The Tudor Court Series by Phillippa Gregory

Hi, my name is Lindsey, and I have an addiction. It's absolutely nonsensical, and could only be explained by some past life shenanigans. I am obsessed with the Tudors. Not the show, but the real, once-living people from history. Thankfully, good historical novels like Gregory's exist to supplement my imagination with how they really were.

Kinda wanna get their crest as a tattoo, not gonna lie.

I cannot begin to tell you how many times I could reread this series. Gregory has this way of bringing history to life and her characters become deep and tangible. She handles the whole Henry VIII wife fiasco from the female perspective, but not Anne Boleyn's; instead, in The Other Boleyn Girl, she approaches the tale from Anne's sister Mary Boleyn's POV. By doing that, readers know a new scale of King Henry, from the beginning of his monarchy when he was stable, to post-Anne, after he was driven crazy with insecurity.

The Other Boleyn Girl with Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson was a must-see, if for nothing else to see Johansson's incredible performance. Portman (one of my favorite actresses) did a good Anne, but I didn't think she was mystifying enough somehow. I also didn't like Eric Bana as Henry because he wasn't boisterous enough for me. But still, watch it.

However, my favorite Gregory book (so far) has to be The Constant Princess which is the story of when Catherine of Aragon first came to England. It also touches upon her childhood in Spain and her brief marriage to Henry's older brother Arthur. My admiration for this queen can't be overstated- she had so many miscarriages and tragedies, but through it all she understood that she had to be a ruler first and a human/woman second.

I went to Hampton Court palace in 2011 and found this list of all of Catherine's babies. 

She always turned her head from Henry's affairs because she knew she just needed to focus on providing England with an heir and being a good caretaker to her people. When she was ousted out of the monarchy, in my humble opinion, the whole thing went to crap.

Bitch was hardcore.

Part of Henry's divorce argument against her was that she was his sister biologically once she laid with his brother; she always retorted that she and Arthur had never had sex because he was too sickly. The Constant Princess reveals the 'true' details of Catherine and Arthur's relationship.

Next, The Boleyn Inheritance tackles the messy web of all of Henry's other wives:

The major fangirl in me feels that these should have been books in their own right, but maybe Gregory's publishers thought the series wouldn't survive through a book all about Anne of Cleves, boring German that she was. Or maybe the author was already moving onto her other bestselling series The Cousins' War.

Total tally...

Either way, all 4 final women are given their own sections of the book, detailing their entrance into the role of queen and, inevitably, their exits. Interestingly, Gregory shows us the complicated switches from Jane Rochford's POV, Anne's sister-in-law who testified against the Harlot and her brother. Whether she is redeemed or not depends on what the reader decides.

Finally, The Other Queen talks about one of the most disputed instances of regicides: the death of Queen Mary of Scots. This is another historical figure I'm very interested in, because she's another who owns that title granted to few women- queen in her own right. Her death was a very hard order that Elizabeth I agonized over; what would it mean for 'sister queens' (in reality, cousins) to suddenly start killing each other off? However the Catholic-Protestant divide in England was too great, and Mary died. Gregory's book has Mary writing the true motivations and forces behind her tumultuous international rule the night before she is executed. This book in the series wasn't as good as the others, to me, because I felt like it was rushed and doesn't have the juicy details like in The Constant Princess or The Other Boleyn Girl. However, it was still well-worth the read.

Ironically she's buried right down the hall from her noble cousin.

Gregory does everything I think a writer should and more. She does accurate research, undoubtedly from spending hours and days and weeks digging into obscure details on the legislation and daily lives of people in Tudor England. Though the whole point of historical fiction is to embellish upon truth, Gregory's spin on Tudor England is just as believable as the real thing. I urge you to go get lost in one of these excellent books as soon as possible!

If I grew up to write just like her, that wouldn't be a bad thing.

NOTE: Just realized I haven't read the fourth and fifth books in The Tudor Court series, The Queen's Fool and The Virgin's Lover. I will get on that right away!

UPDATE: I just finished The Queen's Fool and found it definitely worth my time. The protagonist experiences profound growth from adolescence to adulthood and gives new insight into Queen Mary I a.k.a. Bloody Mary. She also has a modern sense of feminism in a 16th century world, but eventually reconciles wifehood with her independence. One doesn't have to obsessed with the Tudors to be into this book; it also involves the Inquisition, Judaism, and espionage. Well done, Gregory!