The Woodville Women: 100 Years of Plantagenet and Tudor History
Hardcover – 30 October 2022 (UK) & 31 December 2022 (US)
Elizabeth Woodville, Queen to Edward IV and mother of the Princes in the Tower. Elizabeth of York, daughter of Elizabeth Woodville and the first Tudor queen of England. Elizabeth Grey, granddaughter of Elizabeth Woodville and Countess of Kildare, whose life both in England and across the Irish sea was closely entwined with the Tudor Court. This is the tale of three generations of women, linked by their name, Elizabeth, and by their family relationship. The story begins in the reign of the great Plantagenet Kings with the life of Elizabeth Woodville and ends in the reign of perhaps England’s most famous dynasty, that of the Tudor kings and queens. Through the life of Elizabeth of York, the first Tudor queen and Elizabeth Grey, cousin to Henry VIII and Mary Tudor, we explore the Tudor court and its dealings with the Earls of Kildare. From the birth of our first Elizabeth to the death of our last, these three women lived through wars and coronations, births and deaths, celebration and tragedy and between them, they experienced some of the most exciting and troubled times in English history. Mother, daughter and granddaughter: individually, they each have their own fascinating story to tell; together, their combined stories take us on a journey through a century of English life.
The House of Grey: Friends & Foes of Kings
Paperback – 15 December 2022 (US)
The Grey family was one of mediaeval England’s most important dynasties, serving the kings of England as sheriffs, barons and military leaders from the reign of William the Conqueror. In Henry IV’s reign, the rivalry between Owain Glyndwr and Lord Grey of Ruthyn was the backdrop to the Welsh bid to throw off English dominance. His successor Edmund Grey played a decisive role at the Battle of Northampton when he changed allegiance from Lancaster to York. Edmund’s Lancastrian cousin, Sir John Grey, died at the second battle of St Albans, leaving a widow, Elizabeth née Woodville, and two young sons, Thomas and Richard. Astonishingly, the widowed Elizabeth caught the eye of Edward IV and ascended to the throne as the first Yorkist Queen, giving her sons a place at the heart of the royal family. The competition for control of the young Edward V between the Greys and Richard, Duke of Gloucester, led to Richard Grey’s summary execution and the disappearance of their royal half-brothers when Gloucester became king. Thomas Grey vowed revenge and joined Henry Tudor in exile.
What a Thing to Say to the Queen!: Charming anecdotes from the House of Windsor
Hardcover – 20 December 2022 (US) & 18 October 2022 (UK)
This specially updated edition, released to mark the passing of the late and much-missed monarch, is a collection of warm, amusing recollections from the royal household celebrating the lighter side of palace life.
Queen of Our Times: The Life of Queen Elizabeth II: Commemorative Edition, 1926-2022
Paperback – 13 December 2022 (US) & 6 July 2023 (UK)
The definitive portrait of Queen Elizabeth II by a renowned royal biographer in an updated Commemorative Edition following Her Majesty’s passing, 1926-2022.
The Tudors in Love: Passion and Politics in the Age of England’s Most Famous Dynasty
Hardcover – 13 December 2022 (US)
In this ground-breaking history, Sarah Gristwood reveals the way courtly love made and marred the Tudor dynasty. From Henry VIII declaring himself as the ‘loyal and most assured servant’ of Anne Boleyn to the poems lavished on Elizabeth I by her suitors, the Tudors re-enacted the roles of the devoted lovers and capricious mistresses first laid out in the romances of medieval literature. The Tudors in Love dissects the codes of love, desire and power, unveiling romantic obsessions that have shaped the history of the world.
Queens of the Age of Chivalry: England’s Medieval Queens, Volume Three
Hardcover – 6 December 2022 (US)
Packed with dramatic true stories from one of European history’s most romantic and turbulent eras, this epic narrative chronicles the five vividly rendered queens of the Plantagenet kings who ruled England between 1299 and 1399.
Blood, Fire & Gold: The Story of Elizabeth I & Catherine de Medici
Hardcover – 6 December 2022 (US)
A brilliant and beautifully written deep dive into the complicated relationship between Elizabeth I and Catherine de Medici, two of the most powerful women in Renaissance Europe who shaped each other as profoundly as they shaped the course of history.
When Women Ruled the World: Making the Renaissance in Europe
Paperback – 6 December 2022 (US) & 6 January 2023 (UK)
The sixteenth century in Europe was a time of chronic destabilization in which institutions of traditional authority were challenged, and religious wars seemed unending. Yet it also witnessed the remarkable flowering of a pacifist culture, cultivated by a cohort of extraordinary women rulers―most notably, Mary Tudor; Elizabeth I; Mary, Queen of Scots; and Catherine de’ Medici―whose lives were intertwined not only by blood and marriage but by a shared recognition that their premier places in the world of just a few dozen European monarchs required them to bond together, as women, against the forces seeking to destroy them, if not the foundations of monarchy itself.
Queens and Prophets: How Arabian Noblewomen and Holy Men Shaped Paganism, Christianity and Islam
Hardcover – 10 January 2023 (US) & 1 December 2022 (UK)
Arab noblewomen of late antiquity were instrumental in shaping the history of the world. Between Rome’s intervention in the Arabian Peninsula and the Arab conquests, they ruled independently, conducting trade and making war. Their power was celebrated as Queen, priestess and goddess. With time some even delegated authority to the most important holy men of their age, influencing Arabian paganism, Christianity and Islam.
Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait
Hardcover – 8 December 2022 (UK & US)
This intimate, personal biography of Queen Elizabeth II tells the story of her remarkable life, reign and times from a perspective unlike any other. Gyles Brandreth writes the Queen’s tale candidly with grace and sensitivity from the view of someone who met her, talked with her and kept a record of those conversations.
The Mortimers: The Turbulent Lives and Times of an Aristocratic Family 1360-1425
Hardcover – 31 December 2022 (US & UK)
The story of the Mortimers begins in Normandy with Ranulph de Mortemer, whose father may have been the illegitimate son of a priest. This scandalous beginning echoed down to the later generations, by which time the family could claim the title Earl of March as well as significant holdings in Wales, the Welsh Marches and Ireland. Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March, opposed Edward III and John of Gaunt so successfully that he lived in fear of assassination. And Edward was not the last king to fear the threat of the Mortimer family.
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