The Six Wives of Henry VIII
by Alison Weir
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Book Reviews of The Six Wives of Henry VIII
Book Review: One of the best
Summary: 5 Stars
If you want to read about Henry VIII's six wives, there are more titles out there that you can ever read. A lot of the material is a combination of guesses and conjecture, with a slant toward the prurient. This book, however, is very different. Alison Weir spent a lot of time looking at primary sources from the Tudor period. She obviously did her homework, and her fictionalized historical accounts are likely the closest to the truth that we will ever find.
Unlike most accounts that paint Henry as a man driven by lust, Ms. Weir paints him as a deeply religious man driven by a combination of duty and fear. He truly believes that the fate of the Tudor dynasty depends entirely on the appearance of a legitimate son. Henry had at least one illegitimate son, Henry FitzRoy, whose last name is a sly poke at his bastard status. (FitzRoy = Son of the King, get it?) As time passed, Henry's sense of duty became magnified and overwhelmed by fear that he would die before a legitimate Tudor prince was born. His son Edward was sick and weak from the beginning, and it was apparent to Henry that he needed a healthy, strong son to take on the mantle of leadership should Edward die. He himself only became king because of the untimely death of his sickly brother, Arthur. His treatment of his wives was based on these twin factors.
Alison Weir takes the dry facts and weaves them into a compelling and interesting narrative, and the tragedy of Henry's relationships with all of the women he encountered becomes stunningly clear. I found the book impossible to put down, and although I knew the bare bones of what happened from history books, I had to keep reading to see what might happen next. This is a wonderful introduction to Ms. Weir's books, and if you read this one, be sure to have the others in your shopping cart. You won't want to waste any time getting your hands on them.
Book Review: The real story of Henry VIII's seeming cruelty
Summary: 5 Stars
The story of Henry VIII's rule can only truly be told once a reader understands the vital importance attached to begetting an heir to the kingdom. Alison Weir, as usual, offers this thoroughly-detailed, sometimes amusing, sometimes heartbreaking portrait of a man who, thwarted at nearly every turn from getting a queen who could produce strapping male heirs to the Throne of England, descended from a jolly, back-slapping prince to a fat, cruel and nearly despotic king, whose final wish to be buried alongside Jane Seymour must have cut his final surviving wife, Katherine Parr, to the quick.But, as the title suggests, the primary thrust of this book is not so much Henry VIII as each of his unfortunate wives. One learns a great deal more about them than the usual lines given by armchair historians. For example, "saintly" Jane Seymour, usually depicted as a meek and mild young thing, was just as much a deliberate factor in the downfall of Anne Boleyn as her royal husband-to-be. And as one reads about Anne Boleyn's temper, one teeters between sympathy for her and ... a vague feeling that perhaps Henry beheaded her not so much for failing to produce an heir as to get her to shut up and cease her constant nagging and ill-tempered outbursts. (Of course, then you swing back into Anne's camp, figuring anyone living with someone like Henry would be ill-tempered ... or perhaps worse!)
And so it goes ...
Fascinating, chock full of details of court life and rife with facts from many primary sources, Alison Weir's account of Henry VIII and his wives remains a standard of its genre.
Book Review: Fascinating
Summary: 5 Stars
I did manage to read a lot in between coughing fits and naps. I finished Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII. My sister-in-law sent me a copy of this book almost a year ago and I've been trying to fit it into my reading schedule since then. My college roommates and I decided to read it this month for our long distance book club.
I was fairly familiar with the story of King Henry VIII's second wife Anne Boleyn, although mostly the tabloid-style rumors associated with her rise and fall. The history and stories surrounding the other five wives were new to me. Weir's history makes it accessible. It is fascinating and bizarre.
Alison Weir writes well. The book is entirely readable and in fact, I had trouble putting it down. Weir conducted in-depth research of her topic and discounts rumors when the evidence simply doesn't add up. She has a deep understanding of the period and grasps the political, religious and social reasons behind King Henry's frequent amours and intrigues.
I enjoyed the book so much that I ordered Weir's The Children of Henry VIII before I had read 200 pages of the first. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in English history.
Book Review: Enlightening
Summary: 5 Stars
Alison Weir does a wonderful job introducing you to Henry Tudor and his six wives. You get a real sense of what pressures King Henry was under, what his dreams and expectations were, and how the everyday routine of royalty influenced his decisions.I've taken my share of European history in high school and college, but I'll confess that my knowledge of this man was simply that he was grossly overweight and that he had no problem killing his wives when he tired of them. So, finding out that he was the epitome of masculine beauty, intelligence, athleticism and progressive thinking was a real eye-opener.
Even more, was the wealth of material presented to give life to each of the six women who married this complex man. You'll feel despair for Katherine of Aragon; anger at Anne Boleyn; sorrow for Jane Seymour; fear for Anne of Cleves; pity for Katherine Howard; and admiration for Katherine Parr. In addition, you'll learn a great deal about his children: Mary, Elizabeth and Edward.
A real plus for history buffs...all of the intrigues at court surrounding the various wives and children, the advancement of families and the religious struggles.
All in all, a great read.
Book Review: Not your typical dry history book
Summary: 5 Stars
Alison Weir brings her wit and extensive knowledge of British history to life in this complete volume of the lives of Henry the 8th's six wives. Each woman leaps off the page as her personality is brought to light, and common misconceptions are dispelled by factual evidence and the detail of the research that was poured into this book. Even though this is nonfiction, it is every bit as compelling as fiction because it is presented in such a way as to be a compelling read from start to finish. There isn't a single page that is dry like so many history books tend to be. A great deal of the book focuses on Anne Boleyn, as she is most certainly the most notorious of the six. Everything from personal letters to household lists are used to paint the most accurate picture possible of how these women lived and what they were like, and most importantly how they dealt with this enigmatic and hugely promiscuous husband with a temper that became increasingly erratic as the years progressed. A must read for any fan of the Tudor era and a great companion to historical novels, if you are into getting the true story in addition to the fictional portrayal.