We have five copies of John Guy's new book, The Children of Henry Vlll, to give away for the best answers to the following question:
"Who is your favourite Tudor royal and why?"
Competitions are open only to entrants from the UK
Closing date is 7th August and you enter by adding your comment to this post.
Good luck!
Lynne H, can
you please get in touch so that you can receive your prize of The
Quincunx? Email me at maryhoffman@maryhoffman.co.uk or leave a comment.
5 comments:
Jane Seymour as I find her story so sad and I think she might have been Henry's last wife if she had survived childbirth....but who know?? ;-)
Elizabeth 1st. In November 1558, after the death of Mary I, Elizabeth succeeded to the throne. Some see Elizabeth’s 45 year reign as a golden age of English history. She was a shrewd and intelligent woman who was fluent in six languages.
Elizabeth’s first priority on becoming Queen was to return England to the Protestant faith. Yet she declared that she did not want to "make windows into men's souls" and was satisfied as long as her subjects gave an outward show of conformity. Elizabeth helped create a Church of England that, although Protestant, allowed some of the old Catholic traditions to continue.
Elizabeth chose an able set of administrators to aid her during her rule, including William Cecil, Lord Burghley as her Secretary of State and Sir Francis Walsingham, in charge of intelligence. Elizabeth's reign also saw England significantly expand its trade overseas and in 1580 Sir Francis Drake became the first Englishman to successfully circumnavigate the earth. The arts flourished in England during this period as Shakespeare, Spenser and Marlowe created poetry and drama while composers such as Byrd and Tallis worked in Elizabeth’s court.
Anne of Cleves.
Although Henry VIII took against her from the moment he first saw her, not only did he divorce her rather than manipulate a bad end for her, she managed to keep her head as well as her sanity because of her political astuteness, her intelligence and her wit. She secured a generous settlement from him and the friendship of both Queens Mary and Elizabeth from then on.
Severely underrated by contemporaries and future historians, she lived into peaceful and happy old age (for the times) and outlasted all the other wives. Not an easy path to tread. But she managed it.
Katherine of Aragon
She was the ballsiest of all Henry's wives. A foreigner who won the heart of her new country, a shrewd politician and she took an absolutely epic gamble on her marriage right in the face of her bullish husband.
She did endure a pitiful end but she was made of metal and fire!
Lady Jane Grey. Queen for 9 days and executed at 16 or 17 yrs old on dubious charges of treason - what a tragedy.
When I saw one of the few remaining decrees signed by her during her 9 days reign, it brought home to me the weight of history and what a turbulent period our country went through in the 1550s.
She refused to convert to Catholicism while facing death although an RC priest accompanied her to the scaffold.
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