English History: Reading List

  • The Women of the Wars of the Roses: Elizabeth Woodville, Margaret Beaufort, and Elizabeth of York by Alicia Carter

Elizabeth Woodville

  • Elizabeth Woodville: Mother of the Princes in the Tower by David Baldwin

  • Edward IV & Elizabeth Woodville: A True Romance by Amy Licence

  • The Woodvilles: The Wars of the Roses and England’s Most Infamous Family by Susan Higginbotham

  • The Woodville Women: 100 Years of Plantagenet and Tudor History by Sarah J Hodder

Margaret Beaufort

  • Uncrowned Queen: The Fateful Life of Margaret Beaufort by Nicola Tallis

  • Margaret Beaufort: Mother of the Tudor Dynasty by Elizabeth Norton

Elizabeth of York

  • Elizabeth of York: A Tudor Queen and Her World by Alison Weir

The Tudors

  • The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors by Dan Jones

  • Tudor Roses: from Margaret Beaufort to Elizabeth I by Amy Licence

  • Tudors: The History of England from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I

  • The Private Lives of the Tudors by Tracy Borman

  • The Hidden Lives of Tudor Women by Elizabeth Norton

  • Black Tudors: The Untold Story

  • The Waiting Game: The Untold Story of the Women Who Served the Tudor Queens by Nicola Clark

  • Medical Downfall of the Tudors: Sex, Reproduction, and Succession by Sylvia Barbara Soberton

  • Heroines of the Tudor World by Sharon Bennet Connolly

  • Tudor Executions: From Nobility to the Block by Helene Harrison

  • How to Be a Tudor: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Tudor Life by Ruth Goodman

Katherine of Aragon

  • Catherine of Aragon: The Spanish Queen of Henry VIII by Giles Tremlett

  • Sister Queens: The Noble, Tragic Lives of Katherine of Aragon and Juana, Queen of Castile by Julia Fox

  • Katharine of Aragon, Spanish Princess: “I Am Not as Simple as I May Seem” by Heather R. Darsie

Anne Boleyn

  • The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn by Eric Ives

  • Anne Boleyn: Henry VIII’s Obsession by Elizabeth Norton

  • Anne Boleyn: In Her Words and the Words of Those Who Knew Her by Elizabeth Norton

  • Hunting the Falcon: Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, and the Marriage That Shook Europe by Julia Fox and John Guy

  • Ladies in Waiting: Women Who Served Anne Boleyn by Sylvia Barbara Soberton

  • The Lady in the Tower by Alison Weir

  • The Final Year of Anne Boleyn by Natalie Grueninger

  • Anne Boleyn’s Letter from the Tower by Sandra Vasoli

  • Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I: The Mother and Daughter Who Changed History by Tracy Borman

  • In the Footsteps of Anne Boleyn by Sarah Morris

  • The Creation of Anne Boleyn: A New Look at England’s Most Notorious Queen by Susan Bordo

  • Anne Boleyn: 500 Years of Lies by Hayley Nolan

  • The Many Faces of Anne Boleyn: Interpreting Image and Perception by Helene Harrison

The Boleyn Women

  • Jane Boleyn: The True Story of the Infamous Lady Rochford by Julia Fox

  • Courting Scandal: The Rise and Fall of Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford by James Taffe

  • Mary Boleyn: Mistress of Kings by Alison Weir

  • Elizabeth Boleyn: The Life of the Queen's Mother by Sophie Bacchus-Waterman

  • The Boleyn Women: The Tudor Femmes Fatales Who Changed English History by Elizabeth Norton

  • The Boleyns: The Rise and Fall of a Tudor Family by David Loades

Henry VIII

  • Henry VIII and the Men Who Made Him by Tracy Borman

  • Henry VIII by David Loades

  • The Children of Henry VIII by Alison Weir

  • Henry VIII: The King and His Court by Alison Weir

  • 1536: The Year That Changed Henry VIII by Suzannah Lipscomb

His Wives

  • The Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser

  • The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir

  • Jane Seymour: Henry VIII's True Love by Elizabeth Norton

  • Anne of Cleves: Henry VIII’s Discarded Bride by Elizabeth Norton

  • Anna, Duchess of Cleves: The King's Beloved Sister by Heather R. Darsie

  • Young and Damned and Fair: The Life of Catherine Howard, Fifth Wife of King Henry VIII by Gareth Russell

  • Catherine Parr: Wife, Widow, Mother, Survivor, The Story of the Last Queen of Henry VIII by Elizabeth Norton

Mary I

  • Rival Sisters: Mary and Elizabeth Tudor by Sylvia Barbara Soberton

  • Mary Tudor: England’s First Queen by Anna Whitelock

Elizabeth I

  • The Temptation of Elizabeth Tudor: Elizabeth I, Thomas Seymour, and the Making of a Virgin Queen by Elizabeth Norton

  • Elizabeth I and Her Circle by Susan Doran

  • Young Elizabeth: Elizabeth I and Her Perilous Path to the Crown by Nicola Tallis

  • Elizabeth’s Rival by Nicola Tallis

  • Elizabeth's Women: Friends, Rivals, and Foes Who Shaped the Virgin Queen by Tracy Borman

  • Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne by David Starkey

  • The Life of Elizabeth I by Alison Weir

  • Heretic Queen: Queen Elizabeth I and the Wars of Religion

  • Elizabethan Rebellions: Conspiracy, Intrigue, and Treason by Helene Harrison

Women of the Renaissance

  • Gender, Family, and Politics: The Howard Women, 1485-1558 by Nicola Clark

  • Queens and Power in Medieval and Early Modern England by Carole Levin

  • She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth by Helen Castor

  • Young Queens: Three Renaissance Women the Price of Power by Leah Redmond Chang

  • Game of Queens: The Women Who Made Sixteenth-Century Europe

Syllabus Materials, English HistoryKathryn Barber