If we remember Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire, it’s as the mother of Anne, Mary and George, and the wife of Thomas. Yet, as Alexandra Walsh discovered, she was a significant woman in her own right — but one who has disappeared under the shadows of her more famous relatives. Here Alexandra aims to put […]
The House of Echoes by Alexandra Walsh
Hampton Court Palace in the 1530s: Anne Brandon has always understood the power of a king’s patronage and, though the court of Henry VIII is a dangerous place for women, as the daughter of the king’s best friend, Anne feels safer than most. But Anne’s husband, Lord Powis, is tiring of her childlessness and when […]
Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I by Tracy Borman
Anne Boleyn is a subject of enduring fascination. By far the most famous of Henry VIII’s six wives, she has inspired books, documentaries and films, and is the subject of intense debate even today, almost 500 years after her violent death. For the most part, she is considered in the context of her relationship with […]
Henry VIII, impotence and the thorny question of male heirs
Henry VIII died 475 years ago, on 28 January, 1547. To mark the occasion, we asked the author Carol McGrath to draw upon her new book, Sex and Sexuality in Tudor England, to examine the king’s notoriously turbulent sex life. She focusses on the driving force behind his many marriages: his obsession with fathering a […]
Tardiness and Tempest: Henry VIII’s Courtship of Anne Boleyn
Did Anne Boleyn really fend off Henry VIII’s advances for seven years? Our guest this month, Alison Weir, dishes the dirt. It was novel for a King like Henry VIII to have to beg for sexual favours. When he asked Anne Boleyn to become his mistress, around 1525-6, she refused. She would not even agree to […]
May Giveaway!
New novels from two historical fiction heavyweights up for grabs this month! Win a copy of Dunstan, the brand new standalone
Historia Interviews: Alison Weir
Alison Weir is one of the UK’s best-loved and best-selling historians. She’s published seventeen history books and five historical novels, selling over 2.7 million books worldwide. Her latest project is ambitious – a re-telling of the lives of Henry VIII’s six wives, in six novels, over six years. The first, Katherine of Aragon: The True […]