Episodes directed by: Steve Shill, Ciaran Donnelly, Brian Kirk, Alison Maclean, Charles McDougall
Cast: Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Henry Cavill, Natalie Dormer.

The Tudor dynasty began long before the events depicted in the HBO mini-series, The Tudors. In 1485 it was founded by Henry Tudor, the grandson of the Welsh courtier Owen Tudor, who had married the widow of King Henry V.

His somewhat shaky claim to the throne of England was through his mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, the great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt, third son of Edward III, and Gaunt's third wife Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster, who had borne him four illegitimate children-- John, Henry, Thomas and Joan--by the time they were married in 1396.

After the death of Richard III during the War of the Roses, Henry gained the throne himself in 1485 as Henry VII.

Henry’s heir, Arthur Tudor, married Katharine of Aragon, but tragically predeceased his father. Henry’s second son became King Henry VIII, marrying his brother’s widow. Immense controversy surrounds the question of whether or not Arthur and Catherine consummated their brief marriage, since the subsequent history of England and even of British Christianity was strongly influenced by the issue. Desperate to have a legitimate male heir, Henry VIII divorced Katharine in order to marry Anne Bolyen, but their union produced only one daughter before Anne was executed for treason. Henry was to marry six times. It was his thrid wife, Jane Seymour, who bore the next king of England, but died soon afterwards. The infant prince was the only male Tudor heir of his generation--he had two half-sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, and Henry VIII's sisters, Mary and Margaret, produced no sons.

Edward VI who became king at the age of nine. His short reign was dominated by nobles using the Regency to strengthen their own positions. Although he was influenced to name his cousin, Lady Jane Grey has his successor, it was the devoutly Catholic Mary I who ascended to the throne and burned hundreds of Protestants at the stake for heresy. When Mary died without issue, Elizabeth I re-introduced Protestantism during her long forty-five-year reign between 1558 and 1603.

After Elizabeth I's death in 1603, the crown passed to Henry VII's great-grandson, James VI of Scotland, who became James I of England. The Tudor dynasty was no more, succeeded by the House of Stuart.

Read all about the Tudors:

HENRY VII

Henry the Seventh, by James Gairdner. AMS Press, 1970.
The Wars of the Roses, by J. R. Lander. St. Martin's, 1990.
The Reign of Henry VII, byR. L. Storey. Walker, 1968.
The Wars of the Roses, by Alison Weir. Ballantine, 1995.

HENRY VIII

Great Harry, by Carolly Erickson. Griffin, 1997, 1980.
Jane Boleyn: The True Story of the Infamous Lady Rochford, by Julia Fox. Ballantine, 2007.
The Wives of Henry VIII, by Antonia Fraser. Knopf, 1992.
The Last Days of Henry VIII: Conspiracies, Treason, and Heresy at the Court of the Dying Tyrant, by Robert Hutchinson. Morrow, 2005.
Anne Boleyn, by E. W. Ives. Blackwell, 1986.
Divorced, beheaded, Survived: A Feminist Reinterpretation of th Wives of Henry VIII, by Karen Lindsey. A-W, 1995.
Thomas More: A Biography, by Richard Marius. Knopf, 1984.
The Sisters of Henry VIII: The Tumultuous Lives of Margaret of Scotland & Mary of France, by Maria Perry. St. M., 1999.
Henry VIII, by J. J. Scarisbrick. Univ. of CA, 1968.
Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII, by David Starkey. HarCol, 2003.
Henry VIII: The King and His Court, by Alison Weir.Bballantine, 1991.
The Six Wives of Henry VIII, by Alison Weir. GW, 1991.
In the Lion's Court: Power, Ambition, and Sudden death in the Reign of Henry VIII, by Derek Wilson. St. M, 2002.

Fiction

The Queen of Subtleties, by Suzannah Dunn. Morrow, 2004.
The Last Wife of Henry VIII, by Carolly Erickson. St. Martin's, 2006.
The Widow's Kiss, by Jane Feather. Bantam, 2001.
The Spanish Bride: A Novel of Catherine of Aragon, by Laurien Gardner. Jove Books, 2005.
The Tudors: The King, the Queen, and the Mistress, created by Michael Hirst; written by Anne Gracie. S&S, 2007.
The Boleyn Inheritance, by Philippa Gregory. S&S, 2006.
The Other Boleyn Girl, by Philippa Gregory. S&S, 2004, 2001.
The Constant Princess, by Philippa Gregory. S&S, 2005.
The Last Boleyn, by Karen Harper. Three Rivers, 2006, 1983.
The Ivy Crown, by Mary Luke. Doubleday, 1984.
The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn, by Robin Maxwell. Arcade, 1997.
The Lady in the Tower, by Jean Plaidy. Three Rivers, 2003, 1986.
Murder Most Royal, by Jean Plaidy. Putnam, 1972.
The Rose without a Thorn, by Jean Plaidy. Three Rivers, 2003, 1993.
The Serpent Garden, by Judith Merkle Riley. Viking, 1996.
Dissolution, by C.J. Sansom. Viking, 2003.

Edward VI

The Boy King: Edward VI & the Protestant Reformation, by Diarmaid MacCullochl. Palgrave, 2001. 1999..
Edward VI: The Lost King of England, by Chris Skidmore. St. M, 2007.
The Children of Henry VIII, by Alison Weir. Ballantine, 1996.

Fiction

Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey, by Laison Weir. Ballantine, 2006

Mary I

Philip of Spain, by Henry Kamen. Yale, 1997.
Mary Tudor: A Life, by David Loades. Blackwell, 1989.
Mary Tudor: The Spanish Tudor, by H. F. M. Prescott. Phoenix, 2003.
Sovereign Ladies: The Six Reigning Queens of England, by Maureen Waller. St. M, 2007.
The Children of Henry VIII, by Alison Weir. Ballantine, 1996.

Fiction

In The Shadow of the Crown, by Jean Plaidy. R. Hale, 1988.
The Queen's Fool, by Philippa Gregory. Touchstone, c2004.

Elizabeth I

Biographies

Fiction

Elizabeth's World

Miscellaneous Books of Interest

The House of Tudor, by Alison Plowden. S&D, 1976.
New Worlds, Lost Worlds: The Rule of the Tudors, 1485-1603, by Susan Brigden. Viking, 2001.
The Royal Palaces of Tudor England: Architecture & Court Life, 1460-1547 by Simon Thurley. Yale, 1993.
Tudor Women: Queens and Commoners, by Alison Plowded. Atheneum, 1979.
Early Modern England: A Social History 1550-1760, by J. A. Sharpe. Arnold, 1987.
England Under the Tudors, by G. R. Elton. Methuen, 1974.
A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World? 3000 BC--AD 1603, by Simon Schama. Hyperion, 2000.
The Uncrowned Kings of England: The Black History of the Dudleys and the Tudor Throne, by Derek Wilson. C&G, 2005.

Created and maintained by: Lynne M. Kennedy.

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