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Henry: Virtuous Prince (2009)

by David Starkey(Favorite Author)

3.92 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0007247710 (ISBN13: 9780007247714)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

HarperCollins Publishers

review 1: Fascinating and infuriating. I genuinely enjoyed parts of this book, but Starkey's gossipy style really grates with me and I felt he tried to cover so much that he spread himself too thinly. It was cleary a complicated time in England's history, with the political intrigue surrounding the end of the War of the Roses and the rise of the House of Tudor, and Starkey does a good job of explaining this, but most of the rest of this book feels like he has included anything vaguely of interest to him about Henry's childhood that he found in comtemporary sources. I also felt he over-egged the importance of the views about Henry expressed in contemporary sources. Many of those were intended for Henry himself to read and I'd take what they said about Henry the man with a massive pin... morech of salt, whereas Starkey mainly assumes the sentiments expressed to be true.
review 2: What marks this out from previous Henry biographies is Starkey's obvious love for the subject himself. Starkey is one of the leading Tudor historians in the UK and is one of the most well-known. His work is also known for being very readable and accessible to those outside of academia. Starkey focuses on those who came before Henry and who helped to shape him into the young man who eventually became king. The follow-up to this book will inevitably focus on his many marriages, which Henry is known best known for, but Starkey is at pains to point out that there is much more to this monarch than the women he married. And he's right. I really enjoyed this; I think even those who have a passing interest in Tudor history would find it beneficial. (There's also a BBC series based on this work, which I've been following when I remember to.) less

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