Book Review: “Tudor Princes and Princesses: The Early Lives of the Children of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York” by Aimee Fleming

On June 28, 2025June 28, 2025 By hmalagisiIn Book ReviewsLeave a comment

The year is 1485, and the last Plantagenet king, Richard III, is dead. The young man whose army defeated the king is Henry Tudor, and he is about to start a dynasty that will reshape world history forever. Henry Tudor, now King Henry VII, married the daughter of King Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, Elizabeth of York. Their marriage and their children would lay the foundation for the Tudor dynasty, but what was life like for the children who were the first generation of this remarkable dynasty? Aimee Fleming explores the lives of these royal siblings in her latest book, “Tudor Princes and Princesses: The Early Lives of the Children of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York.”

I would like to thank Pen and Sword Books and NetGalley for sending me a copy of this book. I enjoyed her previous book about Margaret More Roper, so when I heard that she was writing a book about the children of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, I was curious to see what new information Fleming would include in this book.

Fleming begins with the aftermath of Bosworth as King Henry VII begins his new life as a king and husband to Elizabeth of York. As they anticipate the arrival of their firstborn child, we get to see how their childhoods influenced their parenting style. The couple’s firstborn child, Prince Arthur Tudor, would be born in Winchester, the city where the mythical Camelot is supposed to be. As the heir to the dynasty and a boy named after the legendary King Arthur, the young prince was seen as the embodiment of the Tudor rose and the hope of the dynasty’s future. No pressure at all for the young prince.

After the birth of Prince Arthur, Henry and Elizabeth welcomed Margaret, Henry, Elizabeth, Edward/Edmund, and Mary into the family. While Princess Elizabeth and Prince Edward/Edmund died young, we get to see Princesses Margaret and Mary, as well as Prince Henry, grow up in the royal nursery, being educated for their important roles as future monarchs, and the bond they shared as siblings. They had to deal with the ever-changing world of the 16th century and navigate the uncertainty of court life, especially with the pretenders waiting in the wings to snatch the crown. Margaret, Henry, and Mary had to deal with the death of Prince Arthur shortly after he married Catherine of Aragon, and their mother, Elizabeth of York, after she gave birth to her final daughter, who also died. Blood may have connected these siblings, but love and shared experiences made this family tight-knit.

Overall, I thought this book was a nice review book for those who know about the Tudors, and a nice introductory book for those who are not familiar with this family. If either of these descriptions sounds like you, if you are a Tudor nerd, I recommend you read “Tudor Princes and Princesses: The Early Lives of the Children of Henry VIII and Elizabeth of York” by Aimee Fleming.

Book Review: “Women’s Lives in the Tudor Era” by Amy McElroy

On March 25, 2024March 25, 2024 By hmalagisiIn Book Reviews1 Comment

Women's Lives in the Tudor Era When we think about the Tudor dynasty, we often think about the famous men and women who defined the era. An era full of change in all aspects of life, from religious and political, to the arts and literature. Throughout these changes, we tend to focus on how they affected the lives of Tudor men, but there is a growing field of interest in the lives of the average Tudor women and how their lives were affected. In her latest book, “Women’s Lives in the Tudor Era,” Amy McElroy explores women’s life stages in 16th-century England and how their roles changed.

I want to thank Pen and Sword Books and Net Galley for sending me a copy of this book. I enjoyed McElroy’s debut book, “Educating the Tudors,” and when I heard that she had another book about Tudor women, I knew I wanted to read it.

McElroy explains that like the centuries before and since the 16th century, it was riddled with negative views of women in all aspects of life. Women were seen as beneath men, which corresponded with the teachings of Aristotle. Wives, mothers, and daughters were supposed to be obedient and seen rather than heard. However, when we look at the different stages of life, we cannot separate the roles of women from everyday life.

To understand what it meant to be a Tudor woman, McElroy breaks down life into different stages, starting in childhood, going through adolescence, becoming a wife and mother, working life for women, how women relaxed, embracing widowhood, and finally, wills and death. Each stage of life is represented in a chapter in this book. McElroy takes the time to explore what it meant to be a woman at each stage of life and how their social standings changed. We see women receiving an education, going through courtships, getting married and becoming wives, starting their own families and the dangers of childbirth, how women earned a living, what they would do as recreational activities, and how they would survive if their husbands died. In each chapter, McElroy highlights women of different social statuses to show how they survived during the Tudor time.

This was an engrossing and utterly fascinating book. Some elements were completely new information for me, which was quite thrilling. The amount of details that McElroy included in such a short amount of pages was incredible. Another brilliant book by McElroy. If you want a fascinating glimpse into the lives of Tudor women, I highly recommend you read, “Women’s Lives in the Tudor Era” by Amy McElroy.

Book Review: “Educating the Tudors” by Amy McElroy

On December 30, 2022December 29, 2022 By hmalagisiIn Book Reviews1 Comment

63112680._SX318_ (1) When we think of the word “education,” images of sitting in school rooms for hours, listening to lectures, and doing endless homework pop into our minds. Our modern education system tends to focus on math, science, language arts, and history as the core subjects we study, with music and physical education as something that we in America call an “elective.” But have you ever wondered what education looked like in the past? How did the Tudors pass on their knowledge to future generations? What subjects did the Tudors consider essential, and how did the amount of education you received change depending on your class? Amy McElroy explores these questions in her book, “Educating the Tudors.”

Thank you, Pen and Sword Books and Net Galley, for sending me a copy of this book. When I heard about this book, it grabbed my attention because although many books about the Tudors have talked about elements of education, I have yet to see a book about Tudor education. I was curious to see how the rise of humanism would affect Tudor education throughout the 16th- century.

Before we dive into the differences in classes regarding education, McElroy gives her readers a breakdown of the different types of schools and what subjects each school teaches, including the trivium and quadrivium. She then dives into the Tudor monarchs and their education, starting with King Henry VIII, the first monarch in England to receive a humanist education. With royal children and their education, we are introduced to their royal tutors, like Giles Duwes, Bernard Andre, John Palsgrave, Roger Ascham, Desiderius Erasmus, and John Picton.

McElroy takes her readers on an educational journey through the different social classes, like nobility, gentry, and knights, to the common people. As she points out, the lower you get on the social ladder, the less critical education is to have a career. With the introduction of the printing press and the Reformation, the way students were taught and discussed religious issues changed throughout the 16th century. I loved learning about the popular books of the time, the different instruments and dances that were enjoyed, and what games were played during down times.

For McElroy’s first book, I found it very educational, informative, and easy to read. Her passion for humanism and the evolution of Tudor education exudes on each page. I took pages of notes about this book, and I learned so much from this debut. I cannot wait to see what Amy McElroy will write about next. To learn more about how the Tudors approached education and humanism, you should check out “Educating the Tudors” by Amy McElroy.

Guest Post: “The Colour of Shadows” Book Tour- Children’s Early Education in Medieval and Tudor England by Toni Mount

On August 11, 2020August 11, 2020 By hmalagisiIn guest postLeave a comment

cover_proof crop2 I am pleased to welcome Toni Mount back to my blog today as a stop in her The Colour of Shadows Book Tour. The Colour of Shadows is her eighth Sebastian Foxley murder mystery. Today, Toni will be discussing Children’s Education in Medieval and Tudor England.

In my new Sebastian Foxley murder-mystery novel The Colour of Shadows, set in medieval London, some of the action involves a young scholar, Will Thatcher, studying at St Paul’s Song School in London. Song schools trained choristers – hence the name – for the cathedral to which they were attached. Since all the anthems and responses would be in Latin, this language was taught. In fact, children weren’t permitted even to chat with each other in English and everything was conducted in Latin. The ultimate intention was that every schoolboy would eventually become a cleric, priest, monk, or lawyer; professions carried out mostly in Latin, so an early grounding was vital.

But a child’s education began at home. By the time a boy – and the song school’s were always boys only – went to school, aged about seven, he should already know a few basics, so how did adults regard children’s early education in the fifteenth and sixteenth century? What was considered to be the correct way of raising and training children? Thomas Tusser, the Tudor commentator who generally gave parents good and sensible advice, as would have been applicable for the fifteenth century too, had this to say [I’ve modernised the spelling]:

We find it not spoken so often for nought,

That children were better unborn than untaught,

Some cockneys with cocking are made very fools,

Fit neither for prentice, for plough, nor for schools.

Teach child to ask blessing, serve God, and to church,

Then bless as a mother, else bless him with birch.

Thou housewife thus doing, what further shall need?

But all men to call thee good mother indeed.

This fascinating passage covers all that was required in educating a young child – a task undertaken most usually by its mother or, perhaps, by its nurse, if the mother wasn’t around.

Cockney. We all know the word and these days we often use it to describe a Londoner. It used to be a little more specific, applying only to those born within hearing distance of the bells of St-Mary-le-Bow church in the city. However, as you’ll realise from Tusser’s instructions above, a ‘cockney’ was originally something very different and nothing to do with being born in London. A cockney was a boy-child, spoilt and coddled and therefore effeminate. ‘Cocking Mams’ were over-indulgent mothers whose children would be unsuited in future to being apprenticed, working the land, or even going to school. So Rule no.1 was ‘Do not indulge the child.’

The first thing a child had to learn was the Lord’s Prayer or Paternoster, the Creed or Credo and, until the Reformation, when England became Protestant, the Hail Mary or Ave Maria. The Creed was the litany recited at mass, beginning ‘I believe in one God…’ At a baby’s baptism, the godparents had to promise, not only to keep their godchild safe ‘from the perils of fire and water’ but to teach him these basic recitations of the Christian faith. Since medieval times, these words, originally in Latin and often together with a basic ABC and numbers, were written on horn books. These weren’t really books at all but a sheet of parchment (later paper), covered with a transparent layer of horn to protect it, put in a wooden frame, shaped like a small, square table-tennis bat, complete with a handle, so the child could hold it easily. By Tudor times, they were more often written in English but these hard-wearing teaching aids often passed down the generations and were still popular in the eighteenth century.

Incidentally: a few words about godparents. From medieval times, child-birth had been a women-only affair. The mother might be in labour for days and need every encouragement from her female relatives, friends, and neighbours. These women also had to be on hand to stand as godparents at short notice, if the baby seemed unlikely to live and required immediate baptism. Godparents were also known as ‘godsibs’ or siblings in God. As you can imagine, a group of women, sitting around, waiting for days, perhaps, with not much to do, did a great deal of chatting and, as they ran out of relevant topics to discuss, probably resorted to exchanging rumours. This activity became known as ‘godsibing’ or – as we would call it – gossiping.

Children as young as three or four would be expected to attend church and to understand when to bow their heads or kneel in prayer and to reverence God. They would also join in family prayers with the household as often as the religious faith of the head of the house required. Many Protestant families took the act of reading aloud from the English Bible very seriously. It might be done daily or else, most certainly, on the Lord’s Day – Sunday. Thus, Rule no.2 was ‘Teach the child to respect God and the Church’.

Thomas Tusser’s final instruction would not be appreciated today: the use of corporal punishment. Beating children is now unlawful in most modern societies but the Tudors would have been dismayed by our idea. ‘Bless him with birch’, as Tusser said. In other words, a good thrashing never did anyone any harm and to ‘spare the rod’ was to ‘spoil the child’, as the Bible said. In the Book of Proverbs 13: 24, it states: ‘He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him’. The Tudors certainly believed this. Physical discipline was thought vital to achieving both learning and good behaviour and children were expected to take it with good grace, even welcoming it as just one aspect of the best educational methods. It would teach them to respect authority. If a child misbehaved, there was no point in trying to reason with him because children were illogical creatures, as yet incapable of rationalising what was good conduct and what was bad. So Rule no.3 was ‘Do not be lenient: a beating does far more good than harm and is vital to a child’s education.’

One last thing: a medieval or Tudor parent would never have told a child that it was naughty. In those days the word meant you were ‘as nothing’ (naught), so wicked you were less than human. It was a term applied to murders. Shakespeare’s Macbeth was naughty; unruly toddlers were not.

Adventures of a Tudor Nerd

Tag: education

Book Review: “Tudor Princes and Princesses: The Early Lives of the Children of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York” by Aimee Fleming

Book Review: “Women’s Lives in the Tudor Era” by Amy McElroy

Book Review: “Educating the Tudors” by Amy McElroy

Guest Post: “The Colour of Shadows” Book Tour- Children’s Early Education in Medieval and Tudor England by Toni Mount

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: