The King's Pleasure

The King's Pleasure

A Novel of Henry VIII

About the Book

The New York Times bestselling author of the Six Tudor Queens series explores the private side of the legendary king Henry VIII and his dramatic and brutal reign in this extraordinary historical novel.

Having completed her Six Tudor Queens series of novels on the wives of Henry VIII, extensively researched and written from each queen's point of view, Alison Weir now gives Henry himself a voice, telling the story of his remarkable thirty-six-year reign and his six marriages. 

Young Henry began his rule as a magnificent and chivalrous Renaissance prince who embodied every virtue. He had all the qualities to make a triumph of his kingship, yet we remember only the violence. Henry famously broke with the Pope, founding the Church of England and launching a religious revolution that divided his kingdom. He beheaded two of his wives and cast aside two others. He died a suspicious, obese, disease-riddled tyrant, old before his time. His reign is remembered as one of dangerous intrigue and bloodshed—and yet the truth is far more complex.

The King's Pleasure brings to life the idealistic monarch who expanded Parliament, founded the Royal Navy, modernized medical training, composed music and poetry, and patronized the arts. A passionate man in search of true love, he was stymied by the imperative to produce a male heir, as much a victim of circumstance as his unhappy wives. Had fate been kinder to him, the history of England would have been very different.

Here is the story of the private man. To his contemporaries, he was a great king, a legend in his own lifetime. And he left an extraordinary legacy—a modern Britain.
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Praise for The King's Pleasure

Praise for The Last White Rose

“ Superbly readable and engaging . . .  I doubt we will ever tire of the Tudors, not while we have novelists like [Alison] Weir to bring them to life.”Historical Novel Society

“Elizabeth of York is a fascinating character in history, as the daughter, sister, niece and ultimately wife of an English king. Her tale during the War of the Roses is one of intrigue and survival. A notable Tudor historian, Weir vividly brings her story to life in The Last White Rose.”The Free Lance–Star

“The story gives a coherent, convincing picture of the treacherous political climate and its many players. . . . Weir’s thorough approach to her subject is impressive, as is the sumptuously re-created atmosphere of late-medieval royal life.”Booklist

“I was gripped from the first page to the last. With Elizabeth of York, Alison Weir gives us her most compelling heroine yet. . . . This is where the story of the Tudors begins and is historical fiction at its absolute best.”—Tracy Borman, author of Crown and Sceptre

“This is Alison Weir’s best novel yet. A queen too often seen as a blank slate, a cipher, emerges from the shadows as a living, breathing, acting human being.”—Sarah Gristwood, author of The Tudors in Love
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About the Author

Alison Weir
Alison Weir is the New York Times bestselling author of numerous historical biographies, including The Lost Tudor Princess, Elizabeth of York, Mary Boleyn, The Lady in the Tower, Mistress of the Monarchy, Henry VIII, Eleanor of Aquitaine, The Life of Elizabeth I, and The Six Wives of Henry VIII, and the novels Anne Boleyn, A King’s Obsession; Katherine of Aragon, The True Queen; The Marriage Game; A Dangerous Inheritance; Captive Queen; The Lady Elizabeth; and Innocent Traitor. She lives in Surrey, England, with her husband. More by Alison Weir
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