Review: Henry VIII’s Wives: History in an Hour by Julie Wheeler

Henry VIII’s Wives: History in an Hour by Julie Wheeler

Harper Press

October 2011

Format: Kindle e-book

Source: Personal copy

First line: The reign of Henry VIII was one of the most revolutionary periods in English history.

Summary from Goodreads: Love history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour.

In
his ambition to provide a male heir to the throne, Henry VIII married
six times. Divorce from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, caused
England’s break from the Catholic church in Rome. He went on to divorce
Anne of Cleves and behead Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard for
infidelities. Jane Seymour died and Catherine Parr survived Henry.

Henry
VIII’s Wives in an Hour will introduce you to these six entirely
diverse and captivating personalities and the events that propelled them
to their individual fates. You will learn which wife had what impact on
Henry and England and understand why Henry and his six wives form the
most popular period of Tudor history.

Know your stuff: read about Henry VIII’s wives in just one hour.

My thoughts:  I love historical fiction, particularly anything having to do with the Tudors. I will admit that I have not read anything non-fiction about this time period until now. I first saw this book being reviewed on someone else’s blog and knew I just had to see if I would like it. Well, I loved it!

I’ve read quite a few historical fiction books about Henry VIII and all his wives, but never one book that discusses all six. We are given brief accounts of how Henry VIII came to be with each wife and what ended up happening to them. My favorite quote in the whole book, which is apparently a famous rhyme in trying to remember the wives is: Divorced, Beheaded, Died; Divorced, Beheaded, Survived. I’d never heard this before and now have a way of remembering the order of each wife.

I do have to say that I do not actually know if this only took an hour to read. I read it in bits here and there, while curling my hair, while waiting for a meeting to start, etc. I did like that it was easy to read and  yet I felt that I got a good account of the marriages.

I’m looking forward to reading books in this series. I’ve already downloaded a few others and just need to get around to reading them. What about you? Have you read any of the History in an Hour books?