I was gifted a digital copy of this book by the publisher to read and review, and all comments are entirely my own.
The fates of the Howard family are knitted in with the wider history of Tudor England and indeed sixteenth-century Scotland, too. I knew some of the Howards from my research into the period, for example Katherine Howard, Henry VIII's young fifth queen; and Lord Thomas Howard, who embarked on a relationship with Margaret Douglas when she was a relative newcomer at Henry VIII's court. But in general, my knowledge of a family that had been so prominent during the Tudor age was hazy, and so I looked forward to finding out more in Marilyn Roberts' book, Queen Katherine and the Howards, A Tudor Family on the Brink of Disaster, published by Pen and Sword Books.
The books starts with the rise of the family - so if you're looking for a book purely about Katherine Howard this is not, in all honesty, it, although it does delve deeper into the queen's story from the second third of the book. However, to understand Katherine you have to appreciate where her family came from: their beginnings, their earlier struggles and their relationships with the early Tudor monarchs.
I enjoyed reading the book - which contains 19 chapters read in a few evenings - along with many of the tales that filled it holes in my existing knowledge of the age. It also focuses, to some degree, on the women of the Howard family and the influence and effect they had on events of the period. I feel as if I got to know Agnes Howard a little bit while reading and the author has taken care to analyse and explore aspects of her personality. They are not just names and dates, but explored as the three-dimensional women they once were. The fall of Katherine Howard and her family's reaction to the events of the early-1540s is also explored, often in great detail from surviving court records. We also learn about the shady figure of Edmund Howard, Katherine's father, and gain an understanding of how the future queen's early years may have contributed to the events of her queenship.
Generally, it's a book I'd recommend to any Tudor history fan, because to understand the age you need to have a knowledge of one of its most prominent families and their involvement with the Crown, in their successes, as well as their challenges and disgraces.
Find Queen Katherine and the Howards here on the Pen and Sword website.
You might also like Does Catherine Howard's Ghost Really Haunt the Gallery at Hampton Court?, A New Look at Henry VIII's Wives and Frances Howard, the Murderous Countess of Somerset.
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