1. Uneasy Lies the Head
Henry Tudor spends much of his youth in exile, a distant Lancastrian claimant whose survival depends on the politics of Brittany, France and England. In 1485 he returns with a small army, defeats Richard III at Bosworth and becomes Henry VII, but victory on the battlefield…
2. Katharine, the Virgin Widow
Teenage Katharine of Aragon leaves Spain for England to marry Arthur, Prince of Wales, in a dynastic alliance intended to bind the Tudor monarchy to the powerful Spanish crown. England is unfamiliar and often hostile, while Arthur's poor health makes the future of the marriage uncertain…
3. The Shadow of the Pomegranate
The Shadow of the Pomegranate follows the early marriage of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, beginning in the hopeful years when the young king appears devoted to his Spanish queen. Repeated pregnancies, the desperate need for a surviving male heir and Henry’s changing affections gradually…
4. The King’s Secret Matter
Henry VIII’s desire to end his marriage to Catherine of Aragon drives The King’s Secret Matter, as the Tudor court becomes divided over succession, religion and the king’s growing attachment to Anne Boleyn. Catherine refuses to accept that her marriage is invalid, while Henry pushes church…
5. Murder Most Royal
Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard are cousins whose beauty and family connections bring both women to the attention of Henry VIII. Anne's long struggle to become queen helps overturn the king's first marriage and transforms the religious politics of England, but failure to produce a surviving…
6. Saint Thomas’s Eve
Margaret “Meg” More grows up in the unusually learned household of her father, Thomas More, who insists that his daughters should receive an education comparable to that of his son. Family life at Chelsea forms the emotional centre of the novel as More’s legal and political…
7. The Sixth Wife
Twice widowed by the time she is thirty-one, Katherine Parr has created a degree of independence unusual for a Tudor noblewoman when Henry VIII decides to make her his sixth queen. Marriage to the ageing king places her close to power but also inside a court…
8. The Thistle and the Rose
Margaret Tudor, elder daughter of Henry VII and sister of the future Henry VIII, is married to James IV of Scotland as part of the Treaty of Perpetual Peace between the two kingdoms. What begins as a dynastic settlement develops into a genuine partnership, but the…
9. Mary, Queen of France
Mary Tudor, younger sister of Henry VIII, grows up knowing that her marriage will be treated as an instrument of diplomacy. Henry values her deeply but still expects obedience when political advantage requires her to marry the ageing Louis XII of France rather than the man…
10. The Spanish Bridegroom
Power-hungry monarch, cold-blooded murderer, obsessive monster—who could love such a man? Set against the glittering courts of sixteenth-century Europe, the Spain of the dreaded Inquisition, and the tortured England of Bloody Mary, For a Queen’s Love is the story of Philip II of Spain—and of the…
11. Lord Robert
Torn between her heart’s passion and duty to her kingdom, a young queen makes a dark choice… Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester was the most powerful man in England during the reign of Elizabeth I. Handsome and clever, he drew the interest of many women—but it…