Stories of the Tudors

This podcast is the third of a series of three looking at the life of Queen Elizabeth the first, and I’m exploring the myths and rumours surrounding the life of Queen Elizabeth, England’s ‘Gloriana’ – the virgin queen who reigned England and Ireland for 44 years.

In this podcast we take a look behind the familiar façade, to see what Elizabeth was really like.

My book, Drake - Tudor Corsair is available from Amazon in paperback and eBook

This podcast is the second of a series of three looking at the life of Queen Elizabeth the first, and I’m exploring the myths and rumours surrounding the life of Queen Elizabeth, England’s ‘Gloriana’ – the virgin queen who reigned England and Ireland for 44 years.

This podcast is the first of a series of three looking at the life of Queen Elizabeth the first, and is an introduction to the key events of Elizabeth’s life. 

I’ll be looking at Elizabeth’s challenging childhood, her teenage years, how she ended up imprisoned in the Tower of London,  and why she spent most of her reign in fear of assassination. 

The next podcast explores the myths and legends which surround the last Tudor queen, and the third will look behind the familiar façade, to see what Elizabeth was really like.

For more information please see my website www.tonyriches.com

Attractive, wealthy and influential, and a favourite of King Henry VIII, Katherine Willoughby knew all his six wives, his daughters Mary and Elizabeth, and his son Edward, so how did this daughter of a proud Catholic become a champion of religious reform and risk her life for the Protestant cause when Queen Mary Tudor came to the throne?

My book Katherine - Tudor Duchess is available in eBook, paperback and audiobook editions from Amazon UK and Amazon US

Catherine Parr, the sixth and last wife of Henry VIII, is popularly known as the wife who 'survived', but why did Henry choose her, and how did she feel about becoming his queen? 

Although her story lacks the tragic romance of Anne Boleyn, the scandal of Catherine Howard, or the politics surrounding the life of Anne of Cleves, I hope to show that Catherine Parr was the cleverest of Henry VIII's six wives.

Historian Elizabeth Norton, in her book on Catherine Parr says, ‘the woman who would become the sixth and last queen of Henry VIII was born into a prominent, but not royal family, and during her childhood, Catherine can never have dreamt of the future that lay in store for her.’

Katherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII, reigned as queen from the 28th of  July 1540 to the 22nd of  November 1541, and is often described as naive at best, at worst wanton and reckless. As always, the truth is more complex, and in this podcast we’ll explore the known facts.

In this podcast I’ll be looking at the life of the fourth wife of Henry VIII, Anna of Cleves. I had to research her story for my new book, Katherine Tudor Duchess, about Katherine Willoughby, who was the senior lady sent by King Henry, with her husband Charles Brandon, to welcome Anna when she first arrived in England. The shortest reigning of all Henry’s  queens, Anna of Cleves outlived them all.

Jane Seymour, the third wife of King Henry VIII, is often portrayed as being shy and even boring and described as the opposite of Anne Boleyn, passive and introvert, but of course the truth is far more complex.

Her short reign was during the often chaotic events of the reformation, and she must have struggled with her conscience as a devout Catholic when the Church of England was established.

One chronicler of the time said Jane Seymour was the most beautiful of all Henry’s wives, noting that when she donned her queenly regalia no woman was more beautiful - while others described her as pale and unattractive. Which is likely to be true?

We think we know a lot about Anne Boleyn, but even the familiar portrait of her has been challenged as a good likeness – and it’s not certain what year she was born in. Her enemies delighted in stories about her being a witch who’d used unfair means to entrance poor King Henry VIII. To the supporters of Henry’s first wife, Catherine of Aragon, she bewitched Henry VIII away from his true wife and the true religion of Catholicism. To her supporters, she was an intelligent, cultured and graceful lady with great drive and ambition.

When Henry VIII married Catherine, she was an auburn-haired beauty in her twenties with a passion she had inherited from her parents, Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon, the joint-rulers of Spain.

This daughter of conquistadors showed the same steel and King Henry was to learn, to his cost, that he had not met a tougher opponent on or off the battlefield when he tried to divorce her.