The Tudor Chronicles: 1485-1603 (2008) - Plot & Excerpts
An absolute must-read for anyone interested in the Tudor Dynasty. This book is physically enormous, and contains beautiful full color pictures of maps, portraits, and other artifacts from the time period. I loved how it went year-to-year with events, separating each monarch in their own section. It's the quintessential larger-than-life book chronicling the larger-than-life monarchs that have only gotten more prominent in the 450 years since they reigned. This is a book I would most certainly recommend to anyone who has an interest in the Tudor period of English history. This book is defiantly a keeper and a brilliant reference for Tudor history. Within these pages Susan Doran basically covers the reigns of Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth 1 – the Tudor period from 1485 – 1603. (She very briefly touches on Lady Jane Grey).The downside of this book is that trying to cover a one hundred and eighteen year period makes it difficult to include a lot of detail – and detail is what this book lacks. While the book outlines a basic skeleton of each year of these amazing Tudor monarchs it is unable to go into any great detail about the events that transpired each passing year. Doran gives us a framework in which, as a Tudor fan, I am encouraged to go out and research more about the happenings she briefly mentions. I think it is a wonderful platform to step up from, to start learning about the Tudor period. I would defiantly recommend this book to anyone just learning about the Tudor reign as there are so many interesting moments and people and you can use this information to go out and learn more.What I find absolutely captivating about this book is not so much the textual content but the incredible imagery. This book is filled, from the front cover right through to the back cover, with the most amazing, beautiful and interesting portraits, images, paintings, images of coins, medallions, artefacts, clothing etc. etc. right throughout 1485 – 1603. The images within these pages are what make this book a must have piece on anyone’s bookshelf! Every single page contains an image, portrait, painting, piece of literature taken directly from the Tudor period. Some of these images, portraits, paintings, medallions etc. are over five hundred years old and utterly breathtaking! The images are large and perfectly printed giving so much intricate detail that I found myself pausing and staring at a portrait or manuscript for long periods of time! Nearly all of the people that Susan Doran mentioned within the book have portraits and they are included so that as you read you can see just who the people were as well as reading a little about them.Doran doesn’t just include English references, she includes portraits from people all over Europe – Kings, Queens, Religious members, manuscripts, books – stunning images from all sorts of people who played a role in the period of the Tudors.I utterly LOVED this book, and although the text is not very detailed, the extraordinary amount of images, portraits, manuscripts, letters etc. etc. included within the pages more than makes up for the lack of detail. I would most certainly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the Tudor period. It is a great resource and more so that it gives you a complete and extensive collection of imagery during the Tudor period. It is a rather expensive book (actually very expensive!) but if you can buy it I would most certainly recommend you do, it’s a brilliant resource for any Tudor fan!
What do You think about The Tudor Chronicles: 1485-1603 (2008)?
This book is so informative. I love all of it, and the pictures are beautiful.
—Naeem
