Alison Weir Books In Order

Six Tudor Queens Books In Publication Order

  1. Katherine of Aragon, The True Queen (2016)
  2. Anne Boleyn, A King’s Obsession (2017)
  3. Jane Seymour, The Haunted Queen (2018)
  4. Anna of Kleve, The Princess in the Portrait (2019)
  5. Katheryn Howard, The Scandalous Queen (2020)
  6. Katharine Parr, The Sixth Wife (2021)

Elizabeth I Books In Publication Order

  1. The Lady Elizabeth (2008)
  2. The Marriage Game (2014)

England’s Medieval Queens Books In Publication Order

  1. Queens of the Conquest (2017)
  2. Queens of the Crusades (2021)

Standalone Novels In Publication Order

  1. Innocent Traitor (2006)
  2. Captive Queen (2010)
  3. A Dangerous Inheritance (2012)

Short Stories/Novellas In Publication Order

  1. Traitors of the Tower (2010)

Non-Fiction Books In Publication Order

  1. Britain’s Royal Families (1989)
  2. The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1991)
  3. The Princes in the Tower (1992)
  4. The Wars of the Roses (1995)
  5. The Children of Henry VIII (1996)
  6. The Life of Elizabeth I (1998)
  7. Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life (1999)
  8. Henry VIII: The King and His Court (2001)
  9. Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Murder of Lord Darnley (2003)
  10. Isabella: She-Wolf of France, Queen of England (2005)
  11. Katherine Swynford / Mistress of the Monarchy (2009)
  12. The Lady in the Tower (2009)
  13. The Ring and the Crown (With: Kate Williams,Sarah Gristwood,Tracy Borman) (2011)
  14. Mary Boleyn (2011)
  15. Elizabeth of York (2013)
  16. Richard III and the Princes in the Tower (2014)
  17. The Lost Tudor Princess (2016)
  18. A Tudor Christmas (2018)

Six Tudor Queens Book Covers

Elizabeth I Book Covers

England’s Medieval Queens Book Covers

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Short Stories/Novellas Book Covers

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Alison Weir Books Overview

The Lady Elizabeth

Following the tremendous success of her first novel, Innocent Traitor, which recounted the riveting tale of the doomed Lady Jane Grey, acclaimed historian and New York Times bestselling author Alison Weir turns her masterly storytelling skills to the early life of young Elizabeth Tudor, who would grow up to become England’s most intriguing and powerful queen. Even at age two, Elizabeth is keenly aware that people in the court of her father, King Henry VIII, have stopped referring to her as Lady Princess and now call her The Lady Elizabeth. Before she is three, she learns of the tragic fate that has befallen her mother, the enigmatic and seductive Anne Boleyn, and that she herself has been declared illegitimate, an injustice that will haunt her. What comes next is a succession of stepmothers, bringing with them glimpses of love, fleeting security, tempestuous conflict, and tragedy. The death of her father puts the teenage Elizabeth in greater peril, leaving her at the mercy of ambitious and unscrupulous men. Like her mother two decades earlier she is imprisoned in the Tower of London and fears she will also meet her mother s grisly end. Power driven politics, private scandal and public gossip, a disputed succession, and the grievous example of her sister, Bloody Queen Mary, all cement Elizabeth s resolve in matters of statecraft and love, and set the stage for her transformation into the iconic Virgin Queen. Alison Weir uses her deft talents as historian and novelist to exquisitely and suspensefully play out the conflicts between family, politics, religion, and conscience that came to define an age. Sweeping in scope, The Lady Elizabeth is a fascinating portrayal of a woman far ahead of her time an orphaned girl haunted by the shadow of the axe, an independent spirit who must use her cunning and wits for her very survival, and a future queen whose dangerous and dramatic path to the throne shapes her future greatness. From the Hardcover edition.

Innocent Traitor

I am now a condemned traitor…
I am to die when I have hardly begun to live.

Historical expertise marries page turning fiction in Alison Weir’s enthralling debut novel, breathing new life into one of the most significant and tumultuous periods of the English monarchy. It is the story of Lady Jane Grey the Nine Days Queen a fifteen year old girl who unwittingly finds herself at the center of the religious and civil unrest that nearly toppled the fabled House of Tudor during the sixteenth century.

The child of a scheming father and a ruthless mother, for whom she is merely a pawn in a dynastic game with the highest stakes, Jane Grey was born during the harrowingly turbulent period between Anne Boleyn s beheading and the demise of Jane s infamous great uncle, King Henry VIII. With the premature passing of Jane s adolescent cousin, and Henry s successor, King Edward VI, comes a struggle for supremacy fueled by political machinations and lethal religious fervor.

Unabashedly honest and exceptionally intelligent, Jane possesses a sound strength of character beyond her years that equips her to weather the vicious storm. And though she has no ambitions to rule, preferring to immerse herself in books and religious studies, she is forced to accept the crown, and by so doing sets off a firestorm of intrigue, betrayal, and tragedy.

Alison Weir uses her unmatched skills as a historian to enliven the many dynamic characters of this majestic drama. Along with Lady Jane Grey, Weir vividly renders her devious parents; her much loved nanny; the benevolent Queen Katherine Parr; Jane s ambitious cousins; the Catholic Bloody Mary, who will stop at nothing to seize the throne; and the protestant and future queen Elizabeth. Readers venture inside royal drawing rooms and bedchambers to witness the power grabbing that swirls around Lady Jane Grey from the day of her birth to her unbearably poignant death. Innocent Traitor paints a complete and compelling portrait of this captivating young woman, a faithful servant of God whose short reign and brief life would make her a legend.

An impressive debut. Weir shows skill at plotting and maintaining tension, and she is clearly going to be a major player in the…
historical fiction game.
The Independent

Alison Weir is one of our greatest popular historians. In her first work of fiction…
Weir manages her hero*ine s voice brilliantly, respecting the past s distance while conjuring a dignified and fiercely modern spirit.
London Daily Mail

Captive Queen

Having proven herself a gifted and engaging novelist with her portrayals of Queen Elizabeth I in The Lady Elizabeth and Lady Jane Grey in Innocent Traitor, New York Times bestselling author Alison Weir now harks back to the twelfth century with a sensuous and tempestuous tale that brings vividly to life England’s most passionate and destructive royal couple: Eleanor of Aquitaine and King Henry II. Nearing her thirtieth birthday, Eleanor has spent the past dozen frustrating years as consort to the pious King Louis VII of France. For all its political advantages, the marriage has brought Eleanor only increasing unhappiness and daughters instead of the hoped for male heir. But when the young and dynamic Henry of Anjou arrives at the French court, Eleanor sees a way out of her discontent. For even as their eyes meet for the first time, the seductive Eleanor and the virile Henry know that theirs is a passion that could ignite the world. Returning to her duchy of Aquitaine after the annulment of her marriage to Louis, Eleanor immediately sends for Henry, the future King of England, to come and marry her. The union of this royal couple will create a vast empire that stretches from the Scottish border to the Pyrenees, and marks the beginning of the celebrated Plantagenet dynasty. But Henry and Eleanor s marriage, charged with physical heat, begins a fiery downward spiral marred by power struggles, betrayals, bitter rivalries, and a devil s brood of young Plantagenets including Richard the Lionheart and the future King John. Early on, Eleanor must endure Henry s formidable mother, the Empress Matilda, as well as his infidelities, while in later years, Henry s friendship with Thomas Becket will lead to a deadly rivalry. Eventually, as the couple s rebellious sons grow impatient for power, the scene is set for a vicious and tragic conflict that will engulf both Eleanor and Henry. Vivid in detail, epic in scope, Captive Queen is an astounding and brilliantly wrought historical novel that encompas*ses the building of an empire and the monumental story of a royal marriage.

Traitors of the Tower

Nearly five hundred years after her violent death, Anne Boleyn, second wife to Henry VIII, remains one of the world’s most fascinating, controversial, and tragic hero*ines. Now acclaimed historian and bestselling author Alison Weir has drawn on myriad sources from the Tudor era to give us the first book that examines, in unprecedented depth, the gripping, dark, and chilling story of Anne Boleyn’s final days. The tempestuous love affair between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn scandalized Christendom and altered forever the religious landscape of England. Anne’s ascent from private gentlewoman to queen was astonishing, but equally compelling was her shockingly swift downfall. Charged with high treason and imprisoned in the Tower of London in May 1536, Anne met her terrible end all the while protesting her innocence. There remains, however, much mystery surrounding the queen’s arrest and the events leading up to it: Were charges against her fabricated because she stood in the way of Henry VIII making a third marriage and siring an heir, or was she the victim of a more complex plot fueled by court politics and deadly rivalry? The Lady in the Tower examines in engrossing detail the motives and intrigues of those who helped to seal the queen’s fate. Weir unravels the tragic tale of Anne’s fall, from her miscarriage of the son who would have saved her to the horrors of her incarceration and that final, dramatic scene on the scaffold. What emerges is an extraordinary portrayal of a woman of great courage whose enemies were bent on utterly destroying her, and who was tested to the extreme by the terrible plight in which she found herself. Richly researched and utterly captivating, The Lady in the Tower presents the full array of evidence of Anne Boleyn’s guilt or innocence. Only in Alison Weir’s capable hands can readers learn the truth about the fate of one of the most influential and important women in English history.

Britain’s Royal Families

A unique book on Britain’s Royal Families by this well established popular historian. Britain s Royal Families is a unique reference book providing, for the first time in one volume, complete genealogical details of all members of the royal houses of England, Scotland and Great Britain from 800AD to the present. Drawing on countless authorities, both ancient and modern, Alison Weir explores the royal family tree in unprecedented depth and provides a comprehensive guide to the heritage of today s royal family.

The Six Wives of Henry VIII

The tempestuous, bloody, and splendid reign of Henry VIII of England 1509 1547 is one of the most fascinating in all history, not least for his marriage to six extraordinary women. In this accessible work of brilliant scholarship, Alison Weir draws on early biographies, letters, memoirs, account books, and diplomatic reports to bring these women to life. Catherine of Aragon emerges as a staunch though misguided woman of principle; Anne Boleyn, an ambitious adventuress with a penchant for vengeance; Jane Seymour, a strong minded matriarch in the making; Anne of Cleves, a good natured and innocent woman naively unaware of the court intrigues that determined her fate; Catherine Howard, an empty headed wanton; and Catherine Parr, a warm blooded bluestocking who survived King Henry to marry a fourth time.

The Princes in the Tower

Despite five centuries of investigation by historians, the sinister deaths of the boy king Edward V and his younger brother Richard, Duke of York, remain two of the most fascinating murder mysteries in English history. Did Richard III really kill The Princes in the Tower, as is commonly believed, or was the murderer someone else entirely? Carefully examining every shred of contemporary evidence as well as dozens of modern accounts, Alison Weir reconstructs the entire chain of events leading to the double murder. We are witnesses to the rivalry, ambition, intrigue, and struggle for power that culminated in the imprisonment of the princes and the hushed up murders that secured Richard’s claim to the throne as Richard III. A masterpiece of historical research and a riveting story of conspiracy and deception, The Princes in the Tower at last provides a solution to this age old puzzle. Look for special features inside. Join the Circle for author chats and more. RandomHouseReadersCircle. com

The Wars of the Roses

Lancaster and York. For much of the fifteenth century, these two families were locked in battle for control of the British monarchy. Kings were murdered and deposed. Armies marched on London. Old noble names were ruined while rising dynasties seized power and lands. The war between the royal House of Lancaster and York, the longest and most complex in British history, profoundly altered the course of the monarchy. In The Wars of the Roses, Alison Weir reconstructs this conflict with the same dramatic flair and impeccable research that she brought to her highly praised The Princes in the Tower. The first battle erupted in 1455, but the roots of the conflict reached back to the dawn of the fifteenth century, when the corrupt, hedonistic Richard II was sad*istically murdered, and Henry IV, the first Lancastrian king, seized England’s throne. Both Henry IV and his son, the cold warrior Henry V, ruled England ably, if not always wisely but Henry VI proved a disaster, both for his dynasty and his kingdom. Only nine months old when his father’s sudden death made him king, Henry VI became a tormented and pathetic figure, weak, sexually inept, and prey to fits of insanity. The factional fighting that plagued his reign escalated into bloody war when Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, laid claim to the throne that was rightfully his and backed up his claim with armed might. Alison Weir brings brilliantly to life both the war itself and the historic figures who fought it on the great stage of England. Here are the queens who changed history through their actions the chic, unconventional Katherine of Valois, Henry V’s queen; the ruthless, social climbing Elizabeth Wydville; and, most crucially, Margaret of Anjou, a far tougher and more powerful character than her husband,, Henry VI, and a central figure in The Wars of the Roses. Here, too, are the nobles who carried the conflict down through the generations the Beauforts, the bast*ard descendants of John of Gaunt, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, known to his contemporaries as ‘the Kingmaker’; and the Yorkist King, Edward IV, a ruthless charmer who pledged his life to cause the downfall of the House of Lancaster. The Wars of the Roses is history at its very best swift and compelling, rich in character, pageantry, and drama, and vivid in its re creation of an astonishing, dangerous, and often grim period of history. Alison Weir, one of the foremost authorities on the British royal family, demonstrates here that she is also one of the most dazzling stylists writing history today.

The Children of Henry VIII

At his death in 1547, King Henry VIII left four heirs to the English throne: his only son, the nine year old Prince Edward; the Lady Mary, the adult daughter of his first wife Katherine of Aragon; the Lady Elizabeth, the teenage daughter of his second wife Anne Boleyn; and his young great niece, the Lady Jane Grey. In her brilliantly compelling new book, Alison Weir, author of four highly acclaimed chronicles of English royalty, paints a unique portrait of these four extraordinary rulers, examining their intricate relationships to each other and to history.

Weir opens her narrative with the death of Henry and the accession of the boy king Edward VI. Often portrayed as weak and sickly, Edward, in fact had a keen intelligence and a flair for leadership. Had he not contracted a fatal disease at the age of fifteen, Edward might have become one of England’s great kings. Instead, his brief reign was marked by vicious court intrigue that took the monarchy to the verge of bankruptcy.

Edward’s death in 1553 plunged England into chaos, and it was in this explosive atmosphere that the ill fated Lady Jane Grey was crowned Queen of England. A fragile, intellectual girl, Jane was only too happy to end her nine day rule when the rioting English populace proclaimed Mary their true and rightful sovereign. Despite her innocence, Jane was brutally executed at the age of sixteen.

Mary’s reign was marked by her savage persecution of heretics non Catholics and by the emotional turbulence of her marriage to King Philip II of Spain. Weir describes the mounting tensions of the final days of Mary’s bloody reign, as the shrewd, politically adroit Elizabeth quietly positions herself to assume royal power. The Children of Henry VIII closes with Elizabeth’s accession and the commencement of one of the longest, and most spectacularly successful, reigns in English history.

Deeply engrossing, written with grace and clarity, The Children of Henry VIII combines the best of history and biography. Weir’s devoted readers will recognize this as her finest book yet.

The Life of Elizabeth I

Perhaps the most influential sovereign England has ever known, Queen Elizabeth I reigned prosperously for more than forty years, from 1558 until her death in 1603. During her rule, however, she remained an extremely private person, keeping her own counsel and sharing secrets with no one not even her closest, most trusted advisors. Now, in this brilliantly researched, fascinating new book, acclaimed biographer Alison Weir brings the enigmatic figure of Elizabeth 1 to life as never before. Here are provocative new interpretations and fresh insights on the intimacy between Elizabeth and Robert Dudley, who rose from Master of the Horse to become Earl of Leicester; the imprisonment and execution of Elizabeth’s rival, Mary Stuart; Elizabeth’s clash with Philip of Spain, once her suitor and then her enemy; and the cruel betrayal of her beloved Essex. Against a lavish backdrop of pageantry and passion, intrigue and war, Weir dispels the myths surrounding Elizabeth I and examines the contradictions of her character, exploring complex questions. Elizabeth I loved the Earl of Leicester, but did she conspire to murder his wife? She called herself the Virgin Queen, but how chaste was she through dozens of liaisons? She never married, but was her choice to remain single tied to the chilling fate of her mother, Anne Boleyn?An enthralling epic that is also an amazingly intimate portrait, Alison Weir’s The Life of Elizabeth I is a work of deep reflection and extraordinary scholarship a mesmerizing, stunning reading experience.

Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life

Renowned in her time for being the most beautiful woman in Europe, the wife of two kings and mother of three, Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the great hero*ines of the Middle Ages. Despite the fact she lived in an age in which women were regarded as little more than chattel, Eleanor managed to defy convention as she exercised power in the political sphere and crucial influence over her husbands and sons. In this beautifully written new biography, Alison Weir, author of five widely acclaimed chronicles of England’s royal rulers, paints a vibrant portrait of this truly exceptional woman, and provides new insights into her intimate life. Born in 1122 into the sophisticated and cultured court of Poitiers, Eleanor came of age in a world of luxury, intrigue, bloody combat, and unbridled ambition. At only fifteen, she inherited one of the great fortunes of Europe the prize duchy of Aquitaine yet her father had been shrewd enough to realize that her future security lay in a powerful marriage. Consequently the sensual Duchess submitted to a union with the handsome but sexually withholding Louis VII, the teenage king of France. The marriage endured for fifteen fraught years, until Eleanor finally succeeded in having it annulled only to enter an even stormier match with the aggressively virile, hot tempered Henry of Anjou, who would soon ascend to the English throne as Henry II. As Weir traces the fascinating intersection of public and private lives in Europe’s twelfth century courts, Eleanor comes to life as a complex, boldly original woman who transcended the mores of society. Eventually, after enduring Henry’s flagrant infidelities, she showed herself a formidable and dangerous enemy of the King’s interests by plotting to overthrow him with their sons Henry, Richard, and Geoffrey. A tireless political fighter and a born survivor, the humbled Queen emerged from sixteen years of imprisonment, age sixty seven, to rule England with wisdom and panache during the absence of her son, King Richard the Lion Heart, while he fought in the ruinous Third Crusade. Eleanor of Aquitaine lived a long life of many contrasts, of splendor and desolation, power and peril, and in this stunning biography, Alison Weir captures the woman and the queen in all her glory. With astonishing historic detail, mesmerizing pageantry, and irresistible accounts of royal scandal and intrigue, Weir recreates not only a remarkable personality but a magnificent past era. Eleanor of Aquitaine is the crowning achievement of an extraordinary career.

Henry VIII: The King and His Court

Henry VIII, renowned for his command of power, celebrated for his intellect, presided over the most stylish and dangerous court in Renaissance Europe. Scheming cardinals vied for power with newly rich landowners and merchants, brilliant painters and architects introduced a new splendor into art and design, and each of Henry’s six queens brought her own influence to bear upon the life of the court. In her new book, Alison Weir, author of the finest royal chronicles of our time, brings to vibrant life the turbulent, complex figure of Henry VIII and the glittering court he made his own. In an age when a monarch’s domestic and political lives were inextricably intertwined, a king as powerful and brilliant as Henry VIII exercised enormous sway over the laws, the customs, and the culture of his kingdom. Yet as Weir shows in this swift, vivid narrative, Henry’s ministers, nobles, and wives were formidable figures in their own right, whose influence both enhanced and undermined the authority of the throne. On a grand stage rich in pageantry, intrigue, passion, and luxury, Weir records the many complex human dramas that swirled around Henry, while deftly weaving in an account of the intimate rituals and desires of England’s ruling class their sexual practices, feasts and sports, tastes in books and music, houses and gardens. Stimulating and tumultuous, the court of Henry VIII attracted the finest minds and greatest beauties in Renaissance England poets Wyatt and Surrey, the great portraitist Hans Holbein, ‘feasting ladies’ like Elizabeth Blount and Elizabeth FitzWalter, the newly rich Boleyn family and the ancient aristocratic clans like the Howards and the Percies, along with the entourages and connections that came and went with each successive wife. The interactions between these individuals, and the terrible ends that befell so many of them, make Henry VIII: The King and His Court an absolutely spellbinding read. Meticulous in historic detail, narrated with high style and grand drama, Alison Weir brilliantly brings to life the king, the court, and the fascinating men and women who vied for its pleasures and rewards.

Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Murder of Lord Darnley

The acclaimed author of The Princes in the Tower now brilliantly investigates another of Britain’s notorious unsolved mysteries: the murder of Lord Darnley, second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots. Tall, handsome, accomplished, and charming, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, had it all, including a strong claim to the English throne, a fact that threatened the already insecure Elizabeth I. She therefore opposed any plan for Darnley to marry her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, who herself claimed to be Queen of England. But in 1565 Mary met and fell in love with Darnley and defied Elizabeth by marrying him. It was not long before she discovered that her new husband was weak and vicious, and interested only in securing sovereign power for himself. On February 10, 1567, an explosion at his lodgings left Darnley dead. There were many who might have had a motive for murdering him, not least Mary herself. The intrigue thickened after it was discovered that apparently he had been suffocated before the blast. Emerging from the tragedy were more mysteries than any historian has ever satisfactorily solved. Mary and Darnley s marriage had been an adulterous disaster. After Darnley s death, Mary showed favor to the powerful Earl of Bothwell, causing her enemies to accuse her of being his partner in both infidelity and murder. Mary insisted that the murder conspiracy had been aimed at her, and that she had escaped only by changing her plans at the last minute. It has even been suggested that Darnley himself had planned the explosion in order to kill her. The murder of Darnley ultimately led to Mary s ruin. After her deposition, there conveniently came to light a box of documents the notorious Casket Letters that her enemies claimed were proof of her guilt. But Mary was never allowed to see them, and they disappeared in 1584. The question of their authenticity has haunted historians ever since. After exhaustive reexamination and reevaluation of the source material, Alison Weir has come up with a solution to this enduring mystery that can be substantiated by contemporary evidence, and in the process has shattered many of the misconceptions about Mary, Queen of Scots. Employing once more the bright writing and stunning characterizations that have made her a favorite writer of popular history, Weir has written one of her most engaging excursions into Britain s bloodstained, power obsessed past.

Isabella: She-Wolf of France, Queen of England

Isabella arrived in London in 1308, the spirited twelve year old daughter of King Philip IV of France. Her marriage to the heir to England’s throne was designed to heal old political wounds between the two countries, and in the years that followed, she would become an important figure, a determined and clever woman whose influence would come to last centuries. But Queen Isabella s political machinations led generations of historians to malign her, earning her a reputation as a ruthless schemer and an odious nickname, the She Wolf of France.

Now the acclaimed author of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Alison Weir, reexamines the life of Isabella of England, history s other notorious and charismatic medieval queen. Praised for her fair looks, the newly wed Isabella was denied the attentions of Edward II, a weak, sexually ambiguous monarch with scant taste for his royal duties. As their marriage progressed, Isabella was neglected by her dissolute husband and slighted by his favored male courtiers. Humiliated and deprived of her income, her children, and her liberty, Isabella escaped to France, where she entered into a passionate affair with Edward II s mortal enemy, Roger Mortimer. Together, Isabella and Mortimer led the only successful invasion of English soil since the Norman Conquest of 1066, deposing Edward and ruling in his stead as co regents for Isabella s young son, Edward III. Fate, however, was soon to catch up with Isabella and her lover.

Many mysteries and legends have been woven around Isabella s story. She was long condemned as an accessory to Edward II s brutal murder in 1327, but recent research has cast doubt on whether that murder even took place.

Isabella s reputation, then, rests largely on the prejudices of monkish chroniclers and prudish Victorian scholars. Here Alison Weir gives a startling, groundbreaking new perspective on Isabella, in this first full biography in more than 150 years. In a work of extraordinary original research, Weir effectively strips away centuries of propaganda, legend, and romantic myth, and reveals a truly remarkable woman who had a profound influence upon the age in which she lived and the history of western Europe.

Engaging, vibrant, alive with breathtaking detail and unforgettable characters, Queen Isabella is biographical history at its finest.

Katherine Swynford / Mistress of the Monarchy

In her remarkable new book, Alison Weir recounts one of the greatest love stories of medieval England. It is the extraordinary tale of an exceptional woman, Katherine Swynford, who became first the mistress and later the wife of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.

Katherine Swynford’s charismatic lover was one of the most powerful princes of the 14th century, the effective ruler of England behind the throne of his father Edward III in his declining years, and during the minority of his nephew, Richard ll. Katherine herself was enigmatic and intriguing, renowned for her beauty, and regarded by some as dangerous. Her existence was played out against the backdrop of court life at the height of the age of chivalry and she knew most of the great figures of the time including her brother in law, Geoffrey Chaucer. She lived through much of the Hundred Years War, the Black Death, and the Peasants Revolt. She knew loss, adversity, and heartbreak, and she survived them all triumphantly. Although Katherine s story provides unique insights into the life of a medieval woman, she was far from typical in that age. She was an important person in her own right, a woman who had remarkable opportunities, made her own choices, flouted convention, and took control of her own destiny even of her own public image.

Weir brilliantly retrieves Katherine Swynford from the footnotes of history and gives her life and breath again. Perhaps the most dynastically important woman within the English monarchy, she was the mother of the Beauforts and through them the ancestress of the Yorkist kings, the Tudors, the Stuarts, and every other sovereign since a legacy that has shaped the history of Britain.

The Lady in the Tower

Nearly five hundred years after her violent death, Anne Boleyn, second wife to Henry VIII, remains one of the world’s most fascinating, controversial, and tragic hero*ines. Now acclaimed historian and bestselling author Alison Weir has drawn on myriad sources from the Tudor era to give us the first book that examines, in unprecedented depth, the gripping, dark, and chilling story of Anne Boleyn’s final days. The tempestuous love affair between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn scandalized Christendom and altered forever the religious landscape of England. Anne’s ascent from private gentlewoman to queen was astonishing, but equally compelling was her shockingly swift downfall. Charged with high treason and imprisoned in the Tower of London in May 1536, Anne met her terrible end all the while protesting her innocence. There remains, however, much mystery surrounding the queen’s arrest and the events leading up to it: Were charges against her fabricated because she stood in the way of Henry VIII making a third marriage and siring an heir, or was she the victim of a more complex plot fueled by court politics and deadly rivalry? The Lady in the Tower examines in engrossing detail the motives and intrigues of those who helped to seal the queen’s fate. Weir unravels the tragic tale of Anne’s fall, from her miscarriage of the son who would have saved her to the horrors of her incarceration and that final, dramatic scene on the scaffold. What emerges is an extraordinary portrayal of a woman of great courage whose enemies were bent on utterly destroying her, and who was tested to the extreme by the terrible plight in which she found herself. Richly researched and utterly captivating, The Lady in the Tower presents the full array of evidence of Anne Boleyn’s guilt or innocence. Only in Alison Weir’s capable hands can readers learn the truth about the fate of one of the most influential and important women in English history.

Mary Boleyn

Sister to Queen Anne Boleyn, she was seduced by two kings and was an intimate player in one of history’s most gripping dramas. Yet much of what we know about Mary Boleyn has been fostered through garbled gossip, romantic fiction, and the misconceptions repeated by historians. Now, in her latest book, New York Times bestselling author and noted British historian Alison Weir gives us the first ever full scale, in depth biography of Henry VIII s famous mistress, in which Weir explodes much of the mythology that surrounds Mary Boleyn and uncovers the truth about one of the most misunderstood figures of the Tudor age. With the same brand of extensive forensic research she brought to her acclaimed book The Lady in the Tower, Weir facilitates here a new portrayal of her subjects, revealing how Mary was treated by her ambitious family and the likely nature of the relationship between the Boleyn sisters. She also posits new evidence regarding the reputation of Mary s mother, Elizabeth Howard, who was rumored to have been an early mistress of Henry VIII. Weir unravels the truth about Mary s much vaunted notoriety at the French court and her relations with King Fran ois I. She offers plausible theories as to what happened to Mary during the undocumented years of her life, and shows that, far from marrying an insignificant and complacent nonentity, she made a brilliant match with a young man who was the King s cousin and a rising star at court. Weir also explores Mary s own position and role at the English court, and how she became Henry VIII s mistress. She tracks the probable course of their affair and investigates Mary s real reputation. With new and compelling evidence, Weir presents the most conclusive answer to date on the paternity of Mary s children, long speculated to have been Henry VIII s progeny. Alison Weir has drawn fascinating information from the original sources of the period to piece together a life steeped in mystery and misfortune, debunking centuries old myths and disproving accepted assertions, to give us the truth about Mary Boleyn, the so called great and infamous who*re.

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