Tudor: The Family Story

UK historian de Lisle (The Sisters Who Would Be Queen) takes an expansive view of her topic, covering the Tudors from the supposed marriage of Henry V's widow, the dowager queen Catherine of Valois, to modest squire Owen Tudor (grandparents to Henry VII) to the last days of Elizabeth I.The book's subtitle is particularly apt as de Lisle makes significant efforts to touch on all members of the Tudor family and gives substantial attention to oft-overlooked figures such as Margaret Tudor, Henry VIII's sister, and her daughter, Margaret Douglas. While not eschewing the importance of the era's religious conflicts, de Lisle gives the matter less foregrounding than Ackroyd, balancing it with issues such as the Tudor struggle to establish royal legitimacy. As a result of the title's scope, however, the treatment of several subjects is somewhat abbreviated, particularly in the last third of the book.