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Loading... Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIIIby David Starkey
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. The author of Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne turns his attention to the matrimonial saga of Henry VIII. Antonia Fraser and Alison Weir covered much the same ground in the early 1990s. While they expressed particular interest in 16th-century women and marriage, Starkey dwells at greater length on political and religious subtleties, and develops an imposing cast of supporting characters. The bulk of the book inevitably deals with Henry's first two wives, Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. Accounts of the remaining queens are fleshed out nicely to suggest their personalities, their place in the family networks and religious currents at court and the overall patterns of the king's infatuations and disillusionments. Mildly railing at historians who have not reached the same conclusions as he, Starkey claims to counter old stereotypes about his main characters, but cheerfully repeats those of other figures and nations, including Catherine of Aragon's "machiavellian" father and "the Spanish talent for turning sadism into spectacle." His tendency to modernize personalities gives Anne Boleyn more autonomy than seems plausible, making her the major formulator of policy in Henry's first divorce. Our understanding of Henry's rejection of Anne of Cleves, however, benefits from modern willingness to examine whether the king's inability to consummate the marriage led to the break. Caught between scholarly work and storytelling, the book gives us high drama at a languid pace, with overwhelming detail often slowing the narrative. For readers who are not put off, this is a strong, entertaining and occasionally audacious interpretation. 1   antimuzak | May 29, 2008 |  David Starkey is a Tudor historian who deeply gets into his subjects mindset. He very intricately takes you into the lives of each of Henry Vllls wives and into the intrigue of The Tudor court and its machinations. A truley good and interesting book for any fan of Englands Tudor history, or for reading the life story of any of Henry Vllls famous wives from Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Ferdinand and Queen Isabell of Spain, to the infamous Anne Boleyn who brought Henry to his knees and brought about the reformation of England each wife different in her own way. (  ) luckycharm6139 | Apr 22, 2008 | I put off starting the book because of its length but had a great interest in Henry VIII and his wives. I knew more about Anne Boleyn than the others but was fascinated with the information provided about Catherine of Aragon. What a remarkable woman! Once I got started, I finished the book in three days and plan to read it again. An amazing amount of information is laid out for you. The whole situation where Henry manages to finally rid himself of his first marriage is very lengthy but really shows the strong character of Catherine of Aragon and how politically savvy both she and Henry were. I'm very glad I was not the enemy of Henry or either of his first two queens. What a dangerous time to live. Don't be afraid of the heft of this book - it really is worth the read. (  ) unadillacats | Feb 21, 2008 | This is a great book from start to finish. I love the way David Starkey writes and he is thorough in his research. The largest sections of the book are dedicated to Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. However, Catherine Parr (Henry VIII's last wife) was short but very well written. This book definitely gives insight to the women Henry VIII married and what they did (or didn't do) to survive. His marriages (and their endings) are notorious and David Starkey writes about them expertly. I couldn't put it down. This book is a must read for anyone who is interested in Tudor England. If you liked this book, you should read his other book "Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne" ( ) Angelic55blonde | Aug 30, 2007 | A VERY detailed history of Henry VIII's six wives. I learned a lot and was interested, but this book took forever to read. It was 765 pp. and very arduous at times; I had to leave it and come back to it several times. (  ) bibliophile26 | Aug 11, 2007 |  no reviews | add a review
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| Book description |
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No one in history had a more eventful career in matrimony than Henry VIII. His marriages were daring and tumultuous, and made instant legends of six very different women. What could make him marry six times? In this remarkable new study, David Starkey argues that the king was not a depraved philanderer, but someone seeking happiness -- and a son. Knowingly or not, he empowered a group of women to extraordinary heights and changed the way a nation was governed.
Henry took his first bride, Catherine of Aragon, when he was seventeen. They lasted twenty-four years together, but Catherine suffered through many miscarriages and failed to produce a male heir. Henry then fell in love with Anne Boleyn, the mother of Elizabeth I. Their relationship transformed England forever, but Henry had Anne beheaded and married his next wife, Jane Seymour, on the very day of Anne's execution. At last, Seymour gave birth to Henry's longed-for son, Edward VI. What followed was a farcical beauty contest which ended in the King's brief marriage to the "mare of Flanders," Anne of Cleves. Finally, there were the two Catherines: Catherine Howard, the flirtatious teenager whose adulteries made a fool of the aging king and who was the second bride to lose her head; and Catherine Parr, the shrewd, religiously radical bluestocking who outlived him.
Six Wives is a masterful work of history that intimately examines the rituals of diplomacy, marriage, pregnancy and religion that were part of daily life for women at the Tudor Court. Weaving new facts and fresh interpretations into a spellbinding account of the emotional drama surrounding Henry's six marriages, David Starkey reveals the central role that the queens played in determining policy. With an equally keen eye for romantic and political intrigue, he brilliantly recaptures the story of Henry's wives and the England they ruled.
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:19 -0400)
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