Customer Reviews

Henry VIII: Court, Church and Conflict

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

He began as the a quintessential prince of the realm, the embodiment of what a future king should be -- athletic, handsome, articulate, courageous, devout, fun loving, charismatic, and intelligent. He ended his royal career as obese, vindictive, self-centered, feared, devious, cruel, and capricious. Along the way he forever altered England and the lives of its nobility and commoners alike. His fame and his infamy are simply legendary in their scope. It is also the subject matter in "Henry VIII: Court, Church, and Conflict" by historian and Tudor era authority David Loades (Professor Emeritus, University of Wales, and Associate of the Centre for Early Modern History, University of Oxford). Informed, informative, insightful, and a masterwork of historical scholarship, "Henry VII" is a fascinating and thoughtful descriptive analysis that is a welcome addition to community and academic library English History collections, and especially recommended reading to students of the Tudor era in general, and the reign of Henry VIII in particular.

I found this book to be very interesting but slightly disjointed in that the author treated Henry's reign topically instead of cronologically. It could be that I've become addicted to cronological reviews, but the inevidable rehash of past events made me give the book a "4" instead of a "5." Otherwise, it was well documented and a fairly quick read.