Short Lived Queen Consort

Always interested in the complex and colourful history of King Henry VIII's
court, I was drawn to this biography of Henry's fifth wife, Catherine Howard
as it was a work focusing on one of the perhaps less well known wives. So
much has been written about Anne Boleyn, Henry's most notorious wife that it
was a refreshing change to find a book like this

This is my first experience of Gareth Russell as an author and on the whole
it is a very good impression I am left with after reading this work. Russell
has skilfully and in often painstaking detail described the events, people
and places surrounding Catherine Howard. It is a rich and often complex
history that tells of the rise and fall of one of the lesser understood
wives. For anyone interested in the reign of Henry VIII, this work is an
enthralling and informative read.

This book is also my first experience of Jenny Funnell as narrator and I am
pleased to say that she is both highly competent in her reading as well as
having the perfect voice to render such a story. I noticed a couple of minor
editing errors in the book. One was a tiny glitch and I am not even certain
if this was a stutter in the streaming method of listening I use. The other
was where a sentence was begun, then started again. Neither of these I
hasten to add detracted from the overall quality of this book.

The key reason I have given this book just 4 stars overall is that this book
is really much broader a story than the title might suggest. Perhaps it has
been expanded because there is simply not enough historical material to
warrant an entire biography of its own for this short lived queen consort.
The author did preface this biography by stating that he wanted to include
the closest people to Catherine in order to understand the immediate world
in which she lived but I felt that the scope of this went far beyond her
inner circle at times which can often leave one somewhat confused when a
long and sprawling group of people are discussed in detail. Many of which
have no direct relationship or bearing on Catherine herself. Having said
that, the added scope does paint a more general history of the period but it
tends to feel as if Catherine and her place in it was a relatively small
part of the telling of her story as a whole.

This work is both comprehensive and well researched and credit must go to
the author for his diligent work not only in the gathering of available
evidence but also not to interpret inconclusive evidence in any definitive
view. best guesses or most likely scenarios are postulated but it is made
clear that these are just that and not hard conclusions which is the mark of
a good historian / biographer I feel.

This book was a fascinating insight into Tudor England at the time of Henry
VIII's reign and will provide the reader with a fuller picture of the brief
life of Catherine Howard. I look forward to more from this author in the
future.

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28 people found this helpful

An enjoyable listen

This is a detailed account of Katherine Howard's life, which doesn't focus heavily on her adultery as most accounts do but more about her and the politics of the time. I thoroughly enjoyed it

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2 people found this helpful

Brilliant!

Loved this book. The detail is amazing. So well researched and explained. Not at all boring though - not for me anyway as I love all things Tudor.

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1 person found this helpful

Illuminating and informative

Over the years I have read an awful lot of books about the Tudor period and in particular the events of Henry VIII reign. Most fall into two categories. The first tread already well worn paths repeating ground covered by earlier historians. The second are authors attempting “revisionist” reinterpretations of history that claim to be ground breaking but often are little more than rehashes of existing material shoehorned it into whatever happens to be the prevailing interests or controversies of the current age. Very few attempt to dig as deep into the sources as Gareth Russell has done in this study of Catherine Howard. The structure of the aristocratic household and the way young individuals emerged from that background into the world of the royal court is particularly illuminating . Catherine’s particular tragedy was the way the events in the former came to haunt her later in life. Respect to the author for presenting her as a human being rather than a cipher tagged either with the label of “adulterer” or “innocent victim”. Catherine clearly made poor choices at times in her life but she was also entrapped in a world where those decisions were ultimately going to destroy her and from which there was no easy escape. One point where the author has convinced me is that Catherine was not quite as young when she married Henry VIII as has often been suggested. I think that judgement might be reinforced by a wider study of the average age at which aristocratic men and women joined Henry VIII court. The study is well written an the audible reading is beautifully performed by Jenny Funnell. Hopefully she will be doing more audible books in the future.

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Interesting

Kathryn Howard is probably the the most intriguing of Henry VIII wife's seeing as we know so little about her and what we think we know is most likely wrong and her story has so greatly been distorted by time. But Russel a historian attempts here to shine a new light on her the woman who broke my dear Henry's heart.

Note on the narrator she reads quite fast so listen at slower pace.

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Brilliant

A brilliant and comprehensive history of the life of arguably one of the more interesting wives of Henry VIII.
It was a joy to hear a history of Henry VIII that wasn't about Anne Boleyn.
The level of detail - especially about the day-to-day life at the Tudor Court and the religious and political interplay - was fascinating. Gareth Russell's writing is both accessible and educational and the narration was spot on.

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Excellent

Such a sad tale of a child queen who more than likely was abused from a young age. Motherless from a young age Catherine was placed into the care of a woman who simply left her to her own devices. Marrying Henry was always going to end in tears. Beheaded before she was 21 and remembered as a harlot, I personally think she was just naive. Well read and narrated.

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Very good

Made more atmospheric read by a female narrator who read it very well. It’s a shame there are so many gaps in our knowledge due to the loss of so many original documents

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2 people found this helpful

Compelling history of Henry VIII’s teenage bride

A few questionable pronunciations of words by the narrator but otherwise a compelling and comprehensive enough history of the ill-fated Katherine Howard.

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Gripping story and meticulous research

I wasn't sure about whether to buy this book as I sometimes feel too much focus is placed on Tudor history but I'm so pleased I did. I knew the basic story of Catherine Howard but this book really brought it to life and explained a lot about court life and how she ended up being beheaded. I really liked the author's assessment of the various myths and theories which seemed very fair and where there isn't enough evidence to reach a view, he says so.

I don't agree with previous reviewers who said that there is too much information about other people in and around Henry VIII's court as I think it's crucial to see the whole picture to understand how that society worked.

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1 person found this helpful