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Every week Tanzanite features upcoming historical fiction and history related non-fiction books that have come to her attention and may be of interest to others. Since she has an out of control TBR pile, so should everyone else!
From The New York Times bestselling author of The Last Wife of Henry VIII comes a powerful and moving novel about Jane Seymour, third wife of Henry VIII, who married him only days after the execution of Anne Boleyn and ultimately lost her own life in giving him the son he badly needed to guarantee the Tudor succession
Born into an ambitious noble family, young Jane Seymour is sent to Court as a Maid of Honor to Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII’s aging queen. She is devoted to her mistress and watches with empathy as the calculating Anne Boleyn contrives to supplant her as queen. Anne’s single-minded intriguing threatens all who stand in her way; she does not hesitate to arrange the murder of a woman who knows a secret so dark that, if revealed, would make it impossible for the king to marry Anne.
Once Anne becomes queen, no one at court is safe, and Jane herself becomes the object of Anne’s venomous rage when she suspects Jane has become the object of the king’s lust. Henry, fearing that Anne’s inability to give him a son is a sign of divine wrath, asks Jane to become his next queen. Deeply reluctant to embark on such a dangerous course, Jane must choose between her heart and her loyalty to the king.
Acclaimed biographer and bestselling novelist Carolly Erickson weaves another of her irresistible historical entertainments about the queen who finally gave Henry VIII his longed for heir, set against the excitement and danger of the Tudor Court.
The story of Anne Boleyn's early life, told in detail for the first time. Anne Boleyn is perhaps the most engaging of Henry VIII's Queens. For her he would divorce his wife of some twenty years standing, he would take on the might of the Roman Church and the Holy Roman Empire; he would even alienate his own people in order to win her favour and, eventually, her hand. But before Henry came into her life Anne Boleyn had already wandered down love's winding path. She had learned its twists and turns during her youth spent at the courts of the Low Countries and France, where she had been sent as a result of her scandalous behaviour with her father's butler and chaplain. Here her education had been directed by two of the strongest women of the age - and one of the weakest.
The King's Diamond by Will Whitaker. UK release July 21, 2011. (reposted with cover).
A vivid, evocative, page-turning read that leaps off the page, with a dazzling recreation of the Renaissance diamond and gem trade.
As the chaos of war spreads out across Europe, Charles V extends his empire in a series of ruthless and aggressive moves. The Medici Pope has formed an alliance to drive Charles out of Italy for good. Only England holds aloof from the great struggle that is to come. The 36-year-old Henry VIII presides over an opulent and glamorous court, thinking only of the woman with whom he has fallen in love.
In the midst of this politically sensitive and dangerous world, steps Richard Dansey, a young and ambitious jewel merchant, determined to break his mother’s stranglehold on the family firm after his father’s early death. Richard’s reckless pursuit of jewels worthy of Henry’s wooing of Anne Boleyn, lead him across Europe to Venice and Rome. Obsessed with one diamond, but dangerously distracted by love, Richard finds himself thrust into the heart of the murderous politics of the Tudor court.
The Boleyns: The Rise and Fall of a Tudor Family by David Loades. Non-fiction. UK release August 1, 2011.
A magnificent tale of family rivalry and intrigue set against Henry VIII's court. The fall of Anne Boleyn and her brother George is the classic drama of the Tudor era. The Boleyns had long been an influential English family. Sir Edward Boleyn had been Lord Mayor of London. His grandson, Sir Thomas had inherited wealth and position, and through the sexual adventures of his daughters, Mary and Anne, ascended to the peak of influence at court. The three Boleyn children formed a faction of their own, making many enemies: and when those enemies secured Henry VIII's ear, they brought down the entire family in blood and disgrace. George, Lord Rochfort, left no children. Mary left a son by her husband, William Carey - Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon. Anne left a daughter, Elizabeth I - so like her in many ways and a sexual politician without rival.
Catherine of Aragon: A Life by Patrick Williams. Non-fiction. UK release August 15, 2011.
The tragic story of Henry VIII's first unfortunate wife. Catherine of Aragon was a central figure in one of the most dramatic and formative events of Tudor history - England's breach with Rome after a thousand years of fidelity. She lived through traumatic and revolutionary times and her personal drama was played out against dramas of global significance. The heroic and dignified first wife of Henry VIII who was cast aside for reasons of dynastic ambition, but who resolutely and unbendingly stuck to her principles and her dignity at enormous cost to herself. Catherine's story tells so much about the exercise of power, and about being married to a lover who became - slowly but perceptibly - a tyrant in public life and a monster in his private affairs. Professor Patrick Williams has been immersed in Spanish history for over thirty years and his monumental new biography - the first to make full use of the Spanish Royal Archives - is the result, and presents a very different portrait of Catherine.
I sincerely hope that Carolly Erickson's novel about Jane Seymour is more enjoyable than the one she wrote about Lettice Knollys. I'm afraid I still adore My Enemy, the Queen.
April 26, 2011 10:19 AM