Quotes from Alison Weir

Henry is a youngling

As for those who state that it is thanks to a woman, the Lady Eve, that man was expelled from paradise, my answer to them would be that man has gained far more through Mary than he ever lost through Eve.'

Peace and order could only be achieved when all classes of society were in harmony with each other. Disorder – such as heresy, rebellion, or trying to get above one's station in life – was regarded as the work of the Devil and therefore as mortal sin.

As the wise Cicero said, "If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.

face that journey again in the winter." Arthur did not answer, and when she turned to look at him, she saw that

In the morning, she woke early. It was as if a pall lay over her. She turned on her back, lying rigid, expecting to hear at any moment the sound of the King's guard coming for her. Mother Lowe bustled in at seven

Thanks to the Wars of the Roses, by the end of the period covered by this book a king's title to the throne had come not to matter as much as his ability to hold on to that throne and to govern effectively.

Tudor historians were fond of reminding their readers of the horrors of the Wars of the Roses, recounting how the realm had been plunged into the vicious civil war over a disputed crown that lasted more than thirty years.

Virgil had no difficulty in believing that God has visited the sins of Henry IV upon his descendant, Henry VI, yet he did not explain how this was to be reconciled with the triumphant career of Henry V.

Tudor historians were adept at rewriting history.

war was a dangerous business, and those who escaped death at the hands of the enemy often perished as a result of the dysentery and disease that could decimate armies.

Self-interest usually governed political loyalties.

Josephine Tey's novel, The Daughter of Time (1951)

Paul Murray Kendall's sympathetic biography of Richard (1955)

These are sad times, when people cannot follow their own consciences, but God knows the secrets of our hearts. It is through our faith alone that we will be justified. One day, I pray, we will have the freedom to worship openly.

One French ambassador, having witnessed the royal temper, confided, 'When I see her enraged against any person whatever, I wish myself in Calcutta, fearing her anger like death

Chrétien de Troyes is said to have used this court as the model for his Arthurian romance Érec and Énide (c.1170), which is set

the most resplendent sun setteth at last in a western cloud.

I believe what I choose. I am not as simple as I seem. Now go!

Could it be true? This glorious, fresh-faced young man, this Adonis - for Nature surely could not have done more for him - still wanted to marry her!

She loved the intimacy of making music together in private.

She saw Henry look hungrily into Anne's face as they met in the dance. And in that moment she knew.

The age of the troubadours ended in the early thirteenth century with the vicious persecution of the Cathar heretics in what became known as the Albigensian Crusade. Culminating in the holocaust at Montségur, this left southern France so devastated that its native culture, which had flourished under the auspices of Eleanor of Aquitaine and her forebears, was effectively suppressed and, in many cases, irrevocably lost. Duke

And who would have dared refuse him? Whoever she was, Anne silently applauded her.