Tudor Queens and Princesses

by Sarah Tytler

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Genres: History

Hardcover

First published May 5, 2006

About the author

Sarah Tytler was the pseudonym under which the Scottish authoress Henrietta Keddie (1827 - 1914) wrote her novels. Her domestic realism became popular with women, as did her conduct books for girls.

As a prolific writer of novels under the name Sarah Tytler, Keddie was an exponent of domestic realism, which was notably popular among female readers. Her first novel, The Kinnears. A Scottish Story (1852) went unnoticed, but she began to build up a following, particularly after her move to London. Many of her novels had an 18th-century background, including Citoyenne Jacqueline (1865) set in the French Revolution. In relation to her novel Beauty and the Beast (1884), about a private soldier who inherits a baronetcy, the literary biographer Rosemary Mitchell writes, "Although the plot is sensational, her talent for original and sympathetic characterization is considerable and her perception of the problems of social divisions keen and realistic." Saint Mungo's City (1884, about Glasgow) was unusual in focusing on urban, rather than rural Scotland. Perhaps her most famous book was Logie Town (1887), set in her home village of Cupar.

Reviews

[Jodi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sarah Tytler's Tudor Queens and Princesses offers an examination of the precarious balance of power and peril faced by royal Tudor women. Their lives were shaped by the expectations of dynastic politics, religious upheaval, and their ability—or inability—to navigate a male-dominated society. These women (the better known wives of Henry VIII and the lesser known Tudor women his sisters and grandmothers) as power players, political pawns, cultural figures, and, often, tragic symbols of their time.

A reviewer must understand the text was written originally published in 1896 and thus, there is no escaping the Victorian perspectives (rather romanticizing the Tudor era and leaning toward biased/moralized reporting) nor any chance of encountering rigorous source analysis that we would expect in a more contemporary work. Tytler’s style is mostly narrative focusing on storytelling—not very scholarly but enjoyable to read. One can grasp Tytler’s themes of power, sacrifice and the nature of female authority in a patriarchal society.

[Heather Forensky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I understand that any Woodville is part of a much bloodier piece of history, but it is sad that Elizabeth of York was granted 4 pages in this marvelous book. Meanwhile Elizabeth I had 142 pages to her name since she was able to accomplish most of her work in the nearly 45 years she reigned.

[Katy St. Clair · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the greatest wordsmith but full of info