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‘An impressive revisionist biography’ The Times
‘Meticulous… Thought-provoking’ Daily Telegraph
The gripping story of the tragic love and royal politics.
Katherine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII, was famously beheaded in 1542 for crimes of adultery and treason in one of the most sensational scandals of the Tudor age.
However, the true story of Katherine Howard could not be more different. The truth is one of child abuse, family ambition, religious conflict and political and sexual intrigue. It is also a tragic love story. A bright, kind and intelligent young woman, Katherine was fond of clothes and dancing, yet she also had a strong sense of a wife’s duty. As Josephine Wilkinson’s groundbreaking biography shows, Katherine was little more than a child in a man’s world, and the tragic victim of inescapable powers.
‘Meticulous… Thought-provoking’ Daily Telegraph
The gripping story of the tragic love and royal politics.
Katherine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII, was famously beheaded in 1542 for crimes of adultery and treason in one of the most sensational scandals of the Tudor age.
However, the true story of Katherine Howard could not be more different. The truth is one of child abuse, family ambition, religious conflict and political and sexual intrigue. It is also a tragic love story. A bright, kind and intelligent young woman, Katherine was fond of clothes and dancing, yet she also had a strong sense of a wife’s duty. As Josephine Wilkinson’s groundbreaking biography shows, Katherine was little more than a child in a man’s world, and the tragic victim of inescapable powers.
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Reviews
A riveting portrait
An impressive revisionist biography
[A] meticulous biography
Required reading
Never before have I come across such an eye-opening book on her life . . . For readers who love a true story, and a look at the time it was set in, this is the best I've ever read. A book to keep and revisit
[Josephine Wilkinson] makes extensive use of primary sources such as states papers, and fascinating research about sexuality and gender-appropriate behaviour in Tudor times, to give us a moving portrait of a tragic victim of unscrupulous men in positions of authority over her
This book deserves commendation because of the painful truths it reveals . . . Good history challenges us to think as much about the present as the past