Tudor: The Family Story

Some of their past the Tudors wanted to remember, other parts they preferred to forget- a new history, a new story, the family behind the myths

Sunday Times bestseller Selected as one of The Times’ Best Books about The Tudors A Telegraph Book of the Year A History Today Book of the Year A BBC History Magazine Book of the Year

The Tudors are a national obsession; they are our most notorious family in history. But beyond the well-worn headlines is a family still more extraordinary than the one we thought we knew.

The Tudor canon typically starts with the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, before speeding on to Henry VIII and the Reformation. But this leaves out the family’s obscure Welsh origins; it passes by the courage of the pregnant thirteen-year-old girl who would help found the Tudor dynasty; and the childhood and painful exile of her son, the future Henry VII. It ignores the fact that the Tudors were shaped by their past - those parts they wished to remember and those they wished to forget.

With this background, Leanda de Lisle enables us to see the Tudors in their own terms and presents new perspectives and revelations on key figures and events, from the princes in the Tower to the Tudor Queens.

Tudor tells a family story like no other.

‘A lively history of the ambitious Tudor family… It casts plenty of light on the strong women in the dynasty’ The Times