery – the full richness of the Elizabethan imagination. These pictures were intimate—personal commissions by private individuals, and not necessarily for public view. As such they are a glimpse into private worlds and sentiments and speak eloquently for the people who paid for, painted and lived amongst them, reversing an academic tendency to treat the portraits as if they had a life of their own, not grounded by the real people who commissioned them.Roy Strong concludes this richly illustrated volume with the famous and complex Rainbow Portrait, unpicking the iconography of this final painting of an ageless Elizabeth in her ‘Mask of Youth’. Within a year of its completion the queen was dead—her portraits increasingly demoted and replaced by Mary Stuart’s—as the splendour of the Elizabethan age and ‘the cult of the queen’ made way for new monarch James VI, who was to rule over a united England and Scotland.

    Panning from play to audience and back again, Black shows how Shakespeare's plays would have been experienced and interpreted by those who paid to see them. From the dangers of travel to the indignities of everyday life in teeming London, Black explores the jokes, political and economic references, and small asides that Shakespeare's audiences would have recognized. These moments of recognition often reflected the audience's own experiences of what it was to, as Hamlet says, "grunt and sweat under a weary life." Black's clear and sweeping approach seeks to reclaim Shakespeare from the ivory tower and make the plays' histories more accessible to the public for whom the plays were always intended.

    But when did it begin? When did it end? And what did it include?Traditionally regarded as a revival of classical art and learning, centred upon fifteenth-century Italy, views of the Renaissance have changed considerably in recent decades. The glories of Florence and the art of Raphael and Michelangelo remain an important element of the Renaissance story, but they are now only a part of a much wider story which looks beyond an exclusive focus on high culture, beyond the Italian peninsula, and beyond the fifteenth century.The Oxford Illustrated History of the Renaissance tells the cultural history of this broader and longer Renaissance: from seminal figures such as Dante and Giotto in thirteenth-century Italy, to the waning of Spain's "golden age" in the 1630s, and the closure of the English theatres in 1642, the date generally taken to mark the end of the English literary Renaissance.Geographically, the story ranges from Spanish America to Renaissance Europe's encounter with the Ottomans--and far beyond, to the more distant cultures of China and Japan. And thematically, under Gordon Campbell's expert editorial guidance, the volume covers the whole gamut of Renaissance civilization, with chapters on humanism and the classical tradition; war and the state; religion; art and architecture; the performing arts; literature; craft and technology; science and medicine; and travel and cultural exchange.

    Its twenty-one chapters provide diverse perspectives on Shakespeare and early modern literature that engage innovation, collaboration, and forward-looking practices. They model ways of mobilizing justice with early modern texts and claim the intellectual benefits of integrating social justice into courses. The book reconceives the relationship between students and Renaissance literature in ways that enable them - and us - to move from classroom discussions to real-life applications.

    Sumptuary laws were a tool on the part of states to regulate not only manufacturing systems and moral economies via the medium of expenditure and consumption of clothing but also banquets, festivities and funerals. Leading scholars on Asian, Latin American, Ottoman and European history shed new light on how and why items of dress became key aspirational goods across society, how they were lobbied for and marketed, and whether or not sumptuary laws were implemented by cities, states and empires to restrict or channel trade and consumption. Their findings reveal the significance of sumptuary laws in medieval and early modern societies as a site of contestation between individuals and states and how dress as an expression of identity developed as a modern 'human right'.

    However, now many scholars have come to accept that the Ottoman Empire was one of the - not very numerous - long-lived 'world empires' that have emerged in history. This comparative social history compares the Ottoman to another of the great world empires, that of the Mughals in the Indian subcontinent, exploring source criticism, diversities in the linguistic and religious fields as political problems, and the fates of ordinary subjects including merchants, artisans, women and slaves.

    Witch-trials were clearly a gendered phenomenon, but witchcraft was not a uniquely female crime. While women constituted approximately three quarters of those tried forwitchcraft in the Holy Roman Empire, a significant minority were men. Witchcraft was also a crime of unbridled passion: it centred on the notion that one person's emotions could have tangible and deadly physical consequences. Yet it is also true that not all suspicions of witchcraft led to a formalaccusation, and not all witch-trials led to the stake. Indeed, just over half the total number put on trial for witchcraft in early modern Europe were executed. In order to understand how early modern people imagined the witch, we must first begin to understand how people understood themselves andeach other; this can help us to understand how the witch could be a member of the community, living alongside their accusers, yet inspire such visceral fear.Through an examination of case studies of witch-trials that took place in the early modern Lutheran duchy of Wurttemberg in southwestern Germany, Laura Kounine examines how the community, church, and the agents of the law sought to identify the witch, and the ways in which ordinary men and womenfought for their lives in an attempt to avoid the stake. The study further explores the visual and intellectual imagination of witchcraft in this period in order to piece together why witchcraft could be aligned with such strong female stereotypes on the one hand, but also be imagined as a crimethat could be committed by any human, whether young or old, male or female. By moving beyond stereotypes of the witch, Imagining the Witch argues that understandings of what constituted witchcraft and the 'witch' appear far more contested and unstable than has previously been suggested. It alsosuggests new ways of thinking about early modern selfhood which moves beyond teleological arguments about the development of the 'modern' self. Indeed, it is the trial process itself that created the conditions for a diverse range of people to reflect on, and give meaning, to emotions, gender, andthe self in early modern Lutheran Germany.

    In 1525 the League faced an existential threat in the form of an attempt by the exiled Duke Ulrich of Württemberg to retake his territory and a series of localised peasant uprisings which united into a movement for political reform. The League was forced to mobilise a mercenary armyat a time of financial crisis and a shortage of Landsknechts, many of whom were fighting in the Italian Wars. This book presents a detailed inside account of the different components and internal organisation of the League army. It focuses on two campaigns led by its supreme commander, Georg Truchsess von Waldburg, to maintain discipline during an intensive six-month campaign to thwart the Duke of Württemberg and smash the peasant rebellion whilst attempting to appease his political overlords within the League.

    This is the first collection of essays to examine how elite women in early modern Europe marshalled clothing and jewellery for political ends.