Henry VIII : The King and His Court

Rating:
Summary: An Intimate Look at Life with Henry VIII
Review: A book like this about the court of Henry 8th is long overdue. Instead of concentrating soley on Henry this book attempts to fill out the background of the court he lived in and the people he interacted with an a daily basis.

You get things like an explanation of the various court titles and functions and how they changed over the course of his reign. There are also sections on costume and painting and the interactions of the various noble families (and not so noble) during Henry's lifetime.

This is a 'widescreen' biography, not a narrow view. It's full of interesting, small details of daily life that are missed in the larger political biographies.

This book was a welcome and refreshing take on Tudor history. Reccomended if you want to fill in the background details of Henry's court.

Rating:
Summary: brings the background into focus
Review: A book like this about the court of Henry 8th is long overdue. Instead of concentrating soley on Henry this book attempts to fill out the background of the court he lived in and the people he interacted with an a daily basis.

You get things like an explanation of the various court titles and functions and how they changed over the course of his reign. There are also sections on costume and painting and the interactions of the various noble families (and not so noble) during Henry's lifetime.

This is a 'widescreen' biography, not a narrow view. It's full of interesting, small details of daily life that are missed in the larger political biographies.

This book was a welcome and refreshing take on Tudor history. Reccomended if you want to fill in the background details of Henry's court.

Rating:
Summary: Fleshing Out Henry VIII
Review: A compulsively readable account of Henry VIII's court. Weir begins by describing Henry's massive inheritance of "greater" and "lesser" houses. Then she proceeds to his palatial lifestyle, part of the attribute of "magnificence" pertaining to a Renaissance prince, fuelled by Henry's lifelong mania for acquiring and developing property. No detail, whether of texture or cost, is omitted. (Weir helpfully multiplies contemporary values by 300 to give us today's equivalent).

The layout of King Henry's dwellings spoke volumes about courtiers' status and the monarch's accessibility. Courtiers hovered in the impersonal Great Watching Chamber, unless they were lucky enough to have a formal meeting in the Presence Chamber. Only a select few attended the King in his Privy Chamber. Weir's mind-numbing account of Tudor Human Resources yields a smorgasbord of functions, various staff changes, promotions, demotions and, of course, executions.

Later in the book, a biographical framework imposes itself. Henry's infamous matrimonial career is freshly presented from his viewpoint, although that does not lessen his monstrousness. He loved tilting and tournaments; that leg injury was a sporting injury. Most of his best friends seem to have been chosen for their skill in breaking lances.

As in her other books, Weir provides astute mini-biographical "snapshots" of personalities familiar and obscure: the King's coterie of playmates and companions, mistresses and their families, advisors, chancellors and churchmen. So you are getting many biographies for the price of one, especially of people like Thomas More, or Henry's two sisters Margaret (who mothered the Stuart dynasty) and Mary (whose second marriage to Charles Brandon produced the unfortunate Lady Jane Grey, her granddaughter, subsequently the "Nine Days' Queen").

One interesting character is Henry Fitzroy, Henry VIII's illegitimate son by Bessie Blount. Fitzroy's existence proved that the King could father a male child, howbeit not a legitimate heir. (Henry Fitzoy was eventually created Earl of Richmond. The poet Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, was a childhood friend of Fitzroy.)

So if you want to know more about the Courtenays, the Boleyns, Norfolks and Suffolks, the Seymours, the Parrs, this is your book. In spades! Weir does it well.

Rating:
Summary: Fleshing Out Henry VIII
Review: A compulsively readable account of Henry VIII's court. Weir begins by describing Henry's massive inheritance of "greater" and "lesser" houses. Then she proceeds to his palatial lifestyle, part of the attribute of "magnificence" pertaining to a Renaissance prince, fuelled by Henry's lifelong mania for acquiring and developing property. No detail, whether of texture or cost, is omitted. (Weir helpfully multiplies contemporary values by 300 to give us today's equivalent).

The layout of King Henry's dwellings spoke volumes about courtiers' status and the monarch's accessibility. Courtiers hovered in the impersonal Great Watching Chamber, unless they were lucky enough to have a formal meeting in the Presence Chamber. Only a select few attended the King in his Privy Chamber. Weir's mind-numbing account of Tudor Human Resources yields a smorgasbord of functions, various staff changes, promotions, demotions and, of course, executions.

Later in the book, a biographical framework imposes itself. Henry's infamous matrimonial career is freshly presented from his viewpoint, although that does not lessen his monstrousness. He loved tilting and tournaments; that leg injury was a sporting injury. Most of his best friends seem to have been chosen for their skill in breaking lances.

As in her other books, Weir provides astute mini-biographical "snapshots" of personalities familiar and obscure: the King's coterie of playmates and companions, mistresses and their families, advisors, chancellors and churchmen. So you are getting many biographies for the price of one, especially of people like Thomas More, or Henry's two sisters Margaret (who mothered the Stuart dynasty) and Mary (whose second marriage to Charles Brandon produced the unfortunate Lady Jane Grey, her granddaughter, subsequently the "Nine Days' Queen").

One interesting character is Henry Fitzroy, Henry VIII's illegitimate son by Bessie Blount. Fitzroy's existence proved that the King could father a male child, howbeit not a legitimate heir. (Henry Fitzoy was eventually created Earl of Richmond. The poet Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, was a childhood friend of Fitzroy.)

So if you want to know more about the Courtenays, the Boleyns, Norfolks and Suffolks, the Seymours, the Parrs, this is your book. In spades! Weir does it well.

Rating:
Summary: More Tudor Fun and Research from Alison Weir
Review: Alison Weir's Henry VIII (the King and his Court) is another dip into the Tudor pool from this wonderful writer. This book covers some similar territory seen in the previous volumes by the author, The Six Wives of Henry VIII and the Children of Henry VIII, but this one will give the reader a more focused look at the moving force behind these previous books. This particular book is much the same in structure as The Life of Elizabeth I, with each chapter looking at specific subjects until the historical narrative finally begins. The endless stream of descriptions of houses and castles can grow a little wearisome but the completeness will be welcomed by some readers. Another nice addition to the Tudor library built up by Alison Weir to help fill in the gaps in the previous volumes.

Rating:
Summary: Good on its own, repetative if you've read others
Review: As Alison Weir is one of my favourite authors, I was very excited to run out and buy this book. However, I was a little disapointed when I actually read it. Weir seems to recycle much of her information from other books that she has written, mainly "The Six Wives" and "The Children" of Henry VIII.

Despite my disapointment, I gave this book 4 stars because if I had read neither of those books, I think I would have really enjoyed this one. As with all of Weir's books, it is chock full of information and extremely well written. Despite all the details, it is never boring. There is SOME new information in here, but I don't think that there is enough to merit a whole separate book.

If you have never read Weir, or are looking for a very good intro to life at a Tudor court, then this book is definately worth reading and I wholeheartedly recomend it. If you are already an old hand at Henry et. al., then you might want to skip this one and move on to another of Weir's books.

Rating:
Summary: Good on its own, repetative if you've read others
Review: As Alison Weir is one of my favourite authors, I was very excited to run out and buy this book. However, I was a little disapointed when I actually read it. Weir seems to recycle much of her information from other books that she has written, mainly "The Six Wives" and "The Children" of Henry VIII.

Despite my disapointment, I gave this book 4 stars because if I had read neither of those books, I think I would have really enjoyed this one. As with all of Weir's books, it is chock full of information and extremely well written. Despite all the details, it is never boring. There is SOME new information in here, but I don't think that there is enough to merit a whole separate book.

If you have never read Weir, or are looking for a very good intro to life at a Tudor court, then this book is definately worth reading and I wholeheartedly recomend it. If you are already an old hand at Henry et. al., then you might want to skip this one and move on to another of Weir's books.

Rating:
Summary: A biography that lacks political understanding
Review: As the published reviews have said, this book is what it is: A detailed (even exhaustive) narrative of life at the court of Henry VIII, but it leaves the reader wondering. Weir makes sense of Henry's successive marriages, and gives great detail into the social behavior of the time. She achieves some depth in discussing religion--Henry broke with Rome, but wasn't really much of a Protestant, it turns out. While the internal power struggles of the courtiers are interestingly narrated, the overall political picture remains a mystery. Henry invades France, Henry makes peace with France, he goes to war again--why? In sum, a rollicking beach book, but not for serious study.

Rating:
Summary: Usual HVIII Retread
Review: Have read 25+ books on the life of Henry and had high hopes for this book. This should be treated as a general primer on his life and nothing more. Lots of facts and details but offers little in providing understanding of how Henry's belief system shaped everything he did. Important subjects and milestones in his life are washed over. Henry Tudor was an incredibly complex man that believed in a hierarchial relationship that provided for contracts between God and King, King and lesser royalty, lesser royalty and landowners, landowners and mean men. It's absolutley critical to understand these relationships, in context with his religious beliefs, to gain an understanding of the king. Weir provides little explanation of these relationships and the events she describes. IMHO, the best book ever written on him is by Lacey Baldwin Smith, behind the mask of royalty. If you can find it, this book will provide you an incredibly deep view of the escense on Henry

Rating:
Summary: Weir disappoints
Review: Having read Ms. Weir's account of Eleanor of Aquitaine, I was looking forward to her account of Henry VIII and his court. I have rarely been so disappointed. I thought I was reading a book by a completely different author. Endless inventories of clothing and accessories; types of saddles; castle- and estate- swapping; numbers of lances broken in the tiltyard; and surrealistic valuations of materials and labour (the relative value scale was much different than it is today). The backgrounds to the elevations and descents of the English noble families are dealt with in a brusque manner, and the international relationships of the court with continental Europe are described in a shallow manner. The demise of Anne Boleyn is basically brushed off in one and a half pages, while Henry's bonhommie does not fit the brutal facts of the latter part of his reign. Finally, the foreign reader must be fairly familiar with the British Ordnance Surveys to fathom all the localities mentioned. Alison Weir has accumulated many facts (volumes!), but one never gets the feel for the actual people as one does in her excellent rendition of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Richard II and the rest of the plagued family. The Princes in the Tower was better but not up to Eleanor. Elizabeth I is at hand, and I open it with some trepidation. A pox on the other reviewers that recommended Henry VIII!