Cover of Mary Tudor: A Life

Mary Tudor: A Life

Few English monarchs have a worse reputation than Mary Tudor. She has been seen both as a religious fanatic who tried against the will of her people to reverse the course of the Reformation and as the pawn of her husband, Philip II of Spain - her infatuation with whom led her to betray England's vital interests.

Read more

How this pious, and by contemporary accounts, gentle woman aroused an antipathy that survives until the present is a central question in David Loades's sensitive biography, now in paperback. Based on research into the documents of the time (many newly uncovered) the compelling story of Mary's life is revealed here in unprecedented detail and depth, packed with incident and intrigue, and enmeshed in the politics of secular and religious struggle in England and Europe.

Audience
adult
Length
long · 460 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked Mary Tudor: A Life? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Mary Tudor: A Life. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Mary Tudor: The Spanish Tudor Shares tudors, history, Tudor
  2. House of Treason: The Rise and Fall of a Tudor Dynasty Shares nonfiction, Tudor, history
  3. Tudor Women: Queens & Commoners Shares tudors, nonfiction, Tudor
  4. Henry VIII: Man and Monarch Shares nonfiction, tudors, history

“People who read Mary Tudor: A Life tend to reach for these next.”

  1. Two Queens in One Isle
  2. The Tudors
  3. Catherine Parr
  4. Catherine of Aragon

“If you want more of the same (history), start with these.”

  1. Jane Boleyn: The True Story of the Infamous Lady Rochford
  2. The First Elizabeth
  3. The Sisters Who Would Be Queen
  4. The Other Tudors: Henry VIII's Mistresses and Bastards

“If it was the tudors that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown
  2. Elizabeth's Women: Friends, Rivals, and Foes Who Shaped the Virgin Queen
  3. The Mistresses of Henry VIII
  4. Anne of Cleves: Henry VIII's Discarded Bride

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. On Being a Muslim: Finding a Religious Path in the World Today
  2. Imprudent King: A New Life of Philip II
  3. Juan Carlos: Steering Spain from Dictatorship to Democracy
  4. Queen Elizabeth I