📖 Publication Day Book Review ~ Katharine Parr: The Sixth Wife by Alison Weir

 

Headline Review
13 May 2021

Six Tudor Queens #6 

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book 
and the opportunity to complete the series

Two husbands dead; a life marred by sadness. And now Katharine is in love for the first time in her life.

The eye of an ageing and dangerous king falls upon her. She cannot refuse him. She must stifle her feelings and never betray that she wanted another.

And now she is the sixth wife. Her queenship is a holy mission yet, fearfully, she dreams of the tragic parade of women who went before her. She cherishes the secret beliefs that could send her to the fire. And still the King loves and trusts her.

Now her enemies are closing in. She must fight for her very life.

KATHARINE PARR – the last of Henry’s queens.

Alison Weir recounts the extraordinary story of a woman forced into a perilous situation and rising heroically to the challenge. Katharine is a delightful woman, a warm and kindly heroine – and yet she will be betrayed by those she loves and trusts most. Too late, the truth will dawn on her.

📖 My Thoughts..

I've followed this series of historical novels, which chronicle the lives of the six wives of Henry VIII, from the first book, and whilst we think we know all there is to know about these ill fated wives, every author, who writes about them, gives us something a little bit different. Such is the case with this book about Katharine Parr the last of Henry's Queens and the only one of two wives to outlive him, although it must be said that Anne of Cleves, Henry's fourth wife, survived him by a mere six months.

In Katharine Parr : The Sixth Wife, the author brings to life the character of this fiercely intelligent Queen, whose interest in the new religion would almost bring about her downfall. Katharine has already been widowed twice when she catches the eye of the King, and whilst her previous two marriages have brought her a modicum of contentment, and some security, Katharine has never experienced the giddy excitement of being in love. By a cruel quirk of fate she meets, Thomas Seymour, the man who makes her heart beat faster just weeks before the King, entranced by Katharine's kind and caring nature, asks her to be his wife and, as it turns out, the last Queen Consort of Tudor England. 

Marriage to the irascible, and capricious, English King was no bed of roses but with Katharine's compassionate nature and her ability to bring out the best in people she set about creating a stable environment for Henry's children, and Katharine's ability to cajole and comfort the aging King was to her credit. However, the Tudor court is a fickle place and there are always shadowy people who seek to do harm.

Beautifully written and impeccably researched this last book in this wonderful series is every bit as good as I knew it would be. Tudor England shines brightly and the complicated process of social climbing, with advantageous marriages being made, and broken, comes alive in the imagination. I especially enjoyed reading of Katharine's early years spent at Rye House with her aunt and uncle whilst her widowed mother made her way at the royal court, and of Katharine's subsequent ill-fated first marriage which took her into the north of England and set her on the path of destiny. Regardless of how her life ended there is something quite poignant about Katharine's short life, that, after three dutiful marriages of convenience, she eventually found a brief moment of happiness with a man of her own choosing.

 

I'm really sad to see the conclusion of this wonderful series of Tudor Queen novels. Each book has been such an absolute joy to read and has brought one of Henry's six wives to life in a meaningful and very readable way. Each novel has been a fascinating insight into the lives of six very different women who lived their eventful and short lives in the full glare of Tudor politics.

About the Author

Alison Weir is the top selling female historian in the UK and has sold over 3 million books worldwide, She has published nineteen history books including her most recent, Queens of the Crusades, the second in her England's Medieval Queen's quartet.

Katharine Parr; The Sixth Wife is Alison Weir's eleventh published novel and the final book in the Six Tudor Queens series about the wives of Henry VIII which was launched in 2016. All five previous novels in the series were Sunday Times bestsellers.

Twitter @AlisonWeirBooks #SixTudorQueens

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Review ~ Anna of Kleve : Queen of Secrets by Alison Weir

Anna of Kleve : Queen of Secrets is published May 2nd 2019 by Headline Review 

Headline
2 May 2019

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

Bestselling author and acclaimed historian Alison Weir tells the little-known story of Henry VIII’s fourth wife, as a grieving king chooses a bride sight unseen in the fourth novel in the epic and intrigue-filled Six Tudor Queens series.

Newly widowed and the father of an infant son, Henry VIII realizes he must marry again to insure the royal succession. Now forty-six, overweight and unwell, Henry is soundly rejected by some of Europe’s most eligible princesses, but Anna of Kleve—a small German duchy—is twenty-four and eager to wed. Henry requests Anna’s portrait from his court painter, who enhances her looks, painting her straight-on in order not to emphasize her rather long nose. Henry is entranced by the lovely image, only to be bitterly surprised when Anna arrives in England and he sees her in the flesh. She is pleasant looking, just not the lady that Henry had expected.

What follows is a fascinating story of this awkward royal union that had to somehow be terminated tactfully. Alison Weir takes a fresh and surprising look at this remarkable royal marriage by describing it from the point of view of Queen Anna, a young woman with hopes and dreams of her own, alone in a royal court that rejected her from the day she arrived.

My thoughts..

This is the eagerly expected fourth volume of Alison Weir's epic series of novels about the six wives of Henry VIII. Anna of Kleve is perhaps the least well known of Henry's Queens as she was neither as sexy, nor as tragic, as his other spouses.

Any woman who accepted marriage to Henry VIII did so, in the knowledge of what had happened to her predecessors and I think the author shows the natural reticence of Anna of Kleve, especially in the way that she was manipulated by the men in her life, and yet, with an almost quiet determination, she succeeds where Henry's other Queens sadly didn't.

Realising the royal marriage wasn't working Anna was canny enough to understand that in order to keep her head and maintain a comfortable lifestyle she needed to submit to Henry's demands for a divorce. Of course, it wasn't all as straightforward as that and this book goes into intricate detail about Anna's life, from her young adulthood, at home in Kleve, to her short time as Henry's wife and her subsequent bizarre relationship as the king's 'beloved sister'.

As always the author writes with great authority and uses her considerable knowledge of the Tudor period in order to bring this enigmatic woman to life in a very believable way. The  hint of scandal in Anna's past, which the author alludes to,  is one that I wasn't overly familiar with, however, the author puts forward a very interesting interpretation of Anna's life which I found entirely plausible.

This has been such a fabulous series so far, and I think that this fictional version of Anna of Kleve's life has been absolutely fascinating. Her ability to survive and thrive and yet, always to keep on Henry's good side makes for compelling reading.

I have enjoyed this series about the first four wives of Henry VIII, and I'm already looking forward to reading of the life of, perhaps, Henry's most duplicitous Queen, Katheryn Howard.

About the Author

Alison Weir is the top-selling female historian (and the fifth-bestselling historian overall) in the United Kingdom, and has sold over 2.7 million books worldwide. She has published eighteen history books, including her most recent non-fiction book, Queens of the Conquest, the first in her England’s Medieval Queens quartet. Alison has also published several historical novels, including Innocent Traitor and The Lady Elizabeth. Anna of Kleve: Queen of Secrets is Alison Weir’s ninth published novel and the fourth in the Six Tudor Queens series about the wives of Henry VIII, which was launched in 2016 to great critical acclaim. The first three books in the series – Katherine of Aragon: The True Queen, Anne Boleyn: A King’s Obsession and Jane Seymour: The Haunted Queen were all Sunday Times bestsellers. Alison is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an honorary life patron of Historic Royal Palaces.

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Anna of Kleve : Queen of Secrets is published May 2nd 2019 by Headline Review 

Amazon UK

Review ~ In the Footsteps of the Wives of Henry VIII by Sarah Morris and Natalie Grueninger

Amberley Books

July 2017

In the Footsteps of the Six Wives of Henry VIII: The visitor’s companion to the palaces, castles houses associated with Henry VIII’s iconic queens.

It's such a refreshing change to read something different about the six wives of Henry VIII. So much has been written about them both individually and collectively that sometimes I feel that there is nothing more to discover about any of them. 

And then along comes .. In the Footsteps of the Wives... which delighted me in a different sort of way. I was thrilled to learn something new, with the added bonus of also being able to picture the wives 'in situ' at their various residences. From the sunshine gardens of the Alhambra Palace in Spain, the childhood home of Katherine of Aragon, through to the cold of Gainsborough Old Hall in Lincolnshire, once the home of Katherine Parr, the book takes us on a real journey of discovery. Also stopping off at Hever Castle in Kent, Wolfhall in Wiltshire and the Schloss Dussefdorf in Germany and points in between, the book is imaginatively and professionally developed so that each individual journey becomes one of discovery.

The book is easy to navigate which is an added bonus if, like me, you tend to dip in and out of factual books. There's a good index of contents which makes it easy to locate whichever wife you have a fancy to follow and a series of clear maps helps to put them in their place.The illustrations both colour and black and white give added depth and help to place the locations in context. There are also some important visitor details so that if you have an interest in visiting any of the residences, and places of interest, you can find out more by following links to websites and using the necessary post codes.

The book is very much more than just a collection of historic houses and castles, it also gives an interesting and concise history of each Queen, so that if you don't know too much about the six wives, then there is more than enough information to get you started.

If you like Tudor history and visiting the sites of Tudor castles and palaces, and also have a fascination for the six wives of Henry VIII, then I'm sure you'll enjoy this one as much as I did.

About the Authors

Sarah Morris runs the website www.anneboleynbook.co.uk dedicated to her non-fiction and fiction writing about England’s most famous queen consort.

Natalie Grueninger is a researcher, writer and educator, and founder of www.onthetudortrail.com, a site about Anne Boleyn and Tudor England.

My thanks to Philip at Amberley Books for my copy of 

 In the Footsteps of the Wives of Henry VIII

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