The Hidden Lives of Tudor Women: A Social History

by Elizabeth Norton Narrated by Jennifer Dixon

Overview

The Tudor period conjures up images of queens and noblewomen in elaborate court dress; of palace intrigue and dramatic politics. But if you were a woman, it was also a time when death during childbirth was rife; when marriage was usually a legal contract, not a matter for love, and the education you could hope to receive was minimal at best.



Yet the Tudor century was also dominated by powerful and dynamic women in a way that no era had been before. Historian Elizabeth Norton explores the life cycle of the Tudor woman, from childhood to old age, through the diverging examples of women such as Elizabeth Tudor, Henry VIII's sister; Cecily Burbage, Elizabeth's wet nurse; Mary Howard, widowed but influential at court; Elizabeth Boleyn, mother of a controversial queen; and Elizabeth Barton, a peasant girl who would be lauded as a prophetess. Their stories are interwoven with studies of topics ranging from Tudor toys to contraception to witchcraft, painting a portrait of the lives of queens and serving maids, nuns and harlots, widows and chaperones. Norton brings this vibrant period to colorful life in an evocative and insightful social history.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

05/01/2017
In these absorbing and well-researched portraits, Norton (The Temptation of Elizabeth Tudor), an authority on the queens of England, juxtaposes the experiences of prominent and ordinary women across the social, economic, and religious spectra during the Tudor period (1485–1603). Norton frames her work with the lives of Henry VIII’s younger sister Elizabeth (1492–1495) and his younger daughter, Queen Elizabeth I (1533–1603). She posits that women passed through Shakespeare’s “seven ages of man” in parallel fashion. This construct proves awkward, as for women there was no fourth or fifth age comparable to those of a soldier or man at the peak of his professional success. Thus, two of the book’s middle sections devolve into narratives about well-known, exceptional women caught up in the religious turmoil of the 1530s–1550s. The earlier and later ages more successfully encompass a broad range of experiences, including those of wet nurses, witches, the poor, servants, and widows. Readers will learn about cooking and medicine, church pews and contraception, ladies in waiting, rape and prostitution, ecclesiastical courts, Lady Jane Grey, cosmetics, and more. Despite occasionally stretching the material to suit her thesis, Norton weaves her stories with an expert hand and illuminates many rarely discussed aspects of daily life for Tudor women. Illus. (July)

Open Letters Monthly

"Thought-provoking. Norton tells the stories of her characters with tremendous energy, wonderfully fleshing out the details of how non-royal women made their way through life in a world entirely, legally dominated by men. The combination of the multi-part main lives of the book and all these fleshing-out digressions builds into something truly impressive, as broad and complete a picture of what it was like to be a woman in Tudor times as readers are likely to get with the documentary evidence we currently possess."

Minneapolis Star Tribune

"An absorbing look not only at the powerful women of that era, but everyday life for women throughout Tudor society."

Ms. Magazine

"Without romanticizing the era, Norton’s biography of the Tudor Everywoman weaves together the lives of well-known figures to lesser-known women. A captivating, inspiring and informative summer read not only for fans of Tudor England, but also those who are facing insurmountable obstacles themselves—and are looking to craft fulfilling lives for themselves."

Booklist

"Queens, servants, widows, nuns, harlots, and more are depicted in a rich tapestry of meticulous scholarship, historical detail, and insightful observations. Anyone interested in expanding and enriching her of his view of the Tudor era will enjoy Norton’s skillfully written study."

British Heritage Travel

"Engrossing and charming. By uncovering all the tiny, painstaking day-to-day details of these varied existences, Norton has constructed something inspiring."

New Criterion

"Tells an alternately fascinating and repugnant story of this exciting period."

Booklist

"Queens, servants, widows, nuns, harlots, and more are depicted in a rich tapestry of meticulous scholarship, historical detail, and insightful observations. Anyone interested in expanding and enriching her of his view of the Tudor era will enjoy Norton’s skillfully written study."

Library Journal - Audio

10/01/2017
Riffing on Shakespeare's "Seven Stages of Man" monolog in As You Like It, Norton (England's Queens) describes the lives of women of the Tudor period (1485-1603) from infancy to old age. Considering women from peasants to prophetesses to royalty, Norton's thoroughly researched work examines issues that touched all Tudor females, regardless of class, including the dangers of childbirth, education, courting and marriage, work opportunities, and the influence of the church. Listeners may be quite familiar with many of Norton's subjects such as Anne Boleyn, Catherine of Aragon, and Lady Jane Grey. However, she offers equal time to figures such as Elizabeth Barton, a maidservant-turned-religious visionary who was eventually hanged for treason, and Cecily Burbage, wet nurse to Elizabeth Tudor, Henry VIII's sister who died in childhood. Narrator Jennifer Dixon can't really give a dramatic performance of this heavily researched work, but her clear reading is well paced and keeps the nonfiction narrative moving along. VERDICT Norton straightforwardly covers subjects such as rape, infanticide, and prostitution, so her work provides a nice balance to the many novels and films that romanticize the Tudor age. ["Norton provides further evidence of her position as a leading authority on Tudor history. Highly recommended for readers interested in the period": LJ 6/1/17 review of the Pegasus hc.]—Beth Farrell, Cleveland State Univ. Law Lib.

Library Journal

06/01/2017
Historian Norton (The Temptation of Elizabeth Tudor) looks at the social climate for women of the Tudor Dynasty (1485–1603), a period when women both held positions of power and struggled to survive. Using William Shakespeare's "Seven Ages of Man" monolog from As You Like It as an influence, Norton chronicles the "Tudor Everywoman" from infancy to her final years and the struggles she encountered along the way. Each chapter features side notes that expand upon topics relevant to daily life. Readers will recognize several of the influential figures within these pages such as Catherine of Aragon and Elizabeth Barton. Yet, they will also find the lives of lesser-profiled women such as Katherine Fenkyll and Rose Hickman just as fascinating. While books such as Borman's The Private Lives of the Tudors delves into the lives of the main players in the Tudor court, here Norton builds upon established research by devoting equal time to women of upper and lower classes during the Tudor reign. VERDICT With her latest work, Norton provides further evidence of her position as a leading authority on Tudor history. Highly recommended for readers interested in the time period.—Katie McGaha, County of Los Angeles P.L.

Kirkus Reviews

2017-04-17
A portrait of "the diverse lives enjoyed—or endured—by women living in Tudor England, and together constituting a multifaceted impression of female humanity of the period."British historian Norton (The Temptation of Elizabeth Tudor: Elizabeth I, Thomas Seymour, and the Making of a Virgin Queen, 2015) delivers less a social history than a well-researched description of the lives of women in 16th-century Britain. Inevitably, archival documents emphasize rulers, the rich, and the lurid, so Norton has much to say about royalty, aristocrats, female entrepreneurs, criminals, and martyrs. Readers may squirm to learn how badly Tudor law, religion, and custom treated women; almost every woman accepted this, and only a small number prospered. The author has a predilection for namesakes, so she recounts the royal nursery routine of Elizabeth Tudor. Little of Queen Elizabeth I's life was hidden, but readers will learn perhaps more than they want to know about her relentless rejection of suitors and struggles against aging. Elizabeth Boleyn reached the top of the greasy pole of court politics, surviving even the infamous beheading of her daughter, Anne. Elizabeth Barton, the "Nun of Kent," was wildly popular in a time when religion was a matter of life and death. For almost a decade, she heard the voice of God until her execution by Henry VIII; her pronouncements opposed his wishes. Those in search of a genuine social history of this era should turn to Ian Mortimer's A Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England (2017). Norton occasionally digresses into subjects like Tudor diet, hygiene, and morals, but mostly she writes minibiographies of women who struggled with varying degrees of success in an unjust man's world. Readers with a low toleration for outrage will have a difficult time, but most will find this a satisfying series of historical vignettes.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170128730
Publisher:	HighBridge Company
Publication date:	07/04/2017
Edition description:	Unabridged

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