Book News February 2023




queen an wilson

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The Boleyns: From the Tudors to the Windsors 

Hardcover – 15 October 2022 (UK) & 15 February 2023 (US)

Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, was executed on 19 May 1536. Her sister Mary, rumoured mistress to the monarch, lived on and survived the king’s wrath. But this is not the end of the tale of the Boleyns and the British Royal family – their stories have remained entwined for almost 500 years, through countless wars, crises and triumphs. In this book, Amanda Harvey Purse delves into the archives to tell the remarkable story of a number of individuals who form part of the Boleyn bloodline, spanning the worlds of the military, art and politics. Among those featured are Robert Devereux, executed for treason after leading an army against the government in the early seventeenth century; Lettice Knollys, banished from the court of Elizabeth I after marrying the wrong man; and Cecilia Nina Bowes‑Lyon, the grandmother of and godmother to Elizabeth II, who married Claude Bowes-Lyon and played a significant role in the convalescence of soldiers during the First World War.

Artful Subversion: Empress Dowager Cixi’s Image Making 

Hardcover – 24 January 2023 (US) & 14 February (UK)

Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908), who ruled China from 1861 until her death in 1908, is a subject of fascination and controversy, at turns vilified for her political maneuvering and admired for modernizing China. In addition to being an astute politician, she was an earnest art patron, and this beautifully illustrated book explores a wide range of objects, revealing how the empress dowager used art and architecture to solidify her rule.

My Dear Mama

Hardcover – 1 February 2023 (WW)

The sequel to “Dearest Missy” letters of Marie Alexandrovna Grand Duchess of Russia, Duchess of Edinburgh and of Saxe-Coburg und Gotha, and her daughter, Marie Crown Princess of Romania, 1901-1910.

The Queen: 70 Chapters in the Life of Elizabeth II 

Hardcover – 1 February 2023 (US) & 21 April 2022 (UK)

This warm and witty biography of Elizabeth II reveals the people, events and themes that have shaped her life and rule.

The Queen: The Life and Family of Queen Elizabeth II 

Paperback – 1 February 2023 (US) & 20 October 2022 (UK)

From the author of the critically acclaimed Victoria comes a celebration of the life and times of Queen Elizabeth II.

The Times: The Queen and the Commonwealth: Celebrating seven decades of state visits 

Hardcover – 7 February 2023 (US) & 13 October 2022 (UK)

Discover insights and memories, and see a changing world reflected in reporting from throughout the 70-year reign of Britain’s longest serving monarch.

The Little Book of Mary Queen of Scots 

Paperback – 1 February 2023 (US) & 30 June 2022 (UK)

Mary Queen of Scots is perhaps one of the most controversial and divisive monarchs in regal history. Her story reads like a particularly spicy novel, with murder, kidnap, adultery, assassination and execution. To some she is one of the most wronged women in history, a pawn used and abused by her family in the great monarchical marriage game; to others, a murderous adulteress who committed regicide to marry her lover and then spent years in captivity for the crime, endlessly plotting the demise of her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I of England.

Crown & Sceptre: A New History of the British Monarchy, from William the Conqueror to Charles III 

Paperback – 28 February 2023 (US)

On the eve of Queen Elizabeth II’s historic 70th anniversary on the throne, Tracy Borman’s sweeping narrative of the British monarchy illuminates one of history’s most iconic and enduring legacies. 

Queen Elizabeth II: Celebrating the legacy and royal wardrobe of Her Majesty the Queen; who reigned in style for a historic seventy years 

Hardcover – 7 February 2023 (US) & 27 October 2022 (UK)

Exquisite and sumptuous, immaculately tailored, dignified and, above all, practical. The wardrobe of Queen Elizabeth II was as distinctive in style as her position in the world was unique. This remarkable book is a fond reflection of the days when her Majesty led the field in fashion, showcasing some of the world’s best designers.

Lordship and Governance by the Inheriting Countesses of Boulogne, 1160–1260 (Gender and Power in the Premodern World) 

Hardcover – 28 February 2023 (US & UK)

Traditional scholarship argues that the changes fostered by the growth of royal power and feudalism in Western Europe directly impacted women’s public power and authority in the later twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Focusing on the inheriting countesses of Boulogne (1160–1260) and their neighbours in northern France, this monograph investigates the influence of the rise of centralized government on elite women’s power. This chronological and comparative analysis highlights successive countesses’ governance of inherited lands, the roles they played in their spouses’ lands and in political affairs outside their inherited lands, along with crucial assessments of the social identity and status of the family. It challenges the established interpretation and shows that the establishment of feudalism and the elaboration of bureaucracy did not curtail elite women’s access to or exercise of lordship to any significant degree.

Genevra Sforza and the Bentivoglio: Family, Politics, Gender and Reputation in (and beyond) Renaissance Bologna (Gendering the Late Medieval and Early Modern World) 

Hardcover – 27 February 2023 (US & UK)

Genevra Sforza (ca. 1441–1507) lived her long life near the apex of Italian Renaissance society as wife of two successive de facto rulers of Bologna: Sante then Giovanni II Bentivoglio. Placed twice there without a dowry by Duke Francesco Sforza as part of a larger Milanese plan, Genevra served her family by fulfilling the gendered role demanded of her by society, most notably by contributing eighteen children, accepting many illegitimates born to Giovanni II, and helping arrange their future alliances for the success of the family at large. Based on contemporary archival research conducted across Italy, this biography presents Genevra as the object of academic study for the first time. The book explores how Genevra’s life-story, filled with a multitude of successes appropriate for an elite fifteenth-century female, was transformed into a concordant body of misogynistic legends about how she destroyed the Bentivoglio and the city of Bologna.

Anne Boleyn, An Illustrated Life of Henry VIII’s Queen 

Hardcover – 28 February 2023 (UK) & 28 April 2023 (US)

‘If you remember my love in your prayers as strongly as I adore you, I shall hardly be forgotten, for I am yours,’ – Henry Rex, forever Written by King Henry VIII to his sweetheart, the seductive and vivacious Anne Boleyn, his passion for her would be so great that Henry would make Anne his queen, and change the course of English history. But the woman whom Henry had promised to love for all time would go from palace to prison, charged with heinous crimes. Her life ended on a bloody scaffold in the Tower of London. Explore the incredible story of Anne Boleyn, the most famous and controversial of Henry VIII’s six wives, in this exciting new account of her life told in words and pictures.

Queen Victoria’s Daughters-in-Law 

Hardcover – 28 February 2023 (UK) & 28 April 2023 (US)

Of Queen Victoria’s four sons, the eldest married a Danish princess, one a Russian Grand Duchess, and the other two princesses of German royal houses.

The Granddaughters of Edward III 

Hardcover – 28 February 2023 (UK) & 5 May 2023 (US)

The expansion of England as a formidable European powerhouse was also achieved through the traditional lines of political marriages, particularly those of the king of England’s own granddaughters. This is a joint biography of nine of those women who lived between 1355 and 1440, and their dramatic, turbulent lives.

The Tudors (History Snapshots) 

Paperback – 28 February 2023 (UK) & 7 May 2023 (US)

Everything you never knew about the powerful Tudor dynasty – from Henry VII to the glorious Elizabeth I. From Battles at Bosworth to battles for supremacy of the royal bedchamber, marriage, war, murder, divorce, religious dissent, Renaissance letters, science and art, political alliances, the Reformation, treason, a Virgin Queen, phantom pregnancies, global exploration, bloody beheadings and a fresh look at why Henry VIII became such a terrifying tyrant.

Diana: The Life and Legacy of the People’s Princess 

Hardcover – 16 February 2023 (UK)

Fully illustrated with beautiful photographs, this special commemorative book by royal biographer Brian Hoey – who had the privilege of meeting Diana on several occasions – pays tribute to the life of this remarkable young woman.

The Kingmaker’s Sisters: Six Powerful Women in the Wars of the Roses 

Paperback – 2 February 2023 (UK)

Warwick the Kingmaker, the Earl of Warwick & Salisbury whose wealth and power was so great that he could effectively decide who would rule England during the Wars of the Roses (1455-1487), had six sisters: Joan, Cecily, Alice, Eleanor, Katherine and Margaret. They all married powerful noblemen who fought on opposing sides during this turbulent period.

The Families of Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Female Network of Power in the Middle Ages 

Hardcover – 16 February 2023 (UK)

The lives of the sons of Eleanor of Aquitaine are the stuff of legend. Her daughters, however, are less well known, and the fascinating personalities of her daughters-in-law have been almost entirely overlooked, as have those of the daughters she bore Louis VII of France.

 






About Moniek Bloks 2680 Articles
My name is Moniek and I am from the Netherlands. I began this website in 2013 because I wanted to share these women's amazing stories.

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