The House of Tudor [Hardcover]

Alison Plowden (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1999

The Tudors ruled England for little more than a century, yet no other royal dynasty has so impressed itself upon the nation's consciousness. Bluff King Hal and Good Queen Bess are part of English folklore and remain among the monarchs immediately recognizable to most people. In this personal rather than political history of the Tudors, Alison Plowden examines the origins of the family which appeared out of nowhere in 1485, blazed briefly and then vanished, leaving a trail of glory. The lives of the five Tudor monarchs are interwoven with the lesser-known branches fo the tree in a tapestry which begins with the romance of an obscure Welsh squire and a French princess and ends in peace and in glory with the death in 1603 of the last English sovereign of the English nation. The Tudors hold a special fascination. The statemanship of the first Henry Tudor, the enterprising marital career of the second and the tragedy of the son he laboured so murderously to get, the unhappy reign of Mary and finally, the flowering of Elizabeth, in whom the family genius reached its apotheosis, all find their place in this chronicle of five turbulent, passionate, tragic and prodigious generations of Tudors.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An ornate, admiring history of everyone's favorite dynasty. Plowden writes with regal flair." -- Kirkus

About the Author

Alison Plowden is the author of over a dozen books, including The Stuart Princesses (Sutton, 1996) and Women All on Fire (Sutton, 1998).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 276 pages
• Publisher: Sutton Pub Ltd; Rev Sub edition (January 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 075091890X
• ISBN-13: 978-0750918909
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,354,802 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very high quality popular histsory, August 1, 2001

By 

Michael K. Smith (South Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The House of Tudor (Hardcover)

Though it produced only five sovereigns, the Tudor dynasty had a disproportionate impact on English history. Founded as a family of some power and fortune by Ednyfed Fychan who served Llewellyn the Great in the early 13th century, the Tudors had nearly as much English and French blood as Welsh in their veins when Henry Tudor, a little-known political refugee, staked his future on a single coup d'etat -- and won. Henry VII descended from Edward III through his maternal line and wrapped up the Wars of the Roses by his marriage to the neice of the king he had defeated at Bosworth Field. This well-written volume supplies the context for England's break with the Church of Rome and its part in the Renaissance that followed.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and Readable, January 5, 2008

By 

Melanie Singh - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The House of Tudor (Paperback)

[[ASIN:0750932406 The House of Tudor]

This is a great book to read. Not too academic and not too vague. It is a very personal look into the lives of these glorious tudor monarchs.