The role of women as writers, literary and dramatic characters, and real queens in early modern Europe was central to the development of Tudor ideas about gender and women's place in society. Women and Tudor Tragedy investigates the link between gender and genre, identifying the relation between cultural history and mid-Tudor drama. This book establishes a way for reading women in early modern history, drama, and poetry by fusing discussions of gender in literature with historical analysis of tyranny and martyrdom in mid-Tudor culture. It considers the disparities between the representation of women in historical, political, and religious treatises by examining the complex portrayal of women, female speeches, and the rhetoric of good counsel. The author provides a discussion of the role of women in early English tragedies and in a variety of texts by women. Throughout the book, Allyna E. Ward asks in what ways these different ways of writing the Tudor women can help scholars better understand the place of women in English culture at the end of the sixteenth century. Furthermore, Ward traces the feminization of the rhetoric of counsel that takes place with the last Tudor monarchs as a way of accommodating female rule.

The Queen was accused of having been a woman of "abominable carnal desires" who had craftily and traitorously misled her royal spouse into believing she was "chaste and of pure, clean, and honest living." Worse still, she had followed "daily her frail and carnal lust" and had actually "conspired, imagined, and encompassed" the final destruction of the King. This book is an analysis of a life and a multitude of circumstances that culminated in violent death; a study of how chance and personality, morality and adultery, deliberate malice and good intentions, when operating within the limits set by environment, can create a single act in time, the swift descent of the executioner's axe.

The Tudors are England’s most notorious royal family. But, as Leanda de Lisle’s gripping new history reveals, they are 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, the ordinary man known as Owen Tudor who would fall (literally) into a Queen’s lap—and later her bed. It passes by the courage of Margaret Beaufort, 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. By creating a full family portrait set against the background of this past, de Lisle enables us to see the Tudor dynasty in its own terms, and presents new perspectives and revelations on key figures and events. De Lisle discovers a family dominated by remarkable women doing everything possible to secure its future; shows why the princes in the Tower had to vanish; and reexamines the bloodiness of Mary’s reign, Elizabeth’s fraught relationships with her cousins, and the true significance of previously overlooked figures. Throughout the Tudor story, Leanda de Lisle emphasizes the supreme importance of achieving peace and stability in a violent and uncertain world, and of protecting and securing the bloodline. Tudor is bristling with religious and political intrigue but at heart is a thrilling story of one family’s determined and flamboyant ambition.

To His Most Noble Majesty Henry, King of England, Ireland and of France, from his most loyal servant Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex, greetings... Prostrate at Your Majesty's feet, I must write such things as I think meet concerning my most miserable state ... and where I have now been accused of treason, I never in all my life thought to displease Your Majesty ... much less do or say that thing which, of itself, is so High & Abominable an offence. Your Grace, in his wisdom, knows my accusers, and may God forgive them for their wicked sins. If it were in my power to make you live forever and enrich you, God knows I would. For Your Majesty has been most bountiful towards me ... more like a father than a king.I ask your mercy where I have offended. I have committed my soul to God, and my body and goods to your pleasure. As for this England ... I have done my best, and nobody can justly accuse me of having done wrong wilfully.SO, Thomas Cromwell pleads for England, and for his life. It is 1540, and the Privy Councillor is languishing in the Tower of London, his dreams in tatters. It seems that the Duke of Norfolk has won the day, but Cromwell's loyal friends cannot abandon him to his fate without attempting to save his life. Whilst some are for violent action, others counsel a steadier approach. The king must be won over. Rafe Sadler is set to use his influence, whilst others argue for Cromwell's life in subtler ways. The king wishes an annulment, but who can write the law well enough to make him look innocent to the rest of Europe?Master lawyer, Thomas Cromwell has one last task to perform for his king, and when it is completed... he must die.Will Draper must continue with the king's business, and he has a murderer to find. He also has a family to protect, and when it comes to a choice, who will he place first.... his family, or his friend?'The most riveting volume yet' .... 'Cromwell at his best' 'Historic Fiction on a grand scale'

Lady Jane Grey, is one of the most elusive and tragic characters in English history. In July 1553 the death of the childless Edward VI threw the Tudor dynasty into crisis. On Edward's instructions his cousin Jane Grey was proclaimed queen, only to be ousted 13 days later by his illegitimate half sister Mary and later beheaded. In this radical reassessment, Eric Ives rejects traditional portraits of Jane both as hapless victim of political intrigue or Protestant martyr. Instead he presents her as an accomplished young woman with a fierce personal integrity. The result is a compelling dissection by a master historian and storyteller of one of history’s most shocking injustices.