Nigel Jones

The puppet queen

Far from being a passive martyr, she was stubborn, imperious, a precocious scholar, a committed reformer — and might have been a great queen

issue 14 January 2017

It is easy to see why the bare century of the Tudor dynasty’s rule has drawn so much attention from contemporary women historians. Without breaking sweat, I can think of at least ten — four of whom garland this book with advance praise — who have written biographies or studies of the Welsh upstarts, leaving aside the acclaimed fictional efforts of Hilary Mantel.

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