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Historical person
1457–1509
Henry VII defeated Richard III at Bosworth in 1485 and founded the Tudor dynasty. His marriage to Elizabeth of York helped reconcile rival claims, but his reign faced rebellions and pretenders including Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck.
Henry strengthened royal finance, used bonds and recognisances to control nobles and pursued cautious diplomacy and dynastic marriages. He died in 1509, leaving a secure throne and substantial treasury to Henry VIII. Henry VII was born in Pembroke Castle and died in Richmond Palace.
Derek Birks’ A Guide to the Wars of the Roses continues through Edward IV, the upheavals of 1483, Richard III and Bosworth, before considering the settlement under Henry VII and the ways later history has reshaped the reputations of the leading participants. In Gareth Russell’s A History of the English Monarchy, Henry VIII’s religious revolution and Elizabeth I’s management of a divided kingdom form the conclusion to a survey concerned not only with individual monarchs but with the institution they repeatedly remade. Additional non-fiction treatment of Henry VII comes from Linda Porter’s Crown of Thistles, Peter Ackroyd’s Foundation, S. B. Chrimes and Timothy Bolton’s Henry VII, Sean Cunningham’s Henry VII (Penguin Monarchs), and Nathen Amin’s Henry VII and the Tudor Pretenders.
Series
Tudor Warrior follows James of Ecclestone through early Tudor politics, espionage and war. The series begins under Henry VII, uses the lingering threat of Yorkist claimants such as Perkin Warbeck, and moves toward Henry VIII and Flodden. It is a short sequence about service to a new dynasty…
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The Wars of the Roses series follows the dynastic struggle from the weakness of Henry VI’s government through the rise of York, Edward IV’s victories and exiles, and the final contest between Richard III and Henry Tudor. The novels combine court politics with the major military turning points…
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The Swords of the White Rose trilogy follows Sir John Hawker, an ageing Yorkist knight burdened by past violence, after Richard III’s defeat at Bosworth. Charged with protecting Sir Giles Ellingham, Richard’s fictional illegitimate son, Hawker crosses England and continental Europe while Tudor agents, mercenaries and rival claimants…
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Queens of the Tower follows the historical courtier Joan Vaux, later Lady Guildford, through the first Tudor reign. Joan serves Elizabeth of York and observes the private household behind a monarchy still threatened by rebellion and uncertain succession. The Lady of the Ravens covers Joan’s earlier service and…
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The Tudor Dynasty sequence traces the family’s survival during the later Wars of the Roses. First of the Tudors centres on Jasper and Edmund Tudor, Margaret Beaufort and the protection of the young Henry Tudor after the collapse of Lancastrian power. The Tudor Crown continues with Henry in…
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The Wars of the Roses series follows the fictional Elder family through the dynastic conflicts that divided England between 1459 and 1485. Beginning with a private Yorkshire feud, the family is drawn into the struggle between Lancaster and York and repeatedly finds its survival tied to the fortunes…
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The Tudor Trilogy traces the dynasty from its unlikely origins to the establishment of Henry VII’s monarchy. Owen begins with the Welsh courtier Owen Tudor and Catherine of Valois, whose secret relationship creates the family from which the Tudor claim will emerge. Jasper follows their son Jasper Tudor…
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The Plantagenet and Tudor novels form a chronological sequence of connected but independently readable stories about women near the English throne. They move from the Lancastrian court and the Wars of the Roses through the rise of the Tudors, Henry VIII’s marriages, the mid-Tudor religious crisis and the…
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The York Family Novels are six overlapping biographical novels about the House of York during the Wars of the Roses and the opening of Tudor rule. Each book centres on a different historical or lightly documented figure—Kate Haute, Margaret of York, Grace Plantagenet, Cecily Neville, Jane Shore and…
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New World Rising follows the fictional half-brothers Jack Wynter and Harry Vaughan through the dynastic upheavals that ended Plantagenet rule and opened the early Tudor age. Sons of the Blood begins in 1483 with Edward IV’s death, the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower and Richard III’s…
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The Tudor Rose Trilogy follows three generations of the dynasty through novels centred on Elizabeth of York, Henry VIII and Mary I. Beginning in the final decades of the Wars of the Roses and ending with Mary’s death in 1558, it traces how family memory, contested legitimacy and…
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The Tudor Saga recounts the dynasty from Henry VII’s exile and victory in the Wars of the Roses to the final years of Elizabeth I. Historical rulers, ministers and royal relatives occupy the centre of the sequence, while fictional attendants and agents reveal how decisions at court affect…
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The Six Tudor Queens sequence retells the lives of Henry VIII’s wives through six full-length novels. Twelve companion stories shift attention to relatives, servants, artists and courtiers affected by the same events, while Six Tudor Queens: Writing a New Story explains the project’s historical method. In the Shadow…
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Standalone books
Non Fiction
Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.
