Henry VIII: The Mask of Royalty

by Lacey Baldwin Smith

Book Overview

This enthralling study of the man behind the mask gives also a unique picture of the 16th-century mind and milieu. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0897330560
• ISBN13: 9780897330565
• Release Date: August 2005
• Publisher: Chicago Review Press
• Length: 379 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.2" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

An Awsome and Orginal Piece

If you love the Tudors, and you already have your basic facts down, you'll really enjoy this orignial look at Henry VIII. Profesor Smith allows a look at Henry VIII as a person, revealing a personality that may have belonged to this great King. Definately worth the read.

Easily the best biography of the mercurial Tudor monarch

More than four centuries after his death, Henry VIII remains one of the most fascinating monarchs in English history. As a result, numerous biographies have been written about him - and his equally famous six wives. But only Lacey Baldwin Smith's biography does justice to both subject and reader. He avoids the easy trap of portraying Henry as a misogynistic tyrant who twisted religion and politics in the pursuit of personal gratification. Such a treatment, sadly popular in current biographies, is an insult to any student of history. Instead, Smith brings Henry alive in the context of the turbulent sixteenth-century; he is seen as both man and king, troubled soul and tyrannical monarch. When you have finished this brilliant and learned work, you will have a new and profound understanding of Reformation England - and its contradictory leader.