Immerse yourself in the Tudor saga with the historical fiction of bestselling author Philippa Gregory

Reviewed by Lisa Schureman 

When the movie The Other Boleyn Girl came out, I checked out the first book in Philippa Gregory’s Tudor series, The Constant Princess, expecting only a mildly interesting repackaging of the well-covered Tudor story.  Instead, I found myself a Philippa Gregory addict, eagerly delving into every installment in a well-researched series that manages to make history a page-turner. History buffs and fans of court intrigue will love the loads of historical detail. You can almost hear the swish of silks as the folks that people these novels pass through palace corridors.  

The Constant Princess brings to life the story of Henry VIII’s first wife, Catharine of Aragon, her childhood in Spain and grooming to become Princess of Wales and Queen of England, and her life as first Prince Arthur’s wife and later wife to Henry VIII of England.    

In The Other Boleyn Girl, Catharine’s failure to produce a male heir leads to her increasing marital vulnerability, and the scheming Duke of Norfolk pushes first one Boleyn niece, Mary, into Henry ’s path (and bed) and then another, the ill-fated Anne Boleyn, onto the throne. During the time that the movie was in theatres, Realm magazine verified that Mary’s children were in fact Henry VIII’s.  Unfortunately, her sister Anne’s failure to provide a legitimate son ultimately ends with her own and her family’s downfall.  

The Boleyn Inheritance chronicles Jane Seymour’s brief life as Henry’s third wife, Anne of Cleves’ subsequent disastrous marriage to Henry, how she escaped the union, and why she decided to remain in England.  The tale ends as the Duke of Norfolk pushes yet another niece, Catherine Howard, to the fore as candidate for queen—with consequences as disastrous for his family as Anne’s brief reign brought. 

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The Queen’s Fool  tells the story of Henry’s heirs through the eyes of Hannah, a Jewish girl with second sight, who joins young King Edward’s household as his holy fool. At Edward’s early death, Hannah becomes fool and companion to Mary Tudor (history’s Bloody Mary) and witness to Mary’s unfortunate marriage to Philip of Spain and turbulent relationship with her half-sister Elizabeth.  The Virgin’s Lover spans the early years of Elizabeth I’s reign and her nearly disastrous relationship with the married Robert Dudley.  Finally, The Other Queen, focuses on Mary Queen of Scots’ imprisonment by the George Talbot, Earl of Shewsbury, who falls in love with Mary, in spite of his loyalty to his wife, a devoted spy for Queen Elizabeth.  

The White Queen tells the story of Lancastrian widow (and commoner) Lady Elizabeth Grey’s secret marriage to Yorkist King Edward IV—a marriage that shook the foundations of politics in her day, causing months of negotiations for a suitable French-English marital alliance to go down the drain. While Elizabeth is perhaps best known as the mother of the Princes in the Tower, later murdered either by their uncle, Richard III, or by Henry VII, her own life is as fraught with intrigue, court politics, rumor, and scandal as any before or since. The White Queen is the first in projected new series set during England’s War of the Roses—and I’ll eagerly be awaiting their publications.

Lisa Schureman is the Interlibrary Loan Specialist for Kitsap Regional Library