I was looking for a comprehensive history of Henry's wives that also explored the diplomacy, religious issues, and politics surrounding this period of English history. While this was something that I studied back in my high school and college days, I only recalled the basics. I wanted to read something along those lines before our trip to Britain, but I had a difficult time finding something that wasn't too dry or too basic. I asked a few people "over the pond" and this book was one that was mentioned most often. It did fit my criteria and while it was highly researched and at times a bit dry, overall it gave me exactly what i was looking for. Details into why decisions were made, in the context of Henry and his quest for a son. I only had 2 major complaints:
(1) The focus was heavily weighted towards wives #1 and #2 (Catherine and Anne). Of the roughly 500 pages, maybe 375 were devoted to them - the other 4 wives were crammed into the final 100 pages or so. While I understand that in the context of major events in history, Catherine and Anne were much more important, I would have liked a bit more about the other wives.
(2) Perhaps to show how highly researched this work was, it didn't take long to get tired of reading where everyone was on specific days.... "On xx/yy/zzzz Henry was hunting with some Lord of wherever while his Queen (pick one) was moving from the court at (some castle) to a residence in xxxxxx-shire, only to join up with Henry 5 days later at the feast of (pick one) at the residence of whomever....". I picked up on that fact that the King and The Queen were rarely together, even when they were at the same location. And that the children were with neither. I also got tired of the descriptions of what the Queen was wearing for whatever special ceremony.
These are only minor quibbles - on the whole, the author made this whole period interesting without being too intellectual and gave me the background and back-stories that I was searching for.
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