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    The Children of Henry VIII
    The Children of Henry VIII
    The Children of Henry VIII
    Audiobook6 hours

    The Children of Henry VIII

    Written by John Guy

    Narrated by Saul Reichlin

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Nothing drove Henry VIII, England's wealthiest and most powerful king, more than producing a legitimate male heir and perpetuating his dynasty. To that end he married six wives, became the subject of the most notorious divorce case of the sixteenth century, and broke with the Pope, all in an age of international competition and warfare, social unrest and growing religious intolerance and discord.

    Praise for the author: ‘Guy, whose prose is commendably readable, has a real gift for bringing Tudor history to life for 21st-century readers.' INDEPENDENT
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherW. F. Howes Ltd
    Release dateFeb 6, 2014
    ISBN9781471256615
    The Children of Henry VIII
    Author

    John Guy

    John Guy is an award-winning historian; an accomplished broadcaster; a fellow of Clare College, University of Cambridge; and the author of Mary Queen of Scots, which won the Whitbread Award for Biography and the Marsh Biography Award, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics’ Circle Award for Biography. He has contributed to numerous BBC programs and has written for the Sunday Times, the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph, the Mail on Sunday, the Economist, the Literary Review, the Times Literary Supplement, and the London Review of Books.

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    Reviews for The Children of Henry VIII

    4/5

    69 ratings19 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This relatively brief book covers the lives of Henry VIII's known children: Henry Fitzroy, Mary I, Edward VI, and Elizabeth I. Much has been written about these historical figures and this narrative primarily benefits from a succinct style that provides coverage without excessive detail. Sibling relationships are highlighted, especially as they changed with the political shifts in England at the time. A very interesting read that Tudor history fans would likely enjoy.
    • 4/5
      Though ostensibly about Henry VIII’s offspring, John Guy’s book is really about the succession question facing the king and Tudor successor. As that question was inextricably tied to his progeny, Guy has looked at Henry’s marriages and the upbringing of his children – both legitimate and illegitimate – to understand their successive efforts to secure the throne and turn their very different visions of the kingdom they ruled into reality.

      This Guy describes by the shifts in fortune that Henry’s children experienced over time. Upon her birth, his first child, Mary, was showered with gifts and given an entourage befitting her status. Yet even at an early age that status was in question, as her illegitimate half-brother, Henry Fitzroy (born three years after Mary) posed a threat simply by virtue of his sex. Catherine’s inability to father a son of her own (likely due, as Guy argues, to Henry’s probably Kell-positive status) made Fitzroy a potential successor; acknowledged by his father, the boy was given a royal education and paraded around as proof that the king could father a son. Anne Boleyn’s emergence and the divorce battle jeopardized both of their statuses, and the new queen exploited every possibility to diminish their status. Boleyn’s own failure to produce a son, however, contributed to her downfall, with her daughter Elizabeth soon on the same roller coaster of status. Edward’s birth finally gave Henry the son he wanted, yet his young age meant that Mary and Elizabeth remained possible successors. After succeeding Mary and Edward, Elizabeth passed on marriage, thus avoiding much of the family turmoil she experienced growing up, though at the ultimate cost of the demise of the Tudor line.

      Guy recounts all of this in a book that is both perceptive and clearly written. Drawing upon both the contemporary documents (from which he makes some impressive observations not just in terms of their content but their form as well) and the rich historical literature of the Tudors, he provides a fluent and enjoyably readable account of what was perhaps the dominant political issue in sixteenth century politics. It demonstrates why John Guy stands as one of the leading Tudor historians working today, one whose books everyone with an interest in Tudor England should read for the insights they contain.
    • 2/5
      This book had lots of interesting information about the life of Henry VIII and his kids. I do however believe some serious editing would benefit this book. Also the fact that I had an ARC download made it a not so nice reading experience. There were horrible layout and editing problems.I hope this will not be the issue in the final product.
    • 4/5
      Note: I received this as an ebook version of the LT ARCFirst, major points off for no bibliography. None.This is a good overview of the lives of Henry VIII's children, including the illegitimate Henry Fitzroy, and the way his political and religious views affected their lives and their time as rulers.John Guy offers a well-written, easy to follow history of Henry VIII's ascension, his quest for a male heir and the historical (sexist) context for only male heirs, the six wives and the four children caught up in the intrigue.The relationship and treatment of each sibling is discussed as are the ramifications of such treatment as they assumed the crown. Here is familial jealousy, court maneuverings, religious intrigue and, at the center of it all, an ego-maniacal man determined to make a lasting dynasty of the Tudor name.When Henry's youngest heir, Elizabeth I, died unmarried, the crown went to the House of Stuart and James I, Elizabeth's cousin's (Mary Queen of Scots) son, thus ending the Tudor dynasty.
    • 3/5
      I love reading about the Tudors and read most anything I can get my hands on. That said...I felt there was very little new information concerning the royal family, and some of the information stated as fact has been up for debate or already de-bunked. However, [[John Guy]] did do his research, and he did write a book which helps put all the pieces together .
    • 3/5
      A somewhat breezy history of the Tudor dynasty from the birth of Princess Mary to the death of Queen Elizabeth. While Guy tries to keep things focused on the children, the book's attention wanders often into the political machinations going on around them (as one would expect, to be fair).The most interesting bits here, for me at least, were the sections on Henry Fitzroy (Henry VIII's son by Elizabeth Blount) and Edward VI, since Mary and Elizabeth have received such extensive treatment elsewhere. Otherwise, I'm afraid there's not all that much new and exciting here. It would have been fascinating to have much more on the childrens' educations and upbringings than Guy offers.
    • 4/5
      I am a Tudorphile & found this book very interesting. I have read many books about Elizabeth & Mary so there wasn't much new here for me but it was well written and accurate. I have not read much about Edward or anything at all really about Henry Fitzroy, he is generally skipped over or treated as a barely there adjunct to Henry VIII, so I found those segments more informative. Over all I found it very well done with lots of little details recreating the atmosphere of their lives
    • 5/5
      This is a lovely book which I enjoyed very much and was quite happy in reading. John Guy reconstructs the lives of Henry's children with great detail & delight and makes the reader feel intimately connected with these historical figures. Not content with mere dates & battles, as many historians are wont to do, Mr. Guy brings to life the personal worlds of Mary, Edward, & Elizabeth, & their half-sibling Henry Fitzroy. For example, we learn who Elizabeth's tutors were and what they taught; Mary's personal life is revealed as one filled with anxiety & illness; Edward's short reign is examined form a personal level, & Mr. Guy even makes logical & believable hypothesis' concerning Henry's inablity to have male children who survived to adulthood & the death of Henry Fitzroy, using convincing facts to prove his reasoning. The work is meticulously researched & footnoted. All, all, 5 stars for this enjoyable & informative study.
    • 4/5
      This book follows the lives of the children of Henry VIII. Four of his children survived infancy, Mary, Henry Fitzroy, Elizabeth and Edward. Their lives were very tumultuous, depending on Henry's whims and current love interest. Although the boys died young, I found the girls lives to be very tragic. Princess one day, beggar the next, their position in life was never certain.Overall, this was a well written book. It was dry and times, but did seem to be well paced. It contained interesting facts about all of his children throughout. I also loved the chronological nature of the book, the author did not skip around in time.
    • 3/5
      English history fascinates me, and the Tudor family certainly offers plenty of fascinating material to work with! This short overview of the last of the Tudors left me a little puzzled. One the one hand, for a reader with knowledge of the Tudors, I felt there was little new information, interpretation, or presentation. For a reader new to Tudor history, though, I felt that names, dates, and titles were just dropped into the narrative with little context or explanation.I did enjoy learning more than I knew previously about Henry Fitzroy and Henry VIII's older brother, Arthur.Overall, an interesting book, but not one of my favorites about the Tudors.
    • 4/5
      Beginning with the events that made Henry VIII the king, the book looks at the events and possible reasons for the king's treatment of his children, and how it influenced their lives. This includes the relationships between the children is included, as are a number of the king's lesser known children, such as Henry Fitzroy, and and Katherine & Henry VIII's first child, Henry. Guy looks at their educations, birth announcements, titles, households, and the political maneuvering surrounding each. Letters between the siblings, relatives, and their contemporaries are used to help support the author's depiction. Guy makes a point to offer alternative hypothesis about the causes of events, such as the death of Henry's elder brother, Arthur. Overall presented in order of events, the book does occasionally swap between topics, moving from stillborn children to common views about the likely scientific causes, or discussing the king's first wife's attempts to conceive intermixed with trials Henry presided over. I do wish Guy had put more time into the later events of Henry Fitzroy's life, since his childhood was recounted so fully, while his marriage and death seemed like afterthoughts. The same goes for the middle events in the other children's lives. Yes, those events are perhaps more well known and copiously recounted, but without them the book felt lopsided and shorter than the subject warranted. While interesting, the arrangement of subject matter occasionally distracts the reader from the original topic enough to make flow awkward. Likewise, any formatting issues are likely reflective of the eBook format of the Advance Copy, and will probably be adjusted before printing. Overall though, I enjoyed this new look at the lives of Henry VIII's children, and dynastic implications for the Tudors. Few of the books I have read previously on the topic include the medical sides of the family's history, or look at the children who didn't live long enough to become king or queen. Guy's style intermingled narrative with conjecture and excerpts from primary sources that made for an interesting and enjoyable read.
    • 4/5
      First, thanks for the Early Reviewers eBook. I found this to be a reasonable history of the Tudors, focusing not just on the children of the title (Mary, Elizabeth, and Edward), but beginning with Henry VII and his sons: Arthur, and Henry (later Henry VIII). Given the scope of the subject matter, and the relatively short length of the book, this is obviously not an in depth look at the Tudors, but would provide a good introduction for those who are seeking an overview. It's an accessible read and interesting. Given my Tudor "obsession" I found little new ground here, but I could definitely recommend this for someone seeking a non-fiction, accessible introduction to this dynasty.
    • 5/5
      This book is a well written factual account of the one of history's most notable families, the Tudors. What is interesting about his book is that it is more about the personal lives and the family dynamics of Henry VIII and his family rather than a focus on the political and religious sentiment. Don't get me wrong, its still there but more in terms of how the particular views of the time impacted upon each of the children. For example, the view of educating women at the time meant that Mary and Elizabeth had very different educations to that of Edward and Henry Fitzroy. The attention to small details, such as the differences in handwriting styles of the children is also interesting.Henry's inconsistent treatment of his children is also very much a focus of this book. How they were treated depended on whether their mothers were in favour (or not) at the time and this changed constantly. But that was Henry all over - he was a very fickle man. Although most of the book is about the children's early years, there is a birds eye view of each reign, again concentrating more on their personal lives.
    • 5/5
      The Children of Henry VIII goes in depth into the Tudor legacy, a must for the Tudor lover..a truly awesome book!! I love to read anything about the Tudor Dynasty...this is a book that will fit right on your history shelf!!
    • 4/5
      I received an ARC of this book as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.THE CHILDREN OF HENRY VIII is aptly titled. The book is best aimed at readers who need a brief, general overview of just why Henry decided that fathering sons to follow him on the English throne was worth divorcing Katherine of Aragon, angering major European power players, breaking with the Roman Catholic church, and beheading Anne Boleyn. Serious Tudorphiles need not apply; the book covers no new ground nor offers any fresh insight. However, focusing on Henry's children rather than Henry's wives or Henry's increasingly tyrannical behavior does offer a little used prism through with to view the Tudor dynasty. And Henry's illegitimate son Henry Fitzroy is given almost as much attention as his legitimate sisters and brother. Author John Guy does a decent job detailing the chronology of events between Mary's birth and Elizabeth's ascension to the throne, but the focus is firmly fixed on the offsprings' upbringing. Since the children were mostly kept out of sight in their own households and thus away from the court chroniclers, there's not much for Guy to work with. While I welcome the absence of speculation that usually fills historical biographies, there isn't much more than a recitation of dates and names to fill the remaining space.Guy does have fun contrasting the various children's education. Mary was educated, but only as a pious Catholic female whose highest aspiration could only be to serve as a consort. Fitzroy and Edward were given princely educations, but they seemed to enjoy sport and hunting more. Elizabeth, who didn't have Mary's strict mother, had an education more like her brothers', and Guy puts forth that Elizabeth's exposure to classical oratory may have saved her life on more than one occasion (as well as prepared her to be a leader in her own right.) Guy keeps his focus on the dynastic aspirations of the Tudors, even when it comes to Henry's children's adult lives. Since both Fitzroy and Edward died quite young (and probably of the same cause), no hope was ever entertained that they would father children. Guy does not really go into how Mary - perhaps the one child of Henry's who desperately wanted to be married and bear children - was constrained from doing so until she finally became Queen, and by then it was probably biologically too late to procreate. Mary famously had two false pregnancies and died knowing that she had failed in one task both her education and her mother taught her was primary. Elizabeth, on the other hand, avoided marriage and children. Guy does bring up Robert Dudley as the probable reason why Elizabeth emotionally never wanted to marry, but he does not go into detail. The Tudor dynasty Henry VIII so desperately sought came to an end with Henry's children. The book serves as a brief, general overview of that generation, and is recommended for readers who only know Henry VIII as the man whose wives were "divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, lived."
    • 4/5
      There is something so fascinatingly twisted about the Tudor family that I can't help myself when some new thing about them comes out. I don't care what it is: TV shows, films, books, whatever. I love reading about this crazy, messed-up family!So, of course, there's a lot information out there about Henry VIII and the Tudor family in general, so what is it that makes this unique and worth getting versus all the other stuff out there? Unlike many other books I've read about the Tudors, John Guy goes directly to the source and doesn't offer much speculation about relationships, actions, or whatever else that people like to speculate about. Because of that, I think there's a good overview of the family dynamics, which I don't think is explored very often. So, that was nice. The downside to this is that it gets a bit dry and there's A LOT of listing of presents the children received at Christmas, or just listing in general.I also felt like the ending was rushed and Elizabeth I's story wasn't fully explored, which was a bit disappointing for me, especially since a good amount of time was spent on her siblings. And I get that going over a long reign is much more complicated than going over her siblings' histories, but I would have liked a better summary of what she accomplished. Maybe in another book?In any case, don't get this if you're looking for some sort of dramatic story reminiscent of The Tudors TV show. The Children of Henry VIII is very much based on historical documents. But the great thing about this particular royal family is that it's interesting without any dramatization.*I received a free copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*
    • 4/5
      I've been reading histories of the Tudors for decades, and while this is not a bad book, it offers very little in the way of fresh information or insights to any reader already familiar with the subject. It skims over many surface details of Henry VIII's marriages and the lives of his children, while at the same time inundating the reader with names and titles which tend to confuse rather than illuminate. It was not badly written, but the subject had already been amply covered.
    • 3/5
      This book is well written, but I'm not sure what it contributes. This era of British history is inundated with books, so anything new is hard to bring to the table. And the approach of concentrating on Henry's children is promising. But I have to admit feeling a little disappointed when finishing it. The parts about his sons (Henry Fitzroy and Edward VII) were interesting since I didn't know as much about them, but the parts about Mary and Elizabeth were superficial since they've received so much more attention. I was hoping for more insight about their relations with each other, their upbringing, and how they developed into the people they became. Also, for a fairly short book, there are an awful lot of names - it seems like the author has to name everyone (with both given names and titles) that came into contact with the children - and I totally became confused since so many were bit players. Solid but unexciting.
    • 2/5
      this should really be renamed "A brief and confusing history of the Tudor dynasty". If you are not good at keeping dates in your head, than this book will lose you fast. it jumps back and forth, attempting to stay in chronological order, but keeps pulling things out of line. it also doesn't really talk about the children that much. it goes into a brief history of each ones rule, but it does the same with Henry VII and Henry VIII. I read alot on the Tudor era, and i feel like i just read a Wikipedia article that happened to span 200 pages. Not one of the better ones that i have read. good for a quick history on the Tudors though.