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A review by rosemaryandrue
The Tudors in Love: Passion and Politics in the Age of England's Most Famous Dynasty by Sarah Gristwood, Sarah Gristwood
informative
reflective
slow-paced
2.75
The various romantic travails of the Tudor dynasty have been well-covered in dramatic novels and shows in the centuries since they lived and died, but they too may have been influenced by earlier literature and tradition, specifically the idea of courtly love.
In a market flooded with books concerning Tudor marriages, it’s hard for new releases to stand above the crowd. The Tudors in Love tries to carve its niche with the theme of courtly love, that fashionable alleged holdover from Arthurian times, and how the Tudor dynasty used and had it used against them. In some aspects, Gristwood succeeds in doing this, though she fails in others.
We cover a great deal of ground in this book, tracing the origins and evolution of the courtly love game (and the rather important question of how real it really was), hopping through the dawn of the Tudor dynasty to get on with the main features of Henry VIII’s wives and Elizabeth I’s managing of her court despite her precarious perch. The first and last parts were, being the least familiar to me, what interested me most, but there was plenty to chew on regarding power dynamics in the court, and how highborn/lowborn and male/female clashed against each other.
However, I did think the courtly love connection got shallow at times, especially as the author didn’t have much time to dig into more minor persons and consequently deprives us of a chance to see patterns within the tactics that courtiers used, especially in the Henry VIII chapters. I also thought Anne Boleyn was overrepresented (as she generally is in Tudor-related works), which was disappointing because it would have been interesting to see the courtly love theme as interpreted by Henry’s other English wives.
This is definitely a read for those who haven’t already glutted themselves on Tudor works, as there’s nothing much new to see.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.
In a market flooded with books concerning Tudor marriages, it’s hard for new releases to stand above the crowd. The Tudors in Love tries to carve its niche with the theme of courtly love, that fashionable alleged holdover from Arthurian times, and how the Tudor dynasty used and had it used against them. In some aspects, Gristwood succeeds in doing this, though she fails in others.
We cover a great deal of ground in this book, tracing the origins and evolution of the courtly love game (and the rather important question of how real it really was), hopping through the dawn of the Tudor dynasty to get on with the main features of Henry VIII’s wives and Elizabeth I’s managing of her court despite her precarious perch. The first and last parts were, being the least familiar to me, what interested me most, but there was plenty to chew on regarding power dynamics in the court, and how highborn/lowborn and male/female clashed against each other.
However, I did think the courtly love connection got shallow at times, especially as the author didn’t have much time to dig into more minor persons and consequently deprives us of a chance to see patterns within the tactics that courtiers used, especially in the Henry VIII chapters. I also thought Anne Boleyn was overrepresented (as she generally is in Tudor-related works), which was disappointing because it would have been interesting to see the courtly love theme as interpreted by Henry’s other English wives.
This is definitely a read for those who haven’t already glutted themselves on Tudor works, as there’s nothing much new to see.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.