Tudor Monarchs: Lives in Letters

The Tudor period (1485-1603) is a story of drama, intrigue and tumultuous change but also of triumphs and progress, and it saw the emergence of an English national identity. Four hundred years after the Tudor era ended with the death of Elizabeth I, this extraordinary period in English history still fascinates and captures the public imagination like no other. The Tudor kings and queens remain the most well-known and fascinating English dynasty. The enormous increase in the quantity of surviving documents from Henry VIII’s reign onwards means that the Tudor period is the first in English history to be so thoroughly documented in manuscript form. The British Library holds an incredibly rich and important collection of Tudor letters which enables this book to tell their story in their own words, their own handwriting, a close up look at a world of turbulent political scheming and grand, sometimes destructive love affairs. The selection in this book includes famous letters about major historical turning-points as well as unpublished eyewitness accounts by the key players in 16th-century life.