First published 2014
The Tudor dynasty begins not with Henry VIII's famous reign but in the shadows of medieval Wales, where an ordinary man named Owen Tudor tumbles into Queen Catherine's life and bed. Leanda de Lisle traces the family's complete arc from these humble Welsh roots through the courage of thirteen-year-old Margaret Beaufort, pregnant and determined to secure her bloodline's future. The narrative follows Henry VII's painful childhood exile, reveals why the princes in the Tower had to disappear, and exposes the remarkable women who shaped the dynasty's survival. De Lisle reexamines Mary's bloody reign and Elizabeth's complex relationships with her cousins, showing how past traumas and ambitions drove each generation. Religious upheaval and political conspiracies threaten the family at every turn, but their flamboyant determination to protect their bloodline drives them forward through a violent and unstable world.
Genres: historical, historical-fiction, biography-memoir, historical-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: family-secrets, survival
Setting: Wales, Tower
Period: Medieval, Tudor
577 pages · ebook · PublicAffairs