Children of Henry VIII by Alison Weir (Review)

Children of Henry VIII by Alison Weir

also published as

Children of England: The Heirs of King Henry VIII 1547-1558

Blurb

At his death in 1547, King Henry VIII left four heirs to the English his only son, the nine-year-old Prince Edward; the Lady Mary, the adult daughter of his first wife, Catherine of Aragon; the Lady Elizabeth, the daughter of his second wife, Anne Boleyn, and his young great-niece, the Lady Jane Grey. These are the players in a royal drama that ultimate led to Elizabeth’s ascension to the throne–one of the most spectacularly successful reigns in English history.

Review

This is the second book I have read for nonfiction November and I will be honest I am actually loving all my nonfiction reading this month. 

This is one of Alison Weir’s earlier books and I could tell because her writing style is not quite the same as her newer books. It is still excellent but it lacks that special something that her other books have. I also would have liked modern equivalents of the monetary values like her newer books have.

The thing I liked a lot about this book is what I learned about Edward VI and Lady Jane Grey. I have never really bothered to learn about poor Edward’s reign as Elizabeth I has always been my favourite Tudor but I found him a fascinating character. I loved reading extracts from his diaries and letters in this book and I couldn’t quite believe how serious he was even as a young child. I also found it amusing how he takes on a fatherly role in his letters. He is a child still and yet he tries to look after and care for his sisters. 

Even though the book is titled Children of Henry VIII we get to learn about Lady Jane Grey. Again I didn’t know much about Lady Jane Grey other than she was wrongly used by those who should have protected her and her reign was a matter of days. I loved learning more about Lady Jane Grey but at the same time it was a heart breaking read. Her death was not her fault and should never have happened and her last days were just bleak. 

I did know quite a bit about Mary I but I did learn quite a bit about her that I didn’t know. Again I did find Mary’s story quite sad at times. Her desperation for a child and a loving husband were very devastating. Through no fault of her own she was not married at a younger age and when she eventually married her husband had no interest in her and just wanted the title of King and she never got the child she longed for. She was a godmother to so many children but never had the chance to have a child of her own. Mary also had a scarier side which we learn about but mainly I just found her to be a very sad character who was badly used and influenced by men. 

This was a brilliantly written book and the order was a perfect flow of chronological order of the reigns. I really liked reading how these figures from history interacted with each other, how they grew up and what they became. I give this book 4 out of 5 Dragons. 

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Purchase Links

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About the author

Alison Weir was born in 1951 and is a British writer of history books, and latterly historical novels, mostly in the form of biographies about British Royalty.

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