This one slipped past me, but since I know a lot of you are readers of her books, I figured I should post links to her next book. This time the subject is Mary Queen of Scots during her captivity in England. It’s been out a while in the UK and will be out on the 16th in the US. Amazon links below (US on the left and UK hardcover in the center and paperback on the right).
I received an email from author Carlyn Beccia about her new young adult non-fiction work “The Raucous Royals”, which looks like loads of fun. It includes some of our favorite royals as well.
Here’s the website for the book, her blog (which is in my RSS reader!) and You Tube channel with a trailer for the book.
Here are the usual Amazon affiliate links (US on the left, UK on the right):
I’m not sure what started it, but I’ve noticed an uptick in the interest of this legendary Hungarian countess, who was a contemporary of Elizabeth I.
I received a note from the author of this new book on the countess, with US Amazon link below.
Not until 2011 though. Maybe the exchange rate will have improved enough by then for me to travel over. 
From the BBC:
Illustrated books once owned by English monarchs are to go on public display for the first time.
About 150 medieval and Renaissance books and other literary artefacts will be put on display at the British Library in London in 2011.
They are among almost 2,000 manuscripts donated to the British Museum by King George II in 1757.
The exhibition follows a major research project supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
…
Manuscripts featured in the exhibition will include a copy of Philippe de Mezieres’s letter to Richard II and the Shrewsbury Book of romances presented to Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry VI, as a gift for their marriage in 1445.
Tip of the gable hood to Kathy for the link
I received an email from the author about this upcoming book - The Sisters Who Would Be Queen: The Tragedy of Katherine, Mary and Lady Jane Grey by Leanda de Lisle. Looks interesting!
It will be out in September in the UK (Amazon UK pre-order link below) and next year in the US (I couldn’t find a pre-order link yet, but I’ll post one when it shows up).
Update: I received an email from the author saying that the publication will be delayed until early 2009 for the UK version. I’ll post on the book again when we get closer to the final publication date.
With all the books coming out (seemingly daily) about the Tudors, I don’t go out of my way to find them. But, if I come across a good review, or someone mentions a new book on my email list or in a blog comment, or when a publisher or author asks me to post something, then I’ll fire up Word Press. It would be practically a full-time job to post about just the books related to Tudor history, not to mention all the other stories that come through my Google news alerts!
First up is a new book by John Guy about the relationship between Thomas More and his daughter Margaret. I’ve vaguely been aware that she was a very well-educated and intellectual woman, but not much more. I think I’ll have to pick up a copy of this book to fill out my knowledge! Here’s a review in the Times Online. And below are links to pre-order at Amazon US and to buy at Amazon UK.
Next up are pre-order links for a book discussed in this thread over on the Question and Answer blog on the Tudors and Stuarts on Film. It sounds fascinating!
I received an email from the author of this book, which looks really interesting! Sometimes the Tudor period being concurrent with the Age of Discovery, and the fact that Henry VII was a sponsor of the Cabots, gets lost in the shuffle of wives, heirs and other salacious bits.
Amazon links:
I thought I had posted about this when the UK version came out, but I couldn’t find it in the archives, so I guess I didn’t!
Here are Amazon links (it comes out on July 8 in the US and has been out for a while in the UK):
TEN THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT “BLOODY MARY” (MARY TUDOR, England’s first queen regnant) by Linda Porter, author of The First Queen of England: the myth of “Bloody Mary” (published by St Martin’s press, July 2008)
1. She was raised as the “heir of England” ( her father, Henry VIII’s own words) and received a ground-breaking education and training for the role, until Henry declared her illegitimate in 1533, following his divorce from her mother, Queen Katherine of Aragon.
2. As a young woman, she was described as one of the most attractive and accomplished princesses in Europe. The poet John Heywood wrote: “her beauty twinkleth like a star within the frosty night.” Her fine complexion and red-gold hair were particularly admired.
3. She was a superb musician, with a precocious talent noted when she was only two years old. She played the virginals, the lute and the spinet. Both the Imperial and the French ambassadors commented on her virtuosity. As queen she encouraged musicians and there was a general blossoming of the arts. Thomas Tallis was supported by Mary and he composed one of his greatest pieces, Puer natus est nobis, during her reign. Her linguistic ability was also outstanding. She spoke fluent French and Latin and had a good command of Italian and Spanish.
4. She adored clothes and jewels and became a fashion trendsetter. Her wardrobe accounts reveal a woman who spent heavily on expensive materials (silks, velvets, taffeta, satins, damask, cloth of gold and cloth of silver), all sumptuously embroidered, and cut in the very latest French and Venetian styles. Her jewellery collection, of which she was very proud, was given to her sister Elizabeth shortly before Mary’s death. A superb replica has been made of her wedding dress of purple satin and cloth of silver, decorated with pearls. It cost £3000 to make and was commissioned by Winchester Cathedral for its commemoration of the 450th anniversary of Mary’s marriage there to Philip of Spain in the rainy July of 1554.
5. She had a passion for gambling at cards and ran up considerable debts. After the fall of Anne Boleyn, when Mary was partially returned to royal favour, she spent nearly one-third of her monthly income on gambling.
6. She was an affectionate sister to Elizabeth and Edward (the son of Jane Seymour), taking an interest in their education and frequently buying clothes and toys for Elizabeth. Both the younger children spent a large part of their early childhoods in her company, as they shared the same households. The ill-feeling that developed between Mary and Elizabeth did not start until well after the death of their father, as Elizabeth approached adulthood.
7. She had a string of suitors – many more than Elizabeth – and fell deeply in love with the one she did eventually marry, Philip of Spain. But he could not reciprocate her feelings. She was eleven years his senior and, by her late thirties, aged by ill-health and the relentless pressure of the unstable times in which she had lived.
8. She was brave, hard-working and had a better grasp of the intricacies of government than her father. Her courageous fight for her throne in 1553, when Edward VI disinherited both Mary and Elizabeth on his deathbed, is one of the few successful revolts of the provinces against London in English history.
9. She was a caring and much-loved employer to her household staff and ladies in waiting, and merciful to her political enemies. She only agreed with great reluctance to the execution of her cousin, Lady Jane Grey. And although she could not condone heresy (hence the ill-advised burnings of Protestant opponents) she did not actually introduce the Inquisition into England. Her aim was to develop a revived and renewed Catholicism, not to turn back the clock. In reality, the silent majority of her subjects did not oppose the re-introduction of Catholic practices and seem to have enjoyed the ceremonial aspects that went with them.
10. She was not subservient to her husband, Philip, who, in practice, never had a role other than that of king consort. And she did not say:” When I am dead and opened, you will find Calais lying in my heart.” The loss of Calais, England’s last foothold in France, in 1558, was distressing for English pride, but also solved the problem of what to do with an expensive, ill-fortified relic harbouring many troublemakers.
I meant to post a reminder about this a week or two ago, but totally forgot. I originally posted about Alison Weir’s next Tudor novel, this time about Elizabeth before she was Queen, back in February. Here are the links again if anyone is interested (and again, full disclosure - I get a small commission off each sale)
Also, Alison Weir has been on a tour giving talks on the book and other related topics and will be coming to the US soon. If she’s going to be in your area and you’d like to meet up with other Tudor fans, leave a comment below!
Here’s the schedule: http://alisonweir.org.uk/events/index.asp
Thanks to TudorRose for the link for the tour!
I don’t even TRY to make an attempt to keep up with all the book and movie reviews on Tudor topics since there are way too many, but here’s an exception. Open Letters Monthly, an arts and literature review site, is doing “A Year With the Tudors” with Steve Donoghue, and you can see the first three installments here:
January - Henry VIII: Court, Church, and Conflict By David Loades
February - Edward VI: The Lost King of England by Chris Skidmore
March - Henry VIII’s Last Victim: The Life and Times of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey By Jessie Childs
The first up is the next fictional work from Alison Weir, this time about Elizabeth I in the years before she became Queen. Personally, I find that to be the most intriguing part of Elizabeth’s life, so I’m looking forward to this. I really enjoyed “Innocent Traitor”, so my hopes are high! Below are the pre-order links to my affiliate stores at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. It will be out on April 29 in the US and April 3 in the UK.
The next is one that Foose brought to my attention. I haven’t been able to really find out much about it, but below are the Amazon links. The book is another on Catherine Parr by Susan James, but I don’t know if it is an update to her previous work (from the late 1990s) or something new. It has been published, but neither store has it in stock yet. The Amazon.uk link mentions that it is being published to coincide with this year’s celebrations of the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s succession to the throne.
Foose, a regular commenter over on the Q&A blog, has requested an open thread to discuss the new book on Blanche Parry and I am more than happy to oblige. Here is a link to a website for the book. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to read it myself one of these days, but given the size of the pile next to my bed it isn’t likely to be anytime soon…
USA Today has published an excerpt of Chapter One from Julia Fox’s “Jane Boleyn” on their website, for those of you who are interested.
As reminder, the book is about Jane Parker, Lady Rochford, who was married to George Boleyn, brother of Anne.
I once again have fallen behind on a few news items, so I’m going to combine them all in this post!
First up is the auction of a portrait of Elizabeth I yesterday at Sotheby’s. The painting had been expected to go for at most £1,000,000 (US $2,000,000), but in fact fetched £2,596,500 (around US $5,200,000). More info on the painting is available at ArtDaily and the BBC. Both links have pictures. For even more information, go to the Sotheby’s website and look for “Important British Paintings” under the Auction Results. You will have to register with their site to see the page, but they have a great zoom-able image of the painting and an extensive catalogue entry.
Next up… The link to the soundtrack from “The Tudors” is now up on Amazon. Links to pre-order for my Amazon affiliate store are below:
Next up, a review from The Telegraph of “Jane Boleyn - The Infamous Lady Rochford” by Julia Fox, which I posted about back in September. The book still isn’t out here in the US, but has been available in the UK for a while. By the way, the author of the review is Jessie Childs, who has a Tudor book of her own out on Henry Howard. I thought I had posted about the book on the blog, but I couldn’t find any old links to it, so I’m posting Amazon links for it here. Ms. Childs was kind enough to send me a copy of the book over the summer, but I’m ashamed to say I still haven’t had a chance to read it! Hopefully I’ll get caught up on some reading over the winter break from work.
(Thanks to Annie for sending the link to the review… I had meant to post about it earlier and it got lost in the shuffle, so it was a good reminder!)
A few more books of interest will be coming out shortly…
First up, another book on Katherine Swynford, ancestor of the Tudors through the Beaufort line. It will be out in October in the US and appears to already be out in the UK.
And next is a book on George Boleyn’s infamous wife Jane, Lady Rochford. For some reason two versions are showing up at Amazon.uk, so I’ve linked to both below. One is available for purchase now and another is due out in . The US version is due in December.
Thanks to Kate for mentioning the book on Jane!
It’s always nice to see people taking interest in some of the previously “behind the scenes” people in Tudor history!
Information on the book and its launch is available at BlancheParry.com
From the Maney Publishing webpage for the book:
Henry VIII used his wardrobe, and that of his family and household, as a way of expressing his wealth and magnificence. This book encompasses the first detailed study of male and female dress worn at the court of Henry VIII (1509-47) and covers the dress of the King and his immediate family, the royal household and
the broader court circle. Henry VIII’s wardrobe is set in context by a study of Henry VII’s clothes, court and household.As none of Henry VIII’s clothes survive, evidence is drawn primarily from the great wardrobe accounts, wardrobe warrants, and inventories, and is interpreted using evidence from narrative sources, paintings, drawings and a small selection of contemporary garments, mainly from European collections.
Be sure to look at the website linked above for more information, including a download of the table of contents and introduction and links to a radio interview with the author, Maria Hayward.
It will be out in September in the UK and October in the US. It looks fascinating, so I hope my university gets it for the library, since it’s a little out of my price range!
This one isn’t due out until November, but it is available for pre-order. I didn’t see a listing at Amazon.uk, but I’ll add it if/when it shows up. Looking at the other works by Anne Gracie, I’m guessing this is a historical romance based on the series.
Thanks to Kathy for emailing me about it!
The book that accompanies the Holbein Exhibition at the Tate is now for sale!
You can get it from the museum itself
or Amazon.com and Amazon.uk. For the US, it is a pre-order for now and there is a 4-6 week delivery on the UK Amazon
Carolly Erickson, who has written several Tudor non-fiction books, has written a novel about Katherine Parr called The Last Wife of Henry VIII. It is available for pre-order in the US (left) and the UK (right) and will be published in October:
