Format: ebook
Published: September 30th, 2021
Age: Adult
Genre: Historical
Goodreads
Rating: 4/5 Stars
This collection of short stories has definitely made me want to pick up the Six Tudor Queens series. In In the Shadow of Queens, Alison Weir introduces us to various figures who were part of or adjacent to the Tudor court during the lives of Henry VIII’s six wives. There’s some really interesting perspectives here, and Weir’s author notes add some excellent context. We see life in and outside the court, the scheming and machinations that ruined some of these women, the way Henry changed from when he took the throne to the end of his life. The stories are arranged in chronological order, grouped under each queen with the queen’s timeline provided before the relevant stories. Some do start earlier than the queen’s reign, some go past the end, but all give really interesting insights and perspectives on the Tudor era.
Weir has cleverly woven how different people – individuals, fractions – saw the queens themselves, but there’s often a nice balance. The first story focuses on Arthur, Henry’s older brother and the heir to the throne, leading up to his betrothal to Katherine of Aragon. The final story is about the mishandling of Katherine Parr’s remains, ending with the author herself hoping she has done justice to these women, following the completion of the final book in her series. It’s a beautiful ending, though the story itself, while enlightening, has this awful undercurrent with the way her body is treated in death. Still, it’s a really strong way to end the collection as a whole.
Something that really stood out was how in the background Henry VIII was, while the queens, whether they play a central role in the story itself or not, really take the lead, truly casting a shadow – as the title implies – over the characters and stories themselves, and revealing how much they impacted Henry, his choices, and the Tudor era as a whole.
I imagine this would be a great bonus collection for fans of the series, and as for me, it’s made me really want to pick up Weir’s Six Tudor Queens, so if you like historical fiction and are intrigued by the Tudors, I really feel this is a book worth picking up.
Reading Challenge
Musicals Reading Challenge 2024
Prompt: Six – Six – A book with at least one queen
Progress: 2/24 Completed
Unwrapping Words 