A young woman catches the attention of a king already married to a princess from a faraway kingdom. The king desires the young lady and divorces his wife to marry her. However, there is a catch. The young lady spent some time in the French court of Francis I and Claude of France, whereas the king’s wife was the daughter of the Spanish King and Queen as well as the aunt of the Holy Roman Emperor. The Great Matter of Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, and Catherine of Aragon is considered one of the messiest divorces in English history and rightfully so when you consider the diplomatic consequences that this divorce would have across Europe. Estelle Paranque highlights the connection between Anne Boleyn and the French court in her latest book, “Thorns, Lust, and Glory: The Betrayal of Anne Boleyn.”
I want to thank Hachette Books and Net Galley for sending me a copy of this book. I heard that Estelle Paranque was writing a new book about the 16th century, but when I heard that it dealt with Anne Boleyn’s connections with the French court, I jumped at the chance to read it. While I do know quite a bit about the rise and fall of Anne Boleyn, it is her connection with the French court that I have never really explored in depth.
Paranque begins her book by examining the meeting between King Henry VIII and King Francis I with Anne Boleyn at Calais between October 25th and 27th, 1532. This was a significant meeting as it was right before Henry and Anne married in secret and they desired that Francis would support their side in the Great Matter. But how did they get to this meeting in Calais? This is where this book shines as Paranque takes the time to show her audience what life was like for Anne in the French court and the connections that she forged with women like Louise of Savoy, Claude of France, and Marguerite of Angouleme Queen of Navarre. It was fascinating to see how the Boleyns were able to use their connections to forge alliances with the French court that would prove useful in the future.
Possibly my favorite part of this book was seeing how the diplomatic channels across Europe interacted with one another during the Great Matter, the queenship of Anne Boleyn, and the fall of the Boleyns. I think we so often overlook that there were diplomats who were working on the sidelines to convey messages between kings and emperors to form or strengthen alliances. While many might consider the way Paranque wrote the correspondence and dialogue between diplomats and the monarchy as hard to get used to because she does insert emotions, I believe it adds depth to the story because they were human beings not in a vacuum. They had feelings about what was happening around them, passionate feelings in fact, and that should be displayed to readers.
While the actual events of this book were not new to me, the way that Paranque was able to present the information and show the men behind the scenes was fascinating. It presents the relationship between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn in a different more complex light. If you want a different angle to the rise and fall of Anne Boleyn, I recommend you read, “Thorns, Lust, and Glory: The Betrayal of Anne Boleyn” by Estelle Paranque.
English royal history is filled with fantastic stories of triumphs and tribulations, grand romances, and divorces that shook the foundations of the monarchy. It is also filled with struggles over religion, wars both inside England and with foreign nations, and heartbreaking child losses. We often think about the spouses of the Plantagenets and the Tudors when we think about royal romances, but we shouldn’t forget about the dynasties that came after, like the Stuarts. So how did the Stuart dynasty come to be and how did the unions between monarchs and their significant others affect the dynasty and England? Heather R. Darsie explores this often-overlooked dynasty and the stories of their marriages and romances in her latest book, “Stuart Spouses: A Compendium of Consorts from James I of Scotland to Queen Anne of Great Britain.”
As humans, we love a good love story. Tales of courtships, grand confessions of love, over-the-top weddings, and marriages that last decades. These seem like high expectations, especially when we compare these expectations to royal courtships of the past. The majority of royals married and they were more focused on political matches instead of love. However, few chose a different path altogether, they decided to be single. One of the most famous monarchs with a single status was Queen Elizabeth I of England, the Virgin Queen So why did Elizabeth stay single throughout her reign, and how did she navigate her numerous suitors? Carol Ann Lloyd tries to answer these questions in her latest book, “Courting the Virgin Queen: Queen Elizabeth I and Her Suitors.”
The royal dynasties of English history are some of the most popular in European history. We have the Normans, the Angevins, the Plantagenets, who occupied the throne for 300 years, the Scottish Stuarts who saw religious change and political upheaval, the haughty Hanovers, and the current Windsor dynasty. However, one dynasty that has captured the imagination of history nerds for centuries has been the tumultuous Tudors. In book two of Peter Ackroyd’s “The History of England: Tudors,” he explores the stories that made the Tudor dynasty so infamous.
England is a nation that is rich in history and conflicts galore. Through the centuries, England has seen so much change. Many of us know the stories of the medieval and the Tudor kings and queens of England, covered in numerous books, but Peter Ackroyd has taken this concept a step forward. Ackroyd embarked on an epic quest to chronicle the history of England from its prehistoric origins to the modern age. In “Foundation: The History of England From Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors,” Peter Ackroyd begins his epic journey into the past to explore the origins of English history.
A life of luxury from birth, destined to be crowned King or Queen of England. This is what we often think life must have been like for royal heirs who reached the ultimate destination of a crown and a throne. However, the stories of those who failed to reach the throne are mired in tragedy and heartache. The question of royal succession in England is a complex issue, especially when the heir to the throne dies unexpectedly, leaving doubts on whether a dynasty will survive through blood or dissolve in conflict. How did the deaths of these potential rulers radically transform the fabric of English history as a whole and what can their lives tell us about what kind of rulers they might have been? Ashley Mantle hopes to answer all of these questions and more in his latest book, “Uncrowned: Royal Heirs Who Didn’t Take the Throne.”
I am pleased to welcome Judith Arnopp to my blog today to share a blurb for her latest book, “How to Dress Like a Tudor.” I would like to thank Pen and Sword Books, The Coffee Pot Book Club, and Judith Arnopp for allowing me to be part of this blog tour. 
Blurb:
Author Bio:
When we think of old homes, we often think of the phrase, “If walls could talk,” because the true treasure of any home is not the floorboards or the walls, but rather the stories of those who lived inside its walls. Take, for example, Hampton Court Palace in England. A home for over 500 years that has seen many architectural and artistic changes in its hallowed halls, but it is the stories of those who stayed for brief periods that truly make this palace spectacular. Stories full of salacious scandals, religious implications, and revelations that would shake England to its core through revolutions. Hampton Court Palace has been the center of English court drama for centuries and finally, these tantalizing tales are being told in a truly remarkable book, “The Palace: From the Tudors to the Windsors, 500 Years of British History at Hampton Court” by Gareth Russell.
The story of the Boleyn family in the 16th century and their ultimate fall from grace has been told for centuries. However, there is a more intriguing tale hidden in the Boleyn family tree. The origins of the family and how they became such a dynamic family that revolutionized the 16th century. How did this family of peasants rise through the ranks to have one of their own become the Queen of England? It is a tale of struggle, survival, and triumph that is told in Claire Martin’s debut book, “Heirs of Ambition: The Making of the Boleyns.”
The story of the Tudor dynasty has been told in numerous different ways. We know the major figures, the significant events, and the stories of their love lives. We understand how they changed the history of England and Europe forever, but these are just the basic facts. If we look at the numbers surrounding the dynasty, what type of story does it tell? This is the approach Carol Ann Lloyd has taken in her debut book, “The Tudors by Numbers: The Stories and Statistics Behind England’s Most Infamous Royal Dynasty.”