Tudors

The lion and the unicorn were fighting for the crown

1 June 2024 9:00 am

Elizabeth I’s refusal to name an heir resulted in many claimants to the English throne in 1603 – with the son of the Queen of Scots finally prevailing

The machinations of the Dudleys make Game of Thrones look tame

26 February 2022 9:00 am

This is the gripping story of the ever-fluctuating fortunes of three generations of the Dudley dynasty, servants to — and…

The art of pregnancy

1 February 2020 9:00 am

Pregnancy has always been a public spectacle – and as the Foundling Museum’s new exhibition shows, a dangerous one

Map of the Island of Utopia, book frontispiece, 1563

Even Corbyn would find Thomas More’s Utopia too leftwing

2 January 2016 9:00 am

Thomas More’s 1516 classic is a textbook for our troubled times, says William Cook

Dark thoughts: Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell

Could it be that Wolf Hall is actually the teeniest bit dull?

31 January 2015 9:00 am

In January 1958, the British government began working on the significantly titled Operation Hope Not: its plans for what to…

Sweden’s warrior king Gustavus Adolphus inspired the English far more than their own effete, self-righteous Stuart monarchs

Can anyone make a good case for the Stuart kings?

15 March 2014 9:00 am

Historians have generally not been kind in their assessment of Britain’s first two Stuart kings. Their political skills are regarded…

William Vaux, 3rd Baron Vaux of Harrowden, was tried in the Star Chamber in 1581 with his brother-in-law Sir Thomas Tresham for harbouring Edmund Campion and sentenced to imprisonment in the Fleet with a fine of £1,000

Lords, spies and traitors in Elizabeth's England

8 March 2014 9:00 am

There are still some sizeable holes in early modern English history and one of them is what we know —…

Anne Boleyn’s last secret

17 August 2013 9:00 am

Why was the queen executed with a sword, rather than an axe?

Tudor, by Leanda de Lisle - review

10 August 2013 9:00 am

The Tudors, England’s most glamorous ruling dynasty, were self-invented parvenus, with ‘vile and barbarous’ origins, Anne Somerset reminds us

Music & Monarchy, by David Starkey - review

6 July 2013 9:00 am

Music has always been integral to the image and power of monarchy. Our present Royal family should take note, says Jonathan Keate