TUDOR TRAGEDY

by Neville Williams

A Tudor Tragedy [Misc. Supplies] [Aug 10, 1989] Williams, Neville

Genres: Tudor Period, Biography, Nonfiction, 16th Century, History

289 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly recommend this book. I found it in a charity shop and it's now one of the few books I wouldn't part with. The book is meticulously researched and gives an objective account of Norfolk's life and career. For me, it was like having a window opened onto the past, enabling the reader to watch Norfolk going through his life, dealing with his duties at Elizabeth's court, overseeing his children's upbringing. He is usually portrayed as an ambitious traitor, but he comes across as a family man, concerned about his three wives, shattered when they died in childbirth. The author reports that Norfolk became deeply depressed on the death of his second wife, Duchess Margaret, with whom he was "exceptionally happy", and again when his third wife, Elizabeth, also died in childbirth. The reader gets to know Norfolk and feel as sorry as his children probably did that he ever got involved with Mary, Queen of Scots. Even his execution is reported in detailed, his speech, how they kept interrupting him and telling him "We have come to execute you, not to listen to you talk!" He was the first noble to be executed in Elizabeth's reign - by then she had been on the throne almost 14 years. I can't help feeling if she had made better use of his capabilities, as befitted his rank and kinship to her, and rewarded him appropriately, it would have been better for her and Norfolk.