‘Sarah Gristwood’s book is a masterclass in marshalling a vast canon of research into a riveting, pacy page-turner… Here are the Tudors – and a good few others – as you have never seen them before.’
The Tudors in Love
The Courtly Code Behind the Last Medieval Dynasty
Sarah GristwoodA BBC History Magazine Book of the Year
‘One of the most important books to be written about the Tudors in a generation.’ Tracy Borman
In this groundbreaking 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 devoted lovers and capricious mistresses first laid out in the romances of medieval literature, but now with life-and-death consequences for the protagonists. The Tudors in Love dissects the codes of love, desire and power, unveiling obsessions that have shaped the history of this nation.
‘A riveting, pacy page-turner… the Tudors as you’ve never seen them before.’ Alison Weir
Reviews
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
‘This book stands out on the crowded bookshelves… [Gristwood] does a superb job in distilling the vast amount of modern scholarship on this topic… The Tudors in Love also expertly tells the story of a two-way love affair — that of the Tudors with their imagined past and ours with the Tudors.’
Gareth Russell, The Times
‘Just when we think we know everything about the Tudors, along comes a book that turns that all on its head… The prose is as seductive as the subject matter. Be prepared to fall in love.’
BBC History Magazine, Books of the Year 2021
‘With verve and erudition Gristwood takes us to the dark heart of courtly love and exposes the deadly Tudor dance of sex and power.’
Leanda de Lisle, author of Tudor: The Family Story
‘Meticulously researched and beautifully crafted into a narrative that reads like a romance, prepare to see the Tudors as you’ve never seen them before. The Tudors in Love is a magnificent work of art painted by one of our most exceptional historians. Nobody writes like Sarah Gristwood, truly stunning.’
Nicola Tallis, author of Uncrowned Queen
‘Captivating and entrancing, the exquisitely detailed The Tudors in Love explores the entanglements of love, sex, marriage and politics in the Tudor dynasty, revealing how the famously spectacular love affairs intersected with political propaganda and the business of governing, and how the medieval game of courtly love became pressed into the business of shoring up a brand-new monarchy. Full of insight and fascinating.’
Kate Williams, author of Rival Queens
‘One of the most important books to be written about the Tudors in a generation. The seductively rich prose and endlessly engaging narrative bring an entirely fresh perspective to this celebrated dynasty. By placing courtly love on an equal footing with war, politics and religion, Sarah Gristwood unlocks the Tudor mindset – with fascinating and often surprising results. Never mind the Tudors, I’m in love…with this book.’
Tracy Borman, author of The Private Lives of the Tudors
‘A highbrow chronicle.’
Daily Mail
‘The ideas and analysis are fascinating.’
Tudor Times
‘Reading The Tudors in Love feels like having a cipher to decode the letters that passed between Mary, Queen of Scots, and her Catholic conspirators. For the first time there are satisfying answers to such conundrums as why Henry VIII took six wives (and executed two of them) and why the male favorites of his daughter Elizabeth I worshipped her as a goddess, even in old age.’
Wall Street Journal, Best Books on the British Monarchy
‘It is rare that a book doesn’t just offer new knowledge (previously ignored facts or under-reported quirky episodes) but new ways of thinking. This is what The Tudors in Love does: it invites and encourages an entirely new way of considering how these well-known figures interacted with one another… there is much here that will be new. This marvellously readable book is like discovering a Rosetta Stone, whereby we don’t just discover what people did and how they did it but come to understand the language of courtship and love as something quite alien to modern conceptions and expectations.’
Aspects of History, Best Books of 2021
Sarah Gristwood
Sarah Gristwood is the author of four previous books of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century history: the Sunday Times bestseller Arbella: England’s Lost QueenElizabeth & LeicesterBlood Sisters: The Women Behind the Wars of the RosesGame 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. @sarahgristwood
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