Dvě Katherine, dva příběhy, prakticky stejný osud. Z počátku se může shoda jmen "hlavních hrdinek" zdát matoucí, ale už jen to, že kapitoly Katherine Plantagenetové jsou psány er-formou, zatímco Katherine Greyová píše svůj deník z pohledu svého, je brzy jasně oddělí. Knihy Weirové mě myslím nikdy...
4. 5 Stars. I couldn't put this book down. Having never read a book about Eleanor of Aquitaine before and only knowing she was the mother of Richard the Lionheart and evil King John of the Robin Hood variety, I didn't know what to expect. I fell in love with Eleanor's fiery spirit, her sound poli...
Weir is well-known for her historical nonfiction; here she tries her hand at fiction and the results are...less enthralling. I don't even really mind, as some reviewers do, that sex is a primary motivator for most of the characters (it always has been!)--but Weir doesn't really have a gift for ...
ISBN? - 9780099542285General Subject/s? - History / Executions / Tudors / Wars of the Roses / Sixteenth CenturyTitle? - This book is a very short introduction to the most famous executions that happened in the Tower of London.General Analysis? - A very very very short introduction. It literally j...
"En Ma Fingit Mon CommencementIn my end is my BeginningMary had this saying embroidered on her cloth of estate while in prison in England.Mary was 6 days old when her father died and she was crowned Queen of the Scots. At age 15 she married Francis, dauphin of France, and he ascended the throne ...
Alison Weir’s book is just fantastic. Instead of applying today’s moral standards, today’s laws, rules, views etc. onto the events that happened almost five hundred years ago Weir, at the beginning of her book, gives such a detailed outline of what life was really like back then. She talks about ...
Although I wouldn’t say I’m a “Tudor Expert” (okay maybe I would); I do like to think I am well-versed on the topic. I first read Alison Weir’s “The Children of Henry VIII” almost a decade ago before I was as acquainted with the Tudor dynasty. Although both are far different experiences, re-read...
Before I began this review I want to comment on the interview with the author located in the back section of the book. As a student and teacher of history I think it is obvious that there seems to be people in the history profession whose sole mission in life is to make history a boring topic. Th...
Alison Weir is most well-known as an author of historical nonfiction, and Innocent Traitor was her first attempt at a novel. Well. I haven’t read anything else of Weir’s nonfiction or otherwise, but I can certainly say that Weir put the “fiction” in historical fiction with this book. That, probab...
Isabella of France, queen of England (c.1295-1358), has been unjustly vilified down the centuries as ‘the She-Wolf of France’ and condemned as wicked and unnatural by writers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries incensed that a woman could rebel against her lawfully wedded spouse. Now...
It’s probably not a good idea to approach a book of medieval history with high entertainment expectations. Life in twelfth-century Europe? A grim, relentless grind of war, disease, famine (or food so bad famine’s almost preferable) and unquestioning obedience to God, king, overlord, husband—even ...
The Princes in the Tower / B007I5QO50I am very fond of Alison Weir's histories, and have an interest in the Princes in the Tower, so I expected to enjoy this historical account, even knowing that it is several years old now (and now somewhat out of date since Richard III's bones have been disinte...
Interestingly, this is the first time I've read a history book that's just about Elizabeth. Considering how much I've already read about her parents and their lives, I thought it was weird that I didn't actually know that much about Elizabeth's life after her parents died. This was a really good ...
I have always been drawn to the histories and biographies written by Alison Weir. She is a specialist in late-Medieval/Enlightenment English history. I decided to read this book because I realized that I had very little knowledge about the Wars of the Roses and I wanted to learn more after watc...
Following the tremendous success of her first novel, Innocent Traitor, which recounted the riveting tale of the doomed Lady Jane Grey, acclaimed historian and New York Times bestselling author Alison Weir turns her masterly storytelling skills to the early life of young Elizabeth Tudor, who would...
"A Model of Virtue" France, according to John of Salisbury, was "of all nations, the sweetest and most civilised." The House of Capet had ruled the country since 987, when the feudal lord Hugh Capet had been elected King after the death of Louis V, the last monarch of the Carolingian dynasty, whi...
They found the house a smouldering heap of rubble, while in the orchard lay the dead bodies of Darnley, naked beneath his nightgown, and his valet, Taylor. Marks on their throats indicated that both had been strangled: certainly they were not killed by the explosion, which had perhaps been intend...
Elizabeth was appalled to hear it. The mother was that trollop Douglass Sheffield, whom she had rightly guessed was no better than she should be. The child had been christened with little fuss, but sufficient to warrant word of the event being bruited around the court, and the Queen had overheard...
MOTHER: Matilda of Flanders ( see here, under William I) SIBLINGS: ( see here, under William I). HENRY I Known as ‘Beauclerk’ or ‘the Lion of Justice’, he was born in September, 1068, at Selby, Yorkshire. He became Lord of Domfront in 1092, and Count of Coutances and Bayeu...
Unaware of my presence, they talk privily, those two, and she giggles, then Ned bows and goes on his way, leaving her flushed and smiling to herself. How could he? It is not to be borne! Have I waited these long years for Ned, only—with marriage at last in our sights—for him to forsake me for tha...
Conspiracies Dominic Mancini left England during the week after the coronation, and his account, sadly for us, ends there. He says that, before his departure, the Princes had 'ceased to appear altogether', and this is corroborated by every other source. Already, people were thinking and fearing t...
Henry had insisted on escorting his wife, warning her that the times were lawless and that his mailed fist stretched only so far. They traveled in hostile silence. Eleanor was in turmoil, resentful that her joy in her yearned-for return to Aquitaine as its rightful ruler had been ruined by the dr...
In October, the Queen was assigned £400 a year for the maintenance of her daughters. The King kept Christmas at Coventry, where it was noted that the Duke of Clarence ‘behaved in a friendly way’. Soon after Epiphany, ‘by means of secret friends’, Archbishop Neville persuad...