Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII

Rating:
Summary: Well researched, superbly written and enthralling!
Review: David Starkey's book is a wonderful overview of the incredible lives of Henry VIII's queens. The amount of research he did, all strictly noted in the end notes, is astounding. However, this is no dry history book. Starkey has the ability to bring the history alive with his well-written book. He does speculate on various events from time to time, but always clearly notes what is speculation on his part and gives the historical back-up for his beliefs.

I am an English history buff, but have very little time to read. I thought I would buy this admittedly long book (765 pages of text) and read it from time to time. However, I finished it in 10 days. It reads like a novel and I was unable to put it down! This would be an excellent purchase for anyone who is interested in this time period and these facinating women.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful biography of all six queens! Reads like a novel!
Review: Everyone knows Henry VIII had six wives, but even most English history courses mention very little about the character of these six women. David Starkey's book gives a wonderful biographical analysis of each wife and especially covers the influence each wife had on the religious situation in the country during her period of favor. The reseach is incredibly well-documented, with scores of quotations from sources from that period of history. When the author speculates, he clearly says so and tells why he speculates the way he does. Best of all, it reads like a novel. I found myself staying up late just to find out what happened next. For anyone interested in this period in history, it would be an excellent read.

Rating:
Summary: Well done ¿popular¿ history
Review: Had to pick this up after seeing the series on PBS. If you liked the PBS specials then you really should do yourself a favor and read this book. The show glossed over a tremendous amount of what was going on behind the scenes and politically during each marriage. The various struggles, both religious and political, make for a fascinating picture. Starkey presents a good case that this time period marks a watershed moment in British history in terms of the reformation of the Church and the monarchy in general.

The book is a fairly easy read, not academic but aimed more at the mass market. This is not to say it is poorly researched, Starkey has obviously done his homework and presents a wealth of information. However the tone is fairly casual and the story told in a sort of breathless way that will keep the layman interested but strike the academic as a bit much.

Read this with a critical eye as Henry does come off a something of a jerk. There is no doubt he was driven and fairly ruthless, but this account focuses on the wives, necessarily at Henry's expense.

The only real problem is one most likely due to what Starkey had to work with. A great deal of the book is spent on Catherine of Aragon, and a fair amount on Anne Boleyn. The last four wives are given increasing short shifts, but I suspect that is due more to the lack of source material on some of them. That and the fact Catherine of Aragon was Queen long than the rest put together.

This is a fantastic introduction to the history of Tudor England. Good enough that it made me seek out Starkey's "Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne" which, in many ways, is a sequel to this book and worth reading in an of itself (although necessarily there is a lot of overlap).

Rating:
Summary: A new study of a fascinating era, its king, and his women
Review: Listing the 6 wives of Henry VIII and their fates was my childhood equivalent of counting sheep. I don't know why I had this fascination with the 3 Catherines, 2 Annes, and one Jane from such an early age, but I surely wasn't alone. King Henry's eventful matrimonial history has driven writers and historians to delve into the psyche of this charismatic monarch for several centuries. Generally Henry is portrayed as a depraved glutton, seeking only his own pleasures and intent upon changing laws and religions to have his way. In this terrific new study, David Starkey argues that the king was made of simpler stuff, and was seeking happiness, as well as a son and heir. In the process, he made near cult figures of 6 women and changed the way a nation was governed.
Thumbnail sketches of these women and their fates:
Catherine of Aragon - Catholic , deeply religious, no male child in spite of many pregnancies and miscarriages. Henry divorced her (creating the Anglican church in order to do so) to marry wife #2.
Anne Bolyn's greatest contribution was giving birth to Elizabeth I (who went on to be queen of one of England's greatest eras). She was the first queen to lose her head.
Jane Seymour, whom Henry married the day Anne was executed. She gave birth to Edward VI, the long sought male heir, but he proved sickly, as did his mother, who died 12 days after giving birth.
A brief marriage to Anne of Cleves, which ended in anullment. Grateful for her cooperation, Henry granted her several homes and a generous income; she enjoyed an unusually independent lifestyle and often visited court as an honored guest. It's said ale and gambling were her only vices.
Catherine Howard, an adolescent flirt and a beauty, was Henry's ill-fated 5th wife. She made a fool of him when powerful court figures suggested she conceive a child by one of the many young men who sought her favors and pass that child off as Henry's. She lost her head as a result of that game.
Catherine Parr, a shrewd and brilliantly powerful woman who outlived Henry.
Superb in every way.

Rating:
Summary: Unreadable
Review: My children bought this book for me -- I'm a big reader of English history -- and, despite some reservations (based upon Starkey's sloppy bio of Elizabeth) I did give it a shot. But, it's simply unreadable.

First, the writing is just awful. Execrable. Like a really bad pulp novel. Most sections (not just chapters, but sections in a chapter) end with some inane rhetorical question or similar lame attempt to build mystery. Here are some random samples:

"But, within a few days, the minister was singing a very different tune."

"There was a cloud over Catherine's marriage. But it was no bigger than a man's hand."

"And soon she would have vengeance in kind."

Da da da DUMMMM.

Second, there's supposition and speculation about motives and actions, based seemingly upon how Starkey thinks normal women feel and think and act, as if the actions of these very forceful and determined people weren't enough to speak for themselves. There is absolutely NO context -- as if a 16th century queen, or would-be queen, trying to save her life and sovereignty, would act the way a 21st century suburban person would act.

Third, he simply guesses at things!! And admits it! And then he uses his guesses to weave a fantasy of something that may have happened to explain something that did happen. A quick look at p. 419 -- not atypical -- will illustrate this tactic. Starkey sums it up himself by saying "It seems as likely as not." Really? Why?

This is a shameful effort by someone who is associated with Cambridge (what were they thinking at that university?) or by anyone who purports to be a serious historian. Even Publishers' Weekly had a hard time finding anything good to say about this book. Save your $$, or go get Allison Weir's or Antonia Frasier's book(s). Better written and much more exciting. Or buy a good novel.

Rating:
Summary: Possibly the definitive biography of Henry VIII's six wives
Review: This massive, but generally entertaining book has finally arrived after growing from a planned modest TV-tie-in to the largest and possibly the best of recent multibiog coverage of Henry VIII's six queens. But this book is not for the weak of wrist or the Tudor history rookie; the biggest audience will probably be those who have already devoured the lives of the wives by Alison Weir and Antonia Fraiser and know their Tudor history. Starkey hasn't uncovered any new, long-lost documents(although a reidentified portrait of probably a young Catherine of Aragon and one of Catherine Parr, formerly id'ed as Lady Jane Grey grace the book's cover and give us a look at both queens as Henry might have first saw them), but goes back to the surviving original and contemporary sources to attempt to strip off as much of the varnish of previous historical interpretations to get as close as possible to the real women who were Henry VIII's consorts.