Tudors: The History of England from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I by Peter Ackroyd | eBook

Library Journal

09/15/2013
The second book of Ackroyd's projected six-volume history of England dives headfirst into its subject matter—with Henry VIII's ascension to the throne. Ackroyd (London: The Biography) covered the roots and earlier years of the Tudor dynasty, including Henry VII's reign, in his previous volume, Foundation. Readers wanting the author's views on the Tudors as a whole should take note. He interweaves his narrative of the Tudor monarchs here with a detailed exploration of the religious reformations and upheavals of the era, sparked by Henry VIII's break with the Roman church and destined to have tremendous and long-lasting effects on English history and culture at all levels. VERDICT A weightier and more focused read than Leanda de Lisle's study, below, this work should be of particular interest to those seeking an in-depth look at the religious changes of the Tudor period and the complex and often violent ways in which religious upheaval intertwined with politics.—Kathleen McCallister, Univ. of South Carolina Libs., Columbia

Publishers Weekly

The theme of novelist and historian Ackroyd’s second title in his projected six-volume history of England (after Foundation) is the 16th-century religious reformation that began, as a dynastic matter, with Henry VIII’s divorce from Katherine of Aragon in 1533. While there was neither an Inquisition in England as in Spain, nor the wholesale slaughter of citizens as in France’s 1572 St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, the Reformation in England was marked by upheaval and bloodshed, as the Tudors imposed religious changes upon an initially reluctant populace. Henry VIII, for instance, dealt harshly with critics, ordering the executions of “a good number of the inhabitants of every town, village and hamlet” that dared join a 1536 popular revolt against the new order. And, while 300 English “heretics” were burned at the stake during Mary I’s four-year reign, earning her the nickname, “Bloody Mary,” Ackroyd points out that 200 Catholics were executed during Elizabeth I’s 45-year reign. While the author focuses on the politics of religious change, this is an accessible account, made even more so by anecdotes revealing the personalities of the main characters (e.g., Henry VIII became so obese that his bed had to be enlarged to a width of seven feet, and Mary Stuart wore crimson underclothes at her execution in 1587). (Oct.)

From the Publisher

Praise for Peter Ackroyd

San Francisco Book Review

Peter Ackroyd's love of his subject shines through every page. This is a thrilling story that will delight readers interested in this period.

Booklist (starred review)

Highly engaging…. Ackroyd presents in rich prose and careful explanations how the English Reformation was not a movement of the people but a personal project of King Henry.

The Weekly Standard

Peter Ackroyd is energetic and gifted enough to have mastered his sources and produced a sparklingly fresh account of Tudor England.?… Ackroyd has a wonderful eye for the telling detail, cameos that stick in the mind. … If you want a finely written, racy account of the monster Henry VIII and his brood, a history book that really fires your imagination and is often so exciting that you cannot put it down, you should get this book.

Shelf Awareness

Ackroyd presents the Tudors in a way frequently overlooked by other popular histories and novels, depicting them as a force that continues to affect both English and international societies today, rather than as an early-modern soap opera. … Each player in this real-life historical drama is clearly drawn, their major contributions and connections made apparent without losing the thread of the overall themes. Tudors takes a comprehensive approach to early-modern English history that is rarely attempted, but is, in Ackroyd's hands, a success.

Choice

Ackroyd's thoroughly researched narrative of the notorious Tudors is colorful, engaging, and highly accessible to general readers.

The Telegraph (UK)

Ackroyd writes with such lightly worn erudition and a deceptive ease that he never fails to engage.

The Financial Times (UK)

Superbly accessible and readable.

Sunday Express (UK)

Ackroyd clearly relishes the wicked glamour of the family which presided over the Reformation, saw off the Spanish Armada, founded the British Empire and left the country they ruled a great European power . . . Fluent and colorful.

Daily Express (UK)

As so often in Ackroyd's books there are irresistible small details of everyday life in historic London.

The Newtown Review of Books(Australia)

Ackroyd's information concerning Cromwell provokes a different reaction from that gained by reading Hilary Mantel. . . . This is a fascinating read, an accessible history where the immense research is wittily presented and where the ideas are profound and moving.

Standpoint (UK)

[Ackroyd] has a matchless sense of place, and of the transformations of place across long stretches of time; he is also an inventive and playful English stylist.

The New York Times Book Review on Foundation

Relaxed, unpretentious, and accessible.

Kirkus Reviews

2013-09-01
Prolific British novelist, biographer and critic Ackroyd launches the second volume of his sweeping history less than two years after beginning with Foundation (2012). Readers curious about 16th-century British daily life or culture must look elsewhere; Ackroyd concentrates on Britain's ruling Tudors--minus the first, Henry VII, covered earlier. This installment opens with the 1509 accession of Henry VIII (1491–1547). Few mourned his harsh and rapacious but also unwarlike father, who left a full treasury which Henry soon emptied in wars with France before plunging into the dynastic and religious quarrels that dominated his reign. Obsession with having a male heir, not lust, was responsible for his plethora of wives. No fan of the Protestant Reformation, Henry broke with the papacy over its refusal to grant a divorce from his first wife. Once he had destroyed papal authority and looted its property, he disappointed reformers by largely preserving Catholic credos such as priestly celibacy and transubstantiation. His death and the accession of 9-year-old Edward saw the Anglican Church's transformation into a recognizably Protestant body, which his Catholic sister and successor, Mary, could not reverse in a stormy five-year reign. By this point, readers may be wearying of interminable, fierce and bloody religious controversy, a feeling Elizabeth shared. But religion obsessed 16th-century Britons, so her efforts to cool matters were only partly successful, but she proved a prudent, less bloodthirsty ruler and the most admirable Tudor. As usual, Ackroyd is a fine guide. A solid multivolume popular history: readable, entirely nonrevisionist and preoccupied by politics, religion and monarchs--a worthy rival to Winston Churchill's History of the English Speaking Peoples.

Tudors: The History of England from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I

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