Dissapointing, 13 Nov 2008
I was really looking forwards to this book, I am an avid reader of anything to do with Tudor history and the wars of the roses and as there is relatively little written on the early years of Henry VIII I was keen to discover more about his personality, his friendships, his marriage, his life and what made him into the tyrant most people recognise him as. Starkey's introduction was promising, I was chomping at the bit to get into this book, but it never really got going for me. Maybe I have read too much on the subject and it was all old news to me, there were little nuggets but no real meaty information.
It is possible, of course, that there is no documented evidence other than what Starkey bought to his book, or that he did not want to make any inferences - he is an historian after all and not a novelist - but I just cannot help feeling that the reader doesn't really get an insight into the boy or the young man.
There is very little on his relationships with More or Catherine of Aragon, which I would consider pretty fundemental considering the parts they both played in his life and it would have been good to have had more of a background on this in order to appreciate the enormity his actions had on his own personality, not just the consequences for the country and the church.
Assuming that you are familiar with the backgound into which Henry VIII was born; the wars of the roses, Edward IV, Richard III, Henry VII and the other main players then you can cut out two thirds of the book. I wanted to know about the man, what made him tick, his passions, his personality, his friendships, his enemies, his lifestyle and just as Starkey got going the book ended. The reader gets little more than a glimpse of 'The Virtuous Prince'.
On the plus side it is an easy read, if you know little or nothing about Henry VIII's early life then go for it.

Young Henry - a perfect read, 10 Nov 2008
David Starkey is said to be Britain's highest-paid historian and this book is prove why that is.

It is a mere pleasure to read, entertaining, but never shallow and giving you a real inside into the young Henry - the boy prince, the heir and the young king.

I especially liked that Starkey never looses the focus on Henry. Very often historians present the developments of the time in art, education, religion, politics in length but one have to make the connection to the person oneself. But not here. Starkey shows what this meant for Henry, what effects it had on him and his personality.

The chapters are very short and very easy to read.

All in all, this a book filling a real gap in the literature on Henry VIII. 100% recommended!!!

The other Henry Tudor, 30 Oct 2008
I bought this and started with anticipation. I can honestly say I was not disappointed. I enjoyed the book from start to finish, you can see how much David Starkey loves his subject matter. I must admit that after reading it I have new questions and not sure where to go to ask!! Currently waiting on part 2 but have the sneaky feeling I will have to wait till christmas for that.

Definitive and superb, 21 Oct 2008
It seems as though there is a never-ending flow of books around the Tudor dynasty, including both the fiction of Phillipa Gregory and Alison Weir to the fiction of David Starkey and others.
This book, the first of two (the latter edition will cover the later and more well know part of his life) is superb. Historical biographies can sometimes be "heavy" reading. Starkey's passion for his subject is obvious and his often anecdotal style of writing makes this an immensely pleasurable read.
If Henry VIII life is of interest to you, there is no better book out there. Simply excellent.

Dissapointing, 13 Nov 2008
I was really looking forwards to this book, I am an avid reader of anything to do with Tudor history and the wars of the roses and as there is relatively little written on the early years of Henry VIII I was keen to discover more about his personality, his friendships, his marriage, his life and what made him into the tyrant most people recognise him as. Starkey's introduction was promising, I was chomping at the bit to get into this book, but it never really got going for me. Maybe I have read too much on the subject and it was all old news to me, there were little nuggets but no real meaty information.
It is possible, of course, that there is no documented evidence other than what Starkey bought to his book, or that he did not want to make any inferences - he is an historian after all and not a novelist - but I just cannot help feeling that the reader doesn't really get an insight into the boy or the young man.
There is very little on his relationships with More or Catherine of Aragon, which I would consider pretty fundemental considering the parts they both played in his life and it would have been good to have had more of a background on this in order to appreciate the enormity his actions had on his own personality, not just the consequences for the country and the church.
Assuming that you are familiar with the backgound into which Henry VIII was born; the wars of the roses, Edward IV, Richard III, Henry VII and the other main players then you can cut out two thirds of the book. I wanted to know about the man, what made him tick, his passions, his personality, his friendships, his enemies, his lifestyle and just as Starkey got going the book ended. The reader gets little more than a glimpse of 'The Virtuous Prince'.
On the plus side it is an easy read, if you know little or nothing about Henry VIII's early life then go for it.

Young Henry - a perfect read, 10 Nov 2008
David Starkey is said to be Britain's highest-paid historian and this book is prove why that is.

It is a mere pleasure to read, entertaining, but never shallow and giving you a real inside into the young Henry - the boy prince, the heir and the young king.

I especially liked that Starkey never looses the focus on Henry. Very often historians present the developments of the time in art, education, religion, politics in length but one have to make the connection to the person oneself. But not here. Starkey shows what this meant for Henry, what effects it had on him and his personality.

The chapters are very short and very easy to read.

All in all, this a book filling a real gap in the literature on Henry VIII. 100% recommended!!!

The other Henry Tudor, 30 Oct 2008
I bought this and started with anticipation. I can honestly say I was not disappointed. I enjoyed the book from start to finish, you can see how much David Starkey loves his subject matter. I must admit that after reading it I have new questions and not sure where to go to ask!! Currently waiting on part 2 but have the sneaky feeling I will have to wait till christmas for that.

Definitive and superb, 21 Oct 2008
It seems as though there is a never-ending flow of books around the Tudor dynasty, including both the fiction of Phillipa Gregory and Alison Weir to the fiction of David Starkey and others.
This book, the first of two (the latter edition will cover the later and more well know part of his life) is superb. Historical biographies can sometimes be "heavy" reading. Starkey's passion for his subject is obvious and his often anecdotal style of writing makes this an immensely pleasurable read.
If Henry VIII life is of interest to you, there is no better book out there. Simply excellent.

Fascinating and entetaining, 01 Nov 2008
This is an excellent book! I've read it dozens of times and it maintains its fascination. Weir's writing style is so fluid and easy to read that I've since bought many other titles written by her.

A pager turner, 07 Sep 2008
I thought this book would be an interesting history, but it turned into a real page turner, even though I knew the ending. The best book I have read on the Tudors, bringing the complex political issues into an easily understandably context with dumbing down the history. If you want an exciting overview of this period read it and enjoy.

Enlightens A Fascinating Period Of English History, 06 Apr 2003
I had previously found the Tudor age rather complicated and a little vague due to the complexed nature of Henry VIII's numerous wives and children.I started to read this book and became absorbed in the intrigue of this period of Tudor England. It provides in depth details of Henry's children and the profound effect their individual lives would have on the political and social developments of the Kingdoms they ruled, be it long or short. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the Tudor period and which leads to arguably the greatest sovereign in Elizabeth I that this country has seen.

Very enjoyable and enlightening read on the subject, 26 Nov 2001
This book was very good in tackling subjects which usually get dealt with as a chapter in a book on the individuals. As someone who finds the period fascinating, it was academic enough not to be boring if you know a fair amount about the main characters, but not daunting if you dont. Alison Weir puts the chronology together well, and examines the four characters relationship with each other, how those relationships were manipulated or affected by those into whose care they were entrusted, and their motivations in the actions they took. She also takes a great deal of care in the detail - for example in trying to make a modern diagnosis of the ailments suffered by the characters, and in particular those suffered by Mary in her desire to bear an heir to the throne.
Thoroughly recommended.

Henry's missing heirs, 13 Aug 2001
Alison Weir's preface describes this book as 'a chronicle of the personal lives of four English sovereigns': Edward VI, Jane Grey, Mary I and Elizabeth I. She supplies a useful introductory chapter, sketching the early years of Henry's three surviving children, the offspring of Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, and Jane Seymour, from birth until the death of their father in January 1547. At this point, the point at which Weir's "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" ended, the author takes up the story of the House of Tudor until the accession of Elizabeth in 1558.

Weir uses a huge variety of primary and secondary source material to produce a panoramic pen-portrait, often vibrant, on occasion softer in hew, of the four monarchs and their courtiers. I particularly admire the author's subtle handling of the reign of 'Bloody Mary', her sympathy for this frequently misunderstood woman in her desire to give England a Catholic heir. This is a carefully written and analytical section of the book. However, for the most part, "Children of England" is straightforward narrative history from which readers with a passion for this period are unlikely to gain very much.

What disappoints me most is the thought of fascinating opportunities missed. "Children of England" is not subtitled "The Successors of Henry VIII". The secondary title of this book is "The Heirs of Henry VIII" which suggests a study of the individuals named in the monarch's will irrespective of whether they succeeded to the throne. Weir explains that Henry 'willed the Crown first to Edward, then to Mary, then to Elizabeth, and lastly to the heirs of his younger sister Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk'. (The descendants of his elder sister Margaret, Queen of Scots were omitted.) At the time of the King's death, there were nine heirs to the throne. Henry's children were followed by Mary Tudor's elder daughter Frances Brandon, wife of the Marquess of Dorset (later Duke of Suffolk), and her three daughters, Ladies Jane, Katherine, and Mary Grey. Mary Tudor's younger daughter, Eleanor was next in line, followed by Lady Margaret Clifford, the only surviving child of her marriage to the Earl of Cumberland. The lives of all these figures, not only those who would wear the Crown, were fashioned by their being named as heirs to Henry VIII.

We meet Frances Brandon only as the abusive mother of Lady Jane, a repellent character who played her part in the Northumberland-Suffolk plot. The young, attractive, and highly eligible woman she had been in the fifteen-thirties is absent from the narrative and she disappears from view after 1554. Only Frances's sudden marriage to Adrian Stokes, in the wake of her husband's beheading is discussed briefly. Weir notes that she bore her former master-of-the-horse three short-lived children, yet her return to Court in the reign of Mary and her survival into the reign of Elizabeth is overlooked. Weir details the betrothal and marriage of Lady Katherine Grey to Lord Herbert, heir of the Earl of Pembroke and its swift annulment when the Northumberland-Suffolk plot collapsed. However, nothing is said of the betrothal of the hunchbacked Mary Grey to Lord Arthur Grey, whose father was an ardent supporter of the Northumberland and Suffolk cause. We hear only that Queen Mary, having secured her rightful position, granted the sisters places at Court and allowances befitting Princesses of the Blood.

To some extent, the problem is inherent in the strict 1547-1558 time span of the narrative. Consider Lady Margaret Clifford. Her marriage to William Stanley, Earl of Derby took place during the reign of Mary in 1555. At this stage, she was fourth in line to the throne after Elizabeth and the remaining Grey sisters. Nowhere does Weir mention Margaret, her mother Eleanor Brandon who died the same year as King Henry, or the politically important Derby match. This branch of the family is not even included in the sparse family tree at the end of the book. The reader cannot appreciate the importance of Margaret Clifford and her descendants without an understanding of the futures of her cousins after the execution of Lady Jane. During the reign of Elizabeth, both Katherine and Mary Grey married without the consent, or knowledge, of the sovereign. Lady Mary died childless in 1578, but her sister had two sons by Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford before her death in 1568. Queen Elizabeth declared the Seymour children to be illegitimate. ('I will have no rascal's son in my seat', she snapped when asked to name Katherine's elder son her successor.) The Grey-Seymour marriage was not validated until 1606. It was therefore small wonder that many looked upon Lady Margaret Clifford as heir presumptive. Indeed, by the fifteen-eighties she had become an object of suspicion to the Queen. According to Margaret, however, her son, Ferdinando Stanley died as a result of loyalty to their Royal cousin. Shortly after succeeding his father as Earl of Derby, Ferdinando rejected a Jesuit project to usurp the Crown, causing one of the perpetrators to be charged with treason. His sudden death in 1594 was widely mooted to be due to poison administered in revenge for his refusal to support the Catholic cause. Ferdinando Stanley left three daughters, the eldest of whom was Anne, Baroness Chandos. It is one of those intriguing 'What if...?' issues. How different would England's history have been if Elizabeth Tudor had adhered to the will of Henry VIII and named the young Lady Chandos her successor rather than James VI of Scots?

Perhaps I am being thoroughly awkward in demanding a book that the author elected not to write! There is little doubt that "Children of England" will encourage readers to explore the Tudor dynasty in greater depth. Nevertheless, she has wasted a glorious opportunity to introduce readers to many vibrant characters among the heirs of Henry VIII. It is an omission I hope Ms Weir will rectify as she consolidates her position as a leading Tudor historian.

Dissapointing, 13 Nov 2008
I was really looking forwards to this book, I am an avid reader of anything to do with Tudor history and the wars of the roses and as there is relatively little written on the early years of Henry VIII I was keen to discover more about his personality, his friendships, his marriage, his life and what made him into the tyrant most people recognise him as. Starkey's introduction was promising, I was chomping at the bit to get into this book, but it never really got going for me. Maybe I have read too much on the subject and it was all old news to me, there were little nuggets but no real meaty information.
It is possible, of course, that there is no documented evidence other than what Starkey bought to his book, or that he did not want to make any inferences - he is an historian after all and not a novelist - but I just cannot help feeling that the reader doesn't really get an insight into the boy or the young man.
There is very little on his relationships with More or Catherine of Aragon, which I would consider pretty fundemental considering the parts they both played in his life and it would have been good to have had more of a background on this in order to appreciate the enormity his actions had on his own personality, not just the consequences for the country and the church.
Assuming that you are familiar with the backgound into which Henry VIII was born; the wars of the roses, Edward IV, Richard III, Henry VII and the other main players then you can cut out two thirds of the book. I wanted to know about the man, what made him tick, his passions, his personality, his friendships, his enemies, his lifestyle and just as Starkey got going the book ended. The reader gets little more than a glimpse of 'The Virtuous Prince'.
On the plus side it is an easy read, if you know little or nothing about Henry VIII's early life then go for it.

Young Henry - a perfect read, 10 Nov 2008
David Starkey is said to be Britain's highest-paid historian and this book is prove why that is.

It is a mere pleasure to read, entertaining, but never shallow and giving you a real inside into the young Henry - the boy prince, the heir and the young king.

I especially liked that Starkey never looses the focus on Henry. Very often historians present the developments of the time in art, education, religion, politics in length but one have to make the connection to the person oneself. But not here. Starkey shows what this meant for Henry, what effects it had on him and his personality.

The chapters are very short and very easy to read.

All in all, this a book filling a real gap in the literature on Henry VIII. 100% recommended!!!

The other Henry Tudor, 30 Oct 2008
I bought this and started with anticipation. I can honestly say I was not disappointed. I enjoyed the book from start to finish, you can see how much David Starkey loves his subject matter. I must admit that after reading it I have new questions and not sure where to go to ask!! Currently waiting on part 2 but have the sneaky feeling I will have to wait till christmas for that.

Definitive and superb, 21 Oct 2008
It seems as though there is a never-ending flow of books around the Tudor dynasty, including both the fiction of Phillipa Gregory and Alison Weir to the fiction of David Starkey and others.
This book, the first of two (the latter edition will cover the later and more well know part of his life) is superb. Historical biographies can sometimes be "heavy" reading. Starkey's passion for his subject is obvious and his often anecdotal style of writing makes this an immensely pleasurable read.
If Henry VIII life is of interest to you, there is no better book out there. Simply excellent.

Fascinating and entetaining, 01 Nov 2008
This is an excellent book! I've read it dozens of times and it maintains its fascination. Weir's writing style is so fluid and easy to read that I've since bought many other titles written by her.

A pager turner, 07 Sep 2008
I thought this book would be an interesting history, but it turned into a real page turner, even though I knew the ending. The best book I have read on the Tudors, bringing the complex political issues into an easily understandably context with dumbing down the history. If you want an exciting overview of this period read it and enjoy.

Enlightens A Fascinating Period Of English History, 06 Apr 2003
I had previously found the Tudor age rather complicated and a little vague due to the complexed nature of Henry VIII's numerous wives and children.I started to read this book and became absorbed in the intrigue of this period of Tudor England. It provides in depth details of Henry's children and the profound effect their individual lives would have on the political and social developments of the Kingdoms they ruled, be it long or short. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the Tudor period and which leads to arguably the greatest sovereign in Elizabeth I that this country has seen.

Very enjoyable and enlightening read on the subject, 26 Nov 2001
This book was very good in tackling subjects which usually get dealt with as a chapter in a book on the individuals. As someone who finds the period fascinating, it was academic enough not to be boring if you know a fair amount about the main characters, but not daunting if you dont. Alison Weir puts the chronology together well, and examines the four characters relationship with each other, how those relationships were manipulated or affected by those into whose care they were entrusted, and their motivations in the actions they took. She also takes a great deal of care in the detail - for example in trying to make a modern diagnosis of the ailments suffered by the characters, and in particular those suffered by Mary in her desire to bear an heir to the throne.
Thoroughly recommended.

Henry's missing heirs, 13 Aug 2001
Alison Weir's preface describes this book as 'a chronicle of the personal lives of four English sovereigns': Edward VI, Jane Grey, Mary I and Elizabeth I. She supplies a useful introductory chapter, sketching the early years of Henry's three surviving children, the offspring of Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, and Jane Seymour, from birth until the death of their father in January 1547. At this point, the point at which Weir's "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" ended, the author takes up the story of the House of Tudor until the accession of Elizabeth in 1558.

Weir uses a huge variety of primary and secondary source material to produce a panoramic pen-portrait, often vibrant, on occasion softer in hew, of the four monarchs and their courtiers. I particularly admire the author's subtle handling of the reign of 'Bloody Mary', her sympathy for this frequently misunderstood woman in her desire to give England a Catholic heir. This is a carefully written and analytical section of the book. However, for the most part, "Children of England" is straightforward narrative history from which readers with a passion for this period are unlikely to gain very much.

What disappoints me most is the thought of fascinating opportunities missed. "Children of England" is not subtitled "The Successors of Henry VIII". The secondary title of this book is "The Heirs of Henry VIII" which suggests a study of the individuals named in the monarch's will irrespective of whether they succeeded to the throne. Weir explains that Henry 'willed the Crown first to Edward, then to Mary, then to Elizabeth, and lastly to the heirs of his younger sister Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk'. (The descendants of his elder sister Margaret, Queen of Scots were omitted.) At the time of the King's death, there were nine heirs to the throne. Henry's children were followed by Mary Tudor's elder daughter Frances Brandon, wife of the Marquess of Dorset (later Duke of Suffolk), and her three daughters, Ladies Jane, Katherine, and Mary Grey. Mary Tudor's younger daughter, Eleanor was next in line, followed by Lady Margaret Clifford, the only surviving child of her marriage to the Earl of Cumberland. The lives of all these figures, not only those who would wear the Crown, were fashioned by their being named as heirs to Henry VIII.

We meet Frances Brandon only as the abusive mother of Lady Jane, a repellent character who played her part in the Northumberland-Suffolk plot. The young, attractive, and highly eligible woman she had been in the fifteen-thirties is absent from the narrative and she disappears from view after 1554. Only Frances's sudden marriage to Adrian Stokes, in the wake of her husband's beheading is discussed briefly. Weir notes that she bore her former master-of-the-horse three short-lived children, yet her return to Court in the reign of Mary and her survival into the reign of Elizabeth is overlooked. Weir details the betrothal and marriage of Lady Katherine Grey to Lord Herbert, heir of the Earl of Pembroke and its swift annulment when the Northumberland-Suffolk plot collapsed. However, nothing is said of the betrothal of the hunchbacked Mary Grey to Lord Arthur Grey, whose father was an ardent supporter of the Northumberland and Suffolk cause. We hear only that Queen Mary, having secured her rightful position, granted the sisters places at Court and allowances befitting Princesses of the Blood.

To some extent, the problem is inherent in the strict 1547-1558 time span of the narrative. Consider Lady Margaret Clifford. Her marriage to William Stanley, Earl of Derby took place during the reign of Mary in 1555. At this stage, she was fourth in line to the throne after Elizabeth and the remaining Grey sisters. Nowhere does Weir mention Margaret, her mother Eleanor Brandon who died the same year as King Henry, or the politically important Derby match. This branch of the family is not even included in the sparse family tree at the end of the book. The reader cannot appreciate the importance of Margaret Clifford and her descendants without an understanding of the futures of her cousins after the execution of Lady Jane. During the reign of Elizabeth, both Katherine and Mary Grey married without the consent, or knowledge, of the sovereign. Lady Mary died childless in 1578, but her sister had two sons by Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford before her death in 1568. Queen Elizabeth declared the Seymour children to be illegitimate. ('I will have no rascal's son in my seat', she snapped when asked to name Katherine's elder son her successor.) The Grey-Seymour marriage was not validated until 1606. It was therefore small wonder that many looked upon Lady Margaret Clifford as heir presumptive. Indeed, by the fifteen-eighties she had become an object of suspicion to the Queen. According to Margaret, however, her son, Ferdinando Stanley died as a result of loyalty to their Royal cousin. Shortly after succeeding his father as Earl of Derby, Ferdinando rejected a Jesuit project to usurp the Crown, causing one of the perpetrators to be charged with treason. His sudden death in 1594 was widely mooted to be due to poison administered in revenge for his refusal to support the Catholic cause. Ferdinando Stanley left three daughters, the eldest of whom was Anne, Baroness Chandos. It is one of those intriguing 'What if...?' issues. How different would England's history have been if Elizabeth Tudor had adhered to the will of Henry VIII and named the young Lady Chandos her successor rather than James VI of Scots?

Perhaps I am being thoroughly awkward in demanding a book that the author elected not to write! There is little doubt that "Children of England" will encourage readers to explore the Tudor dynasty in greater depth. Nevertheless, she has wasted a glorious opportunity to introduce readers to many vibrant characters among the heirs of Henry VIII. It is an omission I hope Ms Weir will rectify as she consolidates her position as a leading Tudor historian.

Nice anthology of anecdotes about the Queen, 12 May 2008
Nice anthology of curiosities and anecdotes about the Queen and her family, very readable and funny. You'll learn about the beloved corgies, food and drink, cars and driving habits, horses and the Windsors' Christmas.
There are also some hilarious drawings at the beginning of each chapter. I loved the ones showing the Queen with her corgies, so funny!

The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, Good Queen Bess; Elizabeth I holds a unique place in the English imagination as one of the nation's most powerful, charismatic and successful monarchs. Elizabeth is usually imagined as the icy, untouchable figure memorably recreated on screen by Bette Davis and Judi Dench, but that vision of Elizabeth ignores the turbulent years of her early life, from her birth as the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn in 1533, until her accession to the throne in 1558 following the death of her sister Mary. It is these early years which are the subject of David Starkey's fascinating Elizabeth I, written to accompany his television series about the life of Elizabeth.

Starkey argues that in her first 25 years Elizabeth "had experienced every vicissitude of fortune and ever extreme of condition. She had been Princess and inheritrix of England, and bastard and disinherited; the nominated successor to the throne and an accused traitor on the verge of execution; showered with lands and houses and a prisoner in the Tower". He draws on his skills as a respected Tudor historian to produce a deft account of the religious, political and dynastic maelstrom of mid-16th century England that reads "like a historical thriller". The book carefully picks its way through the finer points of contemporary religious conflict and the peculiarities of Tudor court ceremony, whilst also exploring the formation of Elizabeth's character in relation to a murdered mother, a charismatic father, a tortured sister, and a predatory guardian. Highly readable and written with verve and pace, this is a fascinating account of the young Elizabeth. --Jerry Brotton

Dissapointing, 13 Nov 2008
I was really looking forwards to this book, I am an avid reader of anything to do with Tudor history and the wars of the roses and as there is relatively little written on the early years of Henry VIII I was keen to discover more about his personality, his friendships, his marriage, his life and what made him into the tyrant most people recognise him as. Starkey's introduction was promising, I was chomping at the bit to get into this book, but it never really got going for me. Maybe I have read too much on the subject and it was all old news to me, there were little nuggets but no real meaty information.
It is possible, of course, that there is no documented evidence other than what Starkey bought to his book, or that he did not want to make any inferences - he is an historian after all and not a novelist - but I just cannot help feeling that the reader doesn't really get an insight into the boy or the young man.
There is very little on his relationships with More or Catherine of Aragon, which I would consider pretty fundemental considering the parts they both played in his life and it would have been good to have had more of a background on this in order to appreciate the enormity his actions had on his own personality, not just the consequences for the country and the church.
Assuming that you are familiar with the backgound into which Henry VIII was born; the wars of the roses, Edward IV, Richard III, Henry VII and the other main players then you can cut out two thirds of the book. I wanted to know about the man, what made him tick, his passions, his personality, his friendships, his enemies, his lifestyle and just as Starkey got going the book ended. The reader gets little more than a glimpse of 'The Virtuous Prince'.
On the plus side it is an easy read, if you know little or nothing about Henry VIII's early life then go for it.

Young Henry - a perfect read, 10 Nov 2008
David Starkey is said to be Britain's highest-paid historian and this book is prove why that is.

It is a mere pleasure to read, entertaining, but never shallow and giving you a real inside into the young Henry - the boy prince, the heir and the young king.

I especially liked that Starkey never looses the focus on Henry. Very often historians present the developments of the time in art, education, religion, politics in length but one have to make the connection to the person oneself. But not here. Starkey shows what this meant for Henry, what effects it had on him and his personality.

The chapters are very short and very easy to read.

All in all, this a book filling a real gap in the literature on Henry VIII. 100% recommended!!!

The other Henry Tudor, 30 Oct 2008
I bought this and started with anticipation. I can honestly say I was not disappointed. I enjoyed the book from start to finish, you can see how much David Starkey loves his subject matter. I must admit that after reading it I have new questions and not sure where to go to ask!! Currently waiting on part 2 but have the sneaky feeling I will have to wait till christmas for that.

Definitive and superb, 21 Oct 2008
It seems as though there is a never-ending flow of books around the Tudor dynasty, including both the fiction of Phillipa Gregory and Alison Weir to the fiction of David Starkey and others.
This book, the first of two (the latter edition will cover the later and more well know part of his life) is superb. Historical biographies can sometimes be "heavy" reading. Starkey's passion for his subject is obvious and his often anecdotal style of writing makes this an immensely pleasurable read.
If Henry VIII life is of interest to you, there is no better book out there. Simply excellent.

Fascinating and entetaining, 01 Nov 2008
This is an excellent book! I've read it dozens of times and it maintains its fascination. Weir's writing style is so fluid and easy to read that I've since bought many other titles written by her.

A pager turner, 07 Sep 2008
I thought this book would be an interesting history, but it turned into a real page turner, even though I knew the ending. The best book I have read on the Tudors, bringing the complex political issues into an easily understandably context with dumbing down the history. If you want an exciting overview of this period read it and enjoy.

Enlightens A Fascinating Period Of English History, 06 Apr 2003
I had previously found the Tudor age rather complicated and a little vague due to the complexed nature of Henry VIII's numerous wives and children.I started to read this book and became absorbed in the intrigue of this period of Tudor England. It provides in depth details of Henry's children and the profound effect their individual lives would have on the political and social developments of the Kingdoms they ruled, be it long or short. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the Tudor period and which leads to arguably the greatest sovereign in Elizabeth I that this country has seen.

Very enjoyable and enlightening read on the subject, 26 Nov 2001
This book was very good in tackling subjects which usually get dealt with as a chapter in a book on the individuals. As someone who finds the period fascinating, it was academic enough not to be boring if you know a fair amount about the main characters, but not daunting if you dont. Alison Weir puts the chronology together well, and examines the four characters relationship with each other, how those relationships were manipulated or affected by those into whose care they were entrusted, and their motivations in the actions they took. She also takes a great deal of care in the detail - for example in trying to make a modern diagnosis of the ailments suffered by the characters, and in particular those suffered by Mary in her desire to bear an heir to the throne.
Thoroughly recommended.

Henry's missing heirs, 13 Aug 2001
Alison Weir's preface describes this book as 'a chronicle of the personal lives of four English sovereigns': Edward VI, Jane Grey, Mary I and Elizabeth I. She supplies a useful introductory chapter, sketching the early years of Henry's three surviving children, the offspring of Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, and Jane Seymour, from birth until the death of their father in January 1547. At this point, the point at which Weir's "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" ended, the author takes up the story of the House of Tudor until the accession of Elizabeth in 1558.

Weir uses a huge variety of primary and secondary source material to produce a panoramic pen-portrait, often vibrant, on occasion softer in hew, of the four monarchs and their courtiers. I particularly admire the author's subtle handling of the reign of 'Bloody Mary', her sympathy for this frequently misunderstood woman in her desire to give England a Catholic heir. This is a carefully written and analytical section of the book. However, for the most part, "Children of England" is straightforward narrative history from which readers with a passion for this period are unlikely to gain very much.

What disappoints me most is the thought of fascinating opportunities missed. "Children of England" is not subtitled "The Successors of Henry VIII". The secondary title of this book is "The Heirs of Henry VIII" which suggests a study of the individuals named in the monarch's will irrespective of whether they succeeded to the throne. Weir explains that Henry 'willed the Crown first to Edward, then to Mary, then to Elizabeth, and lastly to the heirs of his younger sister Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk'. (The descendants of his elder sister Margaret, Queen of Scots were omitted.) At the time of the King's death, there were nine heirs to the throne. Henry's children were followed by Mary Tudor's elder daughter Frances Brandon, wife of the Marquess of Dorset (later Duke of Suffolk), and her three daughters, Ladies Jane, Katherine, and Mary Grey. Mary Tudor's younger daughter, Eleanor was next in line, followed by Lady Margaret Clifford, the only surviving child of her marriage to the Earl of Cumberland. The lives of all these figures, not only those who would wear the Crown, were fashioned by their being named as heirs to Henry VIII.

We meet Frances Brandon only as the abusive mother of Lady Jane, a repellent character who played her part in the Northumberland-Suffolk plot. The young, attractive, and highly eligible woman she had been in the fifteen-thirties is absent from the narrative and she disappears from view after 1554. Only Frances's sudden marriage to Adrian Stokes, in the wake of her husband's beheading is discussed briefly. Weir notes that she bore her former master-of-the-horse three short-lived children, yet her return to Court in the reign of Mary and her survival into the reign of Elizabeth is overlooked. Weir details the betrothal and marriage of Lady Katherine Grey to Lord Herbert, heir of the Earl of Pembroke and its swift annulment when the Northumberland-Suffolk plot collapsed. However, nothing is said of the betrothal of the hunchbacked Mary Grey to Lord Arthur Grey, whose father was an ardent supporter of the Northumberland and Suffolk cause. We hear only that Queen Mary, having secured her rightful position, granted the sisters places at Court and allowances befitting Princesses of the Blood.

To some extent, the problem is inherent in the strict 1547-1558 time span of the narrative. Consider Lady Margaret Clifford. Her marriage to William Stanley, Earl of Derby took place during the reign of Mary in 1555. At this stage, she was fourth in line to the throne after Elizabeth and the remaining Grey sisters. Nowhere does Weir mention Margaret, her mother Eleanor Brandon who died the same year as King Henry, or the politically important Derby match. This branch of the family is not even included in the sparse family tree at the end of the book. The reader cannot appreciate the importance of Margaret Clifford and her descendants without an understanding of the futures of her cousins after the execution of Lady Jane. During the reign of Elizabeth, both Katherine and Mary Grey married without the consent, or knowledge, of the sovereign. Lady Mary died childless in 1578, but her sister had two sons by Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford before her death in 1568. Queen Elizabeth declared the Seymour children to be illegitimate. ('I will have no rascal's son in my seat', she snapped when asked to name Katherine's elder son her successor.) The Grey-Seymour marriage was not validated until 1606. It was therefore small wonder that many looked upon Lady Margaret Clifford as heir presumptive. Indeed, by the fifteen-eighties she had become an object of suspicion to the Queen. According to Margaret, however, her son, Ferdinando Stanley died as a result of loyalty to their Royal cousin. Shortly after succeeding his father as Earl of Derby, Ferdinando rejected a Jesuit project to usurp the Crown, causing one of the perpetrators to be charged with treason. His sudden death in 1594 was widely mooted to be due to poison administered in revenge for his refusal to support the Catholic cause. Ferdinando Stanley left three daughters, the eldest of whom was Anne, Baroness Chandos. It is one of those intriguing 'What if...?' issues. How different would England's history have been if Elizabeth Tudor had adhered to the will of Henry VIII and named the young Lady Chandos her successor rather than James VI of Scots?

Perhaps I am being thoroughly awkward in demanding a book that the author elected not to write! There is little doubt that "Children of England" will encourage readers to explore the Tudor dynasty in greater depth. Nevertheless, she has wasted a glorious opportunity to introduce readers to many vibrant characters among the heirs of Henry VIII. It is an omission I hope Ms Weir will rectify as she consolidates her position as a leading Tudor historian.

Nice anthology of anecdotes about the Queen, 12 May 2008
Nice anthology of curiosities and anecdotes about the Queen and her family, very readable and funny. You'll learn about the beloved corgies, food and drink, cars and driving habits, horses and the Windsors' Christmas.
There are also some hilarious drawings at the beginning of each chapter. I loved the ones showing the Queen with her corgies, so funny!

The Sometimes Princess, 05 Nov 2008
So much has been written about Queen Elizabeth I and her glorious reign, but it seems that her life prior to coronation is glossed over. This book concentrates on her birth, early childhood and adolescence. It helps to explain many of her later idiosyncracies. Her early years were uncertain and changeable. One moment Princess Elizabeth, the next just Lady Elizabeth. In adolescence, years spent in The Tower at her sisters disposition! Such a dramatic childhood and youth need a separate book dedicated solely to them. This is that book. It reads very smoothly and ends tantalisingly just as Elizabeth's reign begins. Highly recommended.

Strange, 15 Jul 2008
This is not the kind of history that I was expecting - highly populist, focussed more heavily on Elizabeth as a person than on the politics and her decisions as a Queen. Beware.

Good introduction, 16 Oct 2007
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A brilliant introduction to a fascinating life, 21 Sep 2007
This book is both extremely thorough and very readable. Not only does it illuminate an area of Elizabeth's life that so many other works on the ruler skate over,it does so in an accessible and informative manner. Elizabeth actually emerges as a real flesh and blood teenager, rather than the formidable figure, with her glownig white face and imposing dress of later years.

Very useful for those developing an interest in the Tudor monarchs.

A brilliant biography on the life of Elizabeth Tudor prior to her reign. , 30 Aug 2007
`Elizabeth' by David Starkey is a fantastic account of the life of Elizabeth Tudor prior to her accession to the English throne in 1558. As such the book examines Elizabeth's upbringing and education, along with her zeal for learning, and the occasions where she encountered danger.

Starkey examines well Elizabeth's intellectual capability and highlights how this precocious nature was not only inherited from her father (and her siblings too shared such aptitude) but also from personal enthusiasm. Not only does it appear that it gave her personal fulfilment and that overall it was enjoyable, but it was also of a means to reunite herself with her father, who had distanced himself after the execution of his second wife and Elizabeth's mother, Anne Boleyn. Starkey also brilliantly observes that we should dismiss the traditional and fanciful idea that it was Katherine Parr who reuniting Elizabeth with her father. In fact as he points out, such a reunion occurred prior to when Katherine's marriage to Henry. Instead the reunion was formed because both father and daughter wanted it, and in the case of Elizabeth she must be credited for employing the effort to seek it.

Starkey also covers well Elizabeth's admiration for her father. We may find it hard to understand why a girl would want to have a relationship with a father who executed her own mother. But Starkey explains Elizabeth's fondness for Henry in an understandable manner. The humiliations that Elizabeth endured in her early childhood were forgotten by the time she ascended into her teens, not because she was fickle but because the harsh actions committed towards her were done when she was very young and so she may have naturally forgotten such actions. She also probably could not remember her mother and may have found it hard to feel passionate for someone who was absent from her life. In contrast Henry was her reminding parent and as Starkey stresses, Elizabeth was impressionable in her early teens so its understanding that she would reach out for her reminding family. This not only included her father but also her new stepmother Katherine Parr who she formed an important relationship with.


Elizabeth's impressionable nature in her adolescence is careful examined throughout the book. This is particularly well observed when Starkey writes about Elizabeth's time in her stepmother's household. After Henry VIII died Katherine Parr married a young ambition nobleman, Thomas Seymour, who unfortunately for Katherine and for Elizabeth took an interest in the young girl that went beyond fatherly affections. The result was a series of behaviour which we may deem as child abuse although Starkey does not endorse the idea that Seymour went so far as to sleep with Elizabeth. Ultimately Starkey also highlights that after Seymour's actions and when the council interrogated Elizabeth as to her relationship with Seymour, she kept her head and even at that age she had a remarkable ability to remain composed and prepared to fight in times of personal trouble.

The biography also covers the other significant occasion where Elizabeth faced near ruin. This is her arrest and interrogation in 1554 during the reign of her sister Mary I. A rebellion, known as Wyatt's rebellion, had occurred in 1554 against the proposed marriage between Mary and the Spanish prince, Philip. After the rebellion had died down the rebels homes were raided and amongst Thomas Wyatt's papers was a copy of a letter written by Elizabeth to her sister Mary telling her that she did not wish to leave her country home to avoid the rebels on account of her poor health. Subsequently the council had what they needed to arrest her. Starkey highlights that throughout her interrogation and imprisonment there was the existence of several courtiers who wished her gone, including the Spanish ambassador Renard who summarised to his master Charles V that she was a threat to Mary. But throughout Starkey reminds us that we must not romanticise Elizabeth's time in the tower as some previous historians and even contemporaries loved to do; instead we have to remember that she was not completely defenceless, being as she was the largest landowner in England, the rightful heir to the throne under Henry VIII's will and importantly she had the affections of most of the people.

Overall `Elizabeth' is a fantastic biography on one of the most remarkable women of the sixteenth century. Throughout Starkey conveys well Elizabeth's formation of character and this fighting spirit that she employed not only in her time before becoming queen but also after. He doesn't romanticise her life or attempt to make it more tragic to gain the reader's overwhelming sympathy. He also does not degrade Elizabeth's enemies but instead refers to their positions as well. The central theme that recurs throughout the book is the concept of survival; Elizabeth's early life was not an easy one yet she strove not only to get the crown she wanted but also she fought to stay alive. Starkey does a fantastic job with this biography and if you are interested in this era as a whole then also try his work on the six wives of Henry VIII as `Elizabeth' can be used as a direct sequel to that book.

Dissapointing, 13 Nov 2008
I was really looking forwards to this book, I am an avid reader of anything to do with Tudor history and the wars of the roses and as there is relatively little written on the early years of Henry VIII I was keen to discover more about his personality, his friendships, his marriage, his life and what made him into the tyrant most people recognise him as. Starkey's introduction was promising, I was chomping at the bit to get into this book, but it never really got going for me. Maybe I have read too much on the subject and it was all old news to me, there were little nuggets but no real meaty information.
It is possible, of course, that there is no documented evidence other than what Starkey bought to his book, or that he did not want to make any inferences - he is an historian after all and not a novelist - but I just cannot help feeling that the reader doesn't really get an insight into the boy or the young man.
There is very little on his relationships with More or Catherine of Aragon, which I would consider pretty fundemental considering the parts they both played in his life and it would have been good to have had more of a background on this in order to appreciate the enormity his actions had on his own personality, not just the consequences for the country and the church.
Assuming that you are familiar with the backgound into which Henry VIII was born; the wars of the roses, Edward IV, Richard III, Henry VII and the other main players then you can cut out two thirds of the book. I wanted to know about the man, what made him tick, his passions, his personality, his friendships, his enemies, his lifestyle and just as Starkey got going the book ended. The reader gets little more than a glimpse of 'The Virtuous Prince'.
On the plus side it is an easy read, if you know little or nothing about Henry VIII's early life then go for it.

Young Henry - a perfect read, 10 Nov 2008
David Starkey is said to be Britain's highest-paid historian and this book is prove why that is.

It is a mere pleasure to read, entertaining, but never shallow and giving you a real inside into the young Henry - the boy prince, the heir and the young king.

I especially liked that Starkey never looses the focus on Henry. Very often historians present the developments of the time in art, education, religion, politics in length but one have to make the connection to the person oneself. But not here. Starkey shows what this meant for Henry, what effects it had on him and his personality.

The chapters are very short and very easy to read.

All in all, this a book filling a real gap in the literature on Henry VIII. 100% recommended!!!

The other Henry Tudor, 30 Oct 2008
I bought this and started with anticipation. I can honestly say I was not disappointed. I enjoyed the book from start to finish, you can see how much David Starkey loves his subject matter. I must admit that after reading it I have new questions and not sure where to go to ask!! Currently waiting on part 2 but have the sneaky feeling I will have to wait till christmas for that.

Definitive and superb, 21 Oct 2008
It seems as though there is a never-ending flow of books around the Tudor dynasty, including both the fiction of Phillipa Gregory and Alison Weir to the fiction of David Starkey and others.
This book, the first of two (the latter edition will cover the later and more well know part of his life) is superb. Historical biographies can sometimes be "heavy" reading. Starkey's passion for his subject is obvious and his often anecdotal style of writing makes this an immensely pleasurable read.
If Henry VIII life is of interest to you, there is no better book out there. Simply excellent.

Fascinating and entetaining, 01 Nov 2008
This is an excellent book! I've read it dozens of times and it maintains its fascination. Weir's writing style is so fluid and easy to read that I've since bought many other titles written by her.

A pager turner, 07 Sep 2008
I thought this book would be an interesting history, but it turned into a real page turner, even though I knew the ending. The best book I have read on the Tudors, bringing the complex political issues into an easily understandably context with dumbing down the history. If you want an exciting overview of this period read it and enjoy.

Enlightens A Fascinating Period Of English History, 06 Apr 2003
I had previously found the Tudor age rather complicated and a little vague due to the complexed nature of Henry VIII's numerous wives and children.I started to read this book and became absorbed in the intrigue of this period of Tudor England. It provides in depth details of Henry's children and the profound effect their individual lives would have on the political and social developments of the Kingdoms they ruled, be it long or short. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the Tudor period and which leads to arguably the greatest sovereign in Elizabeth I that this country has seen.

Very enjoyable and enlightening read on the subject, 26 Nov 2001
This book was very good in tackling subjects which usually get dealt with as a chapter in a book on the individuals. As someone who finds the period fascinating, it was academic enough not to be boring if you know a fair amount about the main characters, but not daunting if you dont. Alison Weir puts the chronology together well, and examines the four characters relationship with each other, how those relationships were manipulated or affected by those into whose care they were entrusted, and their motivations in the actions they took. She also takes a great deal of care in the detail - for example in trying to make a modern diagnosis of the ailments suffered by the characters, and in particular those suffered by Mary in her desire to bear an heir to the throne.
Thoroughly recommended.

Henry's missing heirs, 13 Aug 2001
Alison Weir's preface describes this book as 'a chronicle of the personal lives of four English sovereigns': Edward VI, Jane Grey, Mary I and Elizabeth I. She supplies a useful introductory chapter, sketching the early years of Henry's three surviving children, the offspring of Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, and Jane Seymour, from birth until the death of their father in January 1547. At this point, the point at which Weir's "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" ended, the author takes up the story of the House of Tudor until the accession of Elizabeth in 1558.

Weir uses a huge variety of primary and secondary source material to produce a panoramic pen-portrait, often vibrant, on occasion softer in hew, of the four monarchs and their courtiers. I particularly admire the author's subtle handling of the reign of 'Bloody Mary', her sympathy for this frequently misunderstood woman in her desire to give England a Catholic heir. This is a carefully written and analytical section of the book. However, for the most part, "Children of England" is straightforward narrative history from which readers with a passion for this period are unlikely to gain very much.

What disappoints me most is the thought of fascinating opportunities missed. "Children of England" is not subtitled "The Successors of Henry VIII". The secondary title of this book is "The Heirs of Henry VIII" which suggests a study of the individuals named in the monarch's will irrespective of whether they succeeded to the throne. Weir explains that Henry 'willed the Crown first to Edward, then to Mary, then to Elizabeth, and lastly to the heirs of his younger sister Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk'. (The descendants of his elder sister Margaret, Queen of Scots were omitted.) At the time of the King's death, there were nine heirs to the throne. Henry's children were followed by Mary Tudor's elder daughter Frances Brandon, wife of the Marquess of Dorset (later Duke of Suffolk), and her three daughters, Ladies Jane, Katherine, and Mary Grey. Mary Tudor's younger daughter, Eleanor was next in line, followed by Lady Margaret Clifford, the only surviving child of her marriage to the Earl of Cumberland. The lives of all these figures, not only those who would wear the Crown, were fashioned by their being named as heirs to Henry VIII.

We meet Frances Brandon only as the abusive mother of Lady Jane, a repellent character who played her part in the Northumberland-Suffolk plot. The young, attractive, and highly eligible woman she had been in the fifteen-thirties is absent from the narrative and she disappears from view after 1554. Only Frances's sudden marriage to Adrian Stokes, in the wake of her husband's beheading is discussed briefly. Weir notes that she bore her former master-of-the-horse three short-lived children, yet her return to Court in the reign of Mary and her survival into the reign of Elizabeth is overlooked. Weir details the betrothal and marriage of Lady Katherine Grey to Lord Herbert, heir of the Earl of Pembroke and its swift annulment when the Northumberland-Suffolk plot collapsed. However, nothing is said of the betrothal of the hunchbacked Mary Grey to Lord Arthur Grey, whose father was an ardent supporter of the Northumberland and Suffolk cause. We hear only that Queen Mary, having secured her rightful position, granted the sisters places at Court and allowances befitting Princesses of the Blood.

To some extent, the problem is inherent in the strict 1547-1558 time span of the narrative. Consider Lady Margaret Clifford. Her marriage to William Stanley, Earl of Derby took place during the reign of Mary in 1555. At this stage, she was fourth in line to the throne after Elizabeth and the remaining Grey sisters. Nowhere does Weir mention Margaret, her mother Eleanor Brandon who died the same year as King Henry, or the politically important Derby match. This branch of the family is not even included in the sparse family tree at the end of the book. The reader cannot appreciate the importance of Margaret Clifford and her descendants without an understanding of the futures of her cousins after the execution of Lady Jane. During the reign of Elizabeth, both Katherine and Mary Grey married without the consent, or knowledge, of the sovereign. Lady Mary died childless in 1578, but her sister had two sons by Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford before her death in 1568. Queen Elizabeth declared the Seymour children to be illegitimate. ('I will have no rascal's son in my seat', she snapped when asked to name Katherine's elder son her successor.) The Grey-Seymour marriage was not validated until 1606. It was therefore small wonder that many looked upon Lady Margaret Clifford as heir presumptive. Indeed, by the fifteen-eighties she had become an object of suspicion to the Queen. According to Margaret, however, her son, Ferdinando Stanley died as a result of loyalty to their Royal cousin. Shortly after succeeding his father as Earl of Derby, Ferdinando rejected a Jesuit project to usurp the Crown, causing one of the perpetrators to be charged with treason. His sudden death in 1594 was widely mooted to be due to poison administered in revenge for his refusal to support the Catholic cause. Ferdinando Stanley left three daughters, the eldest of whom was Anne, Baroness Chandos. It is one of those intriguing 'What if...?' issues. How different would England's history have been if Elizabeth Tudor had adhered to the will of Henry VIII and named the young Lady Chandos her successor rather than James VI of Scots?

Perhaps I am being thoroughly awkward in demanding a book that the author elected not to write! There is little doubt that "Children of England" will encourage readers to explore the Tudor dynasty in greater depth. Nevertheless, she has wasted a glorious opportunity to introduce readers to many vibrant characters among the heirs of Henry VIII. It is an omission I hope Ms Weir will rectify as she consolidates her position as a leading Tudor historian.

Nice anthology of anecdotes about the Queen, 12 May 2008
Nice anthology of curiosities and anecdotes about the Queen and her family, very readable and funny. You'll learn about the beloved corgies, food and drink, cars and driving habits, horses and the Windsors' Christmas.
There are also some hilarious drawings at the beginning of each chapter. I loved the ones showing the Queen with her corgies, so funny!

The Sometimes Princess, 05 Nov 2008
So much has been written about Queen Elizabeth I and her glorious reign, but it seems that her life prior to coronation is glossed over. This book concentrates on her birth, early childhood and adolescence. It helps to explain many of her later idiosyncracies. Her early years were uncertain and changeable. One moment Princess Elizabeth, the next just Lady Elizabeth. In adolescence, years spent in The Tower at her sisters disposition! Such a dramatic childhood and youth need a separate book dedicated solely to them. This is that book. It reads very smoothly and ends tantalisingly just as Elizabeth's reign begins. Highly recommended.

Strange, 15 Jul 2008
This is not the kind of history that I was expecting - highly populist, focussed more heavily on Elizabeth as a person than on the politics and her decisions as a Queen. Beware.

Good introduction, 16 Oct 2007
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A brilliant introduction to a fascinating life, 21 Sep 2007
This book is both extremely thorough and very readable. Not only does it illuminate an area of Elizabeth's life that so many other works on the ruler skate over,it does so in an accessible and informative manner. Elizabeth actually emerges as a real flesh and blood teenager, rather than the formidable figure, with her glownig white face and imposing dress of later years.

Very useful for those developing an interest in the Tudor monarchs.

A brilliant biography on the life of Elizabeth Tudor prior to her reign. , 30 Aug 2007
`Elizabeth' by David Starkey is a fantastic account of the life of Elizabeth Tudor prior to her accession to the English throne in 1558. As such the book examines Elizabeth's upbringing and education, along with her zeal for learning, and the occasions where she encountered danger.

Starkey examines well Elizabeth's intellectual capability and highlights how this precocious nature was not only inherited from her father (and her siblings too shared such aptitude) but also from personal enthusiasm. Not only does it appear that it gave her personal fulfilment and that overall it was enjoyable, but it was also of a means to reunite herself with her father, who had distanced himself after the execution of his second wife and Elizabeth's mother, Anne Boleyn. Starkey also brilliantly observes that we should dismiss the traditional and fanciful idea that it was Katherine Parr who reuniting Elizabeth with her father. In fact as he points out, such a reunion occurred prior to when Katherine's marriage to Henry. Instead the reunion was formed because both father and daughter wanted it, and in the case of Elizabeth she must be credited for employing the effort to seek it.

Starkey also covers well Elizabeth's admiration for her father. We may find it hard to understand why a girl would want to have a relationship with a father who executed her own mother. But Starkey explains Elizabeth's fondness for Henry in an understandable manner. The humiliations that Elizabeth endured in her early childhood were forgotten by the time she ascended into her teens, not because she was fickle but because the harsh actions committed towards her were done when she was very young and so she may have naturally forgotten such actions. She also probably could not remember her mother and may have found it hard to feel passionate for someone who was absent from her life. In contrast Henry was her reminding parent and as Starkey stresses, Elizabeth was impressionable in her early teens so its understanding that she would reach out for her reminding family. This not only included her father but also her new stepmother Katherine Parr who she formed an important relationship with.


Elizabeth's impressionable nature in her adolescence is careful examined throughout the book. This is particularly well observed when Starkey writes about Elizabeth's time in her stepmother's household. After Henry VIII died Katherine Parr married a young ambition nobleman, Thomas Seymour, who unfortunately for Katherine and for Elizabeth took an interest in the young girl that went beyond fatherly affections. The result was a series of behaviour which we may deem as child abuse although Starkey does not endorse the idea that Seymour went so far as to sleep with Elizabeth. Ultimately Starkey also highlights that after Seymour's actions and when the council interrogated Elizabeth as to her relationship with Seymour, she kept her head and even at that age she had a remarkable ability to remain composed and prepared to fight in times of personal trouble.

The biography also covers the other significant occasion where Elizabeth faced near ruin. This is her arrest and interrogation in 1554 during the reign of her sister Mary I. A rebellion, known as Wyatt's rebellion, had occurred in 1554 against the proposed marriage between Mary and the Spanish prince, Philip. After the rebellion had died down the rebels homes were raided and amongst Thomas Wyatt's papers was a copy of a letter written by Elizabeth to her sister Mary telling her that she did not wish to leave her country home to avoid the rebels on account of her poor health. Subsequently the council had what they needed to arrest her. Starkey highlights that throughout her interrogation and imprisonment there was the existence of several courtiers who wished her gone, including the Spanish ambassador Renard who summarised to his master Charles V that she was a threat to Mary. But throughout Starkey reminds us that we must not romanticise Elizabeth's time in the tower as some previous historians and even contemporaries loved to do; instead we have to remember that she was not completely defenceless, being as she was the largest landowner in England, the rightful heir to the throne under Henry VIII's will and importantly she had the affections of most of the people.

Overall `Elizabeth' is a fantastic biography on one of the most remarkable women of the sixteenth century. Throughout Starkey conveys well Elizabeth's formation of character and this fighting spirit that she employed not only in her time before becoming queen but also after. He doesn't romanticise her life or attempt to make it more tragic to gain the reader's overwhelming sympathy. He also does not degrade Elizabeth's enemies but instead refers to their positions as well. The central theme that recurs throughout the book is the concept of survival; Elizabeth's early life was not an easy one yet she strove not only to get the crown she wanted but also she fought to stay alive. Starkey does a fantastic job with this biography and if you are interested in this era as a whole then also try his work on the six wives of Henry VIII as `Elizabeth' can be used as a direct sequel to that book.


More about Royalty than Riding, 25 Aug 2008
This book glossed over Zara's eventing career, preferring to focus on her relationships with the rest of the royal family and how this has shaped her life.
To be honest there is probably less than a chapter's worth about her riding and fantastic partnership with Toytown which is a real shame.
A good read if you want to know the in's & out's of a royal childhood but disappointing if you are looking for details of Zara's life in the eventing world.

Dissapointing, 13 Nov 2008
I was really looking forwards to this book, I am an avid reader of anything to do with Tudor history and the wars of the roses and as there is relatively little written on the early years of Henry VIII I was keen to discover more about his personality, his friendships, his marriage, his life and what made him into the tyrant most people recognise him as. Starkey's introduction was promising, I was chomping at the bit to get into this book, but it never really got going for me. Maybe I have read too much on the subject and it was all old news to me, there were little nuggets but no real meaty information.
It is possible, of course, that there is no documented evidence other than what Starkey bought to his book, or that he did not want to make any inferences - he is an historian after all and not a novelist - but I just cannot help feeling that the reader doesn't really get an insight into the boy or the young man.
There is very little on his relationships with More or Catherine of Aragon, which I would consider pretty fundemental considering the parts they both played in his life and it would have been good to have had more of a background on this in order to appreciate the enormity his actions had on his own personality, not just the consequences for the country and the church.
Assuming that you are familiar with the backgound into which Henry VIII was born; the wars of the roses, Edward IV, Richard III, Henry VII and the other main players then you can cut out two thirds of the book. I wanted to know about the man, what made him tick, his passions, his personality, his friendships, his enemies, his lifestyle and just as Starkey got going the book ended. The reader gets little more than a glimpse of 'The Virtuous Prince'.
On the plus side it is an easy read, if you know little or nothing about Henry VIII's early life then go for it.

Young Henry - a perfect read, 10 Nov 2008
David Starkey is said to be Britain's highest-paid historian and this book is prove why that is.

It is a mere pleasure to read, entertaining, but never shallow and giving you a real inside into the young Henry - the boy prince, the heir and the young king.

I especially liked that Starkey never looses the focus on Henry. Very often historians present the developments of the time in art, education, religion, politics in length but one have to make the connection to the person oneself. But not here. Starkey shows what this meant for Henry, what effects it had on him and his personality.

The chapters are very short and very easy to read.

All in all, this a book filling a real gap in the literature on Henry VIII. 100% recommended!!!

The other Henry Tudor, 30 Oct 2008
I bought this and started with anticipation. I can honestly say I was not disappointed. I enjoyed the book from start to finish, you can see how much David Starkey loves his subject matter. I must admit that after reading it I have new questions and not sure where to go to ask!! Currently waiting on part 2 but have the sneaky feeling I will have to wait till christmas for that.

Definitive and superb, 21 Oct 2008
It seems as though there is a never-ending flow of books around the Tudor dynasty, including both the fiction of Phillipa Gregory and Alison Weir to the fiction of David Starkey and others.
This book, the first of two (the latter edition will cover the later and more well know part of his life) is superb. Historical biographies can sometimes be "heavy" reading. Starkey's passion for his subject is obvious and his often anecdotal style of writing makes this an immensely pleasurable read.
If Henry VIII life is of interest to you, there is no better book out there. Simply excellent.

Fascinating and entetaining, 01 Nov 2008
This is an excellent book! I've read it dozens of times and it maintains its fascination. Weir's writing style is so fluid and easy to read that I've since bought many other titles written by her.

A pager turner, 07 Sep 2008
I thought this book would be an interesting history, but it turned into a real page turner, even though I knew the ending. The best book I have read on the Tudors, bringing the complex political issues into an easily understandably context with dumbing down the history. If you want an exciting overview of this period read it and enjoy.

Enlightens A Fascinating Period Of English History, 06 Apr 2003
I had previously found the Tudor age rather complicated and a little vague due to the complexed nature of Henry VIII's numerous wives and children.I started to read this book and became absorbed in the intrigue of this period of Tudor England. It provides in depth details of Henry's children and the profound effect their individual lives would have on the political and social developments of the Kingdoms they ruled, be it long or short. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the Tudor period and which leads to arguably the greatest sovereign in Elizabeth I that this country has seen.

Very enjoyable and enlightening read on the subject, 26 Nov 2001
This book was very good in tackling subjects which usually get dealt with as a chapter in a book on the individuals. As someone who finds the period fascinating, it was academic enough not to be boring if you know a fair amount about the main characters, but not daunting if you dont. Alison Weir puts the chronology together well, and examines the four characters relationship with each other, how those relationships were manipulated or affected by those into whose care they were entrusted, and their motivations in the actions they took. She also takes a great deal of care in the detail - for example in trying to make a modern diagnosis of the ailments suffered by the characters, and in particular those suffered by Mary in her desire to bear an heir to the throne.
Thoroughly recommended.

Henry's missing heirs, 13 Aug 2001
Alison Weir's preface describes this book as 'a chronicle of the personal lives of four English sovereigns': Edward VI, Jane Grey, Mary I and Elizabeth I. She supplies a useful introductory chapter, sketching the early years of Henry's three surviving children, the offspring of Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, and Jane Seymour, from birth until the death of their father in January 1547. At this point, the point at which Weir's "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" ended, the author takes up the story of the House of Tudor until the accession of Elizabeth in 1558.

Weir uses a huge variety of primary and secondary source material to produce a panoramic pen-portrait, often vibrant, on occasion softer in hew, of the four monarchs and their courtiers. I particularly admire the author's subtle handling of the reign of 'Bloody Mary', her sympathy for this frequently misunderstood woman in her desire to give England a Catholic heir. This is a carefully written and analytical section of the book. However, for the most part, "Children of England" is straightforward narrative history from which readers with a passion for this period are unlikely to gain very much.

What disappoints me most is the thought of fascinating opportunities missed. "Children of England" is not subtitled "The Successors of Henry VIII". The secondary title of this book is "The Heirs of Henry VIII" which suggests a study of the individuals named in the monarch's will irrespective of whether they succeeded to the throne. Weir explains that Henry 'willed the Crown first to Edward, then to Mary, then to Elizabeth, and lastly to the heirs of his younger sister Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk'. (The descendants of his elder sister Margaret, Queen of Scots were omitted.) At the time of the King's death, there were nine heirs to the throne. Henry's children were followed by Mary Tudor's elder daughter Frances Brandon, wife of the Marquess of Dorset (later Duke of Suffolk), and her three daughters, Ladies Jane, Katherine, and Mary Grey. Mary Tudor's younger daughter, Eleanor was next in line, followed by Lady Margaret Clifford, the only surviving child of her marriage to the Earl of Cumberland. The lives of all these figures, not only those who would wear the Crown, were fashioned by their being named as heirs to Henry VIII.

We meet Frances Brandon only as the abusive mother of Lady Jane, a repellent character who played her part in the Northumberland-Suffolk plot. The young, attractive, and highly eligible woman she had been in the fifteen-thirties is absent from the narrative and she disappears from view after 1554. Only Frances's sudden marriage to Adrian Stokes, in the wake of her husband's beheading is discussed briefly. Weir notes that she bore her former master-of-the-horse three short-lived children, yet her return to Court in the reign of Mary and her survival into the reign of Elizabeth is overlooked. Weir details the betrothal and marriage of Lady Katherine Grey to Lord Herbert, heir of the Earl of Pembroke and its swift annulment when the Northumberland-Suffolk plot collapsed. However, nothing is said of the betrothal of the hunchbacked Mary Grey to Lord Arthur Grey, whose father was an ardent supporter of the Northumberland and Suffolk cause. We hear only that Queen Mary, having secured her rightful position, granted the sisters places at Court and allowances befitting Princesses of the Blood.

To some extent, the problem is inherent in the strict 1547-1558 time span of the narrative. Consider Lady Margaret Clifford. Her marriage to William Stanley, Earl of Derby took place during the reign of Mary in 1555. At this stage, she was fourth in line to the throne after Elizabeth and the remaining Grey sisters. Nowhere does Weir mention Margaret, her mother Eleanor Brandon who died the same year as King Henry, or the politically important Derby match. This branch of the family is not even included in the sparse family tree at the end of the book. The reader cannot appreciate the importance of Margaret Clifford and her descendants without an understanding of the futures of her cousins after the execution of Lady Jane. During the reign of Elizabeth, both Katherine and Mary Grey married without the consent, or knowledge, of the sovereign. Lady Mary died childless in 1578, but her sister had two sons by Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford before her death in 1568. Queen Elizabeth declared the Seymour children to be illegitimate. ('I will have no rascal's son in my seat', she snapped when asked to name Katherine's elder son her successor.) The Grey-Seymour marriage was not validated until 1606. It was therefore small wonder that many looked upon Lady Margaret Clifford as heir presumptive. Indeed, by the fifteen-eighties she had become an object of suspicion to the Queen. According to Margaret, however, her son, Ferdinando Stanley died as a result of loyalty to their Royal cousin. Shortly after succeeding his father as Earl of Derby, Ferdinando rejected a Jesuit project to usurp the Crown, causing one of the perpetrators to be charged with treason. His sudden death in 1594 was widely mooted to be due to poison administered in revenge for his refusal to support the Catholic cause. Ferdinando Stanley left three daughters, the eldest of whom was Anne, Baroness Chandos. It is one of those intriguing 'What if...?' issues. How different would England's history have been if Elizabeth Tudor had adhered to the will of Henry VIII and named the young Lady Chandos her successor rather than James VI of Scots?

Perhaps I am being thoroughly awkward in demanding a book that the author elected not to write! There is little doubt that "Children of England" will encourage readers to explore the Tudor dynasty in greater depth. Nevertheless, she has wasted a glorious opportunity to introduce readers to many vibrant characters among the heirs of Henry VIII. It is an omission I hope Ms Weir will rectify as she consolidates her position as a leading Tudor historian.

Nice anthology of anecdotes about the Queen, 12 May 2008
Nice anthology of curiosities and anecdotes about the Queen and her family, very readable and funny. You'll learn about the beloved corgies, food and drink, cars and driving habits, horses and the Windsors' Christmas.
There are also some hilarious drawings at the beginning of each chapter. I loved the ones showing the Queen with her corgies, so funny!

The Sometimes Princess, 05 Nov 2008
So much has been written about Queen Elizabeth I and her glorious reign, but it seems that her life prior to coronation is glossed over. This book concentrates on her birth, early childhood and adolescence. It helps to explain many of her later idiosyncracies. Her early years were uncertain and changeable. One moment Princess Elizabeth, the next just Lady Elizabeth. In adolescence, years spent in The Tower at her sisters disposition! Such a dramatic childhood and youth need a separate book dedicated solely to them. This is that book. It reads very smoothly and ends tantalisingly just as Elizabeth's reign begins. Highly recommended.

Strange, 15 Jul 2008
This is not the kind of history that I was expecting - highly populist, focussed more heavily on Elizabeth as a person than on the politics and her decisions as a Queen. Beware.

Good introduction, 16 Oct 2007
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A brilliant introduction to a fascinating life, 21 Sep 2007
This book is both extremely thorough and very readable. Not only does it illuminate an area of Elizabeth's life that so many other works on the ruler skate over,it does so in an accessible and informative manner. Elizabeth actually emerges as a real flesh and blood teenager, rather than the formidable figure, with her glownig white face and imposing dress of later years.

Very useful for those developing an interest in the Tudor monarchs.

A brilliant biography on the life of Elizabeth Tudor prior to her reign. , 30 Aug 2007
`Elizabeth' by David Starkey is a fantastic account of the life of Elizabeth Tudor prior to her accession to the English throne in 1558. As such the book examines Elizabeth's upbringing and education, along with her zeal for learning, and the occasions where she encountered danger.

Starkey examines well Elizabeth's intellectual capability and highlights how this precocious nature was not only inherited from her father (and her siblings too shared such aptitude) but also from personal enthusiasm. Not only does it appear that it gave her personal fulfilment and that overall it was enjoyable, but it was also of a means to reunite herself with her father, who had distanced himself after the execution of his second wife and Elizabeth's mother, Anne Boleyn. Starkey also brilliantly observes that we should dismiss the traditional and fanciful idea that it was Katherine Parr who reuniting Elizabeth with her father. In fact as he points out, such a reunion occurred prior to when Katherine's marriage to Henry. Instead the reunion was formed because both father and daughter wanted it, and in the case of Elizabeth she must be credited for employing the effort to seek it.

Starkey also covers well Elizabeth's admiration for her father. We may find it hard to understand why a girl would want to have a relationship with a father who executed her own mother. But Starkey explains Elizabeth's fondness for Henry in an understandable manner. The humiliations that Elizabeth endured in her early childhood were forgotten by the time she ascended into her teens, not because she was fickle but because the harsh actions committed towards her were done when she was very young and so she may have naturally forgotten such actions. She also probably could not remember her mother and may have found it hard to feel passionate for someone who was absent from her life. In contrast Henry was her reminding parent and as Starkey stresses, Elizabeth was impressionable in her early teens so its understanding that she would reach out for her reminding family. This not only included her father but also her new stepmother Katherine Parr who she formed an important relationship with.


Elizabeth's impressionable nature in her adolescence is careful examined throughout the book. This is particularly well observed when Starkey writes about Elizabeth's time in her stepmother's household. After Henry VIII died Katherine Parr married a young ambition nobleman, Thomas Seymour, who unfortunately for Katherine and for Elizabeth took an interest in the young girl that went beyond fatherly affections. The result was a series of behaviour which we may deem as child abuse although Starkey does not endorse the idea that Seymour went so far as to sleep with Elizabeth. Ultimately Starkey also highlights that after Seymour's actions and when the council interrogated Elizabeth as to her relationship with Seymour, she kept her head and even at that age she had a remarkable ability to remain composed and prepared to fight in times of personal trouble.

The biography also covers the other significant occasion where Elizabeth faced near ruin. This is her arrest and interrogation in 1554 during the reign of her sister Mary I. A rebellion, known as Wyatt's rebellion, had occurred in 1554 against the proposed marriage between Mary and the Spanish prince, Philip. After the rebellion had died down the rebels homes were raided and amongst Thomas Wyatt's papers was a copy of a letter written by Elizabeth to her sister Mary telling her that she did not wish to leave her country home to avoid the rebels on account of her poor health. Subsequently the council had what they needed to arrest her. Starkey highlights that throughout her interrogation and imprisonment there was the existence of several courtiers who wished her gone, including the Spanish ambassador Renard who summarised to his master Charles V that she was a threat to Mary. But throughout Starkey reminds us that we must not romanticise Elizabeth's time in the tower as some previous historians and even contemporaries loved to do; instead we have to remember that she was not completely defenceless, being as she was the largest landowner in England, the rightful heir to the throne under Henry VIII's will and importantly she had the affections of most of the people.

Overall `Elizabeth' is a fantastic biography on one of the most remarkable women of the sixteenth century. Throughout Starkey conveys well Elizabeth's formation of character and this fighting spirit that she employed not only in her time before becoming queen but also after. He doesn't romanticise her life or attempt to make it more tragic to gain the reader's overwhelming sympathy. He also does not degrade Elizabeth's enemies but instead refers to their positions as well. The central theme that recurs throughout the book is the concept of survival; Elizabeth's early life was not an easy one yet she strove not only to get the crown she wanted but also she fought to stay alive. Starkey does a fantastic job with this biography and if you are interested in this era as a whole then also try his work on the six wives of Henry VIII as `Elizabeth' can be used as a direct sequel to that book.


More about Royalty than Riding, 25 Aug 2008
This book glossed over Zara's eventing career, preferring to focus on her relationships with the rest of the royal family and how this has shaped her life.
To be honest there is probably less than a chapter's worth about her riding and fantastic partnership with Toytown which is a real shame.
A good read if you want to know the in's & out's of a royal childhood but disappointing if you are looking for details of Zara's life in the eventing world.


The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn: The Most Happy, 18 Nov 2008
I have been looking for a truly historical analysis that neither confinces this complex character to one chapter in a book on the reign of Henry VIII, portrays her as a saucy temptress nor eulogises her in sickeningly romantic tones in the manner of the unprofessional outpourings of Joanna Denney, who should be ashamed to call herself a historian with a one-sided diatribe such as England's Tragic Queen.

This book is it. A well researched and analysed construction, that really builds up the layers of historical evidence to present a picture of Anne Boleyn's life, character, and influence, and shows an interest in considering whether there was any merit in the charges that led to her death. I this is quite simply a must for anyone interested in getting as close to historial accuracy as is possible given the limited sources available, yet is done in an entirely readable way. Hats off to Mr Ives!

Extremely well researched, 04 Oct 2008
An exhaustively researched but generally very readable biography. In a few places (esp. the chapters on image, art and costume) the level of detail does get a little too much, but this is a testament to the author's endeavours. It is difficult to see how this can be bettered as a biography of this subject, absent the discovery of some significant new primary source.

One of the best biographies ever written about Anne Boleyn, 23 Jan 2008
This highly informative account of Anne Boleyn brings to life a Tudor woman once seen as elusive and obscure.
Due to the high volume of biased primary accounts of Anne Boleyn written by the likes of Chapuys (the Spanish ambassador to England at the time) and others, it has been notoriously difficult to make an objective and impartial assessment of Anne Boleyn however Ives succeeds in bringing the true character of Anne Boleyn to life using a variety of sources, challenges biased accounts of Anne's life (such as Chapuys' accounts of the ailing marriage) and also presents compelling evidence to support his assertions, such as the controversy surrounding Anne's birth date.

Whilst at times, Ives presents the not so endearing qualities of Anne Boleyn, on the whole Ives' account of Anne is largely sympathetic, particularly in the last two chapters of the book where politics and religion appear to play a pivotal role in Anne's downfall and destruction.

It is also refreshing to see Anne portrayed as human and not demonized as she has so often been portrayed.
Ultimately, this is a balanced, magnificently researched and a tribute to Anne, whose efforts helped shape the reformation in England, a sentiment even echoed by Thomas Cromwell, one of her bitterest enemies who helped bring down the "most controversial queen consort" of England.

Detailed and enlightening about Anne Boleyn!, 29 Nov 2007
If one is looking for mere entertainment, this is not the book to buy. I thoroughly enjoyed "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" written by Antonia Fraser, which contained only the most necessary historical facts in order to present the six Queens properly.

When I have given Eric Ives' book five stars, it's because this book is probably the most detailed and enlightening book ever written about Anne Boleyn. But the book is not an easy read, not if one is searching for pure entertainment. For me it is more a book of facts about Anne which I can go back to whenever I'm searching for more information about her. That does not mean the book lacks for numerous enjoyable anecdotes from Anne's life and vivid descriptions of her as a person.

The book tells about Anne's family and background, which was far more important than one is often led to believe. Originally, the family made its fortune in trade, but later on its relations with the Tudors became significant and Anne was by no means an unsuitable match for King Henry.

What I found most interesting was the picture of Anne as a very cultured and highly educated young woman. The time she spent at the Continent and how this influenced her in her role as Queen of England. It thoroughly explains why she became as powerful and politically important as she did. And not the least, the circumstances leading to her death.

For a complete picture of Anne Boleyn, look no further. This book gives all the answers.

A wonderful work on an interesting lady, 05 Feb 2007
By far the most famous of Henry's queens, Anne Boleyn is also the most controversial. Any biography of her must be objective, thoroughly researched and carefully portrayed. Ives succeeds on all counts. This book is a brilliant life of Anne Boleyn and goes into great detail without ever being boring. 10/10.