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The Tudors in Love Spiral-Bound | 2022-12-13

Sarah Gristwood

$29.19 - Free Shipping
A brilliant history of the Tudor dynasty, showing how the rules of romantic courtly love irrevocably shaped the politics and international diplomacy of the period.

Why did Henry VIII marry six times? Why did Anne Boleyn have to die? Why did Elizabeth I's courtiers hail her as a goddess come to earth?

The dramas of courtly love have captivated centuries of readers and dreamers. Yet too often they're dismissed as something existing only in books and song--those old legends of King Arthur and chivalric fantasy.

Not so. In this ground-breaking history, Sarah Gristwood reveals the way courtly love made and marred the Tudor dynasty. From Henry VIII declaring himself as the 'loyal and most assured servant' of Anne Boleyn to the poems lavished on Elizabeth I by her suitors, the Tudors re-enacted the roles of the devoted lovers and capricious mistresses first laid out in the romances of medieval literature. The Tudors in Love dissects the codes of love, desire and power, unveiling romantic obsessions that have shaped the history of the world.

Publisher: Macmillan
Original Binding: Hardcover with dust jacket
Pages: 400 pages
ISBN-10: 1250271428
Item Weight: 1.3 lbs
Dimensions: 6.6 x 1.3 x 9.6 inches
"Gristwood's prose is as seductive as the subject matter. Be prepared to fall in love." -Wall Street Journal

"An engrossing look at how the Tudor dynasty employed the 'stylish and stylised game' of courtly love…fascinating incidental details add insight and reveal personal connections between historical figures. The result is a fresh and tantalizing look at a much-scrutinized dynasty." -Publishers Weekly

"A masterclass in marshalling a vast canon of research into a riveting, pacy page-turner." --Alison Weir

"One of the most important books to be written about the Tudors in a generation." --Tracy Borman, author of The Private Lives of the Tudors

"Captivating and entrancing." --Kate Williams, author of Rival Queens

"The disconnection between romance and realpolitik is brutally and entertainingly illuminated by Gristwood." -The Times (UK)

SARAH GRISTWOOD is the author of four books on fifteenth-and sixteenth-century history: Arbella; Elizabeth & Leicester; Blood Sisters; and the widely-translated Game of Queens. A former journalist, contributing to papers such as The Guardian and the Telegraph, she has also written a number of books on twentieth-century subjects. She features frequently at history festivals, and on radio and television discussing the past and present of Britain's monarchy.