Inside the Tudor Court

The reports and despatches of Eustace Chapuys, Spanish Ambassador to Henry VIIIs court from 1529 to 1545, have been instrumental in shaping our modern interpretations of Henry VIII and his wives. As a result of his personal relationships with several of Henrys queens, and Henry himself, his writings were filled with colourful anecdotes, salacious gossip, and personal and insightful observations of the key players at court, thus offering the single most continuous portrait of the central decades of Henrys reign. Beginning with Chapuys arrival in England, in the middle of Henry VIIIs divorce from Katherine of Aragon, this book progresses through the episodic reigns of each of Henrys queens. Chapuys tirelessly defended Katherine and later her daughter, Mary Tudor, the future Mary I. He remained as ambassador through the rise and fall of Anne Boleyn, and reported on each and every one of Henrys subsequent wives Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Katharine Parr as well as that most notorious of ministers Thomas Cromwell. He retired in 1545, close to the end of Henry VIIIs reign. In approaching the period through Chapuys letters, Lauren Mackay provides a fresh perspective on Henry, his court and the Tudor period in general.