
The Tudors in Love
Passion and Politics in the Age of England’s Most Famous Dynasty
Author: Sarah Gristwood
Narrator: Anne Flosnik
Unabridged: 14 hr 27 min
Format: Digital Audiobook Download
Publisher: Tantor Media
Published: 01/14/2025
Categories: Nonfiction, Biography & Autobiography, History, European History
Synopsis
Why did Henry VIII marry six times? Why did Anne Boleyn have to die? Why did Elizabeth I's courtiers hail her as a goddess come to earth?
The dramas of courtly love have captivated centuries of readers and dreamers. Yet too often they're dismissed as something existing only in books and song—those old legends of King Arthur and chivalric fantasy.
Not so. In this ground-breaking history, Sarah Gristwood reveals the way courtly love made and marred the Tudor dynasty. From Henry VIII declaring himself as the "loyal and most assured servant" of Anne Boleyn to the poems lavished on Elizabeth I by her suitors, the Tudors re-enacted the roles of the devoted lovers and capricious mistresses first laid out in the romances of medieval literature. The Tudors in Love dissects the codes of love, desire, and power, unveiling romantic obsessions that have shaped the history of the world.