Brief Gaudy Hour: The novel of Anne Boleyn’s passionate love by Margaret Campbell Barnes The beautiful temptress of Henry VIII’s court… Anne Boleyn bewitched King Henry VIII with her dark beauty. For her he divorced Katherine of Aragon, who could not give him the son he longed for, and broke England’s link with the Church of Rome. As Queen, Anne triumphed over her enemies at court – but her triumph was as short-lived as it was brilliant. Her child, the heir that Henry was so desperate for, was another daughter. And this unforgivable error was to cost Anne her life…. Read more »
Posts Tagged: england
The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell
The Last Kingdom (The Saxon Stories 1) by Bernard Cornwell Uhtred is an English boy, born into the aristocracy of ninth-century Northumbria. Orphaned at ten, he is captured and adopted by a Dane and taught the Viking ways. Yet Uhtred’s fate is indissolubly bound up with Alfred, King of Wessex, who rules over the only English kingdom to survive the Danish assault. The struggle between the English and the Danes and the strife between Christianity and paganism is the background to Uhtred’s growing up. Marriage ties him to the Saxon cause but when his wife and child vanish in the… Read more »
To Die For by Sandra Byrd
To Die For (Ladies in Waiting 1) by Sandra Byrd Meg Wyatt has been Anne Boleyn’s closest friend since they grew up together on neighboring manors in Kent. So when twenty-five-year-old Anne’s star begins to ascend, of course she takes Meg along for the ride. Life in the court of Henry VIII is thrilling… at first. Meg is made mistress of Anne’s wardrobe, and she enjoys the spoils of this privileged orbit and uses her influence for good. She is young and beautiful and in favor; everyone at court assumes that being close to her is being close to Anne…. Read more »
The Falcons Of Montabard by Elizabeth Chadwick
The Falcons Of Montabard by Elizabeth Chadwick Sabin FitzSimon, disgraced son of an earl, has the opportunity to rebuild his career and salvage his reputation when the knight Edmund Strongfist leaves for the Holy Land to offer his sword and services to the King of Jerusalem. He asks Sabin to join him. Accompanying Strongfist is his daughter Annais. Sabin, he warns, is to keep away from her. Being grateful for the chance that Strongfist has given him, Sabin does so, but not without a feeling of regret, for he is attracted to Annais’s spirit, her courage and wonderful harp playing…. Read more »
Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness
Shadow of Night (All Souls Trilogy 2) by Deborah Harkness Historian Diana Bishop, descended from a line of powerful witches, and long-lived vampire Matthew Clairmont have broken the laws dividing creatures. When Diana discovered a significant alchemical manuscript in the Bodleian Library, she sparked a struggle in which she became bound to Matthew. Now the fragile coexistence of witches, daemons, vampires and humans is dangerously threatened. Seeking safety, Diana and Matthew travel back in time to London, 1590. But they soon realise that the past may not provide a haven. Reclaiming his former identity as poet and spy for Queen… Read more »
To Be Queen by Christy English
To Be Queen by Christy English Taught by her father, the Duke of Aquitaine, how to be powerful in the midst of the ruthless politics of the court, Eleanor learned at an early age to inspire love and loyalty in the people around her. Those lessons serve the fifteen-year-old well when — after her father’s sudden death — she is crowned Duchess of Aquitaine and becomes the most eligible, sought-after woman in France. Enamored of the young and beautiful Eleanor, King Louis VII claims her as his own, but the newly crowned monarch is easily manipulated by the Church and… Read more »
The Captive Queen by Alison Weir
The Captive Queen: A Novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine by Alison Weir It is the year 1152, and a beautiful woman rides through France, fleeing her crown, her two young daughters and a shattered marriage. Her husband, Louis of France has been more monk than monarch, and certainly not a lover. Now Eleanor of Aquitaine has one sole purpose: to return to her duchy and marry the man she loves, Henry Plantagenet, destined for greatness as King of England. It will be a union founded on lust, renowned as one of the most vicious marriages in history, and it will… Read more »
The Pleasure Palace by Kate Emerson
The Pleasure Palace (Secrets of the Tudor Court 1) by Kate Emerson Beautiful. Seductive. Innocent. Jane Popyncourt was brought to the court as a child to be ward of the king and a companion to his daughters — the princesses Margaret and Mary. With no money of her own, Jane could not hope for a powerful marriage, or perhaps even marriage at all. But as she grows into a lovely young woman, she still receives flattering attention from the virile young men flocking to serve the handsome new king, Henry VIII, who has recently married Catherine of Aragon. Then a… Read more »
Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir
Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir I am now a condemned traitor . . . I am to die when I have hardly begun to live. Historical expertise marries page-turning fiction in Alison Weir’s enthralling debut novel, breathing new life into one of the most significant and tumultuous periods of the English monarchy. It is the story of Lady Jane Grey–“the Nine Days’ Queen”–a fifteen-year-old girl who unwittingly finds herself at the center of the religious and civil unrest that nearly toppled the fabled House of Tudor during the sixteenth century. The child of a scheming father and a ruthless mother,… Read more »
Queen of Shadows by Edith Felber
Queen of Shadows by Edith Felber In fourteenth-century England, beautiful Queen Isabella-humiliated by her weak, unfaithful husband-is emerging from the shadows to take her revenge. But her newly arrived, twenty-one year-old Welsh handmaiden, Gwenith de Percy, also seeks vengeance-against the English invaders who crushed her beloved Wales. Isabella’s once-golden marriage is now her penance. Due to his rumored relations with men, Parliament forced Edward to share his throne-a demeaning arrangement that torments Isabella. With the help of her secret, noble lover, Roger Mortimer-an enemy of her husband, imprisoned in the Tower of London-the queen plots to take control. Thrilled by… Read more »
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