The Tudor Queens Book Tag: The Six Different Wives Of King Henry VIII!
A few weeks ago, while scrolling my tablet and reading, I came across an article titled Tudors Book Tag, and was quite thrilled while reading it. What a fun and charming Idea! So today’s post is my own Tudor Book Tag where I am focusing on all of King Henry VIII’S wives. He had six marriages.
The Tudor Books Tag idea is quite hilarious too me. I picked six different books that in my eyes matched each of the six queens. We have Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr. Each with surprising and unique stories that cross over.
If everyone enjoys these one, then I may do other Tudor royals such as Edward VI, Lady Jane Grey, Mary Tudor, Elizabeth I, Mary, Queen of Scots, and several others. I encourage everyone to make their own Tudor Book Tag as well. Let’s make this a trend! What are your Tudor book tag picks?
KATHERINE OF ARAGON – A BOOK THAT WAS YOUR FIRST LOVE
Katherine Of Aragon – A book That Was Your First Love:
Katherine Of Aragon was the first wife of Henry VIII. They were married from 1509–1533 before he “divorced” her and broke away from the Holy Roman Catholic Church in order to marry his second wife, Anne Boleyn.
For this first tag, readers need to pick a book that was their first love. I had a really hard time trying to decide on which this was for me. I could have chosen The Giver by Lois Lowry or When Hitler Stole My Pink Rabbit.
These two books definitely hold a special place in my heart and are the reason for my love of history and reading; however, I have discussed both of them before and if I am being one-hundred percent honest with myself, there is only one book and one author I can ever claim to be a first true love.
The first author I ever became devoted too is V.C Andrews. It all began with her novel Flowers In The Attic, which is book one of her very twisted Dollanganger series. Quite frankly, all of V.C Andrews and her novels are packed full of morbidity, drama, fatal love, and did I mention all the drama?
I was lucky that my mother didn’t give a flying hoot about what her young child was reading, I wouldn’t say that Andrews is wholesome reading for an impressionable thirteen year old preteen but how I devoured her books by the dozen. I believe it was actually my mother, god rest her soul, who actually turned me onto Andrews as an author. She had loved her too. It was something me and her bonded over when I was young. A true first love.
— BOOK SYNOPSIS —
At the top of the stairs there are four secrets hidden – blond, innocent, and fighting for their lives….
They were a perfect and beautiful family – until a heartbreaking tragedy shattered their happiness. Now, for the sake of an inheritance that will ensure their future, the children must be hidden away out of sight, as if they never existed. They are kept in the attic of their grandmother’s labyrinthine mansion, isolated and alone. As the visits from their seemingly unconcerned mother slowly dwindle, the four children grow ever closer and depend upon one another to survive both this cramped world and their cruel grandmother. A suspenseful and thrilling tale of family, greed, murder, and forbidden love, Flowers in the Attic is the unputdownable first novel of the epic Dollanganger family saga.
The Dollanganger series includes: Flowers in the Attic, Petals in the Wind, If There Be Thorns, Seeds of Yesterday, Garden of Shadows, Beneath the Attic, and Out of the Attic.
ANNE BOLEYN – A MANIPULATIVE CHARACTER
Anne Boleyn – A Manipulative Character:
I want to start this second tag by stating how much I resent ” A manipulative character” because I wholly disagree with that as a description for our dear Anne Boleyn. She was a firecracker but I don’t think this is a bad thing and she surely wasn’t a terrible person in any tangible way that matters.
Anne Boleyn was the second wife of Henry VIII, and the couple were married from 1533 to 1536 for only three short years before she was beheaded on false charges of adultery, incest, and witch-craft.
Now for this one, I have the perfect book and main character in mind. It is Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell. The reason I am choosing this beloved book is rather poetic. Anne Boleyn and Scarlett O’Hara are two peas in a pod if ask me. Scarlett was a girl led by the heart of Anne Boleyn.
Both women are often characterized as selfish, manipulative, spoiled, and many other questionable traits that are offensive. Here is the thing though, despite even some tiny truth to any of it (a discussion for another day) , I argue they shouldn’t be hated for it. They were flawed but lovely women.
Both are extremely confident, strong-willed, and powerful. I admire strong minded and disobedient women fighting in a man’s world. Feminist at their core willing to throw their reputations away for the things they wanted and felt they deserved. There isn’t a thing wrong with that. Heroes truly.
I also admire and love the growth you see Scarlet O’Hara undergo throughout the story. She was a spoiled brat but also the only one able to pick herself up and keep her entire family from starvation and save their planation after the civil war. She was wonder-women in a wartime world.
— BOOK SYNOPSIS —
Gone with the Wind, novel by Margaret Mitchell, published in 1936. It won a Pulitzer Prize in 1937. Gone with the Wind is a sweeping romantic story about the American Civil War from the point of view of the Confederacy.
In particular it is the story of Scarlett O’Hara, a headstrong Southern belle who survives the hardships of the war and afterward manages to establish a successful business by capitalizing on the struggle to rebuild the South.
Throughout the book she is motivated by her unfulfilled love for Ashley Wilkes, an honourable man who is happily married. After a series of marriages and failed relationships with other men, notably the dashing Rhett Butler, she has a change of heart and determines to win Rhett back.
JANE SEYMOUR – A BOOK THAT GAVE EVERYTHING YOU WANTED
Jane Seymour – A Book That Gave Everything You Wanted:
Ah where do I begin with boring obedient lovely Queen Jane. She gave everything to Henry VIII in their short marriage and should be admired. Sorry if I go ahead a take a nap… There isn’t much to say about her. She was too good for Henry. He would have mistreated her if she had lived longer.
Jane Seymour and Henry VIII were married for only one short year from 1536 to 1537 because she had the very bad luck of dying shortly after giving birth to King Henry VIII’s only legitimate son Edward VI of England.
This book tag is very accurate yet the book I want to choose for it is quite funny and ironic considering who the book is about. I have chosen Queen Of The Realm by Jean Plaidy. It is a book about Queen Elizabeth I of England, a Tudor queen herself. Elizabeth is the daughter of Henry and Anne Boleyn, and so it is a little silly to choose this for Jane’s book tag.
Yet here I am doing so.
The reason I have chosen Queen Of The Realm is because at the time of reading it, this novel delivered everything my reading heart needed and wanted in those moments. I was in a major book slump and struggling to find something to keep my interest when I stumbled upon this gem.
Jean Plaidy is an amazing historical fiction novelist and her stories are long, gripping, and well worth the time it takes to read them. The amount of entertainment I got from her book is beyond anything words can justify.
— BOOK SYSNOPSIS —
In this “memoir” by Elizabeth I, legendary historical novelist Jean Plaidy reveals the Virgin Queen as she truly was: the bewildered, motherless child of an all-powerful father; a captive in the Tower of London; a shrewd politician; a lover of the arts; and eventually, an icon of an era.
It is the story of her improbable rise to power and the great triumphs of her reign–the end of religious bloodshed, the settling of the New World, the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Brilliantly clever, a scholar with a ready wit, she was also vain, bold, and unpredictable, a queen who commanded–and won–absolute loyalty from those around her.
But in these pages, in her own voice, Elizabeth also recounts the emotional turmoil of her life: the loneliness of power; the heartbreak of her lifelong love affair with Robert Dudley, whom she could never marry; and the terrible guilt of ordering the execution of her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots. In this unforgettable novel, Elizabeth emerges as one of the most fascinating and controversial women in history, and as England’s greatest monarch.
ANNE OF CLEVES – A BOOK THAT WASN’T WHAT YOU EXPECTED
Anne Of Cleves – A Book That Wasn’t What You Expected:
Anne of Cleves is a winner. That is all that can be said. She was clever enough to survive marriage to Henry and an annulment that should have left her devastated. Instead, with a little wit, Anne managed to come out of it all not only being known as the king’s beloved “sister’ but also the richest women in England outliving both her ex-husband and all his other wives.
She is the true diamond in the rough out of the wives and my absolute favorite. Honestly, Anne of Cleves married Henry in 1540 and was free from his tyranny in under a year with her life and reputation well in tact.
The tag is self-explanatory. Henry didn’t expect what he found when he met his fourth wives. She was not too his liking and he didn’t take long to annul their marriage; however, Anne proved herself to be a friend to him in the end. Nothing turned out how Henry thought it would with this wife.
Unexpected, that word is why I have chosen The Selection By Kiera Cass. This is one of my favorite series but starting out, I didn’t find it to be the novel I was anticipating it to be at all. It was something else entirely.
A truly deep and smart witted dystopian book rich with history is what I found when I expected it to be more of a shallow YA story that would be quickly read and discarded. How very wrong I was. That was not the case
I was sucked in immediately. The main character America Singer is also a lot like Anne Of Cleves in how she handles tyrants and fights for a good life. America is not what the royal family had planned having in their home and she gives them a run for the money. It is quite great.
— BOOK SYNOPSIS —
Prepare to be swept into a world of breathless fairy-tale romance, swoonworthy characters, glittering gowns, and fierce intrigue perfect for readers who loved Divergent, Delirium, or The Wrath & the Dawn.
For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape a rigid caste system, live in a palace, and compete for the heart of gorgeous Prince Maxon. But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her, and competing for a crown she doesn’t want.
Then America meets Prince Maxon—and realizes that the life she’s always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined.
CATHERINE HOWARD – A BOOK THAT IRRITATED YOU
Catherine Howard – A Book That Irritated You:
A book that irritated you. I just don’t think this is a far tag for our queen Catherine Howard. She was only a child when she married Henry becoming his fifth wife. Henry and Katherine were married from 1540 until 1542.
She wasn’t even quite eighteen years old when Henry had her beheaded for adultery and treason after just two simple years of marriage. The irony is Catherine Howard was the cousin to Henry’s second wife Anne Boleyn, who also was executed on the orders of Henry after a short marriage.
It was difficult to pick a book for this tag because Howard does not irritate me. Her situation does but how can one hate a women who was abused throughout her life? So I decided to pick Outlander by Diane Gabaldon. The book does irritate me and I dislike it a lot especially with all the rape.
Outlander seems fitting for this tag because much like the world Catherine Howard grew up in, Outlander displays the grittier and crueler aspects of history. Humans have been significantly horrid to each other for all the ages and the world Howard lived in was nothing less than that.
— BOOK SYNOPSIS —
Unrivaled storytelling. Unforgettable characters. Rich historical detail. These are the hallmarks of Diana Gabaldon’s work. Her New York Times bestselling Outlander novels have earned the praise of critics and captured the hearts of millions of fans. Here is the story that started it all, introducing two remarkable characters, Claire Beauchamp Randall and Jamie Fraser, in a spellbinding novel of passion and history that combines exhilarating adventure with a love story for the ages.
Scottish Highlands, 1945. Claire Randall, a former British combat nurse, is just back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an “outlander”—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding clans in the year of Our Lord . . . 1743.
Claire is catapulted into the intrigues of a world that threatens her life, and may shatter her heart. Marooned amid danger, passion, and violence, Claire learns her only chance of safety lies in Jamie Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior. What begins in compulsion becomes urgent need, and Claire finds herself torn between two very different men, in two irreconcilable lives.
CATHERINE PARR – A BOOK PUBLISHED AFTER THE AUTHOR’S DEATH
Catherine Parr – A Book Published After The Author’s Death:
This one was hard for me because I can’t think of a single book that was posted after the authors death, and I am not counting authors whose estate hired writers to continue writing in their name like V.C Andrew’s family did.
No, I am talking work that they actually wrote and was published after they died and I am really coming up empty. This got me thinking about who Catherine Parr really was other than being King Henry’s sixth and final wife.
Parr above all else was a survivor in my opinion. She married Henry in 1543 and remained his wife until his death in 1547. Prior to this marriage, she had been married twice before, and then went on to marry again. This time to Thomas Seymour (the brother of Jane, Henry’s third wife).
For this tag, I am going with Watchers by Dean Koontz because there is a hardship, forced will, fragility, and tragic aspect to one of the main character, named Nora that really reminds me of Catherine Parr’s story.
Nora and Travis go through a lot of ordeals and yet manage to forge a special connection and find joy in what life is providing them throughout all the suffering they have gone through. This is a lot like Catherine.
— BOOK SYNOPSIS —
Travis Cornell, a former Delta Force operative, feels that his life has become pointless, and is exploring a canyon near his home when he encounters two genetically engineered creatures that have escaped from a top-secret government laboratory. One, a Golden Retriever with enhanced intelligence, befriends Travis; the other, a creature known as the Outsider, appears to be trying to kill the dog. After eluding the Outsider, Travis takes the dog home. On discovering the dog’s exceptional intelligence, he names him Einstein.
Later, he and Einstein find and rescue Nora Devon in a park, who was being pestered by a dangerous man, Arthur Streck. Together they form a trio.
Travis, Nora, and Einstein are soon on the run not only from the Outsider, but from federal agents, determined to track down the laboratory escapees, and Vince Nasco, a ruthless professional assassin, hired by Soviets to kill several human targets who carried knowledge of how to stop the Outsider, in order to further the destruction of the Outsider. He wants the dog to trade for a great sum of cash, alone, without any knowledge from the Soviets or others.
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This is quite a different way of doing book reviews! I agree with your assessment of Outlander … it could have been a fabulous book (& series) but I think the author has an axe to grind … men get raped as much (or more) than women do … white people were sold into slavery (this is in later books) … it’s really quite annoying & as far as the slavery issue is concerned, quite white supremacist politically. I couldn’t deal with it after a while.
Gone With The Wind is one of my very favorite books of all time & one of the most misunderstood books … because most people have never read it & confuse it with the movie, which is a mere knock-up of the novel.
Jean Plaidy is one of my very favorite authors. I discovered her when I was twelve years old. I have no less than FORTY-SEVEN of her books on my bookshelf, including Queen of This Realm.
I couldn’t stomach Outlander either. Never did manage to start book two. There was just too much horrible stuff occurring. Just didnt enjoy it.
Now I love Jean Plaidy and most finished her novel about Mary, Queen of Scots. It was fantastic. She just never disappoints!
Gone with the wind will always be a favorite. I read it once a year and then watch the film with Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh. Truly amazing stuff!
❤❤❤
Jane Seymour gets a raw deal. She did a very good job of reconciling Henry with both Elizabeth and Mary. And, when your predecessor has had her head chopped off, playing it safe and not getting involved in controversy is a wise course of action.
In some ways, she’s quite like Melanie Hamilton Wilkes. Melanie seems to be a quiet little mouse, but she’s actually anything but – she effectively becomes the leader of postbellum Atlanta society.
Oh I am loving the comparison so much! Melanie Wilkes is an excellent choice to match with Jane. I can see it so much!
I cannot argue with any you have said. She did his daughters justice and acted just as she should. Jane also was the one who gave Henry his greatest wish. A legitimate son to pass his throne too. She could have accomplished so much more to if she had been given the chance too.
Very clever idea of book tags! I read the Selection series not too long ago, it was definitely not what I expected it to be.
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Thank you for the reblog!
Reblogged this on Dave Does History*.
Thank you for the reblog!
Published after author’s death immediately suggested The Third Policeman to me. Weird and wonderful. Author Flann O’Brien died the year before publication. Could be filed under Surreal or Slipstream.
I’ve not read that one but sure sounds interesting. I will be looking to get my hands on it!
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