The Tudors, Myth, and Memory

This book gathers contributions from experts on the Tudors that analyze and debunk common misconceptions and often repeated myths about the dynasty. Few historical periods match the popularity of the Tudor era a fact evident in the proliferation of books (from fiction to scholarly works), films, television shows, plays, and exhibitions on the topic. As part of this interest, however, many misconceptions have become part of conventional wisdom about the Tudors: for example, the fat, jolly, and syphilitic Henry VIII; or Anne Boleyn as a sixteenth-century femme fatale. While often entertaining, these myths are not history and, in fact, impede modern understanding of the Tudors and their era. This book, therefore, reveals the real Tudors, and draws on the deep knowledge of its contributors to show what really happened, and how these misconceptions proliferated.