Drumroll please! My new book "The Forgotten Years of Anne Boleyn: The Habsburg & Valois Courts" is out NOW in paperback, hardcover & eBook formats. I would be honoured if you buy the book, and happy if you glean new insights into Anne Boleyn's forgotten years ..read more

I wrote an article for the newest issue of History of Scotland magazine , focusing on the relationship between Anne Boleyn & Henry VIII's elder sister Margaret Tudor, Dowager Queen of Scots. While researching my newest book "Ladies-in-Waiting: Women Who Served Anne Boleyn", I came across a letter Margaret wrote to Anne in 1534 so I decided to explore it further. The relationship between the two queens is rarely mentioned so I think it's going to be an interesting read for Anne's fans ..read more

Did Katherine of Aragon suffer from prognathism?  This is an excerpt from my book "Medical Downfall of the Tudors: Sex, Reproduction & Succession" (pp. 111-113). "In 1519, Francis I quipped that Henry VIII “has an old deformed wife, while he himself is young and handsome”.[i] It is generally assumed that the French King was referring to Katharine’s corpulent figure; several years later one eyewitness described her as “of low stature” and “rather stout”.[ii]Yet there’s evidence that Francis was referring not only to Katharine’s bulky figure but also to a deformity of her jaw—a deformit ..read more

  If anyone asks me if there's really a need for another book on Mary Boleyn, I'm going to say that it's an emphatic YES. It’s a well-established part of the narrative to depict Mary as a duller and less intelligent of the Boleyn sisters. According to Netflix's new documentary series “Blood, Sex and Royalty”, sex was apparently on her mind a lot. We see the Boleyn girls at the French court. Anne is reading Christine de Pizan’s "Le Livre de la Cité des Dames" ("The Book of the City of Ladies") while a servant is trying to lace Mary into a corset. Anne and Mary are shown walking ..read more

Do you remember my last post about the eerie similarity between Anne Boleyn's NPG portrait and Elizabeth I's Compton Verney portrait? Apparently, these two portraits were painted by the same artist who used similar face patterns. But there's more! Dr Owen Emmerson - Historian has kindly provided more details when I posted about this on my Facebook page: The artist also painted the Hever corridor portrait of Katherine of Aragon, and the Weiss Gallery portrait of Mary I. Now look at the spooky similarity in face patterns in the Weiss portrait of Mary I and the NPG portrait of Anne Boleyn. The pr ..read more

One of the most persistent myths about Katharine of Aragon’s last hours is that she died in the arms of her Spanish lady-in-waiting and friend Maria de Salinas, Lady Willoughby.[i]Maria “who has faithfully served her [Katharine of Aragon], and who has always comforted her in her hours of trial”, had received letters patent of denization and married William Willoughby, Baron Willoughby de Eresby, in 1516.[ii]Katharine of Aragon and Henry VIII had financed Lady Willoughby’s marriage, giving her a dowry worth eleven hundred marks. She was so much favoured by Katharine that it was said that the ..read more

   In March 1522, Anne, that “fresh young demoiselle”, as she was dubbed by one observer, made a debut at court during the Chateau Vert pageant.[1] She was among the eight ladies impersonating qualities that a perfect mistress of chivalric tradition should possess. It is usually assumed that Anne played Perseverance, a role that is historically appropriate for the story of Anne’s rise. Contemporary chronicler Edward Hall listed the roles noblewomen played in the Chateau Vert pageant but did not specify who played who. Hall lists: Beauty, Honour, Perseverance, Kindness, Constancy ..read more

I'm happy to announce that my NEW BOOK entitled Women of the Wars of the Roses: Jacquetta Woodville, Margaret of Anjou & Cecily Neville is published today as Kindle and paperback. You can order it from Amazon. Jacquetta Woodville, Margaret of Anjou and Cecily Neville are among the best-known female figures during the Wars of the Roses, a dynastic conflict that raged in England from 1455 to 1485. Jacquetta was the mother of Edward IV’s much-hated commoner queen, Elizabeth Woodville, and she is most prominent in this triple biography. Jacquetta’s story is inevitably linked to ..read more

 I'm pleased to announce that my NEW book entitled Medical Downfall of the Tudors: Sex, Reproduction & Succession, is OUT today! You can buy a copy on Amazon now. It comes as Kindle & paperback. Description: The Tudor dynasty died out because there was no heir of Elizabeth I’s body to succeed her. Henry VIII, despite his six marriages, had produced no legitimate son who would live into old age. Three of the reigning Tudors (Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I) died without heirs apparent, the most tragic case being that of Mary Tudor, who went through two recorded cases of phantom ..read more

Sometimes myths and misconceptions about the Tudors are so well-entrenched that they often gain the status of "truths". I've seen historians referring to Katharine of Aragon's "many miscarriages" in almost every book about the Tudor period but guess what, this is a myth. Katharine didn't have MANY MISCARRIAGES. Six of her pregnancies are recorded - perhaps there were more, but we're talking about those that we know of. And none of them ended up in miscarriage! Let's start in the beginning, Katharine's first recorded pregnancy and its outcome. On 31 January 1510 she gave birth to a stillbor ..read more