Customer Reviews (43) 
Fascinating Family History, But Certainly Not England's Most Notorious Dynasty
G.J. Meyer's The Tudors, The Complete Story Of England's Most Notorious Dynasty is an extremely long, detailed read covering mostly the political, social and religious aspects of the Tudor's rule over Britain. The book begins with Henry VII defeating and killing Richard III, thus taking the royal crown for himself. This would be the last time in England's history that a man claimed the throne by defeating and killing the King of Britain. For those not that familiar with Henry VIII's father, Henry VII, Henry VII was born Harri Tudor, a Welshman and a distant relative to the ruling House of Lancaster. Richard III was from the House of York. These two houses were both from the House of Plantagenet, whose Kings ruled England for centuries. The two houses of Lancaster and York were always trying to control who sat on the thrown from their houses. The House of Lancaster was represented by a Red Rose, whose Kings used this symbol when they ruled.The House of York was represented by a White Rose, whose Kings used this symbol when they ruled, thus creating what would be called the War of The Roses between the two houses. When Harri Tudor from the House of Lancaster killed King Richard III and took the Crown, he married Richard's niece, the daughter of King Edward IV's, Elizabeth, joining both Houses of Lancaster and York, thus ending the long War Of The Roses. He combined the Red and White Roses together and created a new Rose to be his symbol as King of Britain. Harri Tudor created the Tudor Dynasty, which would rule Britain for 118 years through 5 rulers: Henry VII,Henry VIII, Edward VI, Lady Jane Grey (Never Crowned and Disputed), Mary I and Elizabeth I.
The book covers each ruler's political enemies and allies, religious allies and enemies, as well as the social world that the average people lived in during each King or Queen's rule. The personalities of the rulers are a secondary theme in this long book whose main focus is how politics and religion seemed to dictate almost all the important decisions that the Kings and Queens made. Most of the book is interesting, as details are given on their appearances, such as Elizabeth I had survived smallpox, but it left her with pox marks on her face , making her hide under lots of white make-up and having her portraits show a better-looking monarch than she actually was. The author also paints a very detailed picture of what life was like back then for the average person under the Tudor's rule. There is a lot of interesting reading if you want to know about the politics of that time and get a good glimpse into the Tudor's ruling reasons. However, there is one thing I completely disagree on with the author, and that is calling the Tudors, England's most notorious dynasty. Notorious is defined as being Widely And Unfavorably Known.
If you are familiar with any of the Houses that ruled England, such as the Yorks and Lancasters, many of these rulers that came from these houses were very well hated by the people. The Tudors on the other hand, were not well hated by the people. Henry VII stopped The War of The Roses and brought peace to Britain by combining the two houses. Henry VIII was beloved and very popular with the people before he decided to make his own religion and get rid of his wives. The boy King Edward VI was well loved. As for Mary I and Elizabeth I, it would be very unfair for anyone to say they were not liked by the people, as Mary I was the first Queen of England and having a woman rule would be just like having a woman president rule here today. It just doesn't happen! It must have been unreal for these poor 2 women to be the first female rulers of Britain. I can't even imagine how frightening a job that would have been for them, so in my opinion they did a fantastic job! Mary of course was loved by the Catholics and she got the name Bloody Mary by having a few hundred Protestants killed. Most Kings before her had a few hundred people killed every other month, but they never got the name Bloody attached to them! As for Elizabeth, she was loved by the majority of England, especially the Protestants. She left no debts when she died. She had no husband to complicate her decisions. She introduced the Poor Law, which allowed peasants too ill to work a certain amount of money to live off of, from the State. When Elizabeth ruled England, people called her reign the Golden Age. The Tudors were far from notorious, other than Henry VIII's marriage and religious issues.
I had time many years ago, to put together my grandfather's family history whose family moved from Sweden to Northumberland in England in 1100. My ancestor was a tall blonde Viking whose family securedthe Scotland border for all the English Kings through the centuries. They were granted many Knighthoods and Lordships from the Kings of England. They were even given one of the King's grand daughters to marry. They were shocked when a Queen- Mary I ruled. She was not popular, because of being a woman, and not because of how she ruled. Followed by Elizabeth I, the country was again shocked at yet a second woman ruler, but Elizabeth was a good ruler and the people were very surprised. When Elizabeth died in 1603, Mary Queen Of Scot's son James I became King. James I was the great great grandson of Henry VII, the first of the Tudors (his great grandmother was Henry VIII's sister Margaret). So technically, even though Elizabeth I died with no heir, the Tudor bloodline mixed with the Stuart bloodline goes on ruling Britain.
When James I took the throne after Elizabeth's death, all of England said The King is dead, Long Live The Queen, a statement which shows that Elizabeth I was as good a ruler as the Kings before her. My ancestors left Northumberland after James I took the throne and came to the States here in the early 1600's. After keeping the Scottish from taking the border from England for all those centuries in Northumberland, they just couldn't live under a Scottish King, even if he was from the Tudor bloodline. In the 1620's there was a revival of the cult of Elizabeth I, as the people wished for that Golden Age again! The public was truly unhappy being ruled by James I, a Catholic sympathizer presiding over a very corrupt court! It's not a co-incidence that the British started coming to America in ships in 1620 to start new lives here! After the death of the Golden Era of Queen Elizabeth I, life went down hill in Britain. Life with the ruling Tudors was far from life with a notorious dynasty! I thought the author could have written a more interesting book, if he had written less on the politics and religion and written more on what the average family thought of the rulers, as my family had in the stories I am mentioning here. If he had, he would have seen that because of great rulers such as the Tudor Family, the Royal family still holds an honored position to this day in Britain with the current Queen Elizabeth II.
The Author Makes It Fascinating
I thought I knew a lot about the Tudors but this was an education.The author made the book so readable that after I read it from the library I bought it for the rest of the family.Then I went looking for his other book about WWI and drove everyone crazy quoting from it as I read it!A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918
Hard edged look at the Tudors
This is a hard look at the Tudors, who dynasty ran from Henry VII through Henry VIII to Edward VI, to Mary I, and ending with Elizabeth I. Many treatments of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I take rather positive looks at them (leavened, of course, by the record of unhappy fates of some of his wives). This book argues that things began to go downhill after Henry VII's improbable accession to the throne. A genealogy on pages xiv-xv is most helpful in keeping the cast of characters straight.
The factors that make this an interesting volume include the critical cast toward the Tudors and a rendering of their history in one volume. There are times when reading this volume that I wished for more detail--but that would defeat the purpose of a work that nears 600 pages as it is. Some might contend, not surprisingly, that the book and its author are too negative, too critical of the Tudors. Each reader will have to judge such issues on the basis of their own reading.
Meyer begins with an Introduction that speaks of the "old propaganda" of mythologizing the Tudors. The brief Prologue lays out the demise of the Plantagenets with Edward IV's death at a relatively young age. There followed Richard III's accession to the throne and a revolt organized by the unlikely leader, Henry Tudor (to become Henry VII). Tudor married Edward IV's daughter to cement his hold after the defeat--and death--of Richard III at Bosworth Field.
Part One focuses on Henry VII and the younger Henry VIII. It notes the development of Henry VIII as a young king with his wife Catherine of Aragon. Things begin going awry as she is unable to bear him a son (her only child was Mary, a future queen). She was also older than Henry. He began to contemplate changing the English relationship with the Catholic Church as that body refused to consider an annulment of the royal marriage. By now, of course, Henry had fallen for Anne Boleyn. The story of their relationship is pretty well told here, although it is rather briefly told. Then, the inevitable fall of Anne Boleyn and the succession of wives. Also, his profligate spending of England's treasure on foolish wars and on a lavish lifestyle had troublesome effects on the health of the country.
After Henry's death, his young son, Edward VI, became king (albeit with others actually exercising practical authority). Over his short reign, Edward began to work toward a stronger Protestant status. However, he dies young and his older sister, Mary, became queen. A strong Catholic, she ended up exercising her power rather indecisively, began exercising power on behalf of the Catholic Church, trying to "restore" it. She dies rather young and her younger sister, Elizabeth (daughter of Anne Boleyn) became queen. Here, Part Four of the book tells the story of Elizabeth. Meyer's treatment of her is hardly warm. He contends that she was interested mainly in her survival, that she spent extravagantly, and that she was fully as bloody as her father, Henry VIII. In the end, the author contends, England had been driven into the ground by the Tudors.
A well written book that reads well. Some may see this as excessively negative. Other will find it a useful corrective to the sometimes romanticized treatment of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.
A good history but hardly complete
This book is being advertised as a complete history of the Tudor dynasty. That's hardly true. Meyer skips ahead to the "good parts". All of Henry VII's reign and the first twenty years of Henry VIII's reign are quickly run through in the first chapter and the narrative really begins with Henry's decision to divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn. This book then hits the highpoints of the next seventy years: divorces, executions, rebellions, martyrdoms, etc.
Overall, this would be a good book for anyone who's watched any of the many movies and television series set in the Tudor court and wants to read some historical background. But it won't take you much deeper than that.
Not exactly captivating
I'm a fan of Tudor history and I was very hopeful that I'd thoroughly enjoy this book.I'm used to reading the detail oriented accounts of Tudor history written by Alison Weir and was anticipating a book that would be equally informative.Instead I found this book to be a watered down version of Tudor history and the writing style wasn't nearly as captivating as the accounts written by Weir.For someone who is serious about reading up on Tudor history I would highly recommend he or she checks out Weir's non-fiction book on the Tudors.
... Read more
|
He's sucked for most of this decade...