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Showing posts from July, 2024

Katherine Howard: A Tudor Conspiracy

Katherine Howard: A Tudor Conspiracy Author: Joanna Denny Genre: Nonfiction, History, Biography Publisher: Pitakus Books Release Date: 2005 Pages: 304 Source: Personal Collection  Synopsis: A riveting new biography of a much neglected Queen - the doomed child-bride of Henry VIII Joanna Denny, author of Anne Boleyn , reveals another sensational episode in Tudor history - illuminating the true character of Katherine Howard, the young girl caught up in a maelstrom of ambition and conspiracy which led to her execution for high treason while still only seventeen years old. Who was Katherine, the beautiful young aristocrat who became a bait to catch a king? Was she simply naive and innocent, a victim of her grasping family's scheming? Or was she brazen and abandoned, recklessly indulging in dissolute games with lovers in contempt of her royal position? Joanna Denny's enthralling new book once again plunges the reader into the heart of the ruthless intrigues of the Tudor court - and g...

Anne Boleyn: A New Life of England's Tragic Queen by Joanna Denny: A Book Review

Anne Boleyn: A New Life of England’s Tragic Queen Author: Joanna Denny Genre: Nonfiction, History, Biography Publisher: De Capo Press Release Date: 2006 Pages: 374 Source: My State Public Library Synopsis: No English queen has enjoyed such notoriety as Anne Boleyn, and none has been so persistently vilified. Even after her execution in May 1536, on trumped-up charges of adultery, her reputation has been pursued beyond the grave, subjected to all manner of accusation. The unsavory account of her life that has come down through history is one shaped by her enemies. Joanna Denny's powerful new biography presents a radically different picture of Anne-a woman who was highly literate, accomplished, and a devout defender of her Protestant faith. Her tragedy was that her looks and vivacious charm attracted the notice of a violent and paranoid king and trapped her in the vicious politics of the Tudor court, where a deadly game was being played between the old nobility and the new, between t...