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Good Primer but Lacking Some Essentials

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Alison Weir has already demonstrated her suberb ability to tell a good story in other works on the Tudor Period. This work is no exception. Ms. Weir provides the reader with a detailed examination of Henry VIII's life and the court organization through which he exercised power. In fact she almost drives one crazy with a plethora of details on the organization and functions of various officers and chambers within Henry's royal court. This is a subject that has not always received the detailed attention she gives it and that it well deserves, especially in light of the fact that Henry was the English monarch who came closest to exercising something like an absolute monarchy in English history. Ms. Weir also demonstrates her excellent sense of judgment with respect to various primary and secondary sources. This trait is most apparent when she dispels certain popular but inaccurate myths about Henry VIII and other personalities of the period that have been given far more credence by some historians than such myths deserve. The reason I only give this work four stars is that while it makes for great story telling and demonstrates Ms. Weir's command of the subject matter, it lacks analytical depth, especially in regards to the extraordinary religious, political, social and economic changes that were occuring at the time in England. In short, Alison Weir provides good, well structured and written popular history but here she fails to provide the kind of scholarly work that may be more attractive to historians and readers already familiar with the period's seminal events and characters.

Estimable essay on the era of Henry VIII

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In one sense, I am at a disadvantage in assessing this volume. I am not an historian of this era, so I cannot confidently judge well the accuracy of Alison Weir's rendering of events and people. I have, of course, read other works dealing with this period, and I'm not sure that my understanding of them would contradict her major points.

That said, I am most impressed with this work. The author covers many aspects of English history--including day-to-day life--of the time. We read of medical practice (ugh), music, art, architecture, customs, drama, clothing, sports (e.g., hunting, archery, tennis, jousting, and so on), the internecine politics (when losers could lose their lives; politics was serious business), and the relationships among families in England of the era. This book is as much about the country at that time as about Henry VIII.

Henry VIII is portrayed in great detail. This is not a Charles Laughton view of the king. It is much more nuanced. It is true that, if Weir be correct, Henry became more rigid and unforgiving and vain and distrusting and autocratic as he aged. He drove England close to financial ruin with his wars (which often had little effect, even though costing much) and with his incessant building projects (his own palaces as one key example).But this should not detract from other of his accomplishments. He supported the arts; he was one of the more educated and intellectually oriented monarchs of the time. It may be that Weir romanticizes him to some extent, and that ought to be noted. But his was not simply a dissipated period in English history.

Of course, many would wonder about his rendering of the multitudinous wives of the monarch. Weir does spend time on this part of his life, including the Machiavellian politics associated with Henry's marriages (factions would use potential wives as pawns in power struggles). Weir's assessments of the various wives are pretty fair. We might be surprised to know of his affection for Katherine of Aragon; it is fascinating to watch the pas de deux between Anne Boleyn and Henry before their wedding; and so on.

Then, the descriptions of the hard ball politics of the era--featuring actors such as Wolsey, Cromwell, More, Cranmer, and the nobles of the time.

All in all, an accessible and very readable work on Henry VIII and his time. I'd strongly recommend. . . .

Thorough Henry...

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Henry VIII is one of those books that you cannot put down. Very thorough with a lot of specifics but never tiring. Excellent work!!!

The Real Henry VIII

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I have read all of Phillipa Gregory's books about the Tudors and have also read Allison Weir's fiction, The Lady Elizabeth and wanted to know more historical facts about this period and this book has them. What they ate, drank, wore, and played is all here backed up by thorough research. If this period interests you buy this book.

A Matter of Personal Taste

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A few months ago while in the airport and not comfortable with flying in general, I picked up a book called The Boyeln Inheritance, which stated it was by the same author as The Other Boyeln Girl, a movie that looked interesting but I hadn't had a chance to see yet but had wanted to. So I bought it to pass the time on the plane.

Wow! Since then I've been so wishing I had been able to focus more on history in high school and have been in this web and book search ever since about the Tudor times.

That's when I came across this book. The background I've given you is to let you know I'm a novice to this part of history, so that's where my perspective comes in this review.

Like another reviewer said, the beginning is "choppy" but only in the sense that the author is trying to paint a picture of the various day-to-day aspects, decor, food, dress, etc of people who lived back then. Each short chapter is devoted to a different thing, and in great detail. If you're into what they dressed then you'll love that chapter, and if you're not into the art, then you'll find that a bit dry. Most of them I found personally interesting, but even in those it was hard to get a picture in my mind of some of the more minute details, because I am still a novice at this and I didn't know what the words meant. But I also didn't expect the author to explain to my level--she has put in plenty of detail as it was, and the random thing I wasn't familiar with I could look up on the net.

Nonethess, the author herself said in the beginning of the book that the first bit is more descriptive, and the rest goes into the narrative as to what happened, just as that reviewer said as well.

And it definately does! It starts to read like a novel, although it is interspersed with some paragraphs of detail which are "dry" if that's not a part of it that you are personally interested in. It was a little hard keeping up with calling someone their proper name and then their title name (i.e. Duke of Norfolk = Thomas Howard = Norfolk), especially when people changed titles, but I think that's more due to the times then the author--they seemed to be called by their title moreso than their actual name. (Again, I'm new to all this.)

As to the reviewer that said this book contains some of the same info as her other books--that's understandable to me. You don't know who already read which book, so you have to lay a foundation. It's not a "series". This having been the first book I read by her, I was delighted for the info.

Overall, the amount of info is astonishing, especially if you're new to this time period in history, but it's not overwhelming, and if I were more familiar with the "characters", it would be easier. I found myself going to the index once in awhile to refresh my memory on "who is this guy again?" but it was easily doable. It's not the author's fault there were so many colorful characters during this time period in particular...LOL!

I just finished the book today, and started looking up some of the people in it on the internet to see what happened next, and then arrived here to see what other books Ms. Weir has. She has made me look forward to learning more!