Customer Reviews

To Hold the Crown: The Story of King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York (A Novel of the Tudors)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

From the back cover "And though their union was born from political necessity, it became a wonderful love story..." Huh? You have to wonder sometimes what is going through the publisher's heads - the marriage of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York was not a love match by any means - why would they try to label it as one??

Originally published as Uneasy Lies the Head, this book covers the reign of Henry VII following the defeat of Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth. With a very tenuous claim on the throne of England Henry marries Elizabeth of York, eldest daughter of Edward IV, in an effort to strengthen his claim. Despite keeping peace in the country and restoring the empty coffers, Henry is always fearful of conspiracies to challenge his reign with pretenders to the throne claiming to be one of the lost princes in the tower.

So much of this book is known history, we've all read enough of the Tudors I don't need to rehash it all again. The book takes the reader from the beginning of Henry's reign until the end and at his death and the assumption to the throne of his son Henry VIII. Although I did enjoy this book very much, it was a bit dry at times, especially at the beginning, and those not familiar with the Wars of The Roses might have a difficult time picking up the story.

Henry was nicely portrayed as a parsimonious penny pincher always worried about threats to his crown, the younger Henry a bit too full of himself and his "knightly" responsibilities, Katharine of Aragon suitably pious and obedient - my only complaint was the how Elizabeth of York was portrayed. A virtually non-existent character, the few times she was in the storyline she was quite vapid and very forgettable. She was pretty much there for the procreation of children. All in all a pleasant read, not the best but not the worst either. 3.5/5 stars.

I have a love affair going with historical fiction author Jean Plaidy.

It's Plaidy that I turn to when I crave a good comfort-read.

This novel is Plaidy's take on the story of the marriage between King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York: the marriage which effectively ended the War of the Roses by uniting the houses of York and Lancaster.

Like her other historical fiction novels, To Hold the Crown will never be compared to, say, a Sharon Kay Penman novel. Plaidy, rather, exists in a class of her own: solid writing and a good historical foundation make her stories feel comfortable.

Kind of like your favorite pair of old sneakers.

The story of Henry and Elizabeth has been written about numerous times, but I still think Plaidy does it best. You won't find any heros or villains in this story. Instead you'll find human beings who make mistakes and are trying to do the best they can with the tools they have. Plaidy is the consummate professional: she presents each character in a fair light, flaws and all, and allows the readers to draw their own conclusions, as opposed to leading you to those conclusions.

Those of you who are still tracking down the infamous Princes in the Tower will find an interesting idea as to their ultimate fate within these pages. Plaidy, as always, is plausible and sharp as a tack.


What didn't I like? The darned new cover chosen by Three Rivers Press!
For now, I'll forgive them simply because they are reprinting so many of Plaidy's historical fiction novels.

If you haven't read one, do so soon. And if you've read Sandra Worth's recent novel, The King's Daughter, you'll recognize that the subject matter is the same. For my money, I recommend Plaidy's version for a more complete and perhaps a more realistic look at the lives of Henry and Elizabeth.

While I feel the need to write a long drawn out review of this book, I shall keep it short. This author repeated herself constantly. There was much too much of the same details being rehashed from one person to the next. I cannot fathom why she bothered to put Elizabeth's name in the title when she was hardly in the book at all! I didn't enjoy this book at all, it was a pain to get through and I look forward to returning to authors who are much more enjoyable.

The product description is deceptive describing Henry & Elizabeth's marriage as a 'true love story' and as a previous poster stated, it is a wonder to the mind what goes through publishers heads! 1/5 stars only because one cannot rate in the negative!

In general, a pleasant and easy read. Certainly not a love story )as the jacket suggests). Very interesting history. I learned a lot about a very tumultuous time of Tudor history. The author explains things clearly and does a good job of incorporating the facts within the storyline. She repeatedly uses different characters' insights and thoughts as a way to retell the historical events (so as to drill them into the reader's memory). It could occasionally get somewhat redundant, but overall, helped me to understand a confusing history.
Give it a try. Interesting history and a well-written story.

Although this book has many things one could contradict (grammar usage, Elizabeth's characterization), it's a very good piece of historical fiction. More like a non-fiction book than a romance novel, "To Hold the Crown" analyzes the reign of Henry VII quite thoroughly and does a good job of it. Both Henry VII and Henry VIII are very well characterized and although the book is rather anti-climactic, it doesn't seem to lack because of it.

If you're looking for something that explains the history quite well while being more interesting than a typical non-fiction book, then this is the book for you; I personally liked this style. However, if you're looking for something reminiscent of a romance novel, I would read Philippa Gregory's "The Other Boleyn Girl."

i was looking for a book about Elizabeth of York and i thought that this book was the answer. I could not have been more wrong. Elizabeth is barely mentioned in this book and when she is mentioned she is not very likable. This book is a boring account of the life of Henry VII, and while it supposed to be a historical novel it does not read as such. Very disappointing.

I wanted to get more information on Henry VII's reign and life, so I purchased this book to with that goal. I have NEVER read a novel with so many mistakes, both in grammar and content. It became so distracting that it took me away from the story. Almost each and every page hadan error of some type or another. I suffered through, for the sake of gaining information, but I do NOT recommend this book. Where was the editor?

Also, Elizabeth of York is an ancillary character in this novel. Don't let the title of the book fool you -- she's barely a secondary player in this tale.

Also, Henry VII's mother was notoriously controlling, yet in this setting she's hardly mentioned.

Take a pass on this one.

I love reading historical fiction about the Tudors; can't get enough of it. I love hearing different authors' points of view on what happened and how people reacted to it. I've never read any of Plaidy's books before, and this one came very highly recommended from a friend. After reading it through twice, however, I was pretty disappointed.

1. Despite what the cover claims, this is not a love story. The book mentions things like Elizabeth being the perfect wife because she's very docile and agrees with whatever Henry says, and how when he was looking to remarry after her death, he was unsure because he had never felt desire towards Elizabeth even though she was a reputed beauty, and how when she gave birth to her first son, Arthur, he told her to recover quickly so they could have more sons. Yeah...not a love story.

2. The writing was very simplistic, tedious, and repetitive. In attempting to express a concept, such as the fact that Elizabeth and her sisters got their good looks from their father, or that Elizabeth always sided with her husband, or what happened to her young brothers, or any number of other examples, Plaidy would describe it, then describe it again, and again, and again. I felt like the author was trying to shove her point down my throat, and that seriously detracted from my enjoyment of the book.

I'm going to try one more of her books before calling it quits, but this wasn't a good start.

This is the first book of Jean Plaidy's Tudor novels and was originally named Uneasy Lies the Head. Both titles are very good for this book. The story takes off after the Battle of Bosworth field and we have a new dynasty in England, the infamous Tudor dynasty. While we all know about Henry VIII, his multiple wives, and his daughters we don't often hear about his father Henry VII, or his mother, Elizabeth of York and this is their story.

It's said to be a romance, but it isn't really. Henry VII loves his wife in the sense that he's supposed to and he more respects her for the leg up she gives him over any true love. It's a political match, not a love match. Henry VII loves one thing, and one thing only, money. His reign is spent gathering money and making sure he's safe on the throne, and preserving said throne for his heirs.

This book goes over some very important events in the reign of Henry VII, like the too uprisings of Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck. In fact quite a bit of the book is spent on the latter uprising I felt at some points took away from other things.

I'd like to mention though that the book does a wonderful job going over the story of Prince Arthur and Princess Katherine. It shows the story from Henry VII and Elizabeth of York's point of view, something I've not read before. And I also like how it shows Henry's machinations after that disaster and a few others.

Overall this is a very good start to the novels about the Tudors and I've read almost all of them in this series. They're well worth it.

This is a re-issue of Uneasy Lies the Head by Jean Plaidy. Not sure why the publisher decided to change the names of so many of her books for re-issue, but if you read this book under the original title, don't bother buying this one. One the other hand, if you haven't read this book yet, I highly recommend it! Vintage Plaidy!