A certain buzz has already been created about the collaborative effort of the upcoming Philippa Gregory non-fiction work, The Women of the Cousin's War, featuring scholars David Baldwin and Michael Jones. This book will take a look at Jaquetta of Luxembourg, her daughter Queen Elizabeth Woodville (mother of the lost princes) and Margaret Beaufort (mother to Henry VII). The book features family trees and other illustrations.
Also upcoming is Bessie Blount: The Story of Henry VIII's Longtime Mistress, which features one of the main characters in Henry VIII's young life, as Bessie gave Henry a longed-for son, however illegitimate. Author Elizabeth Norton will try to shed some light on Bessie, who was rumored to have been quite beautiful and perhaps Henry's first love.
And not to be forgotten, those once powerful and always scheming Boleyns: The Boleyn’s: The Rise and Fall of a Tudor Family by David Loades will tell us some of the story of the trio of siblings George, Mary and Anne, the treachery and haters who helped bring them down.. while Mary Boleyn enjoys some more attention this fall with a new biography penned by Alison Weir.
I wouldn't mind reading each one of these titles, though one has to wonder how long can the allure of the Tudors and Boleyns last?
Some good ones here. Not sure the allure will ever end for me. =O)
ReplyDeleteI recently saw RICHARD III at a Shakespeare Festival this summer and before I went (thank heaven!), I re-read the Family Tree. The Cousins War is apt phraselogy. Terribly sad in many ways that the power plays nearly destroyed England financially, Henry VII rebuilt the treasury, only to see his son create religious problems from his succession problem.
ReplyDeleteAH, me. Being king is never easy, eh?