Leanda de Lisle's Books

Tudor

The Family Story

By: Leanda de Lisle

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Sunday Times bestseller A Telegraph Book of the Year A History Today Book of the Year A BBC History Magazine Book of the Year The Tudors are a national obsession; they are our most notorious family in history. But beyond the well-worn headlines is a family still more extraordinary than the one we thought we knew. The Tudor canon typically starts with the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, before speeding on to Henry VIII and the Reformation. But this leaves out the family's obscure Welsh origins; it passes by the courage of the pregnant thirteen-year-old girl who would help found the Tudor dynasty; and the childhood and painful exile of her son, the future Henry VII. It ignores the fact that the Tudors were shaped by their past - those parts they wished to remember and those they wished to forget. With this background, Leanda de Lisle enables us to see the Tudors in their own terms and presents new perspectives and revelations on key figures and events, from the princes in the Tower to the Tudor Queens. Tudor tells a family story like no other.

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564

Publisher

Random House

Published Date

ISBN 10

009955528X

ISBN 13

9780099555285

The Sisters Who Would Be Queen

Mary, Katherine, and Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Tragedy

By: Leanda de Lisle

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The Sisters Who Would Be Queen

Mary, Katherine, and Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Tragedy

By: Leanda de Lisle

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Leanda de Lisle brings the story of nine days’ queen Lady Jane Grey and her forgotten sisters, the rivals of Elizabeth I, to vivid life in her fascinating biography.”—Philippa Gregory Mary, Katherine, and Jane Grey–sisters whose mere existence nearly toppled a kingdom and altered a nation’s destiny–are the captivating subjects of Leanda de Lisle’s new book. The Sisters Who Would Be Queen breathes fresh life into these three young women, who were victimized in the notoriously vicious Tudor power struggle and whose heirs would otherwise probably be ruling England today. Born into aristocracy, the Grey sisters were the great-granddaughters of Henry VII, grandnieces to Henry VIII, legitimate successors to the English throne, and rivals to Henry VIII’s daughters, Mary and Elizabeth. Lady Jane, the eldest, was thrust center stage by greedy men and uncompromising religious politics when she briefly succeeded Henry’s son, the young Edward I. Dubbed “the Nine Days Queen” after her short, tragic reign from the Tower of London, Jane has over the centuries earned a special place in the affections of the English people as a “queen with a public heart.” But as de Lisle reveals, Jane was actually more rebel than victim, more leader than pawn, and Mary and Katherine Grey found that they would have to tread carefully in order to avoid sharing their elder sister’s violent fate. Navigating the politics of the Tudor court after Jane’ s death was a precarious challenge. Katherine Grey, who sought to live a stable life, earned the trust of Mary I, only to risk her future with a love marriage that threatened Queen Elizabeth’s throne. Mary Grey, considered too petite and plain to be significant, looked for her own escape from the burden of her royal blood–an impossible task after she followed her heart and also incurred the queen’s envy, fear, and wrath. Exploding the many myths of Lady Jane Grey’s life, unearthing the details of Katherine’s and Mary’s dramatic stories, and casting new light on Elizabeth’s reign, Leanda de Lisle gives voice and resonance to the lives of the Greys and offers perspective on their place in history and on a time when a royal marriage could gain a woman a kingdom or cost her everything.

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Page Count

385

Publisher

Ballantine Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

0345516680

ISBN 13

9780345516688

Tudor

Passion. Manipulation. Murder. The Story of EnglandÕs Most Notorious Royal Family

By: Leanda de Lisle

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Tudor

Passion. Manipulation. Murder. The Story of EnglandÕs Most Notorious Royal Family

By: Leanda de Lisle

The Tudors are England’s most notorious royal family. But, as Leanda de Lisle’s gripping new history reveals, they are a family still more extraordinary than the one we thought we knew. The Tudor canon typically starts with the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, before speeding on to Henry VIII and the Reformation. But this leaves out the family’s obscure Welsh origins, the ordinary man known as Owen Tudor who would fall (literally) into a Queen’s lap—and later her bed. It passes by the courage of Margaret Beaufort, the pregnant thirteen-year-old girl who would help found the Tudor dynasty, and the childhood and painful exile of her son, the future Henry VII. It ignores the fact that the Tudors were shaped by their past—those parts they wished to remember and those they wished to forget. By creating a full family portrait set against the background of this past, de Lisle enables us to see the Tudor dynasty in its own terms, and presents new perspectives and revelations on key figures and events. De Lisle discovers a family dominated by remarkable women doing everything possible to secure its future; shows why the princes in the Tower had to vanish; and reexamines the bloodiness of Mary’s reign, Elizabeth’s fraught relationships with her cousins, and the true significance of previously overlooked figures. Throughout the Tudor story, Leanda de Lisle emphasizes the supreme importance of achieving peace and stability in a violent and uncertain world, and of protecting and securing the bloodline. Tudor is bristling with religious and political intrigue but at heart is a thrilling story of one family’s determined and flamboyant ambition.

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578

Publisher

Public Affairs

Published Date

ISBN 10

1610393635

ISBN 13

9781610393638

The Sisters who Would be Queen

The Tragedy of Mary, Katherine & Lady Jane Grey

By: Leanda De Lisle

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The Sisters who Would be Queen

The Tragedy of Mary, Katherine & Lady Jane Grey

By: Leanda De Lisle

The dramatic untold story of the three tragic Grey sisters, all heirs to the Tudor throne, all victims to their royal blood.

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109

Publisher

HarperCollins UK

Published Date

ISBN 10

0007219059

ISBN 13

9780007219056

The White King

Charles I, Traitor, Murderer, Martyr

By: Leanda de Lisle

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The White King

Charles I, Traitor, Murderer, Martyr

By: Leanda de Lisle

From the New York Times bestselling author and master of narrative nonfiction comes the tragic story of Charles I, his warrior queen, Britain's civil wars and the trial for his life. Less than forty years after England's golden age under Elizabeth I, the country was at war with itself. Split between loyalty to the Crown or to Parliament, war raged on English soil. The English Civil War would set family against family, friend against friend, and its casualties were immense--a greater proportion of the population died than in World War I. At the head of the disintegrating kingdom was King Charles I. In this vivid portrait -- informed by previously unseen manuscripts, including royal correspondence between the king and his queen -- Leanda de Lisle depicts a man who was principled and brave, but fatally blinkered. Charles never understood his own subjects or court intrigue. At the heart of the drama were the Janus-faced cousins who befriended and betrayed him -- Henry Holland, his peacocking servant whose brother, the New England colonialist Robert Warwick, engineered the king's fall; and Lucy Carlisle, the magnetic 'last Boleyn girl' and faithless favorite of Charles's maligned and fearless queen. The tragedy of Charles I was that he fell not as a consequence of vice or wickedness, but of his human flaws and misjudgments. The White King is a story for our times, of populist politicians and religious war, of manipulative media and the reshaping of nations. For Charles it ended on the scaffold, condemned as a traitor and murderer, yet lauded also as a martyr, his reign destined to sow the seeds of democracy in Britain and the New World.

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424

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PublicAffairs

Published Date

ISBN 10

1610395611

ISBN 13

9781610395618

After Elizabeth

The Rise of James of Scotland and the Struggle for the Throne of England

By: Leanda de Lisle

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After Elizabeth

The Rise of James of Scotland and the Struggle for the Throne of England

By: Leanda de Lisle

“[Leanda] De Lisle brilliantly captures the atmosphere of dangerous uncertainty and furtive intrigue that characterized the last years of Elizabeth’s reign.”—The Sunday Telegraph (London) “Exciting and exacting . . . No fictional characters, of film or novel, can match the reality of the participants in this fascinating historical drama.”—The Wall Street Journal December 1602. After forty-four years on the throne, Queen Elizabeth is in decline. The kingdom is also waning, weakened by the cost of war with Spain and the simmering discontent of both the rich and the poor. The stage has been set, at long last, for succession. But the Queen who famously never married has no heir. Elizabeth’s senior relative is James VI of Scotland, Protestant son of Elizabeth’s cousin Mary Queen of Scots. But as a foreigner and a Stuart, he is excluded under English law from the throne. The road to and beyond his coronation will be filled with conspiracy and duplicity, personal betrayals, and political upheavals. Bringing history vibrantly to life, Leanda de Lisle unfurls a rich tapestry of scenes and players: As the Queen nears the end, we witness the scheming of her courtiers for the candidates of their choice; blood-soaked infighting among the Catholic clergy as they struggle to survive in the face of persecution; the widespread fear that civil war, invasion, or revolution will follow the monarch’s death; and the signs, portents, and ghosts that seem to mark her end. Here, too, are the surprising and, to some, dismaying results of James’s ascension and the lasting historical implications of this crucial period in British history. Leanda de Lisle’s keenly modern view of this tumultuous time gives us intimate insights into the political power plays and psychological portraits relevant to our own era. After Elizabeth is a unique look at a pivotal year, and a dazzling debut by an exciting new historian.

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Page Count

386

Publisher

Ballantine Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

0345450469

ISBN 13

9780345450463

Henrietta Maria

The Warrior Queen Who Divided a Nation

By: Leanda de Lisle

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Henrietta Maria

The Warrior Queen Who Divided a Nation

By: Leanda de Lisle

Dispelling the myths around this legendary queen, this biography of Henrietta Maria, queen consort of King Charles I, retells the dramatic story of the English Civil War from the perspective of this dynamic woman. Henrietta Maria is British history’s most reviled queen consort. Condemned in her lifetime as the "Popish brat of France,” an adulteress, and a traitor, she remains in popular memory the wife who wore the breeches in her marriage, the woman who turned her husband Catholic (and so caused the English Civil War), and a cruel and bigoted mother. This clear-eyed biography unpicks the myths and considers the story from Henrietta Maria's point of view. A portrait emerges of a woman whose closest friends included Puritans as well as Catholics, who crossed swords with Cardinal Richelieu, and led the anti-Spanish faction at the English court. A witty conversationalist, Henrietta Maria was a patron of the arts and a champion of the female voice, as well as a mediatrix for her persecuted fellow Catholics. During the civil war, the queen's enemies agreed that Charles would never have survived as long as he did without the "She Generalissimo." Seeing events through her gaze reveals the truth behind the claims that she caused the war, explains her estrangement from her son Henry, and diminishes the image of the Restoration queen as an irrelevant crone. In fact, Henrietta Maria rose from the ashes of her husband's failures—a "phoenix queen”—presiding over a court judged to have had "more mirth” even than that of the Merry Monarch, Charles II. It is time to look again at this often-criticized queen and determine if she is not, in fact, one of British history's most remarkable women.

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Page Count

325

Publisher

Simon and Schuster

Published Date

ISBN 10

1639362819

ISBN 13

9781639362813

After Elizabeth

The Rise of James of Scotland and the Struggle for the Throne of England

By: Leanda de Lisle

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After Elizabeth

The Rise of James of Scotland and the Struggle for the Throne of England

By: Leanda de Lisle

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Page Count

386

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Ballantine Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

0345450469

ISBN 13

9780345450463

The Sisters who Would be Queen

The Tragedy of Mary, Katherine and Lady Jane Grey

By: Leanda De Lisle

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The Sisters who Would be Queen

The Tragedy of Mary, Katherine and Lady Jane Grey

By: Leanda De Lisle

Lady Jane Grey is an icon of innocence abused. Remembered as the 'Nine Days Queen', she has been mythologized as a child-woman sacrificed to political expedience. But behind the legend lies the dramatic untold story of Lady Jane Grey and her two sisters, all heirs to the Tudor throne, and all victims to their royal blood.

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528

Published Date

ISBN 10

1407440276

ISBN 13

9781407440279

The White King

Charles I, Traitor, Murderer, Martyr

By: Leanda de Lisle

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The White King

Charles I, Traitor, Murderer, Martyr

By: Leanda de Lisle

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Page Count

424

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PublicAffairs

Published Date

ISBN 10

1610395611

ISBN 13

9781610395618

Henrietta Maria

The Warrior Queen Who Divided a Nation

By: Leanda de Lisle

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Henrietta Maria

The Warrior Queen Who Divided a Nation

By: Leanda de Lisle

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Page Count

325

Publisher

Simon and Schuster

Published Date

ISBN 10

1639362819

ISBN 13

9781639362813

The Sisters Who Would Be Queen

Mary, Katherine, and Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Tragedy

By: Leanda de Lisle

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The Sisters Who Would Be Queen

Mary, Katherine, and Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Tragedy

By: Leanda de Lisle

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Page Count

385

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Ballantine Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

0345516680

ISBN 13

9780345516688

After Elizabeth: The Death of Elizabeth and the Coming of King James (Text Only)

By: Leanda de Lisle

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After Elizabeth: The Death of Elizabeth and the Coming of King James (Text Only)

By: Leanda de Lisle

Family trees are best viewed on a tablet. A brilliant history of the succession of James I of England, and the shifting power and lethal politics that brought him to the throne.

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Page Count

367

Publisher

HarperCollins UK

Published Date

ISBN 10

000739439X

ISBN 13

9780007394395

Book's by Leanda de Lisle

Tudor

Tudor

The Sisters Who Would Be Queen

The Sisters Who Would Be Queen

Tudor

Tudor

The Sisters who Would be Queen

The Sisters who Would be Queen

The White King

The White King

After Elizabeth

After Elizabeth

Henrietta Maria

Henrietta Maria

After Elizabeth

After Elizabeth

The Sisters who Would be Queen

The Sisters who Would be Queen

The White King

The White King

Henrietta Maria

Henrietta Maria

The Sisters Who Would Be Queen

The Sisters Who Would Be Queen

After Elizabeth: The Death of Elizabeth and the Coming of King James (Text Only)

After Elizabeth: The Death of Elizabeth and the Coming of King James (Text Only)

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