The Six Wives of Henry VIII

Very interesting and thorough. Thorough parts might be fascinating for a scholar, too detailed for an easy read.

The incredible amount of research that went into this daunting volume is impressive, as is the way in which the author fits together the pieces of the story without excessive speculation or forays into into the realm of fiction and fantasy. The work is based upon an array of credible sources and rooted in fact, which is the way I prefer my history lessons served up. That said, I think it could have been an even more compelling read had some of the intricate and occasionally excessive details been left out. Much ink is spilled, particularly in the early chapters on Katherine of Aragon, on describing virtually every pageant, masque, ball or feast the royal couple attended or presided over. Outfits worn and portraits painted are described at some length, and as they are presented in more or less the same order for each wife, tend to give the book a plodding and predictable feel. For this reason I tend to agree with the Kirkus review on the perspective that facts can feel "piled on" . Oddly, Weir sees fit to include irrelevant, extraneous and ill placed details on the conditions of the corpses of Henry VIII (which is interjected at the end of the chapter on Jane Seymour, making it feel particularly out of place) and that of Katherine Parr, along with Anne Boylen's facial expressions after decapitation. One wonders what such facts lend to the overall story. Macabre details aside, the one thing I objected most to was a statement by Weir that the King's refusal to acknowledge Mary Boylen's son as his child should be taken as "conclusive proof" that Henry VIII was not his father. I almost tossed the book down at that point. Though it may be likely that the assumption is correct, given that he had no problem acknowledging his bastard son by another mistress and would have perhaps been all too pleased to once again demonstrate that he was capable of fathering a healthy son, I think most scholars would refrain from calling this conclusive evidence. A few other minor annoyances... there is occasionally a noticeable, sloppy repetition of facts in some sections, while in others Weir neglects to provide the reinforcement we need -- particularly in sorting out the identities of a confusing parade of Dukes, Duchesses, Earls or Ladies mentioned in passing in early chapters and then reintroduced later on without further hints as to their identity. Examples - we are told that the Privy Council kept the young King Edward VI short on funds at least three or four times within a few pages of each other; earlier, when Henry suspects Anne may have been responsible for death of the Duke of Richmond, there's a question on the readers mind as to who that is since it is only mentioned once considerably before this section that this was the title given to King's illegimiate son by an early mistress. A more thorough editing job should have eradicated these somewhat annoying yet minor issues. Last and most disappointing, the book fades out on a decidedly weak note with the details of the funeral of the one last surviving wife, and arguably the least interesting, Anne of Cleves. A mixed bag of engaging character development interspersed with suspenseful episodes and monotonous detail, the book is a must read for those who desire a highly detailed accounting of the lives of Henry VIII's wives. Though I have not read M. Loades book on the same subject, having skimmed a bit of it I would suggest this as an alternative to those who appreciate a much faster pace, written by a recognized expert on the subject who has spared much of what some might consider frivoulous details.

The first time I became aware of the Tudors was when I was in second grade and found in my school library a fiction children's book, written in the format of diary entries, and was purported as the childhood diary of King Henry VIII youngest daughter, Elizabeth. Being a seven year old little girl, I was fascinated by all things pertaining to royalty, especially that of the life of a Princess. I checked the book out and started reading it as soon as I got home. I finished it within a week and from that point on, the craving of knowledge of all things pertaining to England's monarchy, especially the Tudors, was planted in my head. That seed lay dormant in my subconscious for 14 years when, one night as I was watching TV, I saw a preview for a new show that was to premier on ShowTime a few months later. That show was The Tudors. After watching The Tudors from beginning to end, my interest in this most famous royal dynasty was reawakened, and I started researching and reading online everything I could find about them. Thus I came upon a plethora of non-fiction literature about them and I chose this book, Alison Weir's "The Six Wives of Henry VIII", to be my first to introduce me to this genre of literature...and this book did not disappoint. If you're as interested in the Tudor family as I am I highly recommend this book. It's a lengthy book but very much worth it to read. Weir presents the facts of these women's lives and her exhaustive research to tell the truth about them shows and, thankfully, the book flows smoothly as if reading a story instead of just being pages upon pages of facts presented in a boring essay format. This style of writing is what pulled me in at page 1 and kept me interested until the very last word; so interested, in fact, I regretted every time I had to put it down. I now look forward to reading more of Alison Weir's books about the Tudors, as well as other author's works about them. If you decide to read this book, you won't regret it.

This is a much-abridged version of the complete review as it appears (http://ianwoodnovellum.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-six-wives-of-henry-viii-by-alison.html">at my blog dedicated to reading, writing (no 'rithmatic!), movies, & TV. Spoiler alert! In the end, they all die! This book was very readable and painted a clear picture of these poor women who had to put up with this ruthless dick-head of a king. That said, a couple of the women were quite as ruthless as Henry himself was, and these were the ones he tended to behead. Katherine of Aragon, or to give her her much more beautiful Spanish name, Catalina de Aragón y Castilla was first in line, and her marriage was needed to cement a relationship with what we now call Spain, as a bulwark against the French. Of course at other times Henry would seek to marry into the French royal family to cement an alliance against Spain. it wasn't that long before Henry had become enamored of a scheming little vixen, one of the ladies-in-waiting, by the name of Anne Boleyn - who I used to feel sorry for, before I read this. Henry had of course already set his eyes on his third bride before Anne ever climbed those stairs, and Jane Seymour, only a few years younger than Anne, actually did provide him with a male heir, who was named Edward before going on to have a great acting career (I might have made-up that last bit). The truth was that she died within a week or two of Edward's birth. Enter Anna von Kleve, better known as Anne of Cleves. Anna went easiest of all, the marriage being annulled and she being treated and addressed as the King's sister, and living in comfort the rest of her life. She was not the longest lived of Henry's wives (that being Catalina), but she was the last to die. Catherine Howard and Anne Boleyn were first cousins, which makes it darkly interesting that these were the two he accused of of adultery and treason, and beheaded. Catherine failed to produce an heir, and really was (more than likely) guilty of adultery. The treason charge was simple trumped-up so they could behead her. An act of parliament made it a treasonable offense for a new queen to fail to disclose to the king, within twenty days of the marriage, a previous affair, and evidently this was retroactive. Catherine was nineteen when she was beheaded. Finally there arrived a queen who out-lived Henry while she was still queen. Catherine Parr was almost twice her predecessor's age and Henry was, at this point, perhaps marrying for comfort having given up on everything else. Catherine also married almost as many times as Henry did - four in all, including her last one in secret, just six months after Henry died. Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.

I cannot recommend this book strongly enough to anyone who's even slightly interested in the story of Henry VIII and his six wives. This is a gorgeous, cohesive book, easy to read and full of historical detail that enriches the story rather than overwhelms it. There were many times when I forgot I was reading non-fiction, the story was so cleanly presented. This is a far cry from the dry, confusing history lessons I had in high school. Weir makes these women (and the men around them) come back to life, warts and all. Normally reading a book like this, I'd need a flow chart to keep track of all the dukes, duchesses, ladies, lords and scheming religious zealots, but I had no trouble at all remembering who was who, even during the period where every woman was apparently named Katherine, Anne or Elizabeth. It was especially interesting to see how kind history has been to Anne Boleyn, a woman who may actually have been deserving of the executioner's axe. My one miniscule gripe (not enough to drop my review from 5 stars) is that once in a while, Weir puts the story ahead of the timeline and will insert details out of sequence. One example of that is that during a segment discussing the latter years of the marriage of Henry and Anne Boleyn, there's a short paragraph discussing a gift Anne gave to Henry early on in their relationship. There really wasn't any reason why that tidbit couldn't have been presented chronologically; the only thing I could think of was that perhaps the author didn't want to interrupt the narrative about the acrimony between Anne and Katherine of Aragon by tossing in the bit about the gift. There are about a half dozen or so instances like this, and while they don't at all disturb the flow of the book, they struck me as a little annoying given the meticulous detail to the timeline in every other instance. This is a truly masterful book; I plan on immediately purchasing Weir's other books in this genre.

As much as possible I suppose, this gives a fairly clear idea of what Henry started out as and aged into something quite different. Spends a lot of time talking about his "progresses" (travels) and a whole lot on living details, from carpets to wall hangings to all his homes and how they were appointed. He grew up wanting nothing more than to play, eat and have fun and turned into an untrusting, controlling, highly overweight sort of pathetic guy. The information on his wives was covered pretty well and was interesting. Amazing he could get anyone to marry him after he weighed 500 lbs and had executed 2 wives. Hmm It was written fairly well and kept me going to the end.

Can one every OD on books about the Tudors? Well, I thought the answer was "no," but after reading Alison Weir's book, I think I can put the Tudors on hold for a while. It's an excellent book, and certainly added to my knowledge of the period. But perhaps it gave me more information than I was able to absorb. A friend once told me that non-fiction writers need to appeal either to academics or to the general populace, but not both. In many cases I think that's true, but "The Six Wives..." is certainly accessible to the general reader while at the same time it provides the documentation, examples, and supporting information suitable for an academic treatise. Even though my grad school days have long since expired, I still have the tendency to plod through some books as a means of understanding every nuance, memorizing every fact, and confronting every argument. But I'm getting better, and in this case found myself, about half way through, simply trying to get a general sense of a paragraph or issue, then moving on. In recent times, I've read Peter Ackroyd's "The Tudors," and on the fiction side all the C.J. Sansom mysteries featuring Matthew Shardlake, covering England in the 1530s and 1540s; all rated 4 or more stars and are highly recommended. I'll even confess to watching "The Tudors" on TV. All these presentations contribute to a better understanding of what went on during that period - and even though facts were skewed in the TV series, it was interesting to see the elaborate costumes and be exposed to the ubiquitous intrigues. Alison Weir does a great job with all six wives. She certainly expanded my understanding of those women. For example, I hadn't before realized what a dreary, painful life Katherine of Argon lived - for the most part. Or how manipulative Anne Boleyn was. Another interesting aspect was how enamored Henry became of each of his wives (especially before he married them), and how quickly he usually lost interest in them - except his great passion for Jane Seymour. At the same time, I came to appreciate more fully how concerned Henry was about continuing the Tudor line, especially with a male, and how he felt the Tudors were on shaky ground in holding on to the throne. Although the upper crust during the Tudor era wore beautiful clothes, were catered to by numerous servants, and lived off the fat (such as it was) of the land, I would not have enjoyed living during that time. Amenities were sparse, but the main drawback was living in constant fear of falling out of favor, being carted off to the Tower, and horribly executed. Not the most relaxing way to live one's life.

I love Alison Weir's Tudor books. I am about to finish my second history degree and love to read Weir's book as a break from the stuffy textbooks I sometime have to read. Her style of writing brings the characters life for me. But as a history major I know that a great deal of weir's book is conjecture. That's not to say its wrong. In fact I am extremely impressed with the amount of research that has gone into this book. But history to some extent is a guessing game. Yes we know the dates and events that took place but those are just the bare bones of the skeleton of the past. To add meat to the bones so to speak requires some educated guesses about the motives, thoughts, and feelings of those involved. This is what Ms. Weir does quite extensively in this book. She uses her historical research to make educated guesses as to the thoughts and feelings of those in the Tudor court and I personally don't begrudge her for it as most of her conclusions are historically sound. Also I have noticed some reviewers commenting on the amount of detail and time spent on Henry's first two wives in comparison to the latter three. This is due to the wealth of historical data about Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn that still exists. Sadly there is surprisingly little information on his other wives. This of course is no fault of the writer and considering this I believe she did a commendable job. Over all I think this book is a must read for anyone interested in Tudor or British history.