By far the best biography I’ve encountered about the first monarch of the Tudor dynasty. The biography is well written, detailed, an outstanding work behind one of the most overlooked monarchs in English history, exposing his successes, failures as well as his character and deconstructing the popular culture image that’s come out in the last two centuries as well as pointing out the bias behind many of the Tudor sources There are very few biographies that do Henry VII justice, this is one of them. For everyone that is interested to read an objective account about the man whose life was literally the stuff of action/adventure flicks, this is the book for you. Henry Tudor doesn’t come out as cold or heartless, but rather a careful, calculate, cheerful (in his youth), and highly observant monarch whose exile and death threats transformed him into the king he was later known by his contemporaries, a king who never took anything for granted and was personally took care of all of his affairs. His decline starts after the loss of his wife and infant daughter in 1503, this is when the popular image of the cold and miserly figure comes out, but as the author points out, he did not isolate himself completely. He was still seen in important ceremonies and always aware of how important image was, wore the best gowns and made sure his children did too (especially Margaret when she began her entourage from England to Scotland in June the same year her mother died). Last but not least, there’s a great focus on his death and his mother who survived him for two months, long enough to see her grandson and his bride, Katherine of Aragon, crowned.
Sadly this is not available on kindle, nook or any other e-book format (I know, big bummer) but you can get it for a bargained price on amazon or ebay, just look under used books.
tudors & other histories 