The Lives of Tudor Women

The Tudor age was a time when death in infancy or during childbirth was rife; marriage was usually not a matter for love, and the education of women was minimal at best. Yet the Tudor century was also dominated by powerful women in a way that no era had been before. This book explores the seven ages of the Tudor woman, from childhood to old age, through the examples of women such as Elizabeth Tudor, Henry VIII’s sister who died in infancy; Mary Howard, widowed but influential at court; Elizabeth Boleyn, mother of a controversial queen; and Elizabeth Barton, a peasant girl lauded as a prophetess. Their stories are interwoven with studies of topics ranging from Tudor toys to contraception to witchcraft, painting a portrait of the lives of queens and serving maids, nuns and harlots, widows and chaperones.