The Children of Henry VIII
by Alison Weir
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Book Summary Information
Author: Alison WeirEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1997-07-08
ISBN: 0345407865
Number of pages: 416
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Book Reviews of The Children of Henry VIII
Book Review: Excellent follow up to The Six Wives...
Summary: 5 Stars
The Children of Henry VIII is the second book I have read by Weir, and she truly is fantastic. Understandingly the drama that surrounds the Tudor Family is interesting, but she takes a non-fiction history book and turns it into an exciting novel. It is a lengthy book that took nearly no time to read as the pages flew by. I do recommend reading The Six Wives of Henry VIII first, as it will give you the background to the children's lives as well as all the outside players involved with the royal family.
When Henry VIII died his son Edward VI became king. Being too young to carry out the duties of ruling the country, a few different men in the council set out to be the advisor and the Lord President of the Council and effectively the ruler of England, until King Edward was old enough to make all of his own decisions. Although he began making some of his own rulings, this day of full rule would never come because King Edward died at the age of sixteen.
Edward being protestant wrote a will on his death bed leaving the succession to Lady Jane Grey rather than his Roman Catholic sister Mary Tudor. Lady Jane came to power as a mere puppet at the hands of power hungry men. She said "The crown is not my right and pleaseth me not. The Lady Mary is the rightful heir." Regardless, she reigned for less than a month, before Mary marched in with an army of supporters to claim her right to the throne. Mary kept Lady Jane alive for some time, but eventually she did lose her life for her treasonous act. When giving up the crown she said "I much more willingly put them off than I put them on. Now I willingly relinquish the crown. May I not go home?"
Mary took over with her kingdom in high spirits, but it didn't take long until her strong oppression of protestants started turning her subjects against her. Her unprecedented burning of protestants got her the name of "Bloody Mary", but she truly believed she was doing God's biding on earth to rid her kingdom of heretics. The burnings actually produced the opposite result than desired, the protestants held stronger to their convictions and more willingly became martyrs. Mary refused to accept this reality, but there was more bothering her than just this. Mary was not yet married, and she longed for children and most notably a male heir to her Catholic throne.
After a few different proposed matches, Mary ends up with Philip II, the son of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Charles V was the nephew of Katherine of Aragon (daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella), making Philip II although separated by a generation, Mary's cousin. Philip was significantly younger than Mary, but the marriage was arranged to bring power to the Holy Roman Empire and a new ally against France. Mary fell deeply in love with Philip, but he seemed rather indifferent to the arranged marriage, and spent lots of time away from her, distressing Mary incredibly.
Mary never gave birth to a child, however she had at least two mistaken pregnancies where she thought she was pregnant even up until her 9th month. In the end her distress over not producing an heir, an absent husband, and the loss of Calias to the French manifested in further physical distress and she eventually died leaving the kingdom to her protestant sister Elizabeth. Elizabeth takes the throne and puts a stop to the religious persecutions and killings. The book ends here, but Alison Weir does have a book dedicated strictly to this Queen Elizabeth. This was another great read by Alison Weir, and it won't be my last.
Summary of The Children of Henry VIII
"Fascinating . . . Alison Weir does full justice to the subject."--The Philadelphia Inquirer
At his death in 1547, King Henry VIII left four heirs to the English throne: his only son, the nine-year-old Prince Edward; the Lady Mary, the adult daughter of his first wife Katherine of Aragon; the Lady Elizabeth, the teenage daughter of his second wife Anne Boleyn; and his young great-niece, the Lady Jane Grey. In this riveting account Alison Weir paints a unique portrait of these extraordinary rulers, examining their intricate relationships to each other and to history. She traces the tumult that followed Henry's death, from the brief intrigue-filled reigns of the boy king Edward VI and the fragile Lady Jane Grey, to the savagery of "Bloody Mary," and finally the accession of the politically adroit Elizabeth I.
As always, Weir offers a fresh perspective on a period that has spawned many of the most enduring myths in English history, combining the best of the historian's and the biographer's art.
"Like anthropology, history and biography can demonstrate unfamiliar ways of feeling and being. Alison Weir's sympathetic collective biography, The Children of Henry VIII does just that, reminding us that human nature has changed--and for the better. . . . Weir imparts movement and coherence while re-creating the suspense her characters endured and the suffering they inflicted."
--The New York Times Book Review
The royal family may have its problems these days, but as Alison Weir reminds us in this cohesive and impeccably researched book, the nobility of old England could be both loveless and ruthless. Weir, an expert in the period and author of a book on Henry's VIII wives, focuses on the children of Henry VIII who reigned successively after his death in 1547: Edward VI, Mary I ("Bloody Mary") and Elizabeth I. The three shared little--living in separate homes--except for a familial legacy of blood and terror. This is exciting history and fascinating reading about a family of mythic proportions.
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