The Children of Henry VIII

Book Review by Jane
Joel recommended this book to me. It amazed me how detailed of an account could survive from the mid-1500s of these children. I imagine when it came to royalty, detailed records needed to be kept just in order to keep the lineage moving on. Still, it seems that so many of their flaws survived in this account. I guess since royalty was allowed to do as it pleased, they did not always bury the faults. For me, this book was a real page turner, as I was only vaguely familiar with this history. Soap operas could take some lessons from these siblings and their contemporaries—the soap opera would have to turn up the heat and pick up the pace to compete.

Reading historical accounts does a few things for its readers. One thing it does is makes you optimistic, as you begin to realize that as bad as things are on the evening news, you may rightly acknowledge that things may actually be getting better in the world. Another thing is it helps put your own shortcomings into perspective. If you can relate to these characters, you can learn from their mistakes instead of having to make them yourself. And in the case of this book, it is interesting.

This book made it clear that Mary was deluded into believing she was doing the right thing by having people burned at the stake for religious reasons, as these were Protestants and other religious heretics that were burned. When things didn’t go right, she thought she wasn’t pursuing the quest to burn more heretics diligently enough and was being punished by God. She also had to remove people in power before her in a violent way in order to continue. I always wondered who the ghastly Bloody Mary from my childhood slumber party stories actually was. This book details that person, and maybe gets the reader to believe that Mary really was put into a position where the persecutions were of her times and may have been difficult to avoid to a degree. They said she was actually a kind person. But the brutality of it all is unimaginable.

Although Edward VI dies before he is officially king, his short life is detailed here. He may have been a good king, had he lived. Elizabeth’s life as queen is not as detailed here, but she is contrasted to both Edward and Mary throughout.

Alison Weir has written other historical accounts of England, including The Six Wives of Henry VIII. She also wrote The Life of Elizabeth I, and many other titles. I’m putting them on hold at the library. Tracey will especially like this selection, as she has a strong interest in European history.

Jane.