Author: Professor David Loades

A major new biography of the most infamous king of England. ‘Means to be God, and do as pleases himself’ Martin Luther observed. It was a shrewd comment, not merely on the divorce in which the King w …

The marital ups and downs of England’s most infamous king. The story of Henry VIII and his six wives has passed from history into legend – taught in the cradle as a cautionary tale and remembered in …

Mary Tudor was the first female English sovereign – a ruling queen who was not simply the consort of the king. Yet little is known about this complex woman, whose reputation for ruthlessness belied h …

A magnificent tale of family rivalry and intrigue set against Henry VIII’s court. The fall of Anne Boleyn and her brother George is the classic drama of the Tudor era. The Boleyns had long been an in …

‘A paradise – tall, slender, grey-eyed, possessing an extreme pallor.’ The contemporary view of Henry VIII’s younger sister, Princess Mary Rose, as one of the most beautiful princesses in Europe, was …

Henry’s fifth queen is best known to history as the stupid adolescent who got herself fatally entangled with lovers and ended up on the block. However, there was more to her than that. She was a symp …

Thomas Cromwell was a self-made lawyer who served first Cardinal Wolsey and then Henry VIII. His time with Wolsey served him well in his work for the king after the cardinal’s fall from power in 1529 …

The story of Henry VIII and his six wives has passed from history into legend – taught in the cradle as a cautionary tale and remembered in adulthood as an object lesson in the dangers of marrying in …

This is the history of the men and women who occupied the highest position in English, and later British, society. From Richard III’s infamous life and death, to Henry VIII’s wives, Charles I’s execu …

Although the Seymours arrived with the Normans, it is with Jane, Henry VIII’s third queen, and her brothers – Edward, Duke of Somerset, and Thomas, Lord Seymour of Sudeley – that they became prominen …