Description

*THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER*

Tudor tells a family story like no other.

The Tudors are a national obsession, undoubtedly British history’s most notorious family. But beyond the well-worn headlines is a family still more extraordinary than the one we thought we knew.

The Tudor canon typically starts with the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, before speeding on to Henry VIII and the Reformation. But this leaves out the family’s obscure Welsh origins; it passes by the courage of the pregnant thirteen-year-old girl who would help found the Tudor dynasty; and the childhood and painful exile of her son, the future Henry VII. It ignores the fact that the Tudors were shaped by their past – those parts they wished to remember and those they wished to forget.

With this background, Leanda de Lisle enables us to see the Tudors in their own terms and presents new perspectives and revelations on key figures and events, from the princes in the Tower to the Tudor Queens.

‘A lively history of the ambitious Tudor family… It casts plenty of light on the strong women in the dynasty’ The Times

**A Telegraph, History Today and BBC History Magazine Book of the Year**

Publisher Review

A wonderfully fluent portrait of five generations... de Lisle brings an entirely fresh feel to the Tudor story, reminding us of the one thing the monarchs themselves wanted us to forget: the sheer improbability of their royal rule -- Dan Jones, author of The Plantagenets * The Times (Saturday Review) * Violent, heady, glamorous stuff, this is popular history of a very superior sort -- Lucy Worsley * Country Life * Vivid... Part of the interest of this book lies in the portraits of strong women -- Charles Moore * Daily Telegraph * Tudor is a gripping account of a family riven by passionate jealousies, murderous ambitions and crippling tragedies. Leanda de Lisle is a master storyteller, and this is her greatest work yet. Immersive and exhaustively researched, Tudor is a triumph. * Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire * While many Tudor fans have been crying out for an accessible narrative history of the entire period, few historians have felt able to rise to the challenge... [de Lisle] manages to achieve that very feat... should now be the go-to book -- Chris Skidmore * History Today (Books of the Year 2013) *