the six wives of henry viii book alison weir

so - a springboard book for me.Ī Kirkus review I read ages and ages ago, back in those days when their reviews were reliable, i.e. but at the very least, it made me want to read biographies of lady jane grey and katherine howard (the minx), and at some point i'm sure i will be reading wolf hall. but it's not the fault of her writing which is clear and interesting. This book was just chosen at a bad time for me: long book, end-of-semester mania, too much to do and too little sleep meant i was frequently drowsing over it. When he eventually died (spoiler!)i felt sadder than i did at any of henry's wives' deaths. My new favorite man in all of history is (eustace) chupuys, henry's much-harried ambassador whose name i adored saying aloud every time i encountered it in the book. but he's great at getting women, even if he has to manipulate competition out of the way into different countries to free up a path. spoiler alert: henry sucks at making a son. and he was willing to bend tradition, religion, social conventions, public opinion and personal reputation and chop off some heads to get one. What i know: henry may be one of history's shittiest spouses - after reading this, i find myself able to cut warren zevon some slack. kids, don't get your historical information from novelty songs. before reading this book, what i knew about henry VIII came mostly from one pbs (week-long)special and the herman's hermits song, which turns out to be historically inaccurate and not actually about henry VIII at all. I have never before spent so long reading a book and having less to say about it at the end.

The six wives of henry viii book alison weir