Henry viii
How did Wolf Hall escape the attentions of the BBC’s diversity commissars?
Wolf Hall is one of the few remaining jewels in the BBC’s tarnished crown. Presumably that’s why it was allowed…
A historical abomination: Firebrand reviewed
Firebrand is a period drama about Henry VIII’s sixth and final wife, Catherine Parr. It is sumptuously photographed – it’s…
Margaret Tudor – queen, regent and hapless intermediary
Aged 13, Henry VII’s eldest daughter was dispatched to marry James IV of Scotland. But a precarious truce between the kingdoms soon ended with the Battle of Flodden
The perils of waiting on a Tudor queen
Henry VIII considered the queen’s household a fruitful hunting-ground – for a mistress, a future wife, or a pawn, whose testimony could provide useful damaging evidence
What became of Thomas Becket’s bones?
Alice Roberts’s examinations of violent deaths in the past take her to the site of Becket’s murder in Canterbury cathedral and the later destruction of his shrine by Henry VIII
The woman who set our country in a roar
Such was the emotion Anne Boleyn inspired in Henry VIII. But before long that scalding love had turned to a brutalising hatred of his second wife, culminating in her bloody beheading
Ghostly grandeur
The history of the magnificent Thames-side palace, with its outrageous shenanigans spanning five centuries, is vividly brought to life by Gareth Russell
Henry VIII’s windfall from the monasteries was shockingly short-term
In 1536 there were 850 monastic houses in England and Wales; just four years later they were all gone. The…
How the British musical conquered the world
A new musical history is being written for Britain, says Nicola Christie
Knowing Thomas Cromwell’s fate only increases the tension: The Mirror & the Light, by Hilary Mantel, reviewed
In 1540, he, himself, Lord Cromwell fell victim to the king’s caprice. His execution brings to a close one of English literature’s great trilogies, says Mark Lawson
The joy of jousting
Emperor Maximilian I liked to say he invented the joust of the exploding shields. When a knight charged and his…
Diarmaid MacCulloch delves deep into the soul of Thomas Cromwell – administrator, henchman and evangelical
The final moments of Hilary Mantel’s magnificent Wolf Hall see its central protagonist, Thomas Cromwell, trying to banish ghosts. Assailed…
The great Tudor catfight
Apart from glorying in a memorable name, Lettice Knollys has chiefly been known for her connections — with her second…
Broken dreams
In the expensive realm of musical comedy, it’s impossible to predict what will take off and what will crash and…
Florence's black Medici prince: a drama worthy of Shakespeare
The life – and violent death – of a very unusual Renaissance prince has Alex von Tunzelmann enthralled
The torturer named for a beautiful shrine
As you came from the Holy land Of Walsingham Met you not with my true love By the way as…
Even Corbyn would find Thomas More’s Utopia too leftwing
Thomas More’s 1516 classic is a textbook for our troubled times, says William Cook
Game of thrones: five kings spanning five centuries launch a new series on royalty
Nigel Jones reviews the first five titles to appear in a new series on British monarchs
The Tudor sleuth who's cracked the secret of suspense
Some reviewers are slick and quick. Rapid readers, they remember everything, take no notes, quote at will. I’m the plodding…
Thomas Cromwell: more Tony Soprano than Richard Dawkins
The travel writer Colin Thubron once told me that to understand a country and its people he first asks, ‘What…
The Thomas Cromwell plays would be stronger if they made him weaker
Three things you might not expect of the RSC’s adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Tudor novels. First, Mike Poulton’s plays have…
Anne Boleyn’s last secret
Why was the queen executed with a sword, rather than an axe?
Tudor, by Leanda de Lisle - review
The Tudors, England’s most glamorous ruling dynasty, were self-invented parvenus, with ‘vile and barbarous’ origins, Anne Somerset reminds us
Empire of the Deep, by Ben Wilson - review
‘I never before came across a man whom I could fancy being a Napoleon or a Nelson…His ascendancy over everybody…
