Tudor: Passion. Manipulation. Murder. The Story of England's Most Notorious Royal Family - Couverture souple

Leanda de Lisle reveals such hidden depths in the vivid history of England's most famous dynasty” The American Conservative
Deeply researched but vibrantly accessible.” Wall Street Journal

Leanda de Lisle has the gift of reminding us that history is the story of real people; real men, real women, full of rage and ambition and lust and hope and love. The Tudors are already our most vivid dynasty, by quite a long chalk, but these pages render them more vivid still. This was an age when the game was worth the candle, when a chance remark could result in a crown or the axe. Wonderful, passionate, dangerous, fascinating stuff. I couldn't put it down.” Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey

This fresh take on the Tudor dynasty is history at its best an engaging and well-sourced account, sprinkled with provocative anecdotes that will appeal to both scholars and general readers This compelling tale is driven by three-dimensional people and relationships, and de Lisle does a fantastic job of making them feel lived and dramatic. ” Publishers Weekly, starred

A reliable and amply researched guide.” Kirkus Reviews

Enjoyable, well-written De Lisle examines the key events and characters that make the Tudor story interesting This is a very well-done popular history ideal for general readers.” Booklist

Six centuries after they began, the Tudors are still England's most famous family. Their story is told in full in Leanda de Lisle's Tudor, a wonderfully fluent portrait of five generations that connects the often overlooked fifteenth century Tudors with the more famous stuff. In bridging this divide, de Lisle brings an entirely fresh feel to the Tudor story, reminding us of the one thing the monarchs themselves wanted us to forget: the sheer improbability of their royal rule.” The Times (London)

Europe has produced no family saga that could match the Tudors. Rarely has that story been so well told as here.” The Mail

De Lisle's masterful command of the facts great and small provides a complete and entertaining overview.” The Guardian

Sunday Times bestseller

A Telegraph Book of the Year

A History Today Book of the Year

A BBC History Magazine Book of the Year

The Tudors are a national obsession; they are our most notorious royal family. But, as Leanda de Lisle shows in this gripping new history, beyond the well-worn headlines is a family still more extraordinary than the one we thought we knew.

The Tudor canon typically starts with the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, before speeding on to Henry VIII and the Reformation. But this leaves out the family's obscure Welsh origins, the ordinary man known as Owen Tudor who would fall (literally) into a Queen's lap, and later her bed. It passes by the courage of Margaret Beaufort, the pregnant thirteen-year-old girl who would help found the Tudor dynasty; and the childhood and painful exile of her son, the future Henry VII. It ignores the fact that the Tudors were shaped by their past - those parts they wished to remember and those they wished to forget.

By creating a full family portrait set against the background of this past, Leanda de Lisle enables us to see the Tudors in their own terms, rather than ours; and presents new perspectives and revelations on key figures and events. We see a family dominated by remarkable women doing everything possible to secure its future; understand why the Princes in the Tower were disappeared; look again at the bloodiness of Mary's reign; at Elizabeth's relationships with her cousins; and re-discover the true significance of previously overlooked figures. We see the supreme importance of achieving peace and stability in a violent and uncertain world, and of protecting and securing the bloodline.

Tudor tells a family story like no other, and brings it once more to vivid life.