The life of Sir Thomas More is familiar to many. His opposition to Henry VIII's marriage to Anne Boleyn, his arrest for treason, his silence under interrogation and subsequent execution make up one of the most famous stories in British history. While More's place in history is secure, Margaret, his daughter, has been almost forgotten. She was airbrushed out of the story, even though she played a leading role in this very public drama.
During More's imprisonment in the Tower of London, Margaret became his sole intermediary with the outside world. She visited frequently, and the pair wrote long and loving letters to one another. Margaret also smuggled more inflammatory letters in and out of the Tower during these visits, and it is through such encounters that we see a dramatic new portrait of Sir Thomas More emerge.
Margaret lived in a patriarchal society, where gender stereotypes required women to be 'chaste, silent and obedient'. Besides shockingly contravening that stereotype by writing and publishing a book, a step by itself as dramatic and inflammatory in its own day as anything said by her father in Utopia, her later interventions in her father's cause were rightly seen as a threat by men like Thomas Cromwell, fully aware of the danger to Henry VIII if she were ever allowed to tell the whole truth. In spite of prudently dissembling, saying that she had hardly any of her father's books and papers, her enduring achievement would be to make sure that these very same materials, and a great deal more, would one day be published, so that everyone could know the story of the man who'd kept silent. Published on 1 July 2008 by Fourth Estate (UK) and in 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (USA).
...a triumph of biography, artistry and historical detective work...A masterpiece, full of fire and tragedy.
Amanda Foreman,
The life of Mary Stuart is one of unparalleled drama and conflict. From the labyrinthine plots laid by the Scottish lords to wrest power for themselves, to the efforts made by Elizabeth's ministers to invalidate Mary's legitimate claim to the English throne, John Guy returns to the archives to explode the myths and correct the inaccuracies that surround this most fascinating monarch. He also explains a central mystery: why Mary would have consented to marry only three months after the death of her second husband, Lord Darnley the man who was said to be his killer, the Earl of Bothwell. And, more astonishingly, he solves, through careful re-examination of the Casket Letters, the secret behind Darnley's spectacular assassination at Kirk o'Field. My Heart is My Own is a compelling work of historical scholarship that offers radical new interpretations of an ancient story. Published by Fourth Estate (UK) and Houghton Mifflin (USA) in 2004.
...lucid, scholarly, remarkably accomplished...
The Sunday Times
This is the most complete narrative history of Tudor England to be published for more than thirty years. Writing equally for the general reader and the student, John Guy provides a compelling account of political and religious developments from the advent of the Tudors in the 1460s to the death of Elizabeth I in 1603. Following Henry VII's capture of the crown at Bosworth in 1485, Tudor England witnessed far-reaching changes in government and the Reformation of the church under Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth; that story is enriched here with character studies of monarchs and politicians that bring to life their personalities as well as their policies.
The work is based on the most thorough knowledge of the sources and literature about the Tudors, and is the first general survey to take account of new debates on the progress of the English Reformation, and on the strength or weaknesses of Tudor government and national and local level. The narrative structure incorporates analytical discussion of main themes, and also contextual chapters on the economy and society, and on political culture.
Authoritative, clearly argued, and crisply written, this comprehensive book will be indispensable to anyone interested in the Tudor Age.
