03062cam a2200265Ia 4500 20230110151030.0 131009s2011 enkmbcf b a001 0 eng d 1846142024 (hbk.) 9781846142024 (hbk.) DA330 .P46 2011 Penn, Thomas. Winter king : the dawn of Tudor England / Thomas Penn. London : Allen Lane, 2011. xxi, 448 p., [8] p. of plates : col. ill., maps, port. ; 24 cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. 409-428) and index. Prologue: Red rose, avenger of the white -- Blood and roses -- Not a drop of doubtful royal blood -- Richmond -- He seeks in all places to destroy me -- Now must you supply the mother's part also -- Change of worlds -- No sure way -- Council learned -- Our second treasure -- Null and void -- This day came De la Pole -- New heaven, new earth -- A state of avarice -- Extraordinary justice -- Courage to be bold -- Savage harshness made complete -- The art of dying -- Rich, ferocious, thirsting for glory. It was 1501. England had been ravaged for decades by conspiracy, violence, murders, coups and counter-coups. Henry VII had clambered to the top of the heap - a fugitive with a flimsy claim to England's crown who through luck, guile and ruthlessness had managed to win the throne and stay on it for sixteen years. Although he built palaces, hosted jousts, gave out lavish presents and sent ambassadors across Europe, for many he remained a usurper, a false king. But Henry had a crucial asset: his queen and their children, the living embodiment of his hoped-for dynasty. Now, in what would be the crowning glory of his reign, his elder son would marry a great Spanish princess. On a cold November day this girl, the sixteen-year-old Catherine of Aragon, arrived in London for a wedding upon which the fate of England would hinge. In his remarkable debut Thomas Penn recreates an England which is both familiar and very strange - a country that seems medieval yet modern, in which honour and chivalry mingle with espionage, realpolitik, high finance and corruption. It is the story of the transformation of a young, vulnerable boy, Prince Henry, into the aggressive teenager who would become Henry VIII, and of Catherine of Aragon, his future queen. And at its heart is the tragic, magnetic figure of Henry VII - controlling, paranoid, avaricious, with a Machiavellian charm and will to power. Rich with incident and drama, filled with wonderfully drawn characters, Winter King is an unforgettable story of pageantry, surveillance, the thirst for glory - and the fraught, unstable birth of Tudor England. - Publisher. Henry VII, King of England, 1457-1509. Tudor, House of. Great Britain History Henry VII, 1485-1509. Great Britain History Tudors, 1485-1603. Great Britain Kings and rulers Biography. Great Britain Politics and government 1485-1509. lcc 67216 67216 0 0 lcc 0 0 BEA BEA 2023-01-10 0 0321498 2023-01-10 00:00:00 1 2023-01-10 BK VIRTUAITEM