England had been ravaged for decades by conspiracy, violence, murders, coups and countercoups. Through luck, guile and ruthlessness, Henry VII, the first of the Tudor kings, had clambered to the top of the heap--a fugitive with a flimsy claim to England's throne. For many he remained a usurper, a false king.But Henry had a crucial asset: his queen and their children, the living embodiment of his hoped-for dynasty. Queen Elizabeth was a member of the House of York. Henry himself was from the House of Lancaster, so between them they united the warring parties that had fought the bloody century-long War of the Roses. Now their older son, Arthur, was about to marry a Spanish princess. On a cold November day sixteen-year-old Catherine of Aragon arrived in London for a wedding that would mark a triumphal moment in Henry's reign.In this remarkable book, Thomas Penn re-creates the story of the tragic, magnetic Henry VII--a controlling, paranoid, avaricious monarch who was entering the most perilous years of his long reign.Rich with drama and insight, Winter King is an astonishing story of pageantry, treachery, intrigue and incident--and the fraught, dangerous birth of Tudor England.

    During a clandestine dive to an old shipwreck, archaeologist Isabella Warnock unearths an artefact unlike anything she has ever seen: an astrarium, a powerful ancient device rumoured to have shaped the destinies of pharaohs and kings since the beginning of time. But her discovery comes at a terrible price.

    The letters appear to have been written after Anne Boleyn had been sent away from court, in consequence of reports injurious to her reputation, which had begun to be publicly circulated. Her removal indeed was so abrupt that she had resolved never to return. The king soon repented his harshness, and strove to persuade her to come back; but it was a long time, and not without great trouble, before he could induce her to comply. This book is very different from other works on the same topic and two of its letters-the fifth and the thirteenth-are not comprehended in the Vatican collection. Of the seventeen letters here included eight were written in English and nine in French.

    Europe is seething with conflict between Protestants and Catholics. James sees himself as a grand peacemaker -- and what better way to make his mark than to use his children in marriage negotiations? Into this court come Henry, Prince of Wales, and his sister Elizabeth. Their louche father is so distrusted that soon they are far more popular than he is: an impossibly dangerous position. Then Elizabeth is introduced to Frederick of Bohemia, Elector Palatine. He's shy but they understand one another. She decides he will be her husband -- but her parents change their minds. Brutally denied Henry's support, how can Elizabeth forge her own future? At once a love story, a tale of international politics and a tremendous evocation of England at a time of great change, this is a landmark novel to thrill all lovers of fine historical fiction.

    The story of Anne Boleyn, a high spirited young woman who caught the eye of Henry VIII of England and changed history.

    The secret marriage between Bess and the Queen’s beloved Sir Walter Ralegh cost both of them their fortunes, their freedom, and very nearly their lives. Yet it was Bess, resilient, passionate, and politically shrewd, who would live to restore their name and reclaim her political influence. In this dazzling biography, Bess Ralegh finally emerges from her husband’s shadow to stand as a complex, commanding figure in her own right.Writing with grace and drama, Anna Beer brings Bess to life as a woman, a wife and mother, an intimate friend of poets and courtiers, and a skilled political infighter in Europe’s most powerful and most dangerous court. The only daughter of an ambitious aristocratic family, Bess was thrust at a tender age into the very epicenter of royal power when her parents secured her the position of Elizabeth’s Gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber. Bess proved to be a natural player on this stage of extravagant mythmaking and covert sexual politics, until she fell in love with the Queen’s Captain of the Guard, the handsome, virile, meteorically rising Ralegh. But their secret marriage, swiftly followed by the birth of their son, would have grave consequences for both of them.Brooking the Queen’s wrath and her husband’s refusal to acknowledge their marriage, Bess brilliantly stage-managed her social and political rehabilitation and emerged from prison as the leader of a brilliant, fast-living aristocratic set. She survived personal tragedy, the ruinous global voyages launched by her husband, and the vicious plots of high-placed enemies. Though Raleigh in the end fell afoul of court intrigue, Bess lived on into the reign of James I as a woman of hard-won wisdom and formidable power.With compelling historical insight, Anna Beer recreates here the vibrant pageant of Elizabethan England—the brilliant wit and vicious betrayals, the new discoveries and old rivalries, the violence and fierce sexuality of life at court. Peopled by poets and princes, spanning the reigns of two monarchs, moving between the palaces of London and the manor house outside the capital, My Just Desire is the portrait of a remarkable woman who lived at the center of an extraordinary time.

    His father, John Dudley, saw his own father executed by Henry VIII when he ascended the throne, and suffered ignominy and obscurity as a result. But John is determined to rise high and see his family restored to its former glorious position. He places his sons in the Royal Household, and Robert spends his childhood years at the Royal Court, as playmate to King Henry's children, Prince Edward and the Lady Elizabeth. Robert sees his father gain power and influence, becoming the young King Edward VI's most important courtier. But when John tries to make his daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Grey, queen,the Catholic Mary Tudor proves she has the support of the people, and John is forced to renounce Jane and proclaim Mary queen. For their part in the Nine Days Queen affair, John and his sons are imprisoned in the Tower of London, to await trial and probable execution. Forced to admit that he erred in his belief in the New Religion, Protestantism, John, along with his son, Guildford who married Jane Grey, are executed, having their heads cut off on Tower Hill. One more brother dies of illness, and Queen Mary shows mercy and releases the remaining three brothers. Robert becomes desperate to restore the family's name and fortune, and persuades his brothers to join Queen Mary's husband, King Philip of Spain, in a war against the French. In France, the youngest Dudley brother, Henry, is killed, but Robert is mentioned in despatches as having fought valiantly, and the taint of attainder is removed from the Dudley family name. The Dudleys are not considered traitors any longer. But Robert is still not wanted at court, and he is forced to leave London and settle down with his wife, Amy Robsart, in Norfolk. But he soon grows tired of both the country and his wife, and hopes one day to be able to return to the court. His chance comes when Queen Mary dies and Elizabeth Tudor becomes queen. Abandoning his wife, Robert rushes to her side. Elizabeth soon falls in love with Robert, and sordid rumours spread throughout Europe about their relationship, made worse when Robert's wife dies in mysterious circumstances, and he is suspected of having her murdered. Exiled from the court, Robert has to wait in the country for the coroner's court to return a verdict of Accidental Death before Elizabeth allows him to return to her. Robert is now a free man, but Elizabeth, ever fearful of relinquishing her power, and haunted by the beheadings of her mother, Anne Boleyn, and her stepmother, Katherine Howard, will not agree to marry him, while jealously keeping him by her side. But Robert keeps hoping, and with his heart set on becoming king, he is forced to live a double life, keeping his mistress and illegitimate son secret to avoid Elizabeth's wrath. Until he falls in love with Elizabeth's cousin, the pretty and seductive, Lettice. Lettice demands marriage when she becomes pregnant, and Robert, tired of waiting for Elizabeth and wanting an heir to carry on the Dudley name, agrees. Meanwhile, his growing reputation as politician and staunch Protestant, means that Europe looks to him to solve their religious and territorial problems. Ever eager to improve his reputation and to prove that he is more than Elizabeth's favourite, he launches himself into war in the Netherlands, and is finally offered the governorship of the Dutch, making him a king in all but name. He accepts the Dutch offer but when Elizabeth hears of it, she is furious and insists that he renounce the title. Robert is forced to make a humiliating exit. He returns to England, disappointed and broken in body. Forced to become a soldier again when the Spanish launch their Armada, Robert is too ill to celebrate the English victory and dies en route to taking the spa waters at Buxton. When Elizabeth hears the news, she looks herself away in her room to grieve alone.

    The era that bears her name was one of the most exciting and dazzling in England's history. Christopher Hibbert's masterful biography introduces a new generation of readers, aware of the challenges women face in wielding power, to perhaps history's greatest monarch.

    The result is a superb work of history through which these six women become as memorable for their own achievements--and mistakes--as they have always been for their fateful link to Henry VIII. Illustrations.

    Was she bald? What precisely was her sex-life? What were her emotional attachments? No other biography provides such a personal study of the Queen and her court - their daily lives, concerns, topics of conversation, meals, living conditions, travels, successes and failures - but it also places them firmly within the historical context of 16th Century Britain. An authoritative history of the period enlightened by a through understanding of Elizabethan society and an intimate portrait of the Queen.

    I stared on in horror as the sword sliced my aunt's head from her swan-like neck. The executioner raised her severed head into the air by its long chestnut locks. The last thing I remembered before my world turned black was my own scream.Fifteen year-old Catherine Carey has been dreaming the same dream for three years, since the bloody execution of her aunt Queen Anne Boleyn. Her only comfort is that she and her family are safe in Calais, away from the intrigues of Henry VIII's court. But now Catherine has been chosen to serve Henry VIII's new wife, Queen Anne of Cleves. Just before she sets off for England, she learns the family secret: the true identity of her father, a man she considers to be a monster and a man she will shortly meet.This compelling novel tells the life story of a woman who survived being close to the crown and who became one of Queen Elizabeth I's closest confidantes.

    Fleming and six other authors will each contribute a story from different points of view: M.T. Anderson, Jennifer Donnelly, Stephanie Hemphill, Deborah Hopkinson, Linda Sue Park, and Lisa Ann Sandell.

    This is a page-turning, revisionist history of the villainised and misunderstood Mary Tudor, the first queen of England.

    But history could have been quite different for Henry the VIII, as author Leigh Jenkins proves in this alternative history series, if only one key moment had changed in each of his marriages.The first book of the series, Catherine the Inquisitor, explores how life would have been different if Henry and Catherine's first child, a boy named Henry, had lived instead of died less than six weeks after his birth. With his much sought after heir, Henry would feel no need to create the Church of England or travel down the destructive path that led to his wives’ murders. But would that have been best for England?Jenkins delves inside one of history's greatest enigmas – the mind of King Henry the VIII of England. This intense, often poignant, look at King Henry shows that, with a twist of fate, England could have remembered a very different king.

    When Rufus' growing reputation as an animal trainer and his friendship with Cupido, one of Rome's greatest gladiators, attract the cruel gaze of the Emperor, Rufus is bought from his master and taken to the imperial palace as the keeper of the imperial elephant. Rufus soon sees that life here is dictated by Caligula’s ever shifting moods—he is as generous as he is cruel and he is a megalomaniac who declares himself a living god who simultaneously lives in constant fear of the plots against his life. Caligula's paranoia is not misplaced, and Rufus and Cupido find themselves unwittingly placed at the center of a conspiracy to assassinate the Emperor.