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David Loades

Author of The Tudor Queens of England

63+ Works 1,210 Members 14 Reviews 1 Favorited

About the Author

David Loades is Honorary Research Professor at the University of Leeds and Director of the British Academy John Foxe Project.

Includes the names: D. M. Loades, David M. Loades

Works by David Loades

The Tudor Queens of England (2009) 106 copies
Mary Tudor: A Life (1989) 73 copies
The Tudors For Dummies (2011) 43 copies
The Tudor Court (1986) 38 copies
The Oxford martyrs (1970) 32 copies
Henry VIII and His Queens (1994) 31 copies
Jane Seymour (2013) 27 copies
The Six Wives of Henry VIII (2009) 25 copies
Mary Rose (2012) 24 copies
Letters from the Mary Rose (2002) 22 copies
The Fighting Tudors (2009) 22 copies
Mary Tudor (2011) 22 copies
HENRY VIII (2011) 19 copies
Two Tudor Conspiracies (1965) 15 copies
Elizabeth I: A Life (2006) 14 copies
Tudor Government (1997) 12 copies
Power in Tudor England (1996) 9 copies
Reader's Guide to British History (2003) — Editor — 6 copies
The Levellers (1992) 2 copies
John Foxe: Essays v. 2 (2001) 1 copy
John Foxe: Essays v. 1 (2001) 1 copy

Associated Works

Kings and Queens (Illustrated History) (2001) — Editor — 11 copies

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Common Knowledge

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Reviews

Covers the reigns of Henry VII, Henry VIII and Edward VI in the words of their contemporaries.
 
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Mapguy314 | 1 other review | Feb 9, 2023 |
I finished the book. Probably my last by David Loades
 
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LoisSusan | Dec 10, 2020 |
This is an excellent biography of Mary Tudor who reigned as Queen from July 1553 until her death in November 1558. During her reign she had over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake as she attempted to reverse the protestant policies of her half brother Edward VI back to the old catholic religion. She earned the posthumous sobriquet as Bloody Mary, however David Loades gives us a rounded portrait of this troubled queen and woman. He makes no excuses for her religious zeal, but does a good job in explaining why she pursued the policies that looked like religious persecution from our standpoint today. He concentrates on the character and issues facing Mary herself who is the star of this book. There are some social commentaries and pen portraits of the people around the queen, certainly enough to make her story understandable and to demonstrate the pressures that she was under from a turbulent Tudor Court.

Loades reminds his readers that Mary was the first female English sovereign - a ruling queen who was not simply the consort of the king and so faced unique difficulties as a woman in a man’s world. She was 37 years old, unmarried and fiercely proud of her virginity when she became queen and had to face the immediate problem of the succession. She chose to marry the Spanish prince Philip: a staunchly catholic man who had no time or much inclination to get to know the issues facing an English monarch and who proved to be very unpopular with the English people. Mary kept it all together to a certain extant, but failure to produce an heir and the prospect of her protestant half sister Elizabeth next in line for the throne were difficulties that she could not overcome. David Loades ends his biography by saying that “It is time that England’s first queen was better appreciated” and if this means understanding the problems facing her and also appreciating a stubborn, dogmatic and at times indecisive character then Loades has done a very good job.

A very readable and easily digestible history book that uses both primary and secondary sources to provide an up to date (2006) summary of current knowledge on this catholic queen’s reign. A four star read.
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baswood | 1 other review | Apr 20, 2017 |
A good account - but I was a bit disappointed as the author chose to squeeze this larger-than-life ruler in between just under 250 pages. Accurate and to the point yes, but it certainly doesn't bring the period to life in any great detail as for example Alison Weir's Henry VIII does. This is the short version then.
 
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SabinaE | 1 other review | Jan 23, 2016 |

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Works
63
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1,210
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ISBNs
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