Review by New York Times Review
The proverb wants it both ways: "God is in the details" or "The Devil is in the details." It must get crowded in there. For Borman, the intimate particulars of everyday life are what help the past come bracingly, stirringly alive. Her full-quivered social history of the Tudor monarchs - Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I - who, beginning in 1485, constituted one of the most celebrated royal families of all time, furnishes readers with a "Hey, did you know . . . ?" on almost every page. As in: Hey, did you know there was a gentleman appointed to stand by while Henry VIII "performed his daily purges" and that the "groom of the stool" was among the most coveted roles in his privy chamber? That a Tudor court pulled up stakes and "progressed" between the various royal residences up to 30 times a year? That there was a whole palace, complete with gardens and a courtyard, dedicated to storing the royal wardrobe? That physicians prescribed tying a ribbon around the left testicle ("where all the female seed was supposedly stored") during sex to ensure the birth of a son? That the typical nightgown for a queen might be lined with 24 lambskins? That the word "abracadabra" was part of a popular chant used in childbirth? Holbein's famous portrait of Henry VIII gives us the public face of the king: imperious, bejeweled, aggressively masculine, red beard bristling, codpiece prominent. Borman parses the iconography. "Legs apart, hips pushed forward and gaze fixed straight ahead" was a pose that in those days would have suggested "strength, virility and martial prowess." Social history lives and dies in the integrity of its details, and this authoritative work teems with well-sourced material, presenting the Tudor world with a particular focus on the personal habits and strengths of its women, making the claim that "the art of majesty was as evident behind closed doors as it was in public."
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [January 15, 2017]
Review by Booklist Review
Rather than a titillating, tell-all exposé of the Tudor dynasty, Borman (Thomas Cromwell, 2015) offers a measured, precise, and humanizing overview of the behind-the-scenes monarchical lives of Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VII, Mary I, and Elizabeth I. The secrets uncovered are of the mundane yet nevertheless fascinating variety as Borman meticulously details the daily physical, social, and cultural minutiae of the royals and court life. Ritual habits, from the portentous to the prosaic, are chronicled, leaving nothing, including royal bathroom routines, to the imagination. Separating each monarch's public self from his or her private persona, the author conducts a private tour behind the closed doors of each of these individuals, exploring Britain's most famous dynasty through the lens of their private lives. This Downton Abbey-like peek into the everyday lives of these privileged yet cloistered rulers and their households will appeal to both serious scholars and Tudor enthusiasts.--Flanagan, Margaret Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Borman (Thomas Cromwell), a senior curator of Britain's Historic Royal Palaces organization, eschews the oft-told tabloid tales that emphasize the Tudor family's colorful public personas to focus instead upon their private lives and daily rituals. The larger-than-life personalities and romantic misadventures of the Tudor dynasty, which ruled England from 1485 to 1603, have been thoroughly mined in print and on film; readers hoping for yet another sensationalist and titillating history are going to be disappointed. Borman doesn't do much to further popular understanding of the period, and the amount of detail about the rarefied world that the Tudors inhabited can be overwhelming, but she does unearth some obscure and intriguing tidbits that have been overlooked by other historians. Among the details included here are accounts that Henry VIII so liked the puddings made by the only woman who worked in his kitchens that he bought her a house, and that Elizabeth I liked to wear a perfume that she herself had invented. Though all five Tudor monarchs made even their most private moments into courtly spectacles, including their bathroom customs and childbirth travails, Borman's fine book goes far toward humanizing them. Recommended for serious devotees of the period. Illus. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Borman (joint chief curator, Historic Royal Palaces; Thomas Cromwell: The Untold Story of Henry VIII's Most Faithful Servant) chronicles one of the most memorable periods in British history: the years from the accession of Henry VII in 1485 to the unexpected reign of Elizabeth I, beginning in 1558, after the death of Mary, Queen of Scots. Using extensive contemporary and modern sources, the author artfully crafts a thorough reimagining of life at the Tudor court, while also providing a look at the humanity of these larger-than-life figures. Readers may find certain details too exhaustive, but these pale in comparison to the drama and intrigue featured heavily throughout the book. While there are many volumes dedicated to the Tudor dynasty and the players involved, such as Peter Ackroyd's Tudors: The History of England from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I, this work uniquely focuses on the minutiae of court life and the personal, behind-the-scenes details of Tudor royals. VERDICT Readers interested in the subject are sure to recognize some of the stories covered within these pages, but Borman's history expands well beyond public knowledge to the definite delight of Tudor fans.-Katie McGaha, County of Los Angeles P.L. © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Amusing, well-researched biographies of rulers from Henry VII to Elizabeth I, focused on how they were born, dressed, ate, washed, slept, played, and died.For readers anticipating salacious surprises, Borman (The Story of the Tower of London, 2015, etc.), joint chief curator of the Historic Royal Palaces and chief executive of the Heritage Education Trust, explains that they were rarely alone, so tales of clandestine royal trysts that have come down were mostly fictional, but she does not ignore them. Privacy, a later concept, barely touched the Tudors. Even in their most private moments, writes the author, they were accompanied by a servant specifically appointed for the task. Entering a typical palace, one passed through a public great chamber into a presence chamber (throne room), where the ruler dined in state, received visitors, and chaired council meetings, and then to the privy chamber, which was both lodging and the name of the organization that governed them. It was not very private, and every royal activity, from dining to preparing the royal bed to dressing the royal person in the morning, was subject to formal ceremony. Thus, Tudor monarchs did not go to the bathroom; the bathroom came to them, led by the groom of the stool, who managed a portable privy and attended his master when he used it. An important official, he supervised the other grooms and oversaw items in daily use such as jewels, plates, linens, and the Privy Purse. Borman delivers plenty of similar tidbits on 16th-century diet, hygiene, medicine, and sport la Ian Mortimers A Time Travelers Guide to Elizabethan England (2013). She also includes familiar (perhaps too-familiar) details of royal private livese.g., Henry VIIIs pursuit of wives, Elizabeths nonpursuit of husbands. A mostly entertaining mixture of esoteric social history and well-known details of the personal lives of Tudor monarchs. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
